Yet More House
Spent most of the day today working at the new house. Took down a lot of the wood trim in the foyer and living room, knocked the plaster out of most of one wall, then busted out the chainsaw to start chopping up half a downed maple in the backyard. Was a pretty tricksy operation....the tree was eaten/rotted from within, and about the top 20 feet or so just broke off and fell into the yard. It didn't fall flat though, sort of on it's head, so the main trunk was sticking straight up into the air, supported by all the smaller branches. I had to very carefully assess the balance points and start taking out the support branches, but the only way to do that was to actually be right in the middle of everything. If I'd guessed wrong and the thing had started falling toward me I'd have been totally screwed...big hunk of tree falling my way, running chainsaw in my hands....yeah, I'd have ended up in one of those Darwin's Evolution at Work type lists...lol. Anyway, I obviously survived the experience, and am going to end up with a nice huge pile of maple firewood.
Had a couple of the previous owners over there this morning to pick up some things and they were telling me more history of the house, and are going to try to dig up some old pictures of it. They also were pointing out different things on the grounds. I have a 20 foot tall and 25 foot wide rhododendron, which they say is 60-80 years old. I have an olive tree and a peach tree. I also have some fig trees, which look completely dead to me, but which they assured me will still produce fruit. There are a number of gorgeous dogwoods, a beautiful Japanese maple, plenty of other maples and different varieties of evergreens, and a bunch more stuff I can't even identify yet.
Here's the tree I was cutting up. It looks kind of tiny in this pic, but it wasn't. I just about crapped myself when it finally started to fall over...lol.
Looking deeper into the yard. The property goes back another 100 or 150 feet beyond that tree there.
Turned around from the same spot, looking at the rear of the house. Whenever I eventually get around to the addition I mentioned the house will come back another 15 feet or so, plus a screened porch, then a patio instead of the rickety deck. No way I'll get to that this summer, but maybe by next.
Had a couple of the previous owners over there this morning to pick up some things and they were telling me more history of the house, and are going to try to dig up some old pictures of it. They also were pointing out different things on the grounds. I have a 20 foot tall and 25 foot wide rhododendron, which they say is 60-80 years old. I have an olive tree and a peach tree. I also have some fig trees, which look completely dead to me, but which they assured me will still produce fruit. There are a number of gorgeous dogwoods, a beautiful Japanese maple, plenty of other maples and different varieties of evergreens, and a bunch more stuff I can't even identify yet.
Here's the tree I was cutting up. It looks kind of tiny in this pic, but it wasn't. I just about crapped myself when it finally started to fall over...lol.
Looking deeper into the yard. The property goes back another 100 or 150 feet beyond that tree there.
Turned around from the same spot, looking at the rear of the house. Whenever I eventually get around to the addition I mentioned the house will come back another 15 feet or so, plus a screened porch, then a patio instead of the rickety deck. No way I'll get to that this summer, but maybe by next.