Let the madness begin!!

I picked up the building permit on Thursday and we wasted no time.

I had the land clearing guy come out on Friday and he quickly started knocking down trees.
I must say there is a sense of sadness. These 100' tall trees that took 50 years to grow are knocked over with a quick push of the tractor. If we didn't live in a hurricane prone area, we maybe could have saved one or two trees. But I don't really want a 25" oak tree crashing down in the family room. It would make a great conversation piece but it would probably ruin the rugs.


Shameless plug here: If you need someone to clear your land near Tallahassee, I gotta recommend Ronny Walker with Walker's Tractor Service. He's a one-man operation, reasonably priced, and he knows what he's doing. I maybe could have saved a couple hundred dollars with a larger named site clearing company, but I guarantee they would not have avoided disturbing the drip line of the trees we are saving. As an assurance, we still put up construction fencing around the nearby trees. It's a deterrent now and throughout construction for any vehicles getting too close and compacting the soil around the tree roots.
If you thought I was sad seeing the trees come down, then you can imagine my treehugger wife. Good grief, Charlie Brown.


Nate's a big fan of Ronnie's tractor.










Final pic: Clara enjoying visiting the property. You can see our neighbor's house in the background. It's a great looking house. Of course we are a little partial b/c it is also a William Poole designed house. We're obviously partial to these Lowcountry/Tidewater style houses.