IT'S ALL ABOUT WOOD!

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”. 

Meet Morty, the creature that emerged from the primordial ooze.