Bringing the yard back up to snuff at Trouts Farm December 14-29, 2013
FALLEN OAK
While we were hanging out in Africa, a large oak tree fell on the pole barn we call our garage. When Lyle noticed this, he offered to cut it into firewood with his chainsaw. He pulled up in Ruby, his old Dodge Pickup wearing his signature Dark Santa Hat – the one with the black edging and sized up the situation, then walked through the woods to fetch his Kubota tractor. By standing in the bucket, he was able to reach and saw the branches off of the roof.
BAD SANTA
Taken out of context, a man wielding a chainsaw in a bad Santa cap has a very sinister connotation.
PROGRESS AND DONE
For three hours, Lyle cut back the tree. The next day, the mighty oak remained standing but most of it had been cut into logs and rounds.
MONEY IN THE BANK
Bob, Amy and Nauzley stacked rounds of oak in the garage to season. One day soon we’ll split them into firewood and let it age until next fall.
A GAME OF SPOT
Soon after we arrived home we began scanning the fish pond for signs of the gold fish that used to live there. Sure enough, they were still there. As was our faithful mascot, Spot who was overjoyed to have us back and has yet to stop talking about it.
EVERY DAY NEEDS SOME COLOR
Even those days without brilliant sunsets deserve a bit of extra color, so Bob bought and installed a new set of prayer flags in the Sunken Gardens of Moncure.
BATTLE OF THE BOXWOOD
We were astounded by the magnitude of unruliness exhibited by the boxwood hedge growing in front of the house. It took days of serious attacks to tame this beast.
Bob spent hours revealing the cute little boxwood buns within the monster shrub. Both he and Camille squeezed behind the hedge to cut it away from the house and so restored order.