TIMBER!
One of our large trees is an Ash. Unfortunately the introduced Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle that is making its way across the East, has been found in our town and it is only a matter of a few years before all of the ash trees in town will be infected. There is no good treatment, especially for large trees. As our tree had some dead limbs already that worry me everytime we have a wind storm, we made the decision to take the entire tree out. It was a sad day but somewhat exciting. It will be nice to have a non-shady area in the yard that so that we can finally grow veggies in our own yard.
Some pictures of the action:


The tree really was large! Our neighbor remembers when the tree was planted 45ish years ago. It was probably 4 feet across at the base.


Plenty of firewood for our little fire pit!