These things don't grow on trees...

One of the curious things about owning a home is how much there is to know about all sorts of situations in which I never previously found myself.  Before owning a house I had not given much thought to the concept of cleaning a dryer duct, figuring out paint colors for a given room, or pulling weeds from the front yard.  But these are just some of the joys that come with home ownership, and yes, I use that word intentionally.  I try to not think of the various processes and odd jobs around the house as chores, but as learning experiences (even though when it comes to choosing paint or hanging pictures I just as often as not get kind of frustrated with the whole ordeal) and, yes, a chance to buy tools.  Hey, I'm a dude.  ;)

One thing about which I am almost entirely clueless is yard care.  I get that there's grass out front, along with some tall green things like trees and shrubs, but I don't really know what to do with them.  A couple times a week we put the hose under one of the trees that's not looking so great, and in the summer I mow the lawn often enough to keep it from looking unsightly, but a lawn just isn't something in which I really want to invest a lot of time.  That's partially (ok, mostly) what led to our weird bagworm problem last fall, and what also led us to finally call in a tree-care professional to come take a look at our situation this week.

Turns out our friends Jon and Sarah were right:  the bagworm-infested pine tree is, sadly, dead.  The good news is I now have an excuse to get a nice shovel and spend an hour getting rid of it.  We also have a couple other trees that Nate, from Nate's Tree Service, said could use a bit of trimming.  Fortunately I can do a lot of it myself, but not on the big one out back.  That'll take a professional's touch, along with more equipment than I could reasonably purchase.  We're now in that do-we-go-for-it-or-leave-it-alone phase of the decision process that seems to be common with a lot of homeowners, and right now I think we'll stay in a holding pattern for a while and just wait and see.  And in the meantime we'll keep watering the cypress tree out front and hope it starts looking better soon...