#axmen

I just have a few quick notes to post before we dive head first into must-see Sunday night TV - you know, Mad Men and The Borgias among others that will have to wait on the DVR.

First off, you won't care if you are living in a non-HEB or non-What-a-Burger state, but as we wandered the aisles of our HEB Plus this morning, I noticed an entire section of the condiment shelves cleared out. 

That can only mean one thing!  Yes, fast food ketchup that you usually steal from your favorite burger place are now (or soon to be) available for sale.  This means I won't have to carry a purse with me to the What-a-Burger anymore.

Okay, you recall a while back when I purchased plans to build an Adirondack chair, right?  It was a big fail because I just didn't have the right tools.  Well screw that!  Harbor Freight had a scroll saw for $67.00 and I had a nice 15% coupon on my phone, so after tax, this baby was $62.00 (plus the cost of several new blades I had to buy right away, but we'll save that story for another day).

And after lunch, I got the boards I had already marked for cutting out and commenced to cut.

I still have several more boards worth to cut, but it was so nice to see every thing starting to come together.  Of course, I'll need to do a lot of sanding and I may even bust out the router and put a nice rounded edge on the pieces before assembling it.

I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that we live on the edge of a desert out here.  Add to that, just living through one of the worst droughts in years, you wouldn't be surprised to hear the crack of a falling tree from time to time.  As you drive through our neighborhood, you can see that most of the properties have lost at least a tree or two.  We have been fairly lucky in that regard.  Until now.

Last night we woke up to an incredible unexpected thunder and lightning show that went on and on as if someone parked the weather right on top of us.  No complaints at all, by the way.  We'll take what we can get, even if the counting of seconds between the visual of the lightning bolt and the actual clap of thunder is entirely too short for comfort.

I don't think this storm would have been enough to help one of the trees on Gracie-Land, our small island with a baby swing and glider.  The weight from the top combined with the fact that these oaks seem to lean off to the side anyway; when it is just too dry, they snap.  

I have no idea when this tree broke.  When I left for work one morning, it was too dark for me to notice, and we certainly didn't hear it fall.  I guess that solves that question.  If nobody is in the woods to hear a tree fall, apparently, it does not make any noise.  Either that, or our house is really good when it comes to soundproofing.

Of course, because Eva likes the show AxMen, and we have the entire property next door that will require some serious attention, she found a suitable anniversary gift that could be put to use right away.  If you are counting, this makes 5 chainsaws that we have now.  One for every occasion I suppose.

I am clearly not an ax man - just ask my foot after I managed to land a huge limb directly onto the top of it just the other day - thankfully nothing broken aside from my pride.  Regardless, with the right equipment, I can still make quick work and another addition to the firewood pile which is probably filled by now with scorpions, spiders and little snakes.

 After removing the smaller limbs from the main trunk that fell, the log is cut into firewood for later use and the rest of it goes to my burn barrel.  The burn ban has been lifted, but I have learned that the wind around here is really unpredictable so for a small job like this, I just as soon stick to the barrel.