Trees Down

When I was in New Orleans earlier this week (for a conference for work), it was a sunny, humid, 82 degrees there. My first morning back home, I woke up to new snow falling. Oh, please! It's been cold the rest of the week (high of 30 degrees, basically), including today. It was sunny today but, especially with the strong wind, it was cold.

Even so, I decided today was the day to take down the trees--the trees that have to come down in order to park the JayBee trailer against the hillside. What's a little cold? At least the snowbank at the base of the trees was finally gone.

It did occur to me to cut down the trees with a chain saw. I own a chain saw but it has been at a friend's house for years. I wasn't very competent running it, and I certainly wasn't comfortable running it. So, I figured I'd just cut the trees down with a hand saw.

First, tree one.

Then, tree two.

Once both trees were down, I shoved them to the edge of the driveway. If we have a storm that requires plowing, I hope my plow guy won't be upset. Did I feel like using a hand saw to cut up the trees? Uh...no. Guess I need chain saw lessons after all.

The hillside against which the JayBee will sit faces south and is always the warmest spot in my yard. Even though there is still plenty of snow elsewhere, it is gone off the hillside, and daylillies are starting to come up.

It will be awhile before the snow in the rest of the yard is gone.

I tried to shovel the snow off the deck today, but it is a solid block of ice.

The river is finally wide open.

The tides are visible now. (See the low-tide mud flats on the far side of the river?) The small white spots in the water and the small white spots against the trees on the far side are geese.

Check out one of the ice slabs left along the shores of the river. This one, tossed on its side, is a massive 12 inches thick and 12 feet long.