The Tree and Frank is awesome

When we moved here we had a yard full of very large overgrown trees.

They are nice and shady but hadn't been trimmed in years.

So we had an arborist come over and tell us what to do with them.

While he was here, he told us that one of our trees was just the finest specimen he had seen in many years.

It was a beautiful Japanese Maple.

We followed his advice for our many trees and had them professionally trimmed and fed.

That year (our first winter here) we had the mildest winter ever.

Bizarrely warm with only one very slight snowfall.

The next spring, the beautiful Japanese Maple didn't bud.

When all the other trees were getting leaves it sat there looking sad with a few of the last years leaves still clinging to the branches.

Eventually about half of one branch of this lovely tree got a few leaves but they were discolored.

Then the bark started to separate from the tree.

Year two, same thing.  

A few leaves on one branch but the rest of the tree was obviously dying or dead.

The timing seemed so weird to us...

we get a professional to come take care of our tree and the very next year it dies?

We did have him come back and he was surprised but said that's just how it is sometimes.

The tree was definitely dying.

Well, it is now fall and I mentioned that we should probably do something about our sad tree before winter comes.

I would hate for a big snowfall to cause it to fall over and damage the house.

So, within a few minutes, Frank was outside with a chainsaw and he took that whole tree down all by himself.

And the poor man has a bad cold to boot.

Most people complain about how their husbands are babies when they are sick

but that is the opposite of how it works around here.

When Frank is sick, he is like "it's just a cold" and he just does what he has to do.

I, on the other hand, lay in bed and moan and whine and take medication to just force myself to do anything!

So, yeah, today (I wrote this Saturday, October 1) he chopped down a tree and cut up a bunch of the wood and stacked it in our wood pile while suffering from a cold.

What a guy!

Also, the tree.

Gone.

Sad.