"Nicely wooded lot in quiet subdivision." A great selling point for a home in the heartland of Wisconsin. But they were also famous last words. The first summer after we bought our house, we looked out into the back yard to find orange dots painted on what seemed to be every other tree in our backyard. What the?
We soon learned that every year the city sends a forester to identify trees with symptoms of oak wilt in residents' yards. They then give you a nasty letter that says if you don't cut down these trees and properly dispose of the wood, you will be considered a public nuisance and subject to fines.
The first year was the worst, with more than a dozen trees having to come down. The next year there were a couple more. Then last summer, I met the forester as he came on my property. He took a look in the back yard and he said, "You know which ones they are, don't you?"
I agreed it was pretty obvious. The biggest oak tree, in the center of our yard, was completely dead. The one next to it was mostly dead.
The one next to the big one was not so large, and my husband was able to cut it down himself. My sister hauled away the wood in her trailer to be burned on her land out in the country. But that big tree was going to be a problem. We would not be able to do it ourselves. We got a couple of quotes from tree removal people. We were talking hundreds of dollars.
Then one day we had friends over, and someone mentioned her husband might want the wood, but if the tree was too big for him to cut down, he knew someone who was an expert at cutting trees down who also could use the firewood and would cut it down for the privelege of taking the wood.
The upshot is, one night the expert guy showed up with his son and his wife, and our other friend came to help, and they took down the huge oak tree.
I was amazed at the tree cutting expert. He had this rickety-looking wooden extension latter that he propped against the tree trunk, then he crawled up there and started cutting off one of the gigantic limbs. He also tied a rope to the main trunk.
Then it was time to cut down the main trunk. I was amazed as he made a few cuts on the side of the tree it was supposed to fall towards, then made a few on the other side and pounded in a few wedges. In the meantime, all his helpers stood off to the side holding the rope. I learned they were supposed to keep the tree from falling the wrong direction (like on top of the shed, or our deck, or our house, or our friend).
It finally fell with a mighty crash, on top of our neighbor's chainlink fence. It trimmed off a few branches from their trees on the lot line too, but no major damage.
He did a great job finishing off the stump with his chain saw, too. All that remains of the mighty oak tree is this:
Our other friend, who had helped out in order to learn from the expert, was up for more tree cutting so he could get some firewood too. And were happy to be done with this oak wilt business, so we identified the rest of the oak trees along the side of our property, and another night he and my husband cut trees until they coudn't see anymore and the chainsaws had quit anyway. My husband finished up the last branches the other day, so this is it for the oaks now:
Logs are awaiting pick-up, and the rest of the debris has almost all been hauled out by my sister.
Of course, there is still the front yard. Next year.
We are trying something to get rid of the weeds somewhat naturally. The idea is, after clearing by hand and trimming down to the dirt, to cover the area with cardboard and then pile up the remaining summer grass clippings and the fall grass and leaves on top of the cardboard. The cardboard will block most light from reaching the weed-bed, and the trimmings, clippings, mulched leaves, etc will break down the cardboard over the course of the winter. When spring comes, we'll be able to add some topsoil and plant the grass seed. It will be a good, fertile bed, without many weeds to compete with, and should result in a nice, new grassy area next to our home. 
