Blessing in Disguise?

No, it's not fall yet.

This once beautiful tree struggled through the years of drought and just couldn't go another season. I am so sad, I feel like I've lost a family member.

When we were building the house 10 years ago, we had it written in our contract that all the large trees in the backyard must stay. We had just moved from a house with a heavily wooded area and we loved the trees and all the wildlife that came with it. The builder fought with us over keeping the trees because it was more difficult for them to build with the trees so close to the house, but we were persistent. He predicted the trees would only last 10 years. At least he was right with this tree. There are others still standing and we hope they stick around for a while too.

I knew it was too risky to keep a dead tree standing so close to our house and it must come down. I had no idea how much it would cost, but fortunately, with our Dave Ramsey emergency fund, I knew we could "probably" cover it, but didn't know just how much.

The first tree trimmer came by and gave me an estimate of $825 with a discount of $125 bringing the total down to $700. He also offered to trim our crepe myrtle trees back for free since they are scraping the roof and will damage our shingles. He seemed nice and very professional. I thanked him and told him I would get back to him.

Wow, $700. I knew we could cover it, but it meant either a large dip out of our emergency fund or canceling a big snowball payment I had planned on sending to our smallest credit card. I hoped to pay off this card in the next month and it made me sad to think my plans would change due to this "Murphy".

I went to sleep that night wondering what I should do. The next morning I woke up too early, 4:30, and could not go to sleep. I laid awake and just started casually praying to God. I'm never formal, by any means! I just asked him how I should handle this dilemma and asked for help on how I could possibly make more money this week to cover the excess cost.

I got out of bed and started working on a few projects for my clients. I also listened to Dave Ramsey on my ipod. After working for a few hours, I decided to check my phone. There was a message from another tree trimmer I called the night before and he wanted me to call him back.

As I dialed his number I was thinking of the tree and remembered a conversation I had with my husband regarding the quote from the night before. He said he wanted to keep some of the wood. Of course! We could have the tree cut down and split into firewood! We go through at least one cord of wood a year and it's very expensive.

I called the tree trimmer back and he came over within a few hours. I showed him the tree and explained that we would like to keep the wood. We could stack it in one of the gardens and split it later. He and I talked for a while and he finally gave me a quote of $325! He also asked me how wide we wanted the pieces cut! So, not only was he going to cut down the tree , he was going to cut it to the size we wanted. All we have to do is split it.

I worked out the numbers and figured a full cord of wood delivered cost somewhere around $450. We are actually going to save money this winter by burning the very wood that is in our backyard.

Although I am sad to see this tree come down, I am thankful that we can recycle it and use it to heat our family room this winter. Talk about a blessing in disguise!