Hearing an Echo

New chain saw about to be put to the test

Cricket food - that's right! food for the crickets.

Olivia visits

More tomatoes

Without even trying I woke at my static weekend rise time of 730am. I was eager to get my day underway, and more pointedly, get on to the business of “chopping down the cherry tree”. I was surprised to find Bella already up and sitting on the sofa in the family room when I made my way downstairs. She said she wanted to be up to let Ashley in. :) Although we were expecting Ashley & Olivia to visit, we didn’t expect them until much later.

I fired up the coffee maker, exercised, walked Ykraps, and watered house plants all before 8am. And in a strange twist of events, Mindy & Jacoby were downstairs by 8:15am. Mindy often sleeps until 10 or so on Saturday’s. She said she felt well rested. It was a lovely morning. We all made out way to the deck where we enjoyed abundant sunshine and moderately cool temps. Mindy and kids wore jackets and/or robes. I was fine with a t-shirt. I strummed my guitar all the while enjoying my coffee.

Around 8:45am I left for a run. I wore my MP3 player and ran along Trabue and Hague av. It was a very lovely morning for a run. By the time I returned, Mindy had breakfast all but ready. She made maple bacon and pancakes. Jacob complained about his food multiple times saying it was disgusting. He got sent to his room for a few. He wasn’t a happy camper. He rejoined us after about 10 minutes much happier and hungry. And not surprising, there were no more disparaging comments about the food quality.

After breakfast I carefully put together my new chainsaw and then got myself organized and prepared to cut down the willow tree. I was careful and organized as I started the process. I carefully calculated where each branch I wanted to cut would fall. After thinking it through I slowly and methodically began sawing. The first branch about six inches in diameter hung precariously over the shed. I knew that there was a strong chance that it would fall on the shed no matter what I did. Long story short, it did. Lucky for me, it didn’t fall too hard. I was able to pull it away with nothing more than a scuffed shingle or two. Later, a larger branch leaning the shed’s way fell squarely on the roof when I cut it. The blow was softened only by the thick cover of over grown honey suckle bushes. It made an awfully loud thud, but again, no damage. All totaled, I must’ve cut out about six or seven large branches. There were only three remaining when I called it a day, but they’re the three main trunks reaching as high as 45’ tall and about 10” in diameter each.. I would need some expert help before carrying on any further. I spent the remaining time reducing the fallen timber to 18 – 24” logs.

I wrapped up around 3pm to give myself enough time to clean-up my tools, water flowers, and shower/ready for the volleyball party. We left the house right about 4pm. We stopped and picked up Gloria along the way. We arrived at the DeWood’s annual volley party at somewhere close to 430pm. Food was just coming off the grill as the party had been rolling along since about 2pm. There were lots of good eats, but no beer –something very foreign to me, especially at summer yard parties. Still, fun was had by all. After taking part in all the good eats we played five games of volleyball. My team won all five games. I hadn’t played volleyball in many moons.

We stayed at the party until about 8:20pm. We dropped Gloria on our way home. As soon as we hit the door I leashed up Ykraps who hadn’t been out since 8am. Mindy readied the kids for bed. After they were tucked in I couldn’t wait to crack a beer, pop some corn, and tune into preseason football. Mindy and I watched the unveiling of Brady Quinn. He was most impressive in his debut. Two drive – two TD’s. We went to bed immediately after the game. I was very tired after wrestling with the willow tree.