We have been busy this summer. Between regular household chores and fixing things that don't work--lawnmowers, tillers, tractors (reminders of why life on the water is better), we've found time to do something with the stuff we
brought home from the Bahamas. I
mentioned earlier that we hated to leave the Bahamas so much that we brought
most of it home with us—50 pounds of coral, 30 pounds of shells, piles of
driftwood, assorted sea fans, palm pods and other stuff. So at last, we are doing something with
it. We’ve made clocks and wall hangings
and candle sticks and earrings.
Somewhere down the road, we hope to sell it.
A tree has stood next to the house for several years. Actually there are huge trees all around the
house but this one was of particular concern.
When we had the basement dug, a lot of dirt was piled around the base of
its trunk. When we back-filled the
excavation, much of the bark on the tree had rotted. I was concerned that some of the rot might
have affected the wood as well. So, it
was determined that the tree had to come down so that it wouldn’t come down on
the house. However, since the tree was
only ten feet from the house and its growth pattern resulted in a somewhat
irregular shape, there was the possibility that cutting it down could result in
exactly what I was trying to avoid.
There is one way to avoid facing difficult situations, procrastination. So, I procrastinated for several years. That gave me plenty of time to decide how to
accomplish the task. This year, it
became urgently necessary to “git ‘er done.”
The tree had ceased to live.
So,
I hooked about 100 feet of chain high up on its trunk and attached it to a come
along on a tree maybe 75 feet from the house.
In addition, I attached a long rope high on its trunk. Kathleen was tasked with pulling on the rope
to make sure it would topple in her direction.
What kind of person deliberately pulls a 60 foot tree down? Well, she was
75 feet from the tree. Then, I cut a
notch from the trunk. For some reason,
that was when my chain saw decided to stop working and nothing I could do would
get it going. So what do you do when
you’ve cut a tree halfway and the tree is 10 feet from the house and could fall
any time? You find a neighbor from whom
to borrow a chain saw. Now the tree is
on the ground and there is no doubt, trees are prettier when they are standing. Firewood anyone?
Kathleen here, I asked Peter where he thought the top of the
tree would land and he said, “See that clump of high grass about 15 feet in
front of you?” I said yes and he told me
he figured that the top branches would end about there. Okay, I’ll give it a try, so I pulled on the
rope and when the tree started to fall I ran like a “bat out of hell” down the
hill, just in case. Well wonders never
cease, the most top twigs with the wrinkled up dead leaves landed inches past that
clump of grass. I was amazed.
So between chopping down trees, to killing copper heads and
being stung by a scorpion, Peter is turning me into a real mountain woman. At least until the cold hits, then I’ll be happy
to give up the mountain woman persona to return to my true calling as “First
Mate”.
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| Meet Morty, the creature that emerged from the primordial ooze. |
