Thursday, no Friday, That is True.........

In movies sometimes you see them depicting people coming through with big machines that clear roads in the forest or jungle.  In cartoons they depict it as a monster eating up things as it moves through the green, tearing and chewing things up as it goes.  Our town has a tree trimming ruling about sidewalks and streets having their foliage and limbs trimmed back.  It is an impossible ruling as either one doesn't have the money to hire people to trim back tall trees or the safety to the owner is at high risk climbing to clear the branches.  The original ordinance was created because farmers would bring their grain trucks and equipment through the streets and no one wanted them to get hit by a tree.  They all have big trucks now and they travel only down the main street and not any side streets in town.

Last week the city became wise and they hired a team of experts to trim up the whole town at the city's expense.  Other small towns maintain their trees without cost to the owners and they do it regularly so it really isn't a difficult task.  But when you haven't had trimming done for 10 years it seems to make sense to hire someone.  I maintain my alley every couple of years as requested and that isn't a big deal other than the people to the south of me never do so it is like driving from a clearing in my end to a jungle at the other end.

There were 8 or more men working on the task as they came up Cedar street towards us.  They had one man who had a 12 foot device with a cutter on the end of it to trim back and cut off major branches out in the street. That way they could meet the height ruling. There was a bucket for serious stuff and there was a crew that walked the sidewalks.  I was glad to see the street work getting done but the sidewalk thing was a bit ridiculous.  As you can see at the top of the photo that I now have a sliced off a maple tree with one side being removed.  I had trimmed it so no one, me included, would be hit in the face.  I guess it didn't meet the 9 foot rule.

I didn't think they had cut on anything else but you can see the attack on the redtwig dogwood bush.  It really wasn't sticking out on the sidewalk but they must have thought it was going to do so soon.  The crew had two choppers to grind up the  branches into chips and that was great.  They were loud sounding but they did the trick quickly.  They even had a couple people with rakes to get up all the small sticks and leaves.  I can trim up the maple on the other three sides to match the work they did to the one side,  I know the tree will bounce back with tall branches again.  It will force me to turn it into a palm tree for awhile as it grows.

I was glad that my birch tree wasn't near any sidewalk or street as I take my time in trimming it back.  I was told by the one friend that I needed to get all that bottom stuff off but it isn't coming off. I like the tree as it is. I usually trim it up so I can walk under it to mow without taking off major branches.  I worked hard to get that to live for 30 plus years so I am not about to chop it up so some one can stand tall under it.  Those who like that rule can do that to their trees and they don't need to come to my house to stand under my tree.

The hostas that I divided and moved to the new fence area are doing well.  If I had been creative I would have put a different variety every other one but at the time I just needed to get rid of all the extra hosta plants.  I also put a daylily down on the corner and moved a regale lily down there to get them both into full sun.

My Stella went into dormancy for a while but it is now putting out some new blooms.  It is under a tree partially so it isn't getting enough sun to keep it blooming all summer.  I think it doesn't like all the water it is getting. I could move a part of it some time  soon.

The final shot for today is this view of a morning glory vine.  I had to retrieve the step ladder from behind the fence and this vine was threaded through a lot of it.  I had to unwind it and I had put it up on top of the roof area.  I guess the vine had another idea of where it wanted to be.  As you can see it is now winding itself around the gate.  I guess it will work out.  I just would wish that it would start to bloom soon before the first frost.

My wife has been fighting off a bad head cold the past few days.  It just doesn't seem to go away.  She is getting a lot of coughing with is as it is causing irritation in her throat. I keep telling her to rest and rest some more.  It is hard to lay down and sleep with the kind of cold that it is.  We are taking a short quick trip to the grocery store and will be home again today.

For those who are dry I hate to share this but we had a large downpour of rain again last night.  We really are catching up on the lack of rain in the past.  Water standing in the neighbors driveway seems to be a common daily sight.  Thank you for you stopping in today for a visit.  Take care everyone.