Dealing with branches of trees

Don't really know what I'm going to write about. Rain asked me just a few minutes ago if I was writing in my blog, so I'm taking that to mean she'd like me to. For some strange reason, she likes them, or at least tells me she does. *smile* So who am I to disappoint her? She IS the boss after all. When she asked me though, I wasn't, I was trying to create a shortcut on my desktop that would open Internet Explorer on a blank page. But instead I kept creating shortcuts that opened Firefox. *sigh* If you know right off the top of your head, please tell me.

Yesterday we got the fallen branch of the apple tree, taken completely off of the tree. I started by cutting as many of the smaller branches as I could reach, with the chainsaw with it's brand new chain. Once no more were within my reach, I got the ladder and then cut some more. As I cut the branches off, it was the kids job to take them down to the wood shed so I could turn them into kindling. As it turned out though, we just threw those onto the brush pile and turned the main branch into about 10 logs. That tree isn't healthy. We know this because the inside of the branch was SOFT, like termites had been chewing on it for a while, and it has woodpecker holes all over the place. Rain had to through a hissy fit at the kids though, because they would take a branch to the woodshed about 50 yards away and then come back, sit down and say they were tired. We had a LOT more than just the couple of branches they had taken to the shed. Finally, Rain just wigged-out and said loudly, "Fine, we'll just DO IT ALL! We're tired too, but it's GOT to be done. If this was a real 'working farm', you'd be working a hell of a lot harder! This is ridiculous!" She was pissed, and that did the trick. *smile* She and I took a wagon load of branches down to the shed and then came in for a break and some water. When we looked out the window, the kids were making trips back and forth to the shed with branches. *snicker* I'm tellin' ya, a well timed hissy fit works wonders some times. *smile* See, we had been working non-stop cutting the branches off and putting them in easy-pull spots for the kids to pull them, for about 30 minutes. The kids would take a branch to the shed and then come back and rest for 5-10 minutes, and then we have to ask them to take more down. We were getting tired too, and frustrated that we couldn't get them to work as hard as us, or at least try harder. *sigh* I feel a little bad today though, because my son (11) has got the sniffles and a small cough. He's even *willingly* drank a couple cups of Echinacea tea, and so has my daughter as a precaution (she hasn't drank ANY tea in *years*). After Rain and I were done with our break, we went out, cleaned up the twigs, small branches, and logs by the apple tree and took them down to the shed. While we were there, we cut the two large branches that had fallen off the trees by the pool some weeks ago, into small logs. We were tired, it was 5 o'clock and time to feed the chickens, so we called it a day. Today I went out and trimmed the tiny twigs off of the logs with pruning shears, stacked the logs in the shed, and threw the tree debris onto the brush pile. It took me about 45 minutes, and the whole time I had my Drigger kitty supervising me, continually trying to get me to pet her. She did settle down though, and then kept laying under the wagon I was throwing stuff into. *grin* What is it with cats having to lay under everything? Every time we get ready to leave, we have to shoe the cats out from under the van before we pull-out.

Tags: apple tree, poplar tree, kitty, cat, work, pool, kids, farmwork, homestead