Life in the Bristolwood

 Preface: we lost our electricity about an hour and a half ago as I was working on uploading these photos to my blog! Through modern technology…a cell phone and laptop, I am able to post this entry…..Isn’t modern technology fun?

After completing my wood cutting task, we decided to take a little ride to Geneva. I had been wanting to see the Extreme Home Makeover  house. 

We drove to Geneva, and as we got closer and closer to the home,  the traffic increased like crazy. This little college town that is usually pretty quiet was hopping with people and there really was a sense of anticipation in the air.

We followed behind a cement truck and when I commented I have never seen a cement truck on Sunday before,  it was no surprise that the truck was unloading in front of the new home!

I reflected that on Wednesday, I watched as an excavator loaded the last bits of wood from the house onto a waiting dumptruck.  I was anxious and curious to see the new house that was now standing on that same spot.  What I saw was nothing short of amazing!

This street is lined with homes that are old.  Many are apartments, some are homes that are in nice shape and some look in need of repair.  I had not seen the Hill home previously, but this house that is standing in its stead looks very much like a “vintage” home in many respects.  The house does not dwarf neighboring homes, nor does it appear as a “modern” contrast.  Kudos to the designers. The house actually fits rather comfortably into the neighborhood.

Excuse the lack of clarity in some of these photos, but all the tall people were once again standing in front of me and I held my camera in the air and just snapped the photos.

We were there at about four in the afternoon, and the workers were placing cement in forms for new sidewalks at the house.  There were moving style trucks everywhere….I am thinking they must have been loaded with furnishings for the new home.

Amazing….simply amazing! As Michelle and I walked back to the truck, I said how nice it would be to have something like this at our home.  Mark is unable to use his wheelchair to move around our house because it is so small. Michelle looked at me and said,  Mom, we get by just fine. Everything always works out!

How did I ever end up with such a wise little fifteen-year-old…..She is amazing!

Unrelated to this entry, but awfully cute is this photo I found on the Nikon. I took it yesterday morning, through my less than clean (ahem) bedroom window. Thus, the blur. I was going to discard it, but when I saw those eyes……

Mark has been wanting me to cut down seven maple trees in front of the house.  A couple of them have been  attacked by some type of bug that has caused them to deform in their trunks.  One of them was far too close to the porch.  Another has bark literally falling off it.

Since the little camper is still at the RV repair shop, and we are expecting a call any time now to say it is fixed, we wanted to get those trees cut up and removed.  When I got out of bed today, the winds were gusting and I didn’t think it was good to cut.

Mark noticed that at about 9:30,  the winds had subsided. Thus, he said we should take those buggers down! None of them was big…but they were tall!

One down….six to go.

What a mess! I never cut live trees.  This was a new and miserable experience! I had to limb these trees and that was a messy and tiresome job.

You can see that this stand of six trees growing in a cluster just isn’t going to work. Trees need room to grow and spread.

There is the long and short of it.  Seven trees all down on the ground waiting to be limbed and cut into firewood. (not for this year, but next)

Aha! There is one key element I failed to mention in this caper!  You will know if you read here that I am nearly intolerant of heat.  Well, today the heat was on! The temperature as I was cutting soared up into the 80′s.

We dropped two of the trees onto the driveway, so I limbed those two and got wood off the driveway, but everything else remains. What a mess! However, tomorrow’s temperature is supposed to be much cooler as a cold front passes through.  I certainly hope so! By the time I came in this afternoon, my face was blood red.  It took quite some time to cool off. 

All in all, I am relieved that every tree came down gracefully….no near disasters! I will try to get a photo of the house from the driveway after I clean up tomorrow. It looks so different as the house is quite visible from the road now.