I had successfully avoided finishing the yard cleanup as a
result of flight-related activities on Monday, but Tuesday brought me back to
reality and knew I had to fire up the new Echo 18” chainsaw and get to work. I waited until about 8:30 so as not to make
too much noise but I realized it was getting hotter by the minute and I needed
to get this done before noon. After
massaging the downed limbs with the Echo for about thirty minutes I needed to
stop for water and shade. It was now
about 85° and I was sweating like a horse.
I remember when I was a lad working for my dad I could use a chainsaw
for hours, in all weather conditions, stopping only when I ran out of
fuel. Now, the reality of age and conditioning
were kicking in and I needed breaks every twenty minutes. By eleven, I had reduced the mess to two
large piles, saved two fledglings (there were at least 4 nests in that tree),
and raked up all the leaves and twigs so that we could finally walk around the
yard and use the deck again. I cleaned
up the tools and placed them in the shed and ran into the house for water and
Aleve. This morning my body is telling
me that I must have worked a lot more than two and a half hours since my
shoulders are sore, my legs tense and my back delicate. I tried to shake it all off with thirty-five
minutes on the treadmill but all I succeeded in doing was sweating.
 |
| How it looked in Spring |
 |
| How it looks now. |
 |
| Being well looked after by parents |
I’m not at all sure what I’ll do with the chopped up remains
of the tree. I was hoping that there would be a crew out in the fields to cut
up the fallen trees in the neighborhood and I would be able to slip them some
money and they could either chip the stuff or haul it away. Unfortunately the HOA hasn’t sent anyone out
to even look at the mess so that plan is on hold. In the interim, I’ll just keep moving the
piles around so that the grass beneath doesn’t die.
We had an ever so lovely rainstorm last night. Just after eight pm the sky darkened and we
could hear the storm approaching. A part
of us dreaded the fact that this might be a repeat of last Friday while the
other part hoped there would be enough rain for the garden and rain
barrels. While it was a humdinger of a
storm, it was nothing compared to Friday, although the thunder was the loudest
and longest lasting we have ever heard.
In typical fashion here in the Shenandoah Valley the rain started coming
down hard from the west, switched to the east and then just kept going in
circles. The strong winds at times had the rain lashing upwards. All very crazy
but in the end we had ¾” of rain and both barrels are full so Cindy now has
about 600 liters of rain water at her disposal.
 |
| Hannah and Patrick with Really Big Water Barrel |
We are heading to a 4th of July potluck in a few
hours. Should be fun standing outside in 97° heat. At least we won’t need a fire for
S’mores.
Have a lovely 4th, Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment