Wedgies, Storms & Hornets
What a day! So we ventured out this morning to finish off some tree trimming. It wasn't sunny so thought best to check out the weather forecast first. It looked like on the map that the storm was well to the north of us so we were in the clear....of a storm that is, and any rain.
What were we thinking I now wonder as we have done just that before, relied on the weather forecast and it was no where near was was said. We will just never learn. So there we are, I am sitting in my car on the hill on the South side of the street to warn not only the Shankster when cars were coming but to maybe deter them so we wouldn't have a lawsuit on our hands if and when the tree fell into the street. Cars speed over that hill so fast I could just see that tree falling on a speeding car just as the Shankster cut it down. So other than get close to it as I have done in the past and it didn't go so well I just decided this was my best option in helping. Luck was on our side as not a car came down the road for the tree falling. He did a good job and it didn't even go into the road...just like yesterday.
This is the second tree...we have one more to go. So as I was doing my job in breaking it all down putting it into the wheelbarrow and sweatin like a mule, geez was it ever muggy today....all of a sudden I hear the Shankster starting to trim the last tree. That was ok I thought as it was going as quickly as it did yesterday and we might even be done before noon. Then he stopped and as I took one look up to see if this one was going to follow as the others and not make it into the street, we noticed it was stuck. See there has been a rather large tree branch from the nearest maple tree that had broke off way up high and fallen down not to the ground but to wedge itself on another branch for well over a year now. I tried all last year to get dad to get it down as I found it to be a hazard not only to me and the Shankster as we mow under it but to anyone driving by in case it ever decided to un-wedge itself and fall. But that never happened and now it was keeping the dead pine tree from falling completely down. Stupid Wedgie. So after several attempts if finally came down...almost. It went sideways and the larger branches on it that had some life left were keeping it still halfway up the hill. Not too much of a problem said the Shankster...he motioned me to go ahead with my work and he would figure this tiny problem out.
Then all of a sudden...without warning I heard him shout out...."RUN"! Hey my momma didn't raise no dummy, I didn't ask a question...I ran. Hey wait a minute...I didn't think I could run. But there I was...RUNNING! Down the street. Then I heard the Shankster say...HEY RUN UP HERE TO THE HOUSE YOU GOOFBALL!
What? oh ok. Couldn't run UP the hill however but hey now I know...I can run! Knees are getting better I guess.
Ok back to why I needed to run. The Shankster was looking over the situation with the trees/branches and he said he wondered why there were so many flies flying about. They weren't flies....they were HORNETS and there was a hornets nest on the tree branch that had been hanging for so long and when the pine tree wedged itself on it, well it made the little buggers mad. So we figured we were done it for the day. I went and got some hornets spray. And needless to say we are not pros to this tree falling thing. Or to taking care of a hornets nest either. My job here was to hold the front door open and the Shankster would spray the nest and if they started towards him he would run to the door. Uhhh, ok.
I swear to this next part. He went out at about 30 feet from the nest. (the can said pinpoint spray from 29 feet) He aimed and I screamed "RUN" I saw them come out towards him BEFORE he even sprayed one drop! So at this point I watched him spraying all willy-nilly while running towards the front door. At this point not a drop I think was near the nest and then his bad knee went out and he fell. He got up, all the while spraying with pinpoint accuracy, and fell again. Now mind you this is a man with a broken bone in his neck, bad back and worse knees.....and what happened next? You guessed it..he got stung in his neck by one of the hornets. I was able to get to it quick though. And lucky for us I got 2 cans of the spray.
Pic of the Hornets nest.
Little video of the next attempt.
Yeah we were a bit over it all by then. If that wasn't all, we noticed it got considerably darker and the Shankster decided to go in and check the weather map again. Before he even got there, he heard a snap and he knew lightning had struck. We lost a good tree topper here....and another few branches off of here. This storm sure came up fast. And lasted a good 20/30 minutes with a lot of strong winds.
Hard to see here but a couple branches split off the tall Pines in back.
We now have a Flat top Pine.
This is about 10 or more feet off the top of this Pine.
Best thing about the storm? It drowned out the little hornets. I knew we would get them one way or another.
What were we thinking I now wonder as we have done just that before, relied on the weather forecast and it was no where near was was said. We will just never learn. So there we are, I am sitting in my car on the hill on the South side of the street to warn not only the Shankster when cars were coming but to maybe deter them so we wouldn't have a lawsuit on our hands if and when the tree fell into the street. Cars speed over that hill so fast I could just see that tree falling on a speeding car just as the Shankster cut it down. So other than get close to it as I have done in the past and it didn't go so well I just decided this was my best option in helping. Luck was on our side as not a car came down the road for the tree falling. He did a good job and it didn't even go into the road...just like yesterday.
This is the second tree...we have one more to go. So as I was doing my job in breaking it all down putting it into the wheelbarrow and sweatin like a mule, geez was it ever muggy today....all of a sudden I hear the Shankster starting to trim the last tree. That was ok I thought as it was going as quickly as it did yesterday and we might even be done before noon. Then he stopped and as I took one look up to see if this one was going to follow as the others and not make it into the street, we noticed it was stuck. See there has been a rather large tree branch from the nearest maple tree that had broke off way up high and fallen down not to the ground but to wedge itself on another branch for well over a year now. I tried all last year to get dad to get it down as I found it to be a hazard not only to me and the Shankster as we mow under it but to anyone driving by in case it ever decided to un-wedge itself and fall. But that never happened and now it was keeping the dead pine tree from falling completely down. Stupid Wedgie. So after several attempts if finally came down...almost. It went sideways and the larger branches on it that had some life left were keeping it still halfway up the hill. Not too much of a problem said the Shankster...he motioned me to go ahead with my work and he would figure this tiny problem out.
Then all of a sudden...without warning I heard him shout out...."RUN"! Hey my momma didn't raise no dummy, I didn't ask a question...I ran. Hey wait a minute...I didn't think I could run. But there I was...RUNNING! Down the street. Then I heard the Shankster say...HEY RUN UP HERE TO THE HOUSE YOU GOOFBALL!
What? oh ok. Couldn't run UP the hill however but hey now I know...I can run! Knees are getting better I guess.
Ok back to why I needed to run. The Shankster was looking over the situation with the trees/branches and he said he wondered why there were so many flies flying about. They weren't flies....they were HORNETS and there was a hornets nest on the tree branch that had been hanging for so long and when the pine tree wedged itself on it, well it made the little buggers mad. So we figured we were done it for the day. I went and got some hornets spray. And needless to say we are not pros to this tree falling thing. Or to taking care of a hornets nest either. My job here was to hold the front door open and the Shankster would spray the nest and if they started towards him he would run to the door. Uhhh, ok.
I swear to this next part. He went out at about 30 feet from the nest. (the can said pinpoint spray from 29 feet) He aimed and I screamed "RUN" I saw them come out towards him BEFORE he even sprayed one drop! So at this point I watched him spraying all willy-nilly while running towards the front door. At this point not a drop I think was near the nest and then his bad knee went out and he fell. He got up, all the while spraying with pinpoint accuracy, and fell again. Now mind you this is a man with a broken bone in his neck, bad back and worse knees.....and what happened next? You guessed it..he got stung in his neck by one of the hornets. I was able to get to it quick though. And lucky for us I got 2 cans of the spray.
Pic of the Hornets nest.
Little video of the next attempt.
Yeah we were a bit over it all by then. If that wasn't all, we noticed it got considerably darker and the Shankster decided to go in and check the weather map again. Before he even got there, he heard a snap and he knew lightning had struck. We lost a good tree topper here....and another few branches off of here. This storm sure came up fast. And lasted a good 20/30 minutes with a lot of strong winds.
Hard to see here but a couple branches split off the tall Pines in back.
We now have a Flat top Pine.
This is about 10 or more feet off the top of this Pine.
Best thing about the storm? It drowned out the little hornets. I knew we would get them one way or another.
posted by dona at 8/04/2009
1 Comments:
I'm sitting here with tears running down my face from laughing!! That video was THE BEST!!! My favorite part was you laughing as you were taping. Uncle F was HILARIOUS!! I'm so sorry he fell and got stung...hope he's okay. That storm was HORRIBLE!! I was driving to Indy during it and was FREAKING out...I couldn't see anything!
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