Their days are numbered

These three birches stand in what I call the "north forty," the section of our property that is just north of the house. Since we've lived here, it's the shadiest section of the yard, but that is changing. Two years ago, we had the pear tree removed after it died. It was in the northeast corner, just outside the upper right of this photo. Just over a year ago, we had an ailing spruce removed. Now, two of these three birch trees are dead and are scheduled to be taken down this summer. The third may go, too.

Looking north. Tasha stands in front of the section of fencing that was damaged. It's not easy to see in the photo because the fence's green color blends in with the foliage. The piles are some of the smaller branches that I'm saving for kindling.

A big wind storm came through last December that caused the upper branches of the dead birches to come crashing down on the fence that separates the yard from the woods to the north. Yesterday, I took the last of the fallen branches off the fence and tried to fix it up a little until I can get somebody to repair it. One of the fence posts was yanked out of the ground, so that will have to be re-set in a concrete footing before the broken sections of the fencing can be patched.

We had the fence put in nearly eighteen years ago to keep the dog (Collette at the time) inside and to keep the deer out. Unfortunately, the guy who did the work passed away about twelve years ago. I'm going to ask the landscape contractor whose crew will remove the trees if he can fix the fence.