When we moved here just shy of a couple of years ago there were three trees in our yard.
Two majestic ash trees in the front and an elm tree at the side of our garage.
But Arizona has been in a drought for many years and apparently it finally caught up with them.
First the elm tree died.
We learned it was a Siberian Elm, which is really a weed.
Leaves dropping from the tree had littered our side and back yards and sprouted and grew into towering weeds and threatened to take over.
So we were glad when it succumbed but twigs and branches fell from it into our yard and onto our roof.
So a few days ago a pair of arborists came to cut it down.
One man went up in a cherry-picker with a chain saw and began attacking the evil elm.
Before long the towering tree was reduced to this.
Just a stump to identify where it had been.
Then the crew attacked one of the ash trees in the front yard that had also died.
The pieces cut off were fed into a wood chipper that swiftly converted then into dirty brown dust.
And too soon, it seemed, this was all that was left of that formerly sturdy tree.
So now all that remains is one of the ash trees.
I've been trying to save it with deep watering several times a week and it seems to be fighting for it's life.
A sad tale of life and death in Arizona, the land of eternal sunshine.