Chain Saw ... Oops!!

 It's a perfect 77 degrees this morning, heading on up to 94 or so today.  As I survey my 500 square feet of back yard, I'm happy to note there are NO critters roaming around.  That's because the sun coming up and there is light.  Oh yes ... let there be light so the critters will stay hidden.

There was much to be done around here, so I didn't waste any time.  Honestly, the only time of day you can do chores like this is between 6 and 7 in the morning.  It's time to trim that huge tree that grew like a weed with all the rain.  I swear, it's twice the size it was when I moved in!

I may have called it a palo verde tree, but it is not.  I don't know what it is, but it's armed for bear.  Everything around here has huge spikes and thorns.  It makes trimming ANYTHING pretty dangerous.

Time for my favorite tool of all time.  Chain Saw on a stick!!!  Yessirree ... a battery operated mini chain saw on a stick so things can be trimmed without touching them or getting stabbed.  I should have worn chainmail though.  

As you can see here, the saw is in the tree without me attached.  Yeah ... well ... I knew that cut was a big mistake, but I did it anyway.

Back in the day when I would do just about anything to be able to run the big caterpillar, my Dad said CUT UP THAT TREE by yourself and you can run the Cat to help me take down the next one.  We lived in a eucalyptus grove ... perfect for having firewood available for the fireplace we did NOT have.  

One year during a big storm, a tree uprooted and fell on our wooden water tower that fed the trough for cattle to drink.  Surprisingly, the bull it fell on survived.  From then on, we were always trimming or cutting to keep limbs from smashing things of importance.

I jumped at the chance to use the big chainsaw.  I quickly learned you never cut a limb from the bottom because your saw will get stuck (pinched between the wood) and you will get yelled at.  I cut that tree up in a flash.  Chain saws are fun!!  AND I got to run the cat which was chained to a huge limb, to keep it from hitting the corral fence when it came down.  Caterpillar's aren't the fastest at backing up ... I got whacked on the head with branches ... but I had a big smile on my face because the limb didn't crash into anything.

So what did I do but cut this branch from underneath because I couldn't reach it any other way.  STUCK!! I had two choices ... call for Mr. Chance or figure it out myself.  I finally got my longest rake, pushed up with all my might on the limb, and the saw (after about 20 minutes) fell out.  YAY!!!

It's always an adventure, right??  Here's a look at those thorns.  These are maybe 1-1/2 inch long.  Unfortunately I got stabbed by two in my arms, which now have huge lumps and are really sore.  It was worth it getting to use my little saw!!

Although I had told Mr. Chance I didn't require the use of his backhoe to move my trash to the roadside for pickup (they do this once a year I think ... for free), I've changed my mind.  No kidding, this tree grew all these limbs since I was here last time.  They were rubbing loudly on the RV cover and had to go.  So Dan ... I think I need your backhoe after all!!

Here we are with a nice new haircut for the tree.  Just to show you how strong everything is around here, I sprayed all those weeds with roundup five days ago and they are still green and growing.  

Although it seems like it's been much more, Monsoon season here has only brought about 6 inches of rain to Tucson, most all of which came in two months.  Nogales for example has received 10 inches of rain.  

I checked the game camera yesterday and found nothing.  Zip ... nada.  Apparently the batteries are dead.  That's too bad since there were tons of tracks by the water.  I'll get more batteries today and hopefully it works again.  

For now, I'm heading to the medicine cabinet for bandaids and aspirin!!