Perils of Living in the Woods

At least one of the perils of living in the woods is that of falling trees. Forget snakes, poison ivy, wild animals consuming your garden and livestock, nothing has to be addressed with more immediacy than a fallen tree on your storage shed or across your road. A few years ago, after one of the hurricanes pummeled the East Coast, heavy rains loosened the soil around the tree roots. One tree fell onto the shed and crushed the entire upper story. This led to two years of clean-up and rebuilding. Now that the rebuilding is finished and the cleanup is done, we’ve had to deal with more falling trees and it feels never-ending.

Sometimes falling trees can be a blessing. One year, when my husband was out of town, a tree fell across the road on the night before Mother’s Day. Most women I know don’t enjoy Mother’s Day services. First, mother’s day talks at church relay how angel single women raised ten children while holding down three jobs and still managing to be the perfect mother or it’s the speaker’s personal ramblings about how much they love their mother because she never missed their baseball game—either way, it either makes you feel guilty that you aren’t that mother or you’re irritated that your mother was a flesh and blood woman and not one of these super legends and you’re not at the point in your life where you can accept that your mom has (hard swallow-gulp) flaws. So, in my excitement of not having to attend that particular Mother’s Day meeting, I called my girlfriend to relay my good news. Unbeknownst to me, her elderly father overheard her side of the phone call. So, it was at five in the morning that I heard the sound of the chainsaw humming faintly outside the house. I threw on some clothes and jogged down the road to find my friend’s father, wearing his Sunday best protected by an apron cutting up the offensive tree so I could make it to church on time. How could I not go after that? So much for missing out on Mother’s Day—I tried.

Earlier this spring, we came home after working long hours to find two trees down across the road. This meant that even though we were tired, we weren’t going to go anywhere until the tree was moved. Last month, another tree fell across the road a few feet down from the original spot. Just this week, again another two trees fell across the road in a different spot. Each time this happens, we have to drop whatever we’re doing and concentrate all our efforts and energy into moving entire trees off the road. We drag out the chainsaws, chains and tractor and get to work. Sometimes it takes a few days to get it all done. But, on the positive side, we’ll have wood for the winter . . .

Take Care, ALL

Hey, if you’re planning to buy our “Unplug From the Grid,” ebook, wait a few weeks. We are revamping it, adding to it and doing some reformatting to make it better. However, “The Nearly Painless Guide to Rainwater Harvesting” ebook is ready to go and I think it can help those wanting to find ways to get water without drilling a well. We just uploaded “The Nearly Painless Guide to Food Storage” in May and it’s doing well. If you get a chance, I would love to hear what you think of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Nearly-Painless-Guide-Food-Storage--Survival-ebook/dp/B00KBCF5FC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1403376803&sr=8-3&keywords=Hillary+Bergeron