Another one bites the dust

Recently we had quite a thunderstorm and I did not realize it had done any damage until I went out to put new juice in our hummingbird feeders. It was then that I noticed our Russian Olive tree was crushing the plant stand underneath it. Looking further, I gasped as I saw the tree had fallen on our porch roof. Thankfully, the plant stand kept the tree from falling too hard, and our damage to the porch was only minor. We will have to replace some shingles, but structurally there seems to be no damage.


Thank goodness for the plant stand

The tree on our porch roof

Warren called our yard man who sent over his uncle to cut down the tree. It took two days to take out the tree. I am so thankful Warren did not have to do this, because it would have taken twice as long, and I would be the one having to help him haul away those heavy branches and logs. Besides we do not have a pick up to haul them off to the dump since there was too much to stack in our alley.

First set of logs from one trunk

We now have no more Russian Olive trees and I have mixed emotions about it. I loved the look of the Russian Olive because the trunks were not upright. I liked the way they slanted. It was a pleasing artistic look. What I will not miss is all the pollen and berries the tree dumped on our yard. I swept up loads of its debris. Another good thing is that I will no longer have to try to save the tree from our bark eating squirrels. So our trash tree is now trash. Warren wanted to plant another tree where the Russian Olive stood, but with all the roots, I do not think we will be able to do so. I will use one stump for a plant stand, and the other (since it is at an angle) I will paint something fun on it. Erynn wanted to know if she could paint it; and I just might let her and Reid add their artistic skills to the stump.

The tree was not the only thing that bit the dust. My cell phone which is very old-- I got it when the boys were in high school--started beeping constantly and would not keep a charge. I could have gotten a new battery for it, but a new phone was not much more. So I now have a new cell phone with a keypad for texting and it only cost $20.00. The Sprint people told me they could transfer the information from my old phone to the new one, but it would not transfer. My phone was too old. So I spent a long time entering in all the phone numbers. It has a lot of nice features which I hope to learn how to do someday. Since I have gotten my phone, I have only had one call, and that has been from Warren. My new phone announces who is calling and then it rings. I thought that was interesting. I haven't decided if that is a good or bad thing yet.

This past Thursday, Warren joined the grandkids and I in the swimming pool. Well, Warren is pretty hairy and his chest hair has turned gray. He had on a pair of goggles and was catching Erynn as she jumped from the side of the pool. Reid was studying his Pawpaw, and then said, "Pawpaw, you look like a wolf." I thought that was a pretty good observation and description.

Well, Warren, aka the wolf, was drafted by me to be another photo experiment. I saw this great window display at one of the stores on Main Street. I would like to get a photo with the person and their reflection in the window, plus the window display. I was trying to figure out if it would work, hence Warren became my subject. So far all my shots have been failures. I have yet to get the effect I want, but I did get a pretty nice photo of Warren and Marilyn Monroe. He looks real thrilled about the adventure.

Warren and Marilyn