Clean-up Day and Possibilities

A great friend came over today to help us clean up the trees that were taken down this week.  When I say great friend, I mean it.  It was no small task, and he and Nate worked most of the day, along with my help for some of it, to clean up the mess.  We managed to get up all of the small limbs and cut up and dispose of the limbs that the chain saw and the strength of two men could manage.  The thicker sections of the trunks are still there for another day.  I counted the rings in one of the pines, and it had 60, so it was an old tree as were the other two. 
Like I said in a previous post, I hate to see beautiful trees cut down, so I will try to do right by all three and be productive in the area of my yard they were shading.  We did save as much of the oak as possible for firewood, and I've been tossing around some ideas for our yard, but haven't come up with a good plan of action yet.  One thought was an espaliered orchard using posts and wire.  I have two guinea pig apple trees in the front yard that have suffered through my espalier learning curve.  I like the advantages of espaliered trees for ease of harvesting, maintenance and efficiency.  They wouldn't be too tall, so I could harvest the fruit and prune them myself without a ladder.  Plus, I can fit more trees in a smaller space allowing me to meet the cross-pollination needs of each fruit I plant.  I'm excited about the prospects!                    

It's been overcast for several days now, so I really want the sun to come back out to see the effect the missing trees have on the yard.