Shade, Privacy, and Self-Reliance

About 10 days ago, our back-yard landscaping strategy suddenly changed. Ever since we moved into this house we have enjoyed the shade and privacy and bird-attraction of a huge blue spruce just over the fence. It was probably 40 feet or so tall, and the breadth of the evergreen effectively blocked any view of the neighbor's house, so that we almost didn't know those neighbors were there. We occasionally heard them, but we almost never saw them. And then there was the shade--the tree shaded about half of our back yard in the afternoons and evenings, providing a great setting for summer picnics and family gatherings.

Then a week and a half ago, Christine called me at work to tell me chain saws were slowly working away at the tree. They started at the bottom and shaved off the limbs going up. (We later heard the had suffered damage in the big snow storm a few weeks ago [see above], and that damage necessitated the removal.)

By the time I got home from work, the tree was just a big stick, and by the end of the day, it was gone. And there, in its place, were our neighbors. They looked at us, and we looked at them, a bit in shock to suddenly have someone there.

Their house, by the way, is much closer than we thought, making our yard feel much smaller than it did just a few days before. And the neighbors have a large second-floor deck that offers a great view of our entire back yard--not to mention our kitchen.

Our back yard which once seemed so large and secluded--and which once had a nice mountain-forest feel with that huge evergreen there--has now become a run-of-the-mill suburban back yard, with over-the-fence neighbors to reckon with.

As I pondered this development, I realized this is a good example of the importance of self-reliance. In our landscaping strategy, we have been relying on our neighbors for shade, privacy, and natural beauty, and although we had planted a couple of trees in the back yard, we had not given much thought to what we would do if that tree were not there. And our lack of preparation and self-reliance on that point is now painfully obvious.

Sigh.

[Here's a video of the middle third of the trunk coming down.]