Now you see it, now you don't...

When I first moved into my little adobe, Serenidad, there were two huge trees in the back yard.  One was a mulberry tree and the other an elm.  Both had been neglected for years, with lots of dead branches.  

At the time I was busy doing other things inside the house.  However, spring came, and the mulberry blossomed and then grew fruit.  The sad part was that it was so high in the tree, there was no way to harvest any of the fruit.  But the birds were delighted!  Then the fruit began to drop to the ground. The workmen were putting in windows, and then restoring inner walls.  Walking in from the back door, with their work boots on, purple patches began to show on the rug.  Fortunately I wasn't too concerned because that rug will be replaced once I take care of the water problem.

But...Matilda got bombarded with purple poop.  That really didn't go over well with me, and something had to be done about it.  So I inquired about tree men in the area, and my friend Barbara said she had a good one.  I called him and within a couple of days he was here with part of his crew.  And here is what took place over the course of several days...

This is the mulberry tree as it looked.  Part of it was hanging over my roof.  Mike looked at it and told me that it was about 45-50 feet high, and showed a split which had filled in.  He said that the tree was dying.

Mike belted and roped up and began to climb the tree, with his men waiting for instructions...

and with his trusty saw he began cutting branches that he had roped so the guys on the ground could pull them away from the house, and little by little limbs came down and were cut up by two of the guys.  The third one kept watch on Mike and followed his instructions.  When all the branches had been cut off, Mike began on the main trunk of the tree, which was easily three feet in diameter at the base...

The above picture shows the remaining bottom part of the tree.  After Mike had sawed all around it about three or four feet from the base, he climbed up and secured a rope. He wanted it to fall to the north, away from the propane tank.  A good idea, me thinks!  With wedges pounded in and the trunk about to give way, the guys pulled it down and it fell right where Mike wanted it.  To the north.

They all came back the next day and sawed up all the wood, raked and cleaned up the yard, put everything on Mike's trailer, cutting some of the thicker branches into logs for me to burn eventually, and putting them in one corner of the back yard.  Then Mike made a table for me out of the stump...

Today Mike came back with his other tree climber, and they trimmed up the elm tree which is in the far corner of the back yard.  Here it is trimmed up and looking good...
 









Besides all of this work, he also had his men trim back the tamarisk tree (also know as salt cedar around here) on the west side of the house which was overhanging the roof above my bedroom.  And in doing so, they found that the tree had lifted up some of my tin roof, so they properly nailed that down.  My chimney was also check and Mike said it was very clean. Now I can have a fire in it.  Yippee!

All in all I feel that it was well worth it to have this done now, and not wait until next year.  I am happy!

I worked down at the Friend's House at the Bosque yesterday and was able to toss two full boxes of old records.  Now that I have been doing this for so long, I know what to keep, mostly minutes and historical documents of the Friends of the Bosque.  On my way home, I took a couple of pictures of the trees which are really showing off...

The cranes are coming in by the thousands now, and the worry is that the fields get flooded enough for them.  Water is a problem as you all know.  There are also thousands of ducks, but the Snow and light geese have not yet put in an appearance.  Today I heard that there is a front coming which is going to cool down the area substantially, so maybe we will begin to see their appearance soon.

Last Friday I went to TECH to see the performance of MYSTIC INDIA.  It was beautiful, the costumes were gorgeous and very colorful.  The cast was a mix of young people from India and from the U.S. All dancers.  They are based out of New York City and Los Angeles.  The first part depicted the dances used to honor the gods, like Ganesha, and Shiva.  The second half was all Bollywood, and those dancers were having a blast.  There were eight guys and about sixteen gals.  On the 30th of October, I will be attending traveling show of THE 39 STEPS.  Very appropriate for the Halloween season.

Now I have to tell you about my poor Matilda.  We had a run-in with a bush while at the bank.  Thinking it was just scratches she received on the passenger side, I was appalled to see the extensive damage to her front side panel and some damage to the hood.  A hole was even punched in it.  I apologized to Matilda profusely, and she was good about it.  Monday we go to Albuquerque to get an estimate for repair.  Then I am going to my Honda dealer and have her serviced.  They will also do the repairs once I get the estimate.  Needless to say, I am sick about this.

I have given up on Joyce's PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN.  Much too much religion in it for me, and half the time I couldn't figure out what was being said and who was saying it.  So I put it down.  I am now reading A TALE OF TWO CITIES, by Dickens.  I have never read the book, but certainly know the story.  It may have been one that mother read to us in front of the fireplace during the winter.  I know she read several of Dicken's books, as well as many other authors, like Kipling, Stevenson, Conrad, as well as many of the poetic masterpieces of Longfellow.

I received sad news this morning via email, that my friend Barbara du Bois had a heart attack on Sunday evening and is up in Albuquerque but doing very well.  And I just received a phone call with other very sad news. I won't go into this now.  So please send up healing thoughts for them and everyone who needs them.

I have voted - for Obama of course - I sure hope the 'pubs' keep saying and doing things which incense us all, like the latest comments on rape.  My son Phil pointed out that the press has really become very one-sided and to the right in this election.  I am sure that all the money being poured into Romney's campaign is part of the reason.  These are groups that can easily manipulate the news to their own advantage.  My hope is that the American people can see through all of this.

Well, enough of this.
Life continues to be good most of the time.
I love you all,
Sally