Cutting Down Trees and Digging a Moat

It was time to fix our sidewalk.  We have been watching the sidewalk move as the tree roots have pushed it up and have known that we needed to fix it.  Well unfortunately we got the push to do it- a walker fell and hurt herself.  So right away we got bids.  The neighborhood gave us permission to cut down the four maple trees- Brian decided to do it himself (he likes to use the chainsaw).  So down they came. 

We hauled them to our back yard and piled up all the branches. As the piles got bigger, and I saw how nice and straight and long the branches where I started to get alot of ideas of what I could do with all those branches!  I started googleing for ideas, pictures and plans and started a board called "Things to make out of Tree Branches".

After the trees were gone, the sidewalk guys came over and started ripping out the bad portion of the sidewalk.

They ripped out this section shown, and all the way to the corner.  They also took out a section up by the porch.  They would grind down another bump further closer to the mailbox (not shown).

Little did they know that the weather would turn, and it would rain and snow for over a month, and our torn out sidewalk would turn into a moat. It wouldn't dry out and be apporved for the cement to be poured until May 11! ( I know this becuase I backdated this entry.)