Saturday was one of those days I typically dread. It’s what my husband calls a “chainsaw day”. Now, I don’t love the chainsaw in the first instance. Growing up in a rural area, it wasn’t often but periodically a chainsaw caused a serious injury. Even my husband, who is the poster boy for safety first, has a pair of jeans that have some fairly significant gashes in them from an errant chainsaw. It was a close call and he only received a scratch but not a good look. Normally, a chainsaw day around here isn’t as significant as today is: a typical chainsaw day is cutting up downed trees. Today? We had to fall the trees first. Our goal was to take down two leaning trees that were currently hung up each on a nearby tree. Complicating matters is that one of the trees in question had my husband, our tractor shed and our regular shed in its sights when it came down. Of all three, I knew before the chainsaw was running that I would be satisfied if my husband was the only thing spared. Everything else could have been replaced.
Taking down trees is unfortunately part and parcel of living on a wooded lot. The trees get diseased and periodically have to come down. I don’t like it but we have no choice. Today’s tree falling, however, was complicated. I liked it even less.
Once a tree is down successfully, there is still a ton of work. The log portion of the tree has to be cut up for firewood; the limb portion has to be chipped. Most of the chips will become paths in the garden to reduce the need to weed and the others will become starter for the campfire pit. Today, thankfully, is not that day. With a “heat dome” headed our way, we need to finish mounding up dirt around the potatoes so that we can install the last of the irrigation system. The difference between success and failure this year in the garden could well come down to next week.
Inside, today is also a day with a list of tasks to be accomplished. First, I needed to mail off the fabric for our slipcovers (done) and I needed to get the last of the construction materials out of the dining room. No lie, some of those materials have been sitting there for about four years. They are now gone and I can count only three remaining rooms with construction materials in them. Not too shabby for a whole-house renovation. On the heels of that, I’ll also take down the very last of the grow operation (yay!) and we will have our fireplace room completely back to normal. There’s also my typical weekend tasks – clean bathrooms, vacuum really well, wash and change bed linens – but those just get worked into the scheme of things. Right now, high off of a successful tree falling session, I’m focused on cleaning up the dregs of finished projects and getting everything back to “normal.”
I sometimes wonder what people do on Saturdays when they don’t have to fall trees, install an irrigation system or clean up years’ worth of construction dregs. I mean, if Saturday isn’t a work day then what is it?
Still, it strikes me again today that as much as we tend to work ourselves into the ground around here, the tasks are actually becoming less and less time-sensitive and even slightly smaller in nature. Before, it seemed like everything had imminent ramifications and tasks in front of us were at least a whole-weekend project, if not several weekends long. Today? A few hours on the trees, a few hours on the house, a final few hours on the irrigation system. Slowly and without a lot of fanfare, the project list is shrinking and we may just one day experience a Saturday without work. Maybe. If we’re lucky.
But until then, I have to say, it feels good at least to be done to the smaller projects. This evening, I will be hugely satisfied to no longer have the threat of the leaning tree looming over our sheds, literally, and I will be equally thrilled that the messes that tend to dominate our existence inside are continuously shrinking.
Right now, that’s good enough. And to be honest, after a successful round of trees falling in the forest, that’s more than enough for me.
The Yuppie Homesteader 