Going but not yet gone

 I guess you think I'm talking about on the snow on the ground and you would be sort of right.  Actually what's going but not yet gone are all the trees and debris from the trees in the yard. 

Yesterday two of my sisters, J and K, and I, spent the afternoon at an event sponsored by the hospital where sister J works.  The event is an annual one, Women in Dance.  Sister J signed all of us up in advance for general health screening tests (blood pressure, cholestrol, etc) and there were vendors for various health related topics as well as all day dance sessions.  The dance sessions were totally geared to audience participation and there were lots of folks participating (we tried Hip Hop but sat out the peppy Zumba session).  It was a fun afternoon and we came home with lots of handouts which included not only paperwork (recipes, eating guidelines and our screening test results) but samples of different items.  My favorite is a red heart-shaped squishy stress reliever.  I brought two home - one for home and one to take to work.

Upon arrival at home around 5PM, the tree trimmers (Mountain Top Tree Services) were here working.  Some of the before pictures are possible repeats of the downed trees, limbs, etc but they give you a point of reference for the after pictures which were taken this morning.  The guys returned again this morning around 10 AM and have been working steadily and the end is not yet in sight.

Below is the big white pine that was uprooted, roots and all. 

Here is the same tree (on the ground in the background) after some trimming and topping too place.

The big pine tree from a different angle, the root ball is on the right and the tree trunk to the left.

 

 Two pictures of the tree that fell on the front of the house pulling the wires out of the house.

Now the tree is off the house and cut into lengths along with some others that came down at the side of the house.  The next picture shows the small ends of tree branch that are stuck in the snow on the roof of the house.  We'll get those off once the snow is all gone.

When the workmen left yesterday, they asked if they could leave the industrial sized wood chipper in our driveway overnight.  Of course, we gave the okay and I asked if they could show me how to operate it until they got back.  Needless to say, they all laughed.  What a piece of equipment!

We got a picture of the owner of the company up in one of the trees preparing to cut it down, top to bottom.  I'll share that one in another post along with how things look once they're gone for the day.  They will be back once the snow is gone to clean up the small debris in the yard. 

Today is absolutely gorgeous with temps in the 50's and the sun shining brightly.  There's a lovely breeze blowing too.  It's such a relief to have the cleanup start but there is another forecast for snow this week and it's to be a northeaster' and those sometimes dump copious amounts of snow on us.  Ugh!

I hope you are having a good weekend and enjoying the same bright sunshine that we are having here.