The Tree Is Gone

First of all I'd like to apologize to any readers that have possibly had a hard time reading my blog due to the "gray" color font. I have no idea when that changed. I have no idea if I made the change and if I did, how long ago? So this morning I changed the font color to black. The blog posts should be easier to read now.

As it warmed up on Saturday, into the 40s ... I grabbed my rake, trash can and pruning saw to get that tree limb out of my side yard. If found out not only were two of the limbs were buried deep into the ground after falling around 50' ... but after cutting off limbs, the trunk of the limb was heavy. So heavy I could barely drag it to the back berm. 

Yet, within 45 minutes the yard look like this instead of the photo below. 

It is hard to believe just how heavy that main trunk was. That pile of smaller limbs and stems I raked the other day was put in the trash can for the weekly pickup. 

My next project was repairing the end table light cord. I am not sure how it happened because most of the time I have tried to keep that plug hidden under the corner of the coffee table.

For some reason I cannot figure out, the people that added on the great room twenty years ago decided there needed to be an electrical outlet in the floor in the worse location ever. 

I understand the floor outlet for an end table lamp but by the time you arrange the furniture in a way to not only hide the plug but also have the maximum amount of space and the optimum view of the tv ... it is not in a good location.

I am not an expert but I thought I could find what I needed to repair this at Lowe's or Home Depot. I have both stores within 2 miles of my house but I like Lowe's better for a couple of reasons.

One, their app locations are accurate in the local store. Two it is on "this side" of the Lloyd Expressway and only one stop light to sit through for the right hand turn. Whereas Home Depot has nothing in the location their app says it's in and I don't have to sit through three stop lights to get there. I rarely hit those lights where they are green.

That is the cord of a different lamp. 

To give you an idea where that floor outlet sits ... that spot just left of center in this photo taken by the home inspector. I have my couches and table in the same position as the previous owners but for me it is not in the best location for this room.

Henry tries to show you where the plug is from the first morning we lived here but he didn't realize he was blocking the view.

It didn't take long to get my favorite lamb back fully operational. This time I used three small pieces of clear shipping tape to keep the cord in place on the floor from the outlet to under the end table. I also made sure that plug was out of the way of any hound or dog paws. 

While I was manually cutting the limbs off that tree on Saturday with a pruning saw and remembering doing the same thing to another tree last July that had fallen across the cables above my fence ... I thought it might be time to buy a small 16" chainsaw. I looked at both fuel and battery operated ones on Saturday but didn't buy either because I had not done any research yet on which to buy. I walked out of Lowe's with the electrical cord stuff and a pack of Bounty Towels.

When I relayed that story to my friend on Sunday morning, she found from some comments in her research last year that a few suggested using a reciprocating saw instead of the 16" chainsaw. The more I thought about it, the better I liked that idea. Less maintenance than a chainsaw, easier to operate for someone like me. 

So early Sunday morning I was at Lowe's buying this on sale for $99, a discount of $40. I already had a battery and charger that will work from the DeWALT weedeater I have so that saved a lot of money. In fact that battery would have cost more than the saw with a charger still needed.

I will use this now instead of the manual pruning saw. The plan is to cut as many small saplings as I can that are on the berm so they do not grow into bigger trees. I was told a new idea last night to prevent them from growing back ... like the ones I use to cut up north on my bank. I will start that project this afternoon.

Then while watching the game last night and thinking of saws, I remember I had one of these that was electric and used a lot. As the fog lifted from my memory cells, I gave that reciprocating saw to my friend up the street when I was downsizing to move to Arizona in May 2019. In the four years here I have RE-bought almost everything I gave away before that 2019 move.

With the weekend feeling colder than the temperatures showed, it was nothing different than past weekends, except it was warmer, the sun was out, the power was on and there were plenty of ballgames to watch if I wanted to. As you will see the hounds and dogs grabbed their morning and afternoon sleeping positions and enjoyed their day.

I keep forgetting that Ava will not be fully grown for another year or so. She is a pretty German Shepherd.

This right here confirms the room is not as warm as my thermostat is set. Plus they had been outside so they knew it was cold.

I watched part of the first NFL game yesterday and most of the second game. Both results didn't surprise me but neither team is one I like so I will probably not watch the Super Bowl this year ... then I hear a voice whisper to me right now ... "sure you will because you always do", minus the pregame stuff and the halftime show.

Reading news about the fires in Los Angeles and the hurricanes last fall in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee makes me wonder how much my home owners insurance will increase at the renewal period this June. 

I know in the past I have been told my rates are based on the USA not just local storms or even individual claims. I know from two different insurance companies I have used, why my auto insurance goes up every 6 months and none of the reasons deal with me ... I am not at fault. I wish we were billed for both home and auto like we were many years ago .... local and individual acts/claims. 

At what time will it come to the point of not being able to afford home insurance?

I don't want to head off into ranting on this post. By popular demand by a few readers I have another "political rant" post started in the but not finished. So I will leave this post with this. Some interesting things said in 1957 ... LOL

I am starting slow this morning. I need a second cup of coffee to see if that can jumpstart me into action. Nothing specific planned and any outside stuff will depend if it reaches that 40° it predicted for me.

Basically life is pretty good right now in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.