Going, Going, Gone

We arose early on Friday to an emergency at Lindsay's house since their garage door would not open due to a broken spring.  Chris was able to ride in to work with a neighbor, and once we took Owen to nursery school, we helped Lindsay pry open the door so that she could get their cars out.  Then off she went to work also.

The last two trees were not filled in well at the bottom
and were too tall at the top.  They needed trimming
away from the gutters on the house.

The second tree was smaller and easily came down.

We came home and decided to tackle the last two trees.  We were able to get both of them down and the first one to the yard refuse dump before we headed back to Lindsay's to meet the garage door repair man. He must have thought we were a real gem of a couple since both of us were in grubby clothes and filthy from taking down the trees!  We offered no explanation.

Lindsay met us at home just as the man finished installing the new springs on the door.  It took him all of 15 minutes to do the job.  Ah, what the right set of tools and lots of experience will do for a job!  With that catastrophe averted, we headed back to our house to pick up the truck and take the last tree to the dump.

Three stubborn stumps await removal.

On Saturday our task was to try to pull the remaining stumps from the ground.  We had to buy another tow strap so that we would not have to chew our lawn up with the truck.  The stumps proved more resistant than I imagined, so they took some real effort to get out.  One reason was that as we put tension on the tow strap, it grabbed the bark and slid it right off the tree stump.  What was left under the bark was a slick substance that coated the entire stump.  Naturally, at every cut branch, however, was sticky pitch.  Although the roots were not terribly deep, they were numerous.  After a good battle and numerous tries, we were able to get everything uprooted and into the back of the truck for one more trip to the dump.

A clean slate awaits new bushes or trees.

So now we sit with a bare garden.  It looks better than the scraggly trees that were there, but we do want to replant the area with something.  Rick is opting for more trees.  He wants something that is "geometric and symmetrical." (Ha!  As if those scraggly trees were...)  I want to try lilacs or hydrangeas; I want something that will add color to the yard, but something I can still prune with ease.  Rick thinks they would be "too bushy and untamed."

We tried trees.  They were boring.  We'll have to see what the nurseries offer.

Ranger Rick?

I am sorry to say that the great forest ranger of our childhood -- Ranger Rick -- is not the man I married, but since the old ranger was actually a raccoon created by the National Wildlife Federation to star in its wildlife magazine, I guess that's OK.  For any of you who are curious, the magazine Ranger Rick, started in 1967, is still going strong.

We did do a bit of forestry in our front yard today, though, so that is what reminded me of the magazine character.

Last week, our time in Minnesota went well.  We got Stephanie packed in time for the movers to take her furniture and belongings into storage.  Then she moved with the cats into a very nice temporary housing establishment.  She has a kitchen, living/office area, bedroom, and bath.  What more does anyone need?  Her builder told her that he is trying to complete her new house by the end of June, so that would allow her to move in almost a month early.

When we arrived home last week, we had two days to prepare for a birthday party for my mother (who turns 92 next week) while we cheered for my niece and her husband as they ran a half-marathon past our house.  The race was a success as was the party.  Although there is 90 years' age difference between them, my mother and my grandson are great pals.  They make one another smile.

Almost 2-year-old Owen smiles at his almost 92-year-old
great-grandmother.

We needed a little down time to recover from Stephanie's move, but today dawned clear and cool; this is perfect weather for tackling a garden project.  As I mentioned last time, we want to remove the three overgrown cedar trees from our front yard.  I am not sure what I will replace them with yet, but I think some kind of flowering bush like lilacs or hydrangeas would be good.  I'll have to shop later to see what might be available.

The first of three over-grown trees
is down.

We started the job just after lunch and were completely finished by 2:00 p.m.  The trees are not hard to get down with the help of our new SawsAll.  This first tree fit into the back of the truck, so it is already disposed of at the town yard refuse center.

We'll deal with the stump removal later.

If the weather cooperates, we may tackle the second tree tomorrow.  We'll worry about yanking out the stumps for this vegetation this weekend. We did not have any assistance from Ranger Rick; however working with the same Rick I have worked side-by-side with for 39 years certainly produced the results we wanted.  And if we can get out of bed tomorrow, we might just try this again.

Northern Chores

We have been "home" in Green Bay about a month now; yet, we have not been home all of that time.  After we returned north, we took a week-lomg trip to Minnesota to stay with Stephanie after she had surgery for a torn meniscus.  As the week after surgery wore on, she started to get stir crazy being home, so we ventured out to see an open house on a townhouse that interested her.  Long story short, Rick was impressed with the builder, we all liked Jenna, the real estate agent, and a couple of weeks later Stephanie was signing papers to have a new townhouse built for her.

To add to the madness, she also was promoted just before the surgery, so she was getting used to her new job.  As she was trying to handle that transition, Jenna put her house on the market.  Because newly graduated doctors were coming into town to start their residency, housing in Minnesota was at a premium.  Stephanie met with Jenna to discuss how much to ask for her house. They agreed on a price, and Stephanie's house was set to hit the listings on Monday. On Friday, Jenna showed Stephanie's house to a real estate agent.  On Saturday Jenna called to ask if she could show the house to a young couple.  On Sunday they made a full-price offer and through negotiations, Stephanie sold her house -- one day before it was set to officially go on sale!

The only drawback is that she would have to move to temporary housing until her new townhouse is finished.  She has been spectacular about making a million decisions and arrangements.  We returned to her house at the end of April to help her pack as much as we could.  We agreed to return this coming week to help her finish packing so she can move by Wednesday into temporary housing.  We leave tomorrow and hope to have her safely moved by Wednesday of this week.  Whew!  This has been a really busy spring.

We also are trying to figure out how much time, effort, and mostly money we can dedicate to some much-needed improvements of this northern house.

Two winters ago, the cold was brutal in Wisconsin.  One particular type of evergreen was really devastated, and our large burning bush shrub suffered over a 50% loss.  I cut out the dead parts last summer and pruned it way down in the hope that it would send out new shoots and fill in.  It looked pretty pathetic last summer, but I hoped that it would be better this spring.  Sadly, it did not rally, so this morning we hooked up the truck to the scraggly bush that was left and yanked it from the ground.  We did the same to two pygmy barberry bushes that were woody and ugly, too.

A new little burning bush occupies the corner where the old
bush once stood.  Eventually the new bush will fill in the
whole corner.

We had purchased new bushes yesterday at the neighborhood nursery, so we wanted to get them into the ground before we leave again. With a little more digging and lots of effort, we have the three new bushes planted.

Two new crimson pygmy barberries add a touch of color to the garden.

Then we were off to the nursery again for a yard of deep brown mulch. The yard almost covered the whole front garden.  We are not too upset that it did not quite reach to the end because we still have three large, overgrown evergreen trees in that area that we want to remove.

New mulch will help retain moisture as the daylilies cluster
near the sidewalk and the hostas  start to emerge in the front
garden. Once grown, they will fill the entire garden.

Part of yesterday was spent at the tool store looking at chain saws.  We finally got smart and decided to buy a SawsAll instead.  We used a SawsAll in Florida to remove tree roots when we put up our fence.  With a pruning blade, the saw works great.  We were looking at a $300 chainsaw that we would probably never use again.  Then I saw an ad for a SawsAll.  "Why not buy another one of those?" I asked.  Rick agreed that we would get a lot more use out of a SawsAll than a chainsaw, and I know that he is more comfortable using a SawsAll in the end.  The price was half of what a chainsaw would have been, and we can use the saw for other home improvement projects later on. I guess that is my Mother's Day gift this year!

The landscaping today took its toll on our energy levels.  We both had just enough after all of our gardening to do some last minute jobs.  I mowed the front yard (Rick had mowed the back yard yesterday) while Rick washed a layer of yellow pollen off the truck.

We are off early tomorrow morning for Minnesota again.  I know that Stephanie will be relieved to get out of her house and into temporary housing.  That is just one more step toward getting into her big, bright, beautiful townhouse.