The biggest excitement of our week? The men that are up in the tree in our back yard. It’s pretty thrilling. They are topping our huge pine tree. Or re-topping it. It was topped about 20 years ago and now has grown about 50 feet from there, and there is rot going down the trunk where it was originally topped. So, since there are definite branches that are going toward our house and our neighbor’s house, we are getting it re-topped. Its actually been pretty amazing and a huge amount of work for the five men who are spending their day in our backyard and in the tree. Really impressive work… this is like a day long episode of “Dirty Jobs” live. Not only is there a guy 100 feet in the air, above our house, but he has a chain saw hanging from his belt, spikes on his shoes so he doesn’t need to worry about where the branches are, and he can chain smoke while he takes limbs and whole three foot wide branches down and lowers them with a pulley system that he built in the tree. On the ground, the other guys help lower the branches, chip them into their huge truck (which is already almost full), and chop up rounds of firewood. Check on Craigslist soon if you’re interested in cheap wood by the cord. Hopefully the tree won’t look horrible from the front yard where you will be able to see that it was topped. I’m sure it will look fine from the backyard when you’re sitting under it. And with any luck, we might end up with a little bit more sunlight.
Archive for the 'amazement' Category
I just returned from a warm, sunny paradise to snow. Boo! But, it has made me start thinking about summer. Mostly this is in the form of why can’t it be warm right now? But, I have also started to think about my little garden and I’m thinking I better get a move on or I won’t be able to start my seeds!! Burpee’s zone finder claims that in zone 8, my first frost free day is sometime around mid-April (although it was closer to June last year because of Juneuary), so that means I have six weeks or so to get some seedlings sprouted! Ack! How did this creep up on me?
So, what am I thinking of planting? Well, Burpee has this little bunch of seeds that looks quite promising and are all things that I was planning to plant. I’m not sure about saving $650 dollars, but its a nice thing to think. I would have to work a bit harder at canning, freezing, and harvesting than I have been to save that much. Plus we’d probably have to have a larger garden and eat more veggies in the winter. Here’s a picture show of what I hope will spring up in my garden. Plus we always have raspberries and blueberries. Yum!
I was also thinking of maybe planting some artichokes. I know that I probably wouldn’t get any this year, but does anyone know anything about growing them in this area? How much sun do they really need? The spot that I would love to put them in isn’t in full sun. How do they winter? Do I have to do anything special for them?
Ahh. I can’t wait for it to be summer and I’ll be sitting in my backyard harvesting all of my goodies, lounging on a lawn chair. In the meantime, I’m wearing fur slippers and a sweater.
There are some things that your parents tell you that you never quite believe. I think that this stems from all of the “Because I said so”s and “If you make that face its going to get stuck that way”s. You learn to take what they say with a grain of salt. I remember when I was little I knew that the burner on our stove was hot. It was red, after all. Mom had told me never to touch it. But, I didn’t really believe her. I stuck my hand down on it and had coil burn marks in my palm for two weeks. It hurt. You would think I would start believing what my parents said, but its just hard.
Yesterday, one of the things that my parents had told me about, but that I never really fully believed, was proven to me. And it was beautiful. It didn’t hurt at all. Living in Maui, as they have off and on for the last three years, my parents have made a habit of going to the beach to watch the sunset every night. I know, they have it really rough. The first year they were there, they claimed that on a cloudless night, as the sun went down, at the last moment that it was on the horizon, it turned green in a green flash of light. Dad sent me scientific data to prove that such a thing exists. We came over, went to sunset and it never happend. There was always a cloud in the way. We never saw it. So, I didn’t really believe.
Until last night. I could easily have missed it. I was chasing Clara around the beach. She wanted to run and splash her feet in the water, but Dad made sure that I was watching. He didn’t want the blame if I missed it. Down went the sun, red ball of flame into the blue ocean as I stood with my toes in the warm sand. Clara sat on my hip as I told her that we were watching the sunset and that the sun was that ball in the sky, but that its really a star. And then as it disappeared, it turned green, bright green! It wasn’t so much a flash as a moment of pure green in the sky at the point where the sun disappeared. It was just amazing to watch because it was just so unexpected, despite the fact that I had been told to expect it. And I have to admit that I really should believe more of what my parents tell me. Well, at least sometimes.
The green light, as captured by Mom, 2/6/09
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