In the middle of my back yard, right up against the fence, and right under TXU’s power lines were two large pine trees.  The previous owners had put down white gravel in an pretty good sized area under the trees.  It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, since nothing would really grow there anyway.  They even had an A-frame swing set on the gravel between the two trees.  Unfortunately, they took the swing with them when they moved.

Anyhow, shortly after I moved in I noticed that the pine trees were leaking sap/rosin from several areas low on their trunks.  Earlier in the year I had them looked at by a tree service who said they might be saved by micro injections (10 injections per tree at $15 per injection).  For one reason of another I kept procrastinating calling the tree service to have the injections done.  Despite the predations of whatever parasite that was attacking them, they still seemed fairly healthy.  Until last week, that is. 

Asplundh showed up to trim the trees along the power lines.  They took so much off the tops of both trees that I couldn’t see how they would make it.  Most of their good, green limbs had been taken.  So I felt I didn’t have any choice anymore but to have them taken down.  I had that done (not by Asplundh, though) on Thursday and I also had them take away some other bushes in the back yard and along the side of the garage.

All of this activity spurred me to finally get around to most of the things I’d been wanting to do in the back yard, starting with removing all that damn gravel.