Labor Day's Labor

A year ago, I thought I might go into labor on Labor Day; it would have been memorable, right?  :)  But instead, Benjamin waited six more days to be born; and my Labor Day project was harvesting and preserving grapes, not having a baby!

This year, although we had tossed around the idea of getting away for Labor Day, we ended up staying home; and that gave Jeff and I the opportunity to tackle a project together.  You see, there was this holly bush tree that had grown up so high that it actually made us nervous that a spark from our chimney might land on it and set it on fire, thus starting a house fire.  Improbable, I know; but when it comes to fire, who wants to take chances?

 Under the holly had grown up a variety of vegetation with only a few worthwhile things: a handful of lily of the valley that were on their last leg but will hopefully come back in greater strength next year, and one rose bush that had been so overshadowed by the holly that it had never had a chance to shine.  Everything else needed to go.

 That was Phase One of the project, and I knocked that out while Jeff was away this morning.

 And then it was his turn.  :)

 Chainsaw in hand, he began Phase Two, the task of taking down the holly.

 The boys helped a little with clearing the branches away, but really, Jeff was doing all the hard work.

 Moriah and Shav were no help at all with this part of the project...

 ...but they were rather cute...

 ...hanging out together on the front sidewalk.

 Awwwww, what love!  :)

 The rest of us were having fun watching the process...

 ...as the tree came down...

...limb by limb.

What a difference already!

 Then Phase Three began.  Earlier this summer, Jeff bought this chipper second-hand, hoping to use it to not only create mulch for us but mostly to get rid of some of the junk brush that's been lying around here.  The chipper absolutely proved its worth today, because not only was Jeff able to cut down the entire tree, he was also able to cut into stove lengths the pieces that were big enough to burn and then chip the rest, completely finishing the project!!  :)

 David, Tobin, and Shav worked together to put the pieces of wood onto the woodpile on the porch, and Jeff ran the branches that were small enough through the chipper.  At the end it looked like this.

 The holly tree had returned to the place it had been standing this morning.  It just happened to be in a different form.  ;-)

 I still had some mulch left from the other flowerbed project we've undertaken recently...

 ...so David helped me finish spreading that on this area.

 From that...

...to this...

...all on one very productive Labor Day!

Just like the front flowerbed, it looks pretty bare right now; but in my mind's eye, I can already picture it colorful with the blossoms of various flowers.  I'm just sure it will turn out exactly like I'm picturing it, right??  ;-)