Saturday, November 01, 2008

My, How Things Pile Up...


The Causeway in Black and White...(and in 16:9 ratio!)
My how things pile up. A week passes, and I have an idea for a blog article. Another week passes and another subject comes to mind. A third week passes, and I don’t even know where to start.
Mmmmm.....Chocolate Pound Cake!
I admire some of the other blog authors I read that make time to write almost daily. They kind of remind me of a talented columnist, who is able to entertain us in the newspaper every Sunday morning. They have a deadline, a cranky editor, and a paycheck to earn! With me, it's just a matter of making time, and getting the brain engaged! So, lets take a couple of subjects and see if I can catch you up on some news.
The past three Saturdays have been taken up with working on the tree project in the front yard. After 20 years of shade, our two ash trees had become infested with borer beetles, and perhaps some type of fungus disease. So, this past spring and summer, they only grew about half of their leaves, leaving bare limbs, and a lot less shade. So, we decided that this was the year to remove the trees, and plant new ones. Since I don’t own a chainsaw, this project was a lot bigger job than
I thought.
Yes, that limb is balanced on the ladder, rather not discuss how it all happened, and where I was when it did...
Ever cut down a 25 ft tall tree with an 18-inch bow saw? So, every few days, and weekend, a little at a time, I would cut off limbs and take the refuse to the recycling compost landfill. Then, one Saturday, Sherm Facer, our 78-year-old farmer who lives behind us offered two great tools: His chainsaw, and a 1958 two-ton flat bed truck! That sped up the project dramatically. Then, last weekend, two fellas came by with their grinder, and ground the stumps of the old trees into mulch. Tuesday marked the arrival of two new trees; a nice tall autumn blaze maple, and a white oak. Enjoy some pictures of the project.
Yard Clean-up Anyone?
What a Great Truck!
This machine destroyed the stumps in 5 minutes!
The White Oak...

The Autumn Blaze maple...

Something to drool at, a lovely simple machine....
I can also tell you that in checking the calendar for August, September, and October, that I logged miles on one of my three bicycles, on 45 of the last 90 days. The predominant miles came commuting to and from work using the train and the Klein. The weeks seem to have a routine; a nice Monday long distance ride on the Recumbent; 2-3 days on the Klein commuting, and occasional Saturdays on the mountain bike. I haven’t logged a tremendous amount of miles, (600 or so) but it has been very consistent riding the past three months.

My second Adobe Lightroom Project...
Photography. Two Mondays ago I was enjoying a lovely ride on the causeway, and I spent some time composing and taking pictures in black and white. Unknown to me, I had my camera set incorrectly and did nothing more than take 5-10 badly over exposed photos. They were so bad; I was unable to rescue them with any type of photo software. Here’s to the delete key! In the past year, many of you readers have been most gracious and kind, complimenting my amateur efforts. But, (thankfully) you never see the ones that go in the scrap pile!
See you down the road.
Jim
PS: Don’t forget to VOTE!

1 comment:

Lynn said...

Mmmmmmm.... that pound cake was soooo good!! Thanks for bringing it to Group and sharing!