A busy few weeks

After only a week at home from England, I drove up to Bath, NY (my childhood home town) to help my brother and sister-in-law pack for their move to Wisconsin.  (They will spend summers up there, near their daughters.  Winter in Florida as usual.)  They have lived in that house in Bath for 60 years and have never experienced a 'move'.  I tried to give advice to my brother, rather unsuccessfully, about how to pack breakable items. (He's a retired engineer and doesn't easily take advice from his younger sister.)   Luckily there weren't many valuable, breakable items and I think the box with them went into the car, rather than with the moving van.  Hopefully, nothing was broken.  My niece, Terry came down on Sunday (a week ago) to help with the packing and to drive a pickup truck to Wisconsin.  She is an artist and knows how to safely pack art, so I left the job of packing up the paintings, mirrors and glass shelves to her.  Hopefully, the travelers are in Wisconsin today, waiting for the moving van to arrive. 

We had some excitement up there when a huge branch from a tree out by the road detached itself from the tree and landed on power lines (didn't break them).  The neighborhood came out to watch the guys from the local electric company saw bits off the branch and finally tie it to a really tall metal pole on a truck, lift it off the wires, and drop it to the ground.  They did a really good job.  I'll post a few photos below.

I got home a week ago and got back into my usual schedule, more or less.  Luckily I was home, as we had a huge storm Thursday night and lost power for 27 hours. Actually, I"d just as soon have been elsewhere, but for peace of mind, I'm glad I was at home.  My fridge/freezer stayed cold and I slept in the basement on a very comfortable futon.  In fact, I practically lived in the basement until the power came back on.  I discovered that it's really hard to read or do a crossword puzzle using a flashlight!!  All is well here as to the electric and I hope it stays that way! 

One odd coincidence - a tree down the street lost a huge branch, very much like the one I saw in NY.  Neighbors all came out to look at it and eventually to trim off branches so that cars could drive past it.  I brought out my little tree saw (hand powered) and some very large clippers.  No one else seemed to have the tools needed for sawing through green wood.  Gardeners are always prepared!  We have buried power lines, so no problem there.  (Of course our power was off anyway, due to the storm!) I"m pretty sure the tree will have to come down.  There is a tear almost all the way down one side.  Our homeowners association will have to pay for that.  We're lucky it didn't fall on anyone's car.  All these photos are of the branch that fell in Bath, NY. 

 Here's the guy in the little cherry picker basket sawing off small limbs. 



The second photo shows the long-armed thing they used to lift and hold the branch above the power lines.

The last photo shows the branch suspended upright, being lowered to the ground.  You can see how big it was.

I just want to say that I've had enough excitement in my life recently and would like a peaceful, uneventful summer!

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