So we just sold the property we live on to a developer. We had three lots in a small older neighborhood - on a dead end, our house on the middle lot. One side was mostly cleared and graded long ago, and was a nice big yard with a peach tree and a pear tree, and two big paper-shell pecan trees. The other side was hilly and wild, full of soaring old oak trees, with lots of dogwoods, wild roses, and blackberries, a little spot of suburban forest.
We negotiated to stay here a few weeks post-sale. We knew that the buyer's plans were to build a house on each side lot, and that he'd begin the work on the side lots while we were still here. But nothing could have prepared me for the way I felt when I heard the huge pecan tree fall to the ground. They are basically trimming all the trees way back, topping them, and pulling them over. And today I drove up to see the other side nearly cleared, only the trimmed back and shortened trunk of one oak tree still standing.
I called this post "No Respect" because while I understand the process of development, and am responsible for my decision to sell the land to a developer, I just found it shocking how brutal this process is. It's possible to put homes into wooded areas and preserve old-growth trees if one has a mind to - a way to build with some some respect for the land. This guy's approach is so disrespectful, it hurts. Clear, scrape and go. We joke that he'll have the house on the right side finished when we get home from work tomorrow!
Yeah, I know it's all about dollars. I just had really not thought it through and prepared myself for the brutality of how it would unfold.
Shall I update tomorrow to show the empty space where the remains of the oak are standing now?
I just barely caught the biggest pecan tree in the left of the first frame. I was hardly back in the house five minutes when I heard it go...
