In the process I have ignored my blog. A place where I can write about things in more detail and actually write in a more coherent way in expressing what I'm thinking about plus what I've been doing in the meantime. I ignore long posts on FaceBook but not on blogs (there's always an exception, of course). You can't, and shouldn't, get into a lot of detail in FB in what you write and what images you post. First, nobody will read it if they see lots of gray on the screen and, second, if your photo album is more than 50 images...well, that's when they'll, more than likely, move on to other postings. Someone once said don't post a video on FaceBook that's more than a minute long. There may be some truth to that but I really don't want to bother getting into it.
So, I'm going to try to get this blog back on its feet. It will be difficult at first to get back into the habit...I used to be so good at it: see my older, way older, postings for proof....and I'll actually have to focus on what I write. I know I can do that. I just have to do that.
Now I'll have to spend some time getting up to date on things and mention what's been going on the last few months. No rush.
We had two trees removed in our backyard last week. One of them, an oak, was located only a few feet from the back of our house and it was a massive tree. The branches that hung over our roof were as big as small trees, more than a foot in diameter. I have always been worried that one or more of these branches could fall on the house in a good storm, or just because they wanted to. The results would have been devastating since the fall could come from a height of 20-35 feet above the roof. A good windstorm, a tornado, or remnants of a hurricane coming into the north part of the state would be good enough to make that happen. Any rotted branches soaked with water, thusly heavier, from a rainstorm could have the same affect. I've wanted the tree gone since we moved in.
The other reason to get rid of the tree is that we want to make use of the back yard and it was simply in the way. It wasn't allowing any sunlight back there so it was impossible to grow grass...the yard was a dust bowl. We also want to replace the patio with a completely new surface and a cover but the tree was in the way. The old patio had been built around it and the growth of the tree over the years had lifted and tilted the inlayed bricks in all directions and caused pooling of water along with a dangerous surface to walk on.
The back yard as it is now. The tree in the middle of the patio is gone but we can't remove the stump until we pull the patio up. All the brickwork will be replaced.
Taking the trees out was the first step in turning the back yard into a place we want to spend time in. They're gone now and the area is a mess. We had to remove part of a fence to get a Kubota tractor back there to remove the cut-up branches and trunks. The tracks of the tractor also tore up the ground but we expected that. Anything in the yard is subject to being removed so it wasn't a big deal to lose bushes or ivy or whatever. We'll end up replacing them anyway. I'll keep everyone up to date on the process but no doubt it'll be a few months before the area is what we want it to be. I hope we can finish by spring of next year and start grilling outside! We want to host some get-togethers and we'll have some of Jonnene's Aussie family visiting us next summer. It'd be nice to have everything set up by then. I also want to build or drop in a decent storage/work shed in the back to replace the dilapidated aluminum shed.
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