The Week the Bough Broke

I've had quite an interesting week so far.

Sunday, Dancer and I went out to my grandparents to visit since my aunt and uncle were up for a visit.  It was my aunt's 35 year high school reunion on Saturday and they stayed through Monday morning to be able to visit with us.  My grandparents just got back from a two month long cruise to the Mediterranean a few weekends ago, so we spent a good few hours looking at tons of pictures on the big screen and getting commentary on their trip, too.

Then Monday was Memorial Day here in the USA.  This week we have nothing planned.  All of Dancer's activities are done until next week, so I plan to go nowhere unless absolutely necessary.  Dodger worked on Monday and it was just a regular day around here... until that afternoon.  A storm came through, which didn't seem all that bad to me.  I heard a knock on the door around 3 pm or so and I just thought it was the mailman delivering a package (not realizing that it was a holiday and all and we don't get the mail then).  So, I threw my cover-up on and opened the door, looked in the mailbox to find a card for a tree-cutting service in there, and then realized who had been knocking on my door and why.

This is what I found outside my front door...

Yikes!

Massive limb broke off in the wind and rain.
It still didn't seem that crazy of a storm, though.  I guess it didn't need much to give way.

Thank goodness it didn't do any damage to the neighbor's roof!
The power line broke it's fall and kept it from going through her front windows!
Thank you Providence for being on my side!

The tree closest to my house had lost a huge limb and it fell across my driveway and onto the neighbor's roof!  OMG!

Just about at the same time, I notice the neighbor across the street come outside.  She had called the neighbor's daughter to tell her about the limb.  This is the house of the neighbor that died a few months ago.  Her daughter and granddaughter showed up just a bit later.  By that time I had already called Dodger, my dad, and my step-dad about what had happened.  Neither my dad or step-dad worked that day because of the holiday, so they both came over.  My step-dad brought his electric chainsaw with him, which is bigger than the electric one we own.

The neighbor's daughter was a little freaked out at first.  But after we talked a bit and I assured her that I would get it cleaned up quickly, she calmed down.  It was still raining and a little crazy to be able to assess any damage at first.  

See that yellow house in the second picture above?  That's where the tree guy came from.  I guess he was over at that house, his cousin's house, for a BBQ and when they noticed the tree issue, he came over to talk with me about it.  He had been drinking, I could smell it on him.  He offered to get it cut down and hauled off that day for $300.  I was about to accept after talking with my dad on the phone about it but a few of the neighbor ladies told me not to deal with him that he was a "bad seed".  See, the guy that lives in that yellow house is the one that's always getting arrested.  He's one of "those kind-of" neighbors.  So I politely told him that I would wait until my dad got here to see what he thought before accepting his offer.  Once my dad got here and we talked about what the neighbors had warned me about, my dad talked with him and declined.  The guy's face was all messed up.  It looked like he's been in his share of fights.  Not that I don't think that people who "live" on the wrong "side of the tracks" can do good work but I didn't want to chance it and I really couldn't afford $300 anyway, even if it was a good deal.

Part of the pile of limbs I cut up on Monday.

What was left of the limbs after my dad and step-dad cut off the
bunch of it that was laying on my neighbor's house.
We braced it with a 2x4 to take the pressure off the smaller limbs.

A few of the larger limbs that I drug to the back to be cut up another day.

What was left after Monday's hard work and clean-up.

So, my dad and step-dad cut the stuff down that was on top of the roof of my neighbor's house and I drug it over to the front yard.  That left quite a bit of it still laying against the power line that runs between our houses.  So the neighbor's daughter and granddaughter called the power company about it.  They said with all of the damage around the area that it might be a day before they could get out and cut it down.  So we left it at that.  We just braced the larger limb with a 2x4 to take the pressure off of the line.

It was still raining when my dad and step-dad left.  My step-dad left his chainsaw here in case I needed to use it.  Then I went to work on cutting up the limbs that they had just cut down.  Dodgers got home earlier than I expected because the power was out on the side of town where he was working.  He had to park in front of the neighbor's house because there was no way that his truck would have fit under the limb and the bit of driveway that was left open needed to be clear for the power company to pull-in to.

I got all of the limbs cut up with our branch cutter that night and as much of them as I could fit into our 5 yard waste bins as I could.  Any larger limbs that would have needed the chainsaw, I drug to the back to put with the other large limbs waiting to be cut up from the yard work I had previously done in the back yard.  I used our small chainsaw on some of it but saved the rest for later because there was no way I was going to fit much more into the yard waste bins that night and I was getting tired and was ready for dinner.

Dodger made Parmesan "breaded" catfish and green beans for dinner while I was out working.  He kept pestering me to stop and come inside but I thought it was silly for him to be trying to stop me from working when I was on a roll.  ;)  So he had to wait a bit to start dinner.  Aw, poor thing.  :P  I'm the one that couldn't even hold my iPad Mini in my left hand without sharp pain shooting up through my forearm muscles!

The power company only cut the limbs to the 2x4.
We were hoping they would cut it to the tree.
I'm still very much grateful for what they did do.

Everything cut off the house and the line.
I took this picture after I had drug everything the power company had cut down over to my yard.
It didn't do any damage to the fence either!  Yay!

Huge pile of limbs drug over from the neighbor's yard.

Tuesday morning, when Dodger left for work, he came back inside to tell me that the power company had been by sometime earlier that morning because the rest of the smaller limbs were now cut down but that they left the large limb attached to the tree.  I was a little annoyed by this but we have an extension pole for our small chainsaw and I figured Dodger could cut that down without any problem.

So after I got up and dressed, I went out and drug the stuff out of my neighbor's yard, around the front, and into my front yard.  There was no way for me to drag them from over the fence with the way they were laying in her yard.  I also picked up any sticks that might have broken off in her yard, too, and even pulled some weeds while I was over there.

Another one of that guy's cousins came knocking on my door.  I told him we would take care of it.  It really creeps me out that these guys have been on my property and I've opened my door to them two days in a row.  If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... well, then... hmmmm... it might just be a duck.

Later that afternoon, Dodger stopped by between jobs to take the chain saw to what was left hanging from the tree.  I thought it might be good if we could get it off the 2x4 so that it would break more from the tree and give him less to saw through but neither of us could lift it from the 2x4.  Once all of the brush and smaller limbs were cut off all of the weight of the large limb was now on that 2x4 and it was super heavy.  So he suggested I push it off.  So after a few hard shoves forward and me jumping back from it as I did it, just in case it came flying back my way, it fell and snapped completely off from the tree.  Cool!  Dodger calls it "Boobie Power" when I get all crazy and do the hard work that many women won't do.  I like it, so I call it that, too.  :)

Boobie Power at work!

Snap!  Pow!  Boobie Power!

Dad came over after work and took my step-dad's chain saw to the parts of the limb that were laying across my driveway.  He left the biggest part for another day.  He's going to get his big gas-powered chainsaw going and then come in and cut up the rest.

Once he had that cut up and left, then I cut up the rest of the branches that I had drug over earlier.  The yard waste pick-up came by as I was working on it.  As soon as the barrels were empty, I filled them right back up again and set them back out to wait for next week's pick-up.

What's left of the huge limb after my dad cut up the stuff that was laying across my driveway.

All of the stuff my dad cut off of the huge limb.
We just drug it over to the other side of the driveway.

Waiting on the yard waste pick-up.
You can see part of what I was working on Tuesday
afternoon there to the left behind the tree.

The chainsaw hurt my ears on Monday night, so after I finished cutting up the rest of everything on Tuesday and dragging all but one of the larger limbs to the back, I called my mom and asked if she would bring me over some earplugs on her way to work so that I could cut up a nasty limb in the front that I wasn't able to drag to the back.  It was a crazy looking thing that was too heavy and had big/smaller limbs attached to a piece of the really big limb.  I couldn't do anything with it until I could use the chainsaw on it.

So by Tuesday evening, I had a big pile of limbs (like the one above) plus 5 yard waste barrels full from the work I did that day.  Nothing else was left in the front yard but the huge limb my dad left.

Yesterday evening, Wednesday, I went out and filled up two of my empty trash cans with more of the smaller limbs in the front yard and set them at the curb with the rest and then took the chainsaw to everything in the back that needed it.

Some of the larger limbs from my clean-up in the backyard last week.

Everything all cut-up.

I'm getting pretty good with wielding a chainsaw but I'm super glad that's all done.

So after all of that hard work, today I spent much of my day just vegging out and playing Castleville and Candy Crush Saga.  I did a little more work on getting my Charlotte Mason blog organized (I did a bit of that yesterday, too, before I went out to cut up limbs).  I've done some laundry but not much else.

Dancer just got home from hitting some golf balls at the driving range with my dad.  He took her to Cherry Berry, too.  Lucky girl.  I'm trying to be good and stay away from the sweets.  I still have a weight loss goal, you know.