Winter yardwork

I came home last Saturday night to see this in my front yard:

Our newly naked live oak after some major pruning.  Apparently live oaks need to be trimmed back every couple of years or so and we hadn't...and that, plus a lawn sprinkler system and a rainy November and December was all it took for the tree to basically take over the yard. 

Live Oaks require pruning to keep smaller branches from taking up too much water, growing too big of a canopy with too much weight on the tree, and too many low lying branches which invite pest infestations.  Low lying limbs are pretty at the park,  not necessarily in the yard.  

Pruning it before February was a smart move, since we want to avoid the time of year that oak wilt spreads the most.  And Hubby pretty much did all of the work himself, saving us about $150.

So, while I'm sad that my once gigantic tree, that shaded my entire yard and half my driveway is a mere shadow of itself, I am thankful to a hubby who will put the sweat equity into our property with an eye toward the future health of the trees, and a City of Austin crew that took all the limbs from the curb.  Now, I just need to deal with the strip of dead Lantana!