Frustration Over A Tree

Our neighbors have not yet done anything about their tree that has fallen into our yard. So Daniel has been doing some research and apparently a tree that falls into your yard from an act of God is your responsibility to clean up.

This makes me want to cry. In the last 12 months we have already had 3 trees fall on our property and now we have another one to deal with. This means that it will eat into our time to work on the house and it is just plain hard work to cut up and haul a tree to the street for take away.

Also, in his research, he discovered that if someone hurts themselves on your property you are liable - even if it is their equipment and they inadequacy - YOU are responsible. The only way around this is to hired someone who is licensed to remove trees which will cost more and there is no way we are spending a ton of money on tree removal OR that Daniel will let anyone onto the property with a chainsaw who is not licensed.

Another Tree Fell In Our Back Yard/Family Reunion Recap

This is so bizarre... Daniel and I had just got back into town from my family reunion in Kentucky. As we pulled into the neighborhood, I made an offhand comment about how I hoped we didn't have any trees fall while we were away. I should have knocked on wood b/c as soon as we pulled into the driveway we noticed some branches in the back yard. When we went to investigate, we discovered that a tree from our neighbor's yard had fallen and is laying across our back yard. We have probably spent a month of weekend's in the last year cutting up fallen trees. Hopefully our neighbors will do the right thing and take care of this one. I am still incredulous.

We had a wonderful time with my family. There were 34 out of 36 of my extended family all together in Kentucky for Friday - Monday. We can from North Bay, Ontario; Manitoulin Island, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Port Colborne, Ontario; Welland, Ontario; Auburn Hills, Michigan; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Memphis, Tennessee & Searcy, Arkansas. This is the first time in a long time that everyone has been all together like this and it was truly a lot of fun as well as a good time to reconnect.

We had fun playing games, hanging out, swimming and visiting. The food was good and the company was better. The best part of my whole weekend was Sunday night when we had skit night and my brother was asked to do a skit by our cousins. Jonathan took Mark downstairs while Joel told us that Mark didn't know it but he would be demonstrating "going to the bathroom" for us. Mark came up and sat in a chair and started doing all sorts of crazy antics... turns out Jonathan told him that he was riding a roller coaster. This was the most hysterical roller coaster ride I have ever seen. My stomach hurt so much from laughing. Angela video taped the whole thing and will post it on YouTube. I could watch it over and over and it would still make me laugh every time!!!

Thank goodness for wheel barrows

This morning I fished hauling what was left of our fallen tree - all of the pieces of wood that are the right size for firewood. It took me about 5 trips with the wheel barrow, but it is all finished (it would have taken me much longer if I had to carry all of the wood in my arms instead of hauling it with the wheel barrow).

I really wasn't sure if all of the wood would make an entire new row of firewood, but it does. We now have firewood stacked behind our deck 3 rows deep. We are going to have to make an extra effort to get our basement finished before it gets cold this year so that we can actually try to use up some of this wood!

Wheel barrow is a strange word (the barrow part anyways). What does that mean/where does it come from?

Nice little rows of tree branches - they take up the entire length of our front yard.

 

Yesterday Daniel started the chore of cutting up the fallen tree in our back yard (he has Kevlar pants and a face shield to use when using the chain saw). Today we got up early and hauled it all out to the street and organized it in nice 3x3 foot piles so that the city will pick them up. This took most of the morning.

While we were taking care of this enormous task, our new neighbor from across the street came to introduce herself to us. She just graduated and is gettting ready to move in and a guy has already moved in. We are glad she let us know they were living there b/c we had seen a moving truck a couple of weeks ago but NO PEOPLE since then. We were beginning to think we were imagining the moving truck.

Also while we worked, a guy was sitting across the street in his SUV running for over 2 hours. Earlier in the day he had been parked in front of our house but moved across the street when we started working out there. He told us he was waiting for somebody. After 2 hours, he got out of his vehicle and told us that he was a private investigator checking up on someone about worker's comp. We were thankful that he explained what he was doing to us b/c we were feeling kind of weird that a stranger was just sitting in a running vehicle for no explained reason. He didn't ask any questions about any of our neighbors and we didnt press for more of an explanation.

Around 12:30, I hurriedly took a shower, wrapped a gift and then headed north of Charlotte for a baby shower for an old co-worker of mine. It was nice to get to see her again.

I am home now and we are getting ready to head to a BBQ reception for a co-worker of Daniel's who recently got married in St. Thomas. Should be a fun evening.

Saturday

Nice little rows of tree branches - they take up the entire length of our front yard.

Yesterday Daniel started the chore of cutting up the fallen tree in our back yard (he has Kevlar pants and a face shield to use when using the chain saw). Today we got up early and hauled it all out to the street and organized it in nice 3x3 foot piles so that the city will pick them up. This took most of the morning.

While we were taking care of this enormous task, our new neighbor from across the street came to introduce herself to us. She just graduated and is gettting ready to move in and a guy has already moved in. We are glad she let us know they were living there b/c we had seen a moving truck a couple of weeks ago but NO PEOPLE since then. We were beginning to think we were imagining the moving truck.

Also while we worked, a guy was sitting across the street in his SUV running for over 2 hours. Earlier in the day he had been parked in front of our house but moved across the street when we started working out there. He told us he was waiting for somebody. After 2 hours, he got out of his vehicle and told us that he was a private investigator checking up on someone about worker's comp. We were thankful that he explained what he was doing to us b/c we were feeling kind of weird that a stranger was just sitting in a running vehicle for no explained reason. He didn't ask any questions about any of our neighbors and we didnt press for more of an explanation.

Around 12:30, I hurriedly took a shower, wrapped a gift and then headed north of Charlotte for a baby shower for an old co-worker of mine. It was nice to get to see her again.

I am home now and we are getting ready to head to a BBQ reception for a co-worker of Daniel's who recently got married in St. Thomas. Should be a fun evening.