Hmmm... This Is Going To Be An Issue

I mentioned yesterday that we've got a privet tree in the front yard, with all these little blue-black berries that the birds like to eat, and then they hang out in the tree above the new patio, and nature takes its course....

Well.

Just to give you an idea of the scope of the problem, the patio was pretty much clean when I left for church this morning, just as it looked yesterday after the sealant dried. When I got back, it looked like this:

Ick.

You know, I feel like a sculptor of the Italian Renaissance must have felt after all those pigeons got done expressing their opinions of his latest opus. I can tell that during Privet Fruiting Season, I'm going to have a whole lot of cleaning to do. While I'm at it, maybe I can direct a stream of pressurized water into the tree above. Might not help, but it'll make me feel better.

Tonya and I have been having visions for what landscaping we want to do in the front yard, too. For the most part, we were hoping to hold off on that for a few years, as it will be a huge landscaping job as well, and we have changes we want to do inside, and in any event we want to get back into a better financial position first. But in our front yard landscaping dreams, somehow neither of us envision that privet tree making it through the landscaping intact.

After today, we're thinking that we should do the deed sooner rather than later. With the privet tree gone, the birds will go somewhere else to eat, and will poop over there. What good is a patio if no one wants to step on it? And after all, it doesn't take that much money to cut a tree down.