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November 21, 2014

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

You know how it seems like I always start out by telling everyone how busy my week is? Well it was really busy this week! We had people coming and going like crazy around here.

First of all, the arborist came on Monday and pruned the large black walnut tree in our yard. That tree is over 50 years old and has weathered a lot of storms around here. It seemed like I was always going out after the wind storms and picking up debris afterwards. Some of the branches were dead and broken and others were getting too close to the roof, so we wanted to get it cleaned up a bit before we had anymore heavy wind storms. The tree guy did a great job. It was really entertaining watching him as he swung from limb to limb on ropes. And he had a chain saw, extra ropes and one or two hand saws hanging from his belt while he was doing all that! I'm sure he must be in great shape doing work like that all day. While he was at it, we had him trim a couple of other trees; the big fir tree behind the boat barn whose limbs kept scraping on the metal roof during a windy day (noisy!) and the ivy wrapped around its trunk was so bad the stems on it were as big around as my arm. The poor tree was being strangled to death. While he was at it, he trimmed a few branches that were overhanging the upper driveway which made it hard when we had an RV or large truck drive in. They were always clipping the branches with the top of their rigs.

After the tree guys finished, Dave and I collected all the branches and took them down to the burn pile to be burned. We ended up with two BIG trailer loads of stuff! It took the two of us a half hour to load it up and another half hour to empty it. The whole project took even longer than that because "Mr. Never-Saw-a-Stick-of-Wood-he-Didn't-Love" had to dig through all that walnut to see if he could use some of it for future wood projects! I've said this before, but it bears repeating - we're very grateful to our friends Des & Donna Kahrs for allowing us to pile stuff on their burn pile. We seem to generate a lot of fuel for that fire, but we just don't have a place to dispose of it. Now that Dave is feeling better, he'll be available to help Des when it comes time to light it off. They'll need to do that soon, because I'm sure I'll have more for the pile!

While the tree guy was working on the pruning, the landscapers showed up to finish the final phase of our retaining wall. We knew that they were supposed to finish it this month sometime, but we didn't hear from them until we saw them on Monday. It took them a couple of days to complete the project as they ran out of construction blocks the first day but it is now completed and looks great! I'm really glad that project is behind us. It's been a long time since we first had problems with the old hedge. When it started dying, we had to have it removed (more tree guys), and then the stumps ground up. Then the hillside had to be terraced and the new Escalonia hedge was planted. We began construction of the new retaining wall last spring and finished it Wednesday. That was 2 1/2 years from beginning to end. As I said, it looks great and we've had so many compliments from people in the community.

Also, last week I decided to wash my outside windows. They were so dirty and I just couldn't stand looking through them anymore. After I finished washing them, I was working on the computer in the office when all of a sudden I heard this crashing sound coming from upstairs. I went to investigate and discovered that a bird had hit the screen on the kitchen window and broke the glass. I had broken glass all over the sink, countertop and floor in the kitchen. What a mess! Dave had to board up the window until we could get someone come out to measure and order us a new window. The window was single paned and we were going to replace it anyway, but not this soon! The window people showed up yesterday and they will order the new window and schedule a time to get it installed. It's going to take a little extra carpentry because the old one was original to the house and we can't get that exact size anymore. As long as he was here, we asked him to give us a bid on getting some other single pane windows replaced. The problem is, some of those are beveled-glass decorative windows and there's not much they can do to insulate those.

Dave did a great job as the narrator of the Churchill presentation last Saturday night. They had about fifty people come to the show and everyone was very pleased with the outcome. All of the performers looked so handsome all dressed up in their tuxedos. They have one more performance in Nehalem on December 6th, but now the producer wants to try to take the show on the road! He doesn't have anything set yet, but has interest from people in Cannon Beach and Portland. I really don't know how he's going to be able to juggle the schedules of nine busy people to make all that happen, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I got my garden put to bed for the winter. We have had some chilly nights and I wanted to wait until we had our first frost before I pulled my carrots. They always taste sweeter if I leave them in the ground until then. I brought in all my hanging baskets and cleaned out the flower pots where the annuals were done for the year. The gutters are full of leaves and debris and we managed to get one side cleaned out. There is still one more side to go but going up and down the ladder is not as easy as it used to be. Those leaves will still be waiting for us on the other side tomorrow!

We are going into town next Tuesday as Dave as an appointment with his oncologist up at OHSU. They will check his blood and make sure that his recovery is still on track. Sometime after that, we'll squeeze out some time for a quick cup of coffee with dear "shirt-tail relatives" in between some shopping stops. Then it is a big feast with the family on Thanksgiving in Silverton with our daughters and their families.