Never Underestimate the Power of a PB & J Sandwich

I've been keeping busy since Maribel left to go to Peru. Not that I sat around on my butt while she was here, but I had a mental project list that for one reason or another wasn't getting done as fast as it should have. Now in her absence its been finish one project and go on to the next. As an example, yesterday I had a very busy and very physical day. I'll get into that later; the point is that by 7:00 PM I had run out of stamina and had to call it quits for the day. I had planned on grilling a couple of hamburgers on the wood grill but didn't feel up to it so settled for a bowl of cereal. Next I thought I'd plunk my butt on the sofa, watch an hour or so of National Geographic and go to bed. That didn't happen. After about fifteen minutes or so I felt revived, refreshed and almost the compulsion to do something. So I went outside and mowed the front lawn, during which I mentally noted that the bushes need to be pruned. I finished cutting the grass just as it got dark.

Let me go back to my comment about watching National Geographic. You'll see how this ties in later. Have you noticed the subtle and sometimes not so subtle shift in the English language? A hunter no longer shoots or kills an animal. A hunter harvests an animal. A hunter doesn't field dress or gut an animal anymore. He processes it. Even lions and tigers don't kill anymore, they harvest or utilize a resource. On a different subject but on the same concept, awhile back we weren't interested in getting people vaccinated. What we wanted was to get needles in arms. Everybody was saying needles in arms - stumbling all over each other to use that phrase. I haven't heard it in awhile so maybe that's gone. But there will be new catch words...catch phrases. Always has been. And everybody will scramble to be the first on their block to use them. Why do we do that? Anyway, back to my physical day yesterday.

Fairly close to our house is a water oak tree that has a 4' diameter, is 75' tall and has about 20 sub stems branching off the main one. And off those sub stems are dozens of limbs ranging from 6" to 12" in diameter and about 20' to 30' long. The removal of three of those limbs has been on my project list, because their leaves are too close to our windows, blocking light and being a distraction when the wind blows. 

The first one came down yesterday. It's a lot of work. I have a 15' pruning saw but it's not long enough to reach them and the ground slopes too much to use a ladder so I rigged up an extension to give me a reach of 20'. The pole flexes so the saw blade keeps jumping out of the cut, and I am standing directly underneath the limb  which is not a comfortable feeling. It took me an hour to saw half-way through. My arms and back ached and I was drenched in sweat. I was about to quit when I realized I couldn't leave it like that because it could come down unexpectedly on its own. I threw a rope over it and standing off to the side pulled as hard as I could. I heard a creaking sound but it wasn't ready to come down yet. 

So with aching wrists I picked up the saw, got it into the cut and began sawing. It wasn't too long before I heard a crack that sounded like a rifle shot. I let go of the saw and started running. I didn't see the limb hit the ground but sure heard the BOOM! A 7" diameter oak limb 24' long is heavy! Looking at it laying there on the ground gave me a feeling of accomplishment. I had harvested that limb. I could probably even say that I had liberated it. Harvested or liberated, I had had enough of that limb for the day.

I was about to say that my task today was to cut it up but in keeping with my catch-phrase theme what I had to do was process it. That didn't turn out to be easy. Using a 21" bow saw I cut off only five 20" pieces and was already out of gas. I took a break...went into the house, had a mug of coffee and ate a PB & J sandwich while sending an email to Maribel saying that it would probably take me the rest of the day to finish the job. Thankfully that wasn't the case. I went back outside, started sawing like a mad man and didn't quit until the last cut was made. That PB & J is powerful stuff!

The bigger pieces of wood are in the shed; they will need time to dry out, and the leaves have been burned. And I have plenty of time to make a grocery run. PB & J are on my grocery list.