Granola, Hippies, Tree-Huggers...

Unfortunately we had to cut down 2 of the most beautiful trees on our lot

because they sat right where the house is going to be.

One was a black walnut and the other was a paulownia.

It was a tough decision for us, but we thought

the house would look better towards the front of the lot, which means "good-bye" trees.

the  paulownia coming down

Thank you Dave, for your help with cutting the trees down!  I'm sure it went much smoother than

if Jesse and I tried to do it ourselves!  (P.S.  if anyone wants a tree cut down, Dave Witmer is your man).

Jesse and I spent time on the west coast earlier this year and drove down the coast from Seattle, Wa to Cannon Beach, OR.  We passed hundreds and thousands of acres of trees that were cut down for logging purposes.  Call us granola, hippies... whatever you would like,

but it made us sad.

Those huge, beautiful trees were being cut down, only to be replanted

by a different type of tree that would grow faster for the companies that are selling the wood.

I kept thinking of all the wild life that was being destroyed because of our "need" for wood.

(I won't be offended if you call us tree-huggers!!)

So, because Jesse and I had to cut our trees down, we decided to put them to use.

The wood from the black walnut will become our kitchen island counter top

and the wood from the paulownia tree will hopefully become our home office desk.

Jesse used a woodmizer to plane the trunk of the walnut and it is in the process of drying for our future use.