My big, beautiful spruce tree. A few weeks ago the power company came by to talk to me about cutting it down because it really is tangled up with the wires. While not thrilled, I told them to do what they felt was best. No one wants to loose their power when it is minus 25C because a tree fell on the wires... that is what the power company is trying to prevent with the fall trimming.
Yesterday the crew came to cut it down. I have to say - they were very efficient! I was wondering how they were going to do this and found it pretty interesting. First the guy in the cherry picker went up under the branches and started cutting off all the branches. The ground crew quickly picked everything up and fed the chipper.
Up and up. At the end, they tied a rope to the top and cut off about a 5 foot section, which they pulled with the rope away from the wires. Once they got it lower than the wires, they didn't need the rope. Turns out the center of the tree was half rotted anyway, so I was happy I never gave them any grief. It isn't their fault my tree is into the wires. They went along the road and very nicely trimmed the tops of my overly scraggly lilac bushes too, a huge relief for me because I have not had any luck getting someone to trim them for me. They were up into the wires - the new trimming is sure to promote healthy growth next year. Further down the lawn were some scraggly apple trees growing into the wires and those got a nice trimming too. While the spruce tree was deemed necessary, I think they were just being nice about the lilacs and the apple trees.
Just as soon as the tree-trimming truck went away, along came the phone company to do some wiring work. I don't think the corner of my driveway has seen this amount of activity in a long time!
I first blogged about this quilt in... 2008. It is 62 1/2 X 71 and still not finished (but that is due to my hectic schedule and constant moving back and forth)! Go take a look at this post to see my adorable, smiling, little boy sitting smack dab in the center. http://scrappyhappystarfishy.blogspot.ca/2008/09/floral-quilt-blocks.html .
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This quilt was made right around the time my son started kindergarten. I even wrote a post about him starting kindergarten and how he had been punched 2X that week by an older kid and that another girl had been pushed off the top of the slide. Bullying was an issue, but I thought it was just getting adjusted to kindergarten and that things would smooth out. By first grade, things had not smoothed out - not at all! He refused to use the bathrooms at school, which meant I had to go get him every day after school because he would never make it all the way home on the school bus. He cried every day. Every day. And he broke a good many teeth grinding them at night when he was sleeping. After 1 month of first grade, I knew things had to change, so I made the decision for him to go to school in Austria (he is 1/2 Austrian by birth). My DH went ahead of us to get ready and a few weeks later we went over. That was the same week my DH was diagnosed with cancer, which turned out to be a 3.3 kg tumor, which was successfully removed (thankfully!). So, my son had to deal with a sick father, a new language he never spoke or heard before, a new school and he was traumatized from his previous school experience. It wasn't easy for me either, believe me!
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By Christmas time he understood German and was laughing and joking at school. The teacher told me that she could not believe that he was the same withdrawn, fearful child who had entered her classroom a mere 2 1/2 months earlier. Unfortunately, immigration issues keep me from being in Austria full time. It isn't easy. Sometimes I question my choices. Did I blow the bullying out of proportion? Rocks being thrown, pushing, taking new sneakers off and throwing them in mud puddles, food trays being tipped over, being tripped in the hall ways? I don't think so. I always figured - if this is first grade, it will only get worse.
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Today, I ran into a friend with a 5th grade boy and a 1st grade girl. She told me that the bullying issues are out of control at the school. Her son is not a victim, but his friends are and he is just torn up about it (because we all know that bullying also affects the witnesses). Anyway, she proceeded to tell me that LAST year the 5th grade boys were trapping the 3rd and 4th grade boys in the restrooms and forcing them to fight with each other (or get beat up by the "gang"), while it was video tapped on their cell phones. I instantly felt like someone had punched me, this is just sickening. I do not know what the solution is for the bullying issues in this community, but I am thankful, that as painful as it is to be apart, my son is not being bullied here. He is in a school that he really enjoys, has friends, laughs and jokes... I know he is better off where he is, but it still is not easy for me. I am empty-nesting and my son is only 9. Sigh. This summer, in many photos you can see that he hugs me extra big, holding on extra tightly. It is hard on him too, but I know that for now, this is the very best I can do for him.
I am hoping to go over for Christmas, but plane tickets are sitting steady - at expensive! I have a favor to ask everyone who might be buying things on Amazon.com this coming holiday season - please click on my Amazon links - from there you can go to any product offered by Amazon. If you buy something from Amazon using my links, I will get a small commission that I will use toward my plane ticket. It will not cost you any extra money and will help me. The Amazon link today is on the top right of my blog where I am featuring some of my favorite canning items - I am still trying to figure this all out, but at least I got it somewhere! Any little bit is extra appreciated. Thank you so much!
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And please remember all the victim's of bullying.
It was pouring BUCKETS today. Seriously! So, I decided to tackle a shelf in the closet. And you know how it goes, once you start a project... Anyway - after I took this photo I did another 3 LARGE totes. Earlier this week I gave away 3 large garbage bags of towels, sheets, pillowcases, etc. Then I dropped off another 3 large garbage bags of clothing to the Salvation Army. Now - I am looking at probably another 3 big bags sitting on my sofa - all sorts of boys clothing that my son has outgrown. He has cousins - so all his outgrown clothing goes to family first and what they don't want, they can donate.
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But what I wanted to say... is before the cold/sick season descends upon us - now is a good time to go through your medicine cabinets and throw out the expired stuff. You don't want to take/give your kids expired medicine. I was a bit surprised at how old some of the stuff in my cabinet was - so into the trash it went. I never knew that mouthwash had an expiration date!
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For the past few days it has been very windy. I took advantage of paint drying weather to spray paint these old wrought iron chairs with white rustoleum paint. There is 1 more chair and a little table too, but those were up on the back lawn. These things are heavy - think cast iron frying pan super-sized into chair size.
These are funky, little chairs. Not so big. But they are decorative and I figure I might set them out in the back patio next year with some big pots of red geraniums around them.
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And yesterday, you just knew it was going to rain because of the flurry of activity at the bird feeder! I know a lot of people don't really like the bluejays, but I do!
Also this week, I finally got a chance to use all my frozen blackberries from this summer. One of my neighbors picks buckets of them every summer and I always end up buying a ton of them. One summer I wasn't home and my husband told him I already had enough, so he chased me down in the grocery store parking lot and sold them to me there! I told my husband - from now on, just buy the berries. Goodness, the man must be in his 90's and if he has the gumption to pick them, I will buy them. No time to can in the summer, so I just pop them all in the deep freeze until fall and then I am very happy to have a whole bunch... This week I went down to a friends house and we canned together. Here is a photo of part of what I brought - the blackberry juice is in the juice container and I thought this was the perfect way to get it across town without spilling it!
We made blackberry/apple jelly, raspberry jelly and apple butter. Her husband got a doe so we put up all that meat for her deep freeze too. It makes the work go faster when you have a friend to visit with! Since then, he also got a buck and she told me today on the phone that she already has that meat put up too (we live in an area where you are allowed 2 deer per season). She did beets this week, but I didn't have a chance to go back as I have been very busy in my own neck of the woods! Basically, around here, everyone is busy with fall canning, putting in the outdoor furniture, doing the final mowings of the season and stuff like that. I always like this time of year!
