If a tree falls on the farm...

There are infinite choices for how to spend a 3-day holiday weekend. We, however, have 3 day weekends every week so we were lucky to remember that there was a holiday. (I know, shut it - we work our arses off the rest of the week to make this happen. )

For this Memorial Day weekend we stayed home, our favorite place to be. Thus avoiding being in the being amongst the endless line of RV's as they paraded by our house headed for their 15 minutes of relaxation for the weekend. With gas prices starting to compete with any good Euro story about pricing how can they afford to fill the RV, the truck pulled behind it AND the two 4 wheelers in the bed of the truck??? I digress...

We, on the other hand, cut down 2 ancient, ailing fruit trees and one small poorly placed teenage maple next to the house. By "we" I mean Bill, while Audrey and I watched and cheered him on. This is a major change for us as each of these trees went towards protecting us from the street view - so we're now feeling a little naked, but it had to be done. Our new driveway and parking area await rock borders to hem in the half dozen truckloads of gravel that will be needed for parking, the bark mulch awaits it's home in the new garden beds, and the grapes await their arbor home that still needs to be built. None of this can be done until the stumps are ground from the trees we took out... And so on, and so on it goes with our list of projects. All a delicately balanced string of dominoes all needing just the slightest push.

Cutting down the trees meant having to deal with the debris and wood. I did my best to help while Audrey was napping but spent more time with the rake than loading the trailer. Bill, on the other hand, worked from 10 am to 4 pm without stopping, as if the perpetual motion would make it hurt less later! Not a chance. Getting old is just something we're learning to accept - but we're not going down without a fight! 6 hours and 6 trailer trips to the pasture later the job was done. No matter the rain, or the mud, or the part about putting in two days work into one. It's done - and now let the cascade of other projects begin. Not the least of which is the wrap around deck that will span the back and South sides of the house and connect with the front porch. (The side you can see in the picture.) The small maple tree was a small sacrifice for the deck! I'll also plant a new pear and apple tree after the arbor is built. Yahoo! The stone path that will lead from this arbor to the house will likely be a project for NEXT summer now that the deck has taken precedence.

My Saturday was spent mowing short the lawn in preparation for the spring over-seed. Bagging an acre full of grass cuttings was my contribution to this weekend's sore muscles. Mulching it covers the precious blank dirt too much so I bagged, and dumped, and bagged and I dumped. Today, while Bill nursed his shoulders I fertilized and seeded the new grass. (or the "good grass" as we've taken to calling it. Bad grass, very bad bad grass is the other 2.5 acres.) This is likely the last big act for the year on this "pet" project. I hope. Or it too, will be very bad grass.

Thankfully Audrey's back to her giggly, happy self after all the sick days. She has started to take a real interest in picking out her own clothes. I applaud her sense of style for sure!


We celebrated our weekend's work with a fabulous steak dinner - at home (Did we mention we've become homebodies?! ) complete with the home-made apple pie that Audrey and I made earlier this morning while Bill caught up on his sleep for the week. In addition to being able to move 3 large trees in one day he also gets up almost each and every morning with Audrey and they let me sleep for that precious extra half hour that keeps me from being face down in my dinner every night. Audrey has still not fully decided to like pie. (what's not to like about pie?!) I thought perhaps if she was involved in making it that she might change her mind. She was at least willing to try it but after a couple of bites she still gave us that funny little face that meant she didn't like it. You know the one, it's a little like the face that cats make when they don't like the way something smells. Oh well, the ice cream was a good consolation for the celebration!