When my parents bought their house in Orem they inherited 6 foot plus juniper bushes. This wasn't a problem until they actually moved into the house and my mom decided those bushes were OUT of CONTROL and needed to be trimmed...that is until she found out how much it would cost to maintain them and then she decided that they need to GO. Fortunately my parents had the foresight to have several children and those children are willing to work for food and board. Those said children also happened to have friends who would work for pizza. Needless to say my mom jumped on the idea.
(I thought I had a picture of the house before we started, but I couldn't find it, so here's the 1/2 point picture from the street, but it gives you the idea what we were dealing with. Imagine if you can the bushes extending all the way down on the other side of the stairs (where you can see Becky standing in the background.))
So 6 girls and a boy(plus 2 missionaries for a few hours) with a reciprocating saw, pruners and a lot of determination removed over the course of several days about 30 feet of 6 foot plus juniper bushes. We're so COOL!
Half way point picture. We're only cut down the bushes...we haven't removed the debris yet. That's Becky and I in the background taking a break, while mommy takes a picture of us :)
Removing the debris: I say bushes, but I should probably say trees. Some of the main 'branches' were a good 6-8 inches in diameter (Julie hard at work)
So we removed the smaller branches and cut the bigger wood in to 2-3 feet pieces so we could use it as firewood later the year (Sandy, doing much the same as Julie)
Yup...it was hard work. For those of you not familiar with juniper bushes I must inform you that they are prickly, hence my long sleeves, since it was my job to pull the bushes down after my mom or Becky cut them down near their roots. (Julie, Sandy and Me)
After we removed the smaller branches we piled them up in the back yard
and on the driveway. Eventually we used Rachel's truck (the red one in the background) to take them out to the dump.
Here's an "almost done" picture. Only a few bushes to go.
Look, we're even closer to done! Becky and Julie are showing off their stuff :)
Brent came over later that night to help out. He showed those stumps who was boss!
Supervising...Mommy and Gracie. Despite what these pictures show, mom did not spend the whole time of the phone. She usually was the one with the camera and the only time someone else had it was when we were taking breaks and that usually happened when mom got a phone call and so that's when we were able to take pictures of her.
FINISHED!!! It looked great. And later we planned some flowers a long the top so it didn't look so bare.
Dirty: The face of honest hard work :) Showers and Pizza here we come!
After we moved to UT my dad and my sister Sara stayed in California. And if you have family in California it's obligatory that you visit them.
After wondering around the City for a while we went to Ghirardelli Square were we indulged in an "Earthquake." It's 8 scoops of ice cream with 8 different toppings and you are guaranteed to feel a little sick after eating it, even if there are several of you. But it's GOOD!
After church we posed for Easter Pictures.
It was a beautiful day all around!
And then some around the two trees in the front of the yard, seen here:
Here are some close ups of the Snapdragons and petunias under the trees
Yes. These are all from the same carving. Amazing what they can do.
