We have a huge limb sitting beside the driveway. He would have chopped it up and put it by the street, saving the best of the oak for firewood, of course. See, God dropped that one to the ground, so he would have moved it.
Karin stepped in, figured it out, and did a great Well...except for applying the chain saw to the limb, so it is still a really long limb. (I was out chalking when it fell...hoo-ray!)
April in Florida is generally pretty nice. We get coolness in the morning and again in the evening along with more daylight on the evening end of things. And not many skeeters. Perfect for yard pruning time. Karin even caught the bug and offered to assist me this weekend. Check out her gloves on the ground! I found out some really fun things in the process.
She can wear the gloves, but is not wild about raking out the flower beds. Potential critters.
She can rake the leaves into a can, and was a quick learner when I taught the 'work smarter, not harder" method. And she did not mind dragging the cans away....YEA!
She was not a fan of power tools (just like her dad) although I was not much of a fan of putting a hedge trimmer in the hands who not only had no idea how to use one, but likely did not understand the concept of pruning neatly either. But she raked up the scraps and took them to the street! SCORE!
And then, since she had figured out the pruners (clippers) when she dis-assembled that very large limb, I brought out the MEGA TOOL! Now, I was going to just go after small branches and have her move them out, but this tool captured her imagination like I have never seen before! "What is that thing?" "You did not tell me you had a really cool tool!" "Let me try that!" TREE PRUNER! If she could have reached all the way up into that giant old camphor tree, she would have had lots of sunshine on my yard! YOU GO GIRL! She did some serious pruning! And I LOVED IT!
Now, I did not often let Roger use my favorite tools because he had a habit of 'TORK-ing' them ...twisting off the handles or blades ... I was never sure if he did it because he did not understand the tool (mind you, he could get a shuttle off the pad) or if he just liked to have them out of commission. Of course, being the gentle spirit that I am, I just told him that I liked to use them best and he picked up the cut branches.....if it could be done within the allotted one hour period.
He actually would have had a lot of fun watching us work, but he would have had more fun if we had just left the leaves on the trees and hopped in the swing with him. It is so hard to have his spot in the swing empty. We can't seem to sit in his spot. We can sit close, but not IN his spot. A red bow marks his spot. But we do have so many happy memories of times in our front yard swing. I have to bring my mind back to the positive!
Karin hung in with me until the bitter end though. She gave me more than one hour, and we actually only quit because the Magnolia tree got the best of us. Roger would have told us that the hour was up anyway.
I learned to plan my outdoor pruning adventures and to get the most out of my one hour of Roger-service. Now I have to figure out another way to accomplish this, because I do not like dragging stuff to the street. It sticks me. Hopefully Karin and I will have more fun times in the yard. It was so much fun to see how very much she is like her daddy.
Of course, if we have an emergency, we might be in trouble. She did tell me to keep my phone in my pocket in case I fall and need to call 911. Oh boy! Roger either did not train us up to rescue people or if he did, we failed tremendously!
After lots of laughter and a very nicely trimmed front yard, I wondered what Roger's Lesson might have been this weekend. It was probably something like this: "When it comes to yard work, do only what is absolutely necessary because God will take care of His creation."
Yes, he would rather sit in the swing and visit with neighbors and I will also do my very best to stop and chat a while when someone strolls by. When it came to nature vs people, he always chose people.
But I will keep my tools sharp....just in case I get the urge to prune.
It really is a challenge to be a people person when your nature is task driven. A real challenge ~ and yet I know there are people all around me willing to help me gravitate toward people.
The tasks will always come back, but the people eventually leave. And while it is joyful for them if their eternal destination is Heaven, it surely is sad for me.
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