Moving Days - Work, Work, Work - The Big Maple Tree

So this is where we left off with our moving days.  This beautiful maple tree in the front yard.  It is gorgeous.  This tree has many, many jobs.  It is home to a mommy squirrel and her babies, numerous birds seek refuge in her foliage and rest atop her branches.  My boys love to climb on her and swing from her limbs.  My kids and I love to lie in the shade she provides and star at the sky through the branches or read together on a blanket.  Soon it will be host to a bench so more people can enjoy her.  She is beautiful.  But those beautiful leaves that turned red and orange and yellow, well, they fall off.  And this tree is massive, so that means, lots, and lots of leaves.

Lots and lots of leaves equals lots and lots of clean up.  We had so much fun raking the leaves into big piles and jumping in them.  Burying each other in the leaves and laughing at the dogs trying to sniff us out.  So much fun.  Soon we realized those leaves were getting pretty high.  So out came the rakes, shovels, and wheel barrow.  This job was much too big for that one wheel barrow to handle so we decided to be ingenious and create our own way of hauling off those leaves.

We raked leaves onto a big tarp and hauled them off, this was much, much faster.  The kids all worked so hard.  It took us all day on a Saturday and after meeting on Sunday we finished up.  Whew - what a job.



Going

Going



Gone!  Whew, finally!



That big ol' tree is a lot of work.  But we love her so.

Next episode:  Here Comes Winter

Moving Days

Okay, so you keep asking, and I keep promising.  So here is a start.

Moving days.  Yes days, not day.  I have moved plenty of times in my life.  My family moved from Michigan to Arizona when I was 7 years old.  BIG move.  But I was only 7 so really the only responsibility I had was to stay out of the way and enjoy the ride.

Once I flew the coop I moved 6 times.  Single apartment, married apartment, duplex, rental houses, first purchased house, you get the idea. All of those moves were stressful, but relatively smooth.  And we had time, take a little stuff today, take a little tomorrow, let's wait to move that till next week.  Moving across the country, that is something all together different.

So we sorted, packed, threw away, gave away, sold.  It was all a little sad, a little enlightening, a little freeing to have to get rid of some things.  Condensing was a word that we kept using.  Because it wasn't just us moving, we were combining two household into one.  That meant condensing a LOT of things.  It was well worth it thought.  And even though we did all of those things we still ended up with a lot of stuff to move.



Our truck and trailer

My Dad's truck and trailer and Our "Moving Van"

Moving took a long time.  A very long time.  We have made the trek from Tucson to our hometown many, many times since we moved away.  We always drive straight through no matter how many people tell us we are crazy for doing so.  We always make it within 34-36 hours.  We left Tucson about 11am on a Thursday morning.  We arrived about 12am on Sunday morning.  A very long 61 hours later.  But we had mishaps, and we were all so very tired we stopped to sleep a couple of times.  The big red moving van did NOT like hills and we had a tire blow out.  But we made it!

The new place is awesome.  Definitely needed some sprucing up and someone to love it again.  We are working on all of that.  Rooms have been built.  Rooms have been painted.  Things have been repaired.  She kept us warm during the winter so she definitely earned a spot in our hearts.  Spring and summer are going to be busy.



With a tree like this you can't help but love her.

Stay tuned for the next episode - this beautiful tree creates lots of work!

Trees, Glorious Trees - Week 4



Maple Tree

It has been such an absolute crazy week I completely forgot about my 52 week challenge.  I did manage to squeeze in time to capture this tree in its winter stage.  We don't often head in the direction where I found him so I was excited that I actually remembered my camera on the day we did head that way.  (Wow that was a really long and most likely improper sentence!)

Location:  Near Beal City, Michigan
Subject:  Maple Tree - Winter

Have I mentioned how much I love trees?  Well let me tell you, I do.  Love, love, love them.  Trees are symbols of so many things, and provide so much for us insignificant little humans.  Love them.

Tears, Memories, and an Awesome Tree

Today was all around a good day. Kids made it out the door for school with no complaints. Then hubby and I checked out some homes for sale. Very nice properties with lots of potential. Then we headed to my aunt's house to continue projects. Hubby is remodeling their bathroom and I was starting my photographing and logging all my Grandma's treasures.

Grandma is looking worlds better today. She hasn't been eating well for awhile now and the nurse came yesterday and layed out a strict eating, drinking, and medication schedule. She feels better, talked better, and looked 100 times better than she did just a few days ago.

Today she had visitors. Friends coming by to check on her and see how she was doing. It is so hard for her. Her "old brain" as she calls it is not working like she wants it to. She was telling her friend how nice it is to have family taking care of her now. She started to cry. I hate when people cry. I always have to join in no matter how hard I try not to. So we shared some tears, a hug and a kiss. Love her!

After her company left we started the task of opening treasure boxes. Oh how much fun that was. We only made it through one box today. Grandma tires easily and even though she is just sitting, I think it is mentally as well as physically exhausting for her.

Found some very intersting things in that little box. An old collapsable alluminum cup that was a "prize" in an oatmeal box from long ago, a tool that belonged to her mother that was used to darn socks, an old can opener that she and her siblings used when they were young, and her mother's wooden spoon. I can't wait to see what we find tomorrow.

I had to take a break during the day to come meet my youngest little munchkin as he got off the bus. On the way I captured this beautiful, lonely, little tree.

How awesome is that tree? I have been trying to find the perfect one to do a four seasons series with. I think I found him!