Hi Ho - Hi Ho.... (Weeks 2 & 4)

It's off to work we go..... A summary of the missing weeks.

This poor neglected blog. We're not used to full days of manual labor - day in and out. We've had to realize this job isn't going to be "done" in a week or two....and we have to find a pace that takes family life, health and more into consideration.   However, most days, we've worked....either in the yard or in the house.

Evenings are for eating  dinner, visiting around the fire and climbing into bed. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed, sometimes we feel hopeless, and sometimes we feel empowered. ::snort::  We decided to focus on the outside. Our hope is this gives Mom G a bit more time to consider the projects which need to be completed on the inside. It became apparent, near the end of the first week, we were moving too quickly with the inside projects. She said, "I wish people would leave me to go at my own pace."  We took that as a clue it was time for Stacia and I to join the men outside. We continue to do daily household chores - but we'll leave the "projects" until a plan materializes. Working outside has the advantage of seeing quick changes. LOL

See all the brush in the yard - we seem to create this much brush each and every day. We were trying to burn it in a small stove the folks had.

ONE root of a cork elm - and it  puts out trees all along the root. Pure Evil! You can see the neighbor's house peeking over Michael's shoulder. 

There are two things to note here - there is now a clear path free of elm and berries...and we pressed Yuuki into service. She has a branch tied to her leash and is pulling. ::snort:: 

A word about the burning  - it was a hard and hot job. Michael and Nolan cut things down. Stacia and I dragged them to big piles and then lopped them down to size to fit in the stove. Alex manned the stove - green wood can be tricky to burn.  On the third day of burning a neighbor came over to see the progress. He suggested we make a big pile in the yard and burn it IN THE YARD. I was a bit taken aback.  Turns out HE has four or five burn piles on the lower portions of his property. While Mom G really doesn't have a place to burn - the neighbor does. AND he has a burn permit. AND he was happy to let us drag our brush to his piles and burn. 

The first try at moving brush - now we use rope, tie a bunch together and drag it down. 

Preparing a load for the burn pile, see the little stove in the background?

Every once in a while one of us gets a second wind. This happened to me this day. I began to take out elm and loved the light it was letting into the yard....and we found things....

Michael and Nolan focused on a corner of the yard.  I looked at this section and just kept taking out the elm. Most the darker, tall stuff is cork elm.....here are a couple of before pictures....

Here are some things we "found" - the same corner without the elm - a greenhouse. I need to do some fine tuned weeding....but we're still focusing on big picture items. 

We found a "pie cherry" tree that no one remembered being here. LOL 

Lilacs planted years ago  - once we cleared away the brush....

Even Yuuki is tired. 

A perk of working in the yard at Mom G's is the free fruit buffet. The plums came in last week and were good! There for the taking....

Our first day we'd trimmed an apple tree that was pulling down power lines. We knew we'd need to tackle the rest of the lane -  lots of tall trees in the same shape. This week we took a break from the corner of the yard and worked on the driveway. The hedge had grown out of control.  Hedge, cork elm, berries and fruit trees were tangled together and some in power lines. Michael decided we needed to tame the lane that leads to the house. I didn't take pictures...but we're getting there.  I'll grab photos "soon." This is a sneak peak....

See the lowest level - that was the first "trim" and you can see how tall the stuff in the back still is....

Today, I needed to see something finished...so the kids and I did some fine tuning around the first apple tree at the end of the lane.... got the branches out of the power lines and propped up a really low branch laden with apples....

While we were clearing berries, elm and such from around a tree we "found" a pile of old boards - FULL of rusty nails. It turns out it used to be Michael's favorite bench. What WE saw was a hill of ivy, below a plum tree.  We didn't realize it was anything else until Alex stepped into the ivy to conquer an evil patch of cork elm.  He screamed, pulled his leg out, and began yelling for Michael. I tried to pull the board off the bottom of his foot....I couldn't. He and I were both pulling on it and got it off his foot as Michael came to see what the excitement was about. This was our least favorite find.....

...but it led us to find the Sutter Coast Hospital ER.....Alex and I ended our workday and made the drive through the Redwoods to the ER.  We couldn't get pre-authorization to go to the urgent care clinic in town - but they approved the ER??? I'm sure it has to do with which one will accept $47 for their services and one won't. ::sigh::  We found out civilians give Tetanus boosters at 7 years. I was told on base, last July,  year we didn't need them until it had been 10 years. ::snort::  The ER doc finally agreed the recommendation is 7 - 10 years, but most give them when it's been  7 years and he was surprised Alex hadn't had a  booster at 12. I had Alex's immunization records with me to show what he'd been given. LOL 

We also found C C's Diner....an ice cream shop in Crescent City. I guess we don't have to drive to Brookings or Cave Junction for Dairy Queen.  The ER nurse gave us the name and directions. LOL 

This summarizes the past three weeks.