On Saturday we attacked some of the trees that came over in the hurricane. One of the hickories in the backyard was laying in the yard and was making it difficult to walk past. It is now a mere stump. I acted as the resident mule again and while the better-half chain-sawed I held onto the tree with a rope to keep it from bouncing into his face. Of course, towards the end of the cutting and during the most dangerous part, I’m struggling on the end of the rope only to find that our hammock post is actually holding the tree off the ground. The tree was just resting on the very edge of the top of the post. Who knew that post was so tough and so strong.
We also cut an oak down that was leaning over the driveway. It was still alive but we play no games with stuff blocking us in or out so the tree came over. When it thudded to the ground (just like in the movies), I yelled to the better-half “Sweet”. We also cut down a pine that had died and it needed to come out of the little stand of pines because we’re afraid that it was killed by pine-bark-beetles. They get in one tree and you can kiss the others goodbye. Hopefully, we won’t have that problem.
Speaking of bugs, I am not a fan of bees. Any kind of bee is only bettered by it dying. I guess some can live so we can have honey and pollinated plant life, but, by and large, I want them to die. I was once attacked by a swarm of bumblebees as a child and it really did scar me for life. I’ve also had the misfortune of running over a yellow jacket nest with the lawn mower. I raced into the house with bees hanging off me.
On Saturday while we were cutting wood out at the driveway, I whined about all the yellow jackets. The better-half had a rational explanation that they were there for the sap and they weren’t interested in me. As I was dragging branches and tree trunks into the woods I realized that I had walked right into a swarm of yellow jackets. I delicately dropped the large branch I was dragging and took a deep breath. Then I slowly backed out of there — which was really hard because I had to walk (backwards) over all the branches and sticks that I had previously piled up. I then pointed out the huge swarm to the better-half. He said that we must have stacked the brush pile right on top of a nest. Great…I’d been walking in yellow jacket hell for over an hour and didn’t even know it.