Trimming, Hacking, Chopping and Sawing

It all started with a quick call to Mom Friday afternoon. I had to ask her if I could trim (hack) on my rose bushes whenever I wanted or if I was supposed to wait until they were done blooming. She assured me I could trim (hack or chop) the dead branches off of my rose bushes whenever I wanted. I then went into the garage and borrowed some lethal looking weapon thing from Trucker and started trimming (hacking and chopping) on one bush. I don't know if that hacking and chopping stuff is something you can't quit with just one (like the potato chip ad) or if I had some frustration to work off, but half a day and a trailer load of brush later I finally quit. I think it must be contagious, too. By the time I was ready to quit the King was in a different part of the yard pulling up a bunch of vines that always want to choke off my lilacs. And the Trucker was playing Tarzan, swinging through the trees dropping branches left and right! Now we have another trailer load of dead branches, vines and who knows what to haul to the burning pile. Sometime during winter the King and Trucker will torch that pile. I didn't even ask Trucker to help with the hacking and chopping. I think that is automatically fun to a fourteen year old guy. He enjoyed it so much that we had to change into our work clothes as soon as we got home from church Sunday and hack on some more dead branches. My job was to hang onto the ladder as he sawed away and dropped branches all around me. It started to rain before we finished and is still raining today, so we did not get all the branches cleaned up yet. I'm sure the first dry day we have, Trucker will be letting me know we need to get back out there and finish up!

We were not the only ones working hard. The Princess made $75.00 in tips yesterday, that is her best day so far. She said she filled up her gas tank all the way while she had the cash. Smart girl!

Thankful for a couple of strong guys in my family who are not afraid of some physical work or heights. If I had to climb the ladder that high to get rid of dead branches, they would still be there!