Farewell you pain in the a$$. I think I might miss you after all!
So this is going on next door to us in our neighbor's yard. We're all hoping to find out how old this sycamore tree is once they get it down. Josh and I have despised this tree since we bought our house. It litters our yard incessantly! The leaves it drops each fall are ridiculous. They're almost as big as your head, and they're tough and don't disintegrate, and there are truckloads and truckloads of them to clean up! Then, as soon as we get the yard all spruced up in the spring and put down new, fresh mulch, the seed-puff balls fall. You know the ones - golf ball size with the seeds like a dandelion. You pick them up, and they poof everywhere and absolutely ruin the mulch. And then there's the bark that sheds all over the place starting shortly after the seed-puffs start. It is impossible to have a nice yard when there's a sycamore around. Not to mention the roots from the tree that cause issues with the septic lines. Ugh!!!
Nevertheless, it is a magnificent tree, stately and majestic and proud. And it has stood watch over our two yards for longer than any of us have been around. It's twice as tall as our 3-story houses. (The guy in the tree had to climb higher than his bucket truck would reach.) Birds and squirrels find refuge in it and entertain us with their antics, and the sun plays delightfully thru its leaves and branches while it shades our backyards and provides natural sunscreen on these hot summer mornings.
But the poor guy has started dropping its branches. Big, huge branches that have broken the neighbor's fences and gauged holes in their roof. One branch fell in our shared driveway one afternoon while the babies were playing in the backyard. No one was hurt, fortunately, but the neighbors immediately had a team come in to trim the tree up real good. Then, a couple weeks later, another huge branch down. So the tree has to go.
It's really pretty sad. While I've always wanted the tree gone and envisioned the possibilities of a full-sun garden and MAINTENANCE-FREE yard, now that it's actually happening, I'm torn. Good riddance you messy, messy aggravating tree, but I think I'm gonna miss you more than I thought I would!
well after all that mayhem, i think you're going to cope okay with its departure. think of all the time you can spend taking photos instead of clearing up after it :)