July 28, 2009

Where am I gonna get a Herring???


I often wish that I were better at planning things before I actually do them. I spent the better part of the weekend cutting back the trees that border the backyard and trimming the bushes surrounding my in-laws property.

Doesn't sound too tough, does it?

Well that's why I wish I had taken a camera with me. The shrubbery was at least nine feet high and maybe twelve~fifteen yards long (about a dozen or so trees.) not really tough, but time consuming. I do most of the trimming with hand tools and keeping things level and tight is more time consuming than difficult.
The real problem was lopping off the top three or four feet from the trees in the backyard using only hand tools. If you can imagine balancing on a ladder while stuck half inside a tree and attacking ankle thick branches with a tiny little hand saw than you have a pretty good idea of what I must have looked like and you don't need the pictures. If you imagination is such that you see all this happening in Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton style then rest assured you know how I felt.

I'll do my best to remember to photograph the place when I go up there again in two weeks time, but I am getting really sick of doin this stuff by hand. The only good thing you can say about seven hours of landscaping is that it gives you one helluva workout and it makes the beer taste absolutely ambrosial.

I want power tools or Bob Vila's assistance next time!

13 comments:

Kurt said...

I trust there is better beer there than what they import to the US.

secret agent woman said...

I have a electric alligator loppers (a chain sw- sort of contraption by Black and Decker) that I just love.

Serena said...

Boys and their power toys.:) I loved that video! Those are not by a long shot a girl's idea of a knight in shining armor but it by damn made me laugh. I needed that. Badly. Another day like today and I'm going to go buy my own power tools -- and not for anything pretty.:)

lime said...

i'm wondering if swinging a cat at the trees and shrubs would work better than hand tools...

alternately we should ask ourselves, what would roger do?

Megan said...

Love the word ambrosial. Love. It.

NYD said...

Kurt~ The last time I looked at a bottle of Saporro beer it said made in Canada- very weird.
The beer here is awesome! Come on by. The first round's on me.

SAW~ I would have accepted a gerbil powered twig pruner by the end of the day.

SJ~ I will do whatever it takes to work a Monty Python sketch into my posts whenever possible.

I know a few gals who have their own, ehem, power tools.

Lime~ I don't know if it would have been better,but it sure would have been quieter. I was raising quite a ruckus - both cursing and singing.

Megan~ It was the right word for something that was given to us all by the gods and poured especially for me by a goddess.

Grant said...

What you need is a pruning trampoline.
*boing* *clip* *boing* *clip* *boing* *clip*

Serena said...

Yep, girls do have some power tools of their own. I mean, you can't keep house without a power drill! And ... a few others.:-)

leelee said...

good to read you...

HUGS!

NYD said...

Grant~ There's a dirty joke hiding somewhere in there. I'm just to tired to find it tonight ごめん!

SJ~ LOL@ power drill even if it wasn't meant to be dirty.

Leelee~ allways good to be read...

Mona said...

At least you weren't sitting on the branch you were sawing...

O dear, this post makes me feel exhausted just imagining it all!

Aunty Belle said...

ambrosial beer--is that all ya git fer that days work???

NI!

Mayden' s Voyage said...

I LOVE Monty Python- and this clip is one of my favorites...and funnier still when the kids and I were working in a Latin workbook and discovered what Ni meant!!!

"WHY"!!!

Oh- the humor just goes deeper and deeper, especially if you spend any time with kids and the "why, why, why" thing starts up :)

"ni ADV [XXXBX]
if ... not; unless; [quid ni? => why not?]; " -Latin online dictionary