Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

After we finished cleaning up from the brush burning on Sunday morning, both Lisa and I needed to rest for a while. After a couple of hours, we took up a different challenge: trimming the cottonwood tree. Lisa had looked over what needed to be cut, and decided that her reciprocating saw would be up to it. That's good because the electric chainsaw needs a new blade, and we've not gotten around to tracking one down.

( Take that, you over-pollinator! )

Lisa and I put the tools away and admired our work from our chairs on the front porch. And then we said we were done for the day. Both of us were tired and sore from all of this work. We're not as young as we used to be, but we did manage to get a fair bit of work done.

Back on May 5, I wrote about our little dwarf spruce putting out buds. I'm happy to see that the tree continues to grow.

( Three weeks of new growth )

Two days earlier, I wrote about the tree beside the front porch, which I'd reduced to mostly just sticks last autumn. It is roaring back to life.

( Zoom! )

It won't be long before that porch tree gets so adventurous that I'll have to trim it back so that we can use the front steps.

Yesterday afternoon wasn't exactly sunny, and the temperatures never got above freezing, but it was neither raining nor snowing, so Lisa and I got out the tools and attacked the "Gap-Toothed Tree" that looms over the path across the property. Using the "pole-axe" (long-handled saw) and a cable saw (a length of chain saw on a long rope), we cut down several more of the dangerous-looking branches. Lisa then got out the electric chainsaw and we reduced most of the branches to firewood size. I did the fir-trimming (spelling intentional) so the main branches could be cut to size and hauled the resultant brushy debris to the "coal seam" disposal area. The tree now looks funnier than ever, as we only cut the branches on the side where it was threatening the path. There are others on the far side that we might decide to cut someday. Also, there are still high branches that are probably going to fall the next time there's a windstorm. They are too high for us to reach with the tools, and Lisa isn't going to climb that high, even with safety harness. Still, trimming the low branches has reduced, but not eliminated, the chance of having a major tree branch fall on our heads while we walk across the property. Alas, the redwood tree is still a potential menace, but doing anything about it does not appear to be in the cards right now. We still haven't found anyone who seems to be interested in "one redwood tree, free to anyone who is willing to come and cut it down without dropping it on our house."