We had a semi-uneventful week.  However, it seems like our house (well, particularly our yard) had some great stuff happen to it!  Let me go back & remind those that may not have heard about it, back in December, there was a large ice storm that rolled through our area & not only did it knock out electricity to several homes, but many people had tree branches break & fall – after the storm was over, it almost looked like a “war zone” in some neighborhoods, including ours.  We had 2, huge, mature Bradford Pear trees in our back yard, near our fence line.  Both had been through a bit of damage previously, due to high winds & things, but this time, each fell completely, thankfully inward, toward each other, into our yard, so they didn’t really damage anything else.  We were waiting until the weather got nicer to have anything done about it, as the damage this time was so extensive, there was no way of cleaning it up, ourselves.  Well, one of the guys that takes care of our lawn called & was asking about mowing & I explained the situation to him.  He said that he could clear it out for us & he gave us a great estimate on the work, too.  So, thankfully, we now have a backyard!  We realized there was a bit of fence damage, after the trees were removed (you couldn’t tell before that), but we’ll get that taken care of soon, too, I’m sure…

Now, to explain further about the ice storm: since the damage to trees was severe in most neighborhoods around here, the city issued notices that they would be sending work crews to clear up all the debris.  There were guidelines, of course, such as your limbs had to be no longer than 4 feet each in length & to set them in a pile, by the curb.  Since this was a free service, we opted to just have our friend who does our mowing set the branches from the backyard by the curb in our front yard, rather than having to haul them off, himself.  This worked out well, but it looked rather funny for a few days: we had a *huge* pile of tree branches, covering the length of the sidewalk, in front of our yard that was also approximately 3 – 4 feet tall!  Thankfully, it was only a few days later that the city crew came out & cleared up our debris.  So, we now have a sidewalk, as well!  Although, there is a little bit of excess – mainly small twigs & old leaves.  I guess we’ll have to sweep that off, ourselves…  😉