Cleaning Yard - Pruning the Big Tree Once Again

Five months ago almost to the day, I finally finished pruning my big tree. It was a project that took me MONTHS to do. Here is my post on March 18, 2015 where I finished pruning the tree.

I actually started pruning the tree in October nearly five months before finishing it. I was sharing in the post about a new tool I bought to use to prune the tree. Here is that post. 

In December, I finally gave up pruning the tree on my own and hired someone to finish the larger branches as I nearly killed myself with a branch that wanted revenge while I was still up in an extension ladder. Here is the post about that mess I was left to clean up. They cut the tree, I cut up the branches and removed them all from my yard. Click here to see that post.  

With that, I thought my big tree pruning days were over. However, for the past five months, the tree has been on a survival mode where it grew branches all the way down to the ground. You COULDN'T see the tire swing or the hammock chair that I have hanging in the tree because the branches covered the entire tree. It didn't look like a tree at all but like a HUGE bush.

It has been hot and I have been trying to get one thing done a day in the house. Because it has been so hot, I try to get that one thing done in the evening and somewhat cooler hours. It isn't much cooler but it is what it is. 

I have avoided the garden area as I told you I think the parasite problems I am having result from thread worm in the soil so I am not excited about my garden. In fact, since I have figured out what the parasite is, I have actually avoided the garden and didn't plant anything else and the garden has erupted into a huge mess of volunteer plants and weeds. Here is post one of the parasite posts.
 
Even the play area is getting overgrown with weeds as I can't deal with the heat and frustration of the huge kitty litter box it has become. I decided I needed to put my big girl clothes on and deal with it today. Princess Five wasn't thrilled I decided to get back to the yard but was good to help even though it was hot and overwhelming. I wish I had taken a picture of the tree before we started. You couldn't see the trunk at all.  


I thought the job would take about 15 minutes. Princess Five knew better. I had no idea how strong and large the new branches could grow in five months. I thought I could just go snap off the new branches and fit them all into the four garbage cans I had. 

Well, I couldn't break them off. As the new tree wanted to get as much sun as possible, it grew in every direction. I couldn't move under the tree until I cut some branches off. It took us hours to pull and cut down all the branches and then move around under the tree once I had cut a path. 

We finished when it got dark bundling up the last of it and hauling it out for the garbage men. I hope they forgive the amount of branches again as I wished after all that pruning, my days of many cans full of branches would be over. 

I still have a few bins of girls camp stuff that I have been procrastinating to put away as I need to mend a few things before putting them back into storage. It is my family reunion luau beach stuff. I just added the pirate stuff I bought for camp to the mix as it would be cute for that as well.

I am grateful to have one more thing off my "to do" list but I am sad to say it will probably be back on my "to do" list in another five months as that seems to be about how long I get before I have to address the tree again. I am just grateful that I have the tree. I was saying that to Princess Five as we worked sharing that I LOVE having a shade tree in our yard and I am glad since pruning it, it has come back and is now giving us shade again!