Yard

[Hopalong]

Hope you don't mind me posting this on your Yard thread, Lighter.

I might be having to face the decision to cut down my one huge, magnificent and ailing old tree that's four feet from my house -- the joy of my yard. Two huge branches came down in the storm the other night. One caught the corner of the roof and the other damaged a fence, but I'm not sure yet whether homeowners' will pay for it.

I'd heard a bang in the night but thought it came from neighbor's. SO SAD. (Though as one landed not far from my bedroom window, also counting my blessings.)

hugs
Hops

[sKePTiKal]

I just had two dead oaks dropped a couple weeks ago. They would've smashed my barn and blocked the drive & taken out the field fence, if they came down on their own. We should get most of a season's worth of wood from just those two trees.

[lighter]

I don't know Hops.... I'm sure you'll have the tree assessed before making any decisions. 

Maybe there are dead limbs..... but the tree's healthy enough to remain another 10 or so years?  I hope so... you sound so attached: /

There's an ailing Red Oak, just on the other side of our property line.  It leans towards our bedrooms..... I have to have a chat with those neighbors and put something in writing... i think.... to put their insurance company on the hook. 

Hey, Hops..... what say you on Ralph W. Moss, PhD's work on complementary and alternative cancer therapies?  Seems like something you'd know a bit about and maybe have an opinion.  Thanks: )

Lighter

[Hopalong]

The arborist came and said the tree's okay to carry on...the limbs were very big and a huge couple extend over the house. It's 4 feet from the back of the house. It took out part of the patio fence and also damaged the roof, but not too badly I believe. When that day comes they will have to use a crane to take it down. It's the tallest tree on the block.

I'm on hold with the insurer, dreading the process. But the arborist also took pix for me. The insurer was kind enough to mention that they wouldn't expect me to climb on the roof to cover it with a tarp.

Good luck with the oak! I didn't know you could require neighbors to agree to cover limb fall. One of my downers is over the big fence I jsut had rebuilt and sticking into their yard. I don't know if they'll cut it up or expect my insurer to cover it...but I recall (vaguely) something about if a neighbor's tree falls into your yard, tough. Ack.

Glad you got the dangerous ones removed, Amber! The idea of something falling on that barn is not nice. Hope it goes well and safely.

I don't know Dr. Ross' work, Lighter...but it might not surprise you that I don't favor alternative cancer treatments pulling patients away from proven (even though sometimes grueling) ones. A friend who was extremely anti-conventional medicine died a ghastly death from a breast tumor...and anyway, I believe in allopathy. Being a DES daughter illuminated a lot of it for me in the 1960s. It's a drug that was prescribed to many women in the 50s and 60s before they knew it could cause a rare cancer in the babies. I was monitored for cancer for two decades before my precondition resolved. Had a surgical procedure too. The irony is that although it was generally an ineffective anti-miscarriage agent, in my case it was clear I wouldn't have been born without it (my mother went off it a month before I was due and I was born in 24 hours). So, weirdly, this nasty drug saved my life.

hugs
Hops

[lighter]

Whew.... once I climbed my roof and glue gunned extra shingles over a hole where a limb shot through the attic like a spear.  How big is your hole, Hops?

[Hopalong]

I dunno, because I can't climb up there. I think it's probably not big, and in a weird way fortunate...because insurers are only interested in tree falls that hit structures? For that reason I'm hopeful. But that may be backward thinking. We have more rain due so if there's leakage, that'd add up.

I'm more upset about the possible home-damage for owls I think I've seen in the canopy. I mainly just have to grip a grip on the anxiety this kind of thing triggers.

hugs
Hops

[lighter]

I know we have bats, but I don't think the owls are close by.  Do you hear them in the yard? 

I see neighbors post pics of owlets and their beautiful parents, but I don't hear them lately.

I'd be upset over the owls too.

The frogs started laying eggs 2 days ago, so that's a happy thing.

The taddy neighbor will stop by to get some for her pools.  She needs to move them under some bushes when the sseaon ends, bc the frogs ingore her every year.

I walked the pug at dusk with lightening bugs and the breeze rustling the trees.... a little warm but really beautiful.

Lighter 

[Hopalong]

Not lately, but it's too skeetery to be out in the yard at dark right now. Hope to.

I love the way they look in flight and everything else about them.

Hops

[lighter]

Just walked the pug and there were no bugs at all. No lightening bugs or biters.

 I found a little frog in a mostly empty tadpole container..... he ate all the eggs and almost all the taddies.

I think the neighbor's bobtailed cat got to the tadpoles in the second container.

I should put a container on the back porch to keep some safe, if I want any tree frogs at all. 

[lighter]

Getting HOT! I worked in the yard till 11am yesterday before retreating into the AC with ice water and thoughts of the heat driving youo indoors, Amber.

 I didn't use to be so sensitive, but maybe it's like bell peppers....
they didn't bug me till I heard a little Southern lady say....

"Bellpeppas repeeat own meee."

Ever since, bell peppers repeat on me: /

Lighter

[lighter]

The moss is so happy wtih all the rain.  It's time to put down Preen and I'll get to that soon.... it's enjoyable for me.

There's maybe 10 little maple trees about 4 feet tall out back in the wooded area near the forest.  I'm going to pick a few to let grow and maybe transplant the rest. 

My tadpoles aren't sprouting legs like I think they're supposed to.  I haven't seen one frog or one leg, in fact.  My friend's all turned into frogs and left, but she was feeding her tadpole food daily. 

Maybe it's happening when I'm not looking.

Baby birds are playing in the back yard.  I'm sure the neighbor's kitties are hunting their little hearts out.

It's prime weeding weather out.... drizzly with some thunder showers.. .. cooling down a lot.

Lighter

[Hopalong]

After much fruitless searching, I got a referral from a friend for a yard helper. I am SO happy about him, even though he's $10 more per hour than I usually pay. I just had a feeling about him.

He's from Nigeria, I think, and so professional and kind natured. He weeded and mulched the entire front (which was getting embarrassingly jungly) with its separate beds and crazed vines and oodles of weeds, pllus the choked rain garden, in 2.5 hours and did it meticulously. My master-gardener neighbor wrote an email to say so.

I wish I could do it all myself but my back will not permit. So I just decided if it means scraping a bit off my retirement kitty, so be it. Caring for all this does bring me joy.

hugs
Hops

[lighter]

Enjoy this lovely Nigerian man and all the beauty he brings to you and your garden, Hops.

I love your neighbor commented happily about how good the yard looks.

Lighter

[Twoapenny]

Hopsie, forgive me if I've missed something along the way, but are you not in your retirement phase yet?  I think it very sensible to use money put by for help when you are unable to do things for yourself to be spent on help with something you are unable to do for yourself   Especially something that brings as much pleasure as a garden (and the gardener sounds very lovely as well).  I'm glad you got it done and hope you get some nice autumn evenings to sit out in it xx

[lighter]

A big'ol YES to joy, Hopsy: )

Lighter