The Great!! Stump Man vs The Dangerous Tree

This last weekend in May the plan was to take the trailer down to St James (the old home town) loaded with the desk that was being downsized from our apartment. While we were there a large tree that overhangs the old family home needed to be trimmed so it doesn't fall on the house, or the neighbors house.

We arrived at 7:00pm Friday night in the driveway with the trailer full of desk parts. It wasn’t long before the parts were reassembled in the newly remodeled front bedroom.

That put the old paperboard desk out of a job and on the street hoping for a new home.

The next morning was time to do battle with the dangerous tree that was threatening the safety of the old homestead.

Time to call the Great!! Stumpman! and his trusty sidekicks Neil and Margaret.

Here is the Great!! Stumpman at 8:00am in the morning getting ready to do battle with the dangerous tree. (the battle can’t start until 9:00am because we don’t want to disturb the neighbors too early in the morning)

The Stumpman flies high into the dark and dangerous foliage with the help of his trusty ladder, inspecting what and where to cut before starting the chainsaw.

A quick inspection revels that there are three main branches that need to be taken down to render the tree harmless for the surrounding buildings. The first branch the smallest of the three can simply be cut and fall to the ground. The other two branch threaten the houses and will require a rope to be tied to them and pulled away from the houses as they are cut so not fall on the buildings.

The Great!! Stumpman uses a thin piece of nylon cord thrown out too the end of the branch where it is lowered down to the ground. Then a thick heavy piece of towing rope is attached to it and hauled up into the tree using the thin cord and looped around the branch to be pulled then tied off.

The first sidekick Neil agrees that we are now ready to start the serious cutting work.

A couple of small branches fall to the ground clearing the way to get at the bigger ones.

The first of the 3 large branches is on the ground safely, just barely brushing the roof on it way to the ground. Stumpman breathes a sigh of relief. One down and two to go.

The heavy pulling rope is in place for the next big branch.

A break in the action as a neighbor approaches.

Before we attack the next big branch we load up most of the cut down branches into the trailer and truck for transport to the compost pile on the north side of town.

The unloading of the trimmed debris at the compost heap goes quickly and we make our way back eager to do battle with the large branch hanging over the house.

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The fair maiden of the story appears concerned and fretful, not sure whether to be more worried about the safety of the tree trimming crew or whether the tree has been trimmed crooked.

All ready to go! the truck is hooked up to the rope and the Great!! Stumpman climbs the ladder as the crew looks on.

Two cuts are required to bring the limb down safely. One wedge cut to the front of the branch the direction you want it to fall, and then the final back cut. The truck has to pull the branch away from the house just as the last part of the final back cut is completed.

A couple of small detail also need to be attended to, like the branch not falling on the Stumpman or the truck or the plucky sidekick driving the truck doesn't hit the neighbors house with the truck.

Another dangerous branch is on the ground and hauled to the compost pile!

Two down and one to go.

One last branch that needs to be pull away from the house as it is cut. Same drill again don't kill the Stumpman and this time the truck drive has to avoid hitting another tree.

All is well. All the braches are safely at the compost heap.

Before and after pictures of the tree from the front:

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From the back: No more overhanging the house.

As the sun sinks in the west, the Great!! Stumpman and his trusty sidekicks attack happy hour and a roast before flying off into the sunset for another adventure.

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Video: by Margaret

Dinner, Happy Hour and worrying: by Mom

Three small Pine trees

Memorial weekend is three day weekend and the beginning of summer for most folks in Minnesota. We took an additional day off and made it a 4 day weekend leaving the cities on Thursday night early before traffic so we would be at the lake Friday morning. Of course we had a load of stuff in the jeep headed for the north woods. ( Margaret likes to carry stuff!)

So the first thing Friday morning after a trip to town for miscellaneous supplies (read “supplies” as: Out of Beer!) Margaret’s out in the yard planting her flowers for the year.

While I supervise from the deck with the newly purchased supplies. Oh! and check out my new socks they were a bargain! 2 dollars! Margaret loves my new socks!

Speaking of footwear I also got some cool new red thingies for 4 dollars and this orange shirt free from an avid reader of our blogs. I’m a regular bargain hunter! They almost match by orange shirt! Besides being thrifty I’m color coordinated. Who knew?

After consuming the supplies it was time to get the boat out of winter hibernation and put it in the water for the year. I suspected that the battery might be dead, but after charging it for a couple of hours while I cleaned the boat it started right up!

After hooking the boat to the new jeep for the first time and grabbing Margaret for the ride to the boat launch I snapped a picture of the Rig. Nice! its color coordinated too!

Putting this boat in the water is easy. Margaret drove the jeep back to the lot and I took the boat for the short trip across the lake to boat lift I put in last weekend.

Now if I can just get the canopy on the lift we will be in great shape for the summer.

Last weekend when we put in the dock and lift the humming birds were buzzing around looking for food. Unfortunately I had forgotten hummingbird food so I couldn’t put up the feeder. So on one of our supply runs to Walker this weekend we stopped in the Ace hardware store where they sell humming bird food to get some, but they were sold out. Not to be deterred I read the label on the Baltimore Oriole food box label and low and behold its made of sucrose dextrose! (sugar for the chemically disinclined) This will work!

So that explains why our humming bird feeder is orange. But guess what? the Hummers don’t care! They like orange sucrose dextrose just as well as red sucrose dextrose. (See the little bird sitting on the feeder slurping away!)

After that menu change for the hummers its off to move one of the water spigots to the big post in the yard.

The next morning when I got up as I was stumbling to the breakfast table I looked out the from coach window to see this bird on the branch outside the window. A little out of focus, I haven’t had my coffee yet, but cool!) Its a Baltimore Oriole.

You suppose this has anything to do with the orange Baltimore Oriole food in the Hummers feeder? Well now I’ll have to go back to town to get a Baltimore Oriole feeder!

Here you see the Orange sucrose dextrose being carefully transferred to the appropriate Bird feeding hardware that the orange color requires. While we ere getting the Baltimore Oriole feeder we found the right colored Humming bird feed as well. Not that those greedy little hummers cared about the color!

Now we have both a humming bird feeder and a Baltimore Oriole feeder. Lets just hope we don’t have 2 squirrel feeders.

My that was a lot of work. Time to rest in the sunbeam and plan our next adventure!

After an exhausting hour of planning I came up with a good idea! Lets have happy hour! We made big plans we moved the lawn chairs out into the sun made drinks and invited the neighbors for snacks!

Snacks with the neighbors is kind of a one way conversation and they don’t stay around long so we decided to have dinner. Steaks and bake potatoes.

The next morning Margaret promised me she would be happy if I would just moved 1 little pine tree for her. Knowing how these things work I wanted to know how long she would be happy for if I moved only 1 small pine tree? She didn’t tell me so I figure 7 years sounds like a good amount of time for 1 small pine tree.

So I moved 3 small pine trees just to be sure she would be happy. Now Margaret has to be happy for 21 consecutives years. I figure I’ve gotten it covered!

She didn’t say anything about happiness and cleaning the gutters.

So if three small pine trees doesn't cover it I guess she will just have to be……

Almost Summer time

This weekend is coming and we are going up to the Lake. Since we are leaving from work a little early ( to beat the traffic) and it is out of our way to come back to the apartment we have to load the Jeep with whatever is going up north Thursday night. There is a load going this time. Margaret has the spare bedroom full of stuff headed for the Coach. Including the Basement refrigerator you see below along with a portable ice maker and assorted dishes, pot, pans, and other paraphernalia.

We arrived around 6:00PM and unloaded all our stuff. We had happy hour along with a dinner of cold chicken procured from Cub foods on the way out of the cities. The weather was cool and Saturday was suppose to be cool, but Sunday promised to be warm and sunny. Things are looking good.
Saturday morning was a bit brisk. There was a film of ice on the water in the bucket by the deck. So we headed into Park Rapids after breakfast to check out the Walmart. We needed some storage chests for the basement of the coach and we ran out of coffee this morning.
The first trip to Walmart procured a couple of nice gray tubs for storage of things in the basement of the coach however due to a minor miscalculation they were a bit tall and didn’t fit. The second trip back to Walmart to exchange the tubs for some shorter ones provided a much better fit. This time we got 4 clear tubs with top. 2 for under the middle section below.

And 2 more smaller ones for the back of the big slide out trays.

With all the stuff finally stored in the basement where it belongs Margaret started to take inventory of here purchased items over the winter for the coach. She laid them all out for pictures. ( a post from her to come in the future)

Since I hate to see something going to waste it seemed like we should make use of the items sitting on the lawn for something other than pictures, so I hopped into one of the chairs for some sun.

After the rest in the sunbeam I was ready for some work so I proceeded to put in the dock. The first section of the dock is easy. You don’t even have to get wet. Just bolt the two sections together and push it into the lake. After that it gets serious and you have to put the wet suit on because I’m going to have to get wet and while it looks sunny and nice its about 45 degrees out and the water is just a bit chilly!

Once suited up the big wide end section of the dock has to be rolled into the lake and positioned at the end of the firsts two sections and bolted in.

Once bolted in and leveled up its time to get out of the wet rubber suit and put the deck top on the aluminum framework.

Some times when its a bright sunny day and you are enjoying yourself you just have to do the dance.

After the dock was in the day was winding down and we wandered around the lot checking out the plants and trees. Margaret’s daffodils are up and smiling at the world. They will be deer chow shortly.

One of the purchases this winter for the Coach was a portable ice maker. Just plug it in, add water and 15 minutes later you have ice. No self respecting camper should be without! That would be just too primitive. Happy hour without ice in your drinks unheard of!

Notice the perfectly formed cubes of ice in the colorful drinks. What an icemaker!

Early the next morning the wind had died down and Margaret could start her fire. She’s lost unless she can burn a fire.

Sunday was shaping up to be a beautiful day sunny and 70 degrees at the lake. We might as well get the lawn mowed and fertilized. So while Margaret mowed the lawn I fertilized then started to put in the boat lift.

Back into the rubber suit. The water has not warmed up much since yesterday. The blue and red jugs are floatation devices that help float the lift out to the end of the dock.

The hard part of the dock and lift is the lift. Its big and heavy, but its much easier to put in than take out. The end of the year is always much worse, but now we have the summer to look forward to and putting in the dock and the lift is always enjoyable.

With the lift in position the top has to go on. The day has warmed up nicely and it must be 75 degrees down by the lake so off comes the warm cloths while we assemble the top.

Once the top is on its time to sit on the terrace and enjoy the sunshine. The rest of the day is for enjoyment!