Reporting from Sunny Saskatchewan

Hello all,

We had a wonderful visit in Victoria. Thank you, Carolyn and Gary. Also thanks to "the kids" for joining us for the family dinner, and for the extra visits. We got out of Sask just in time to miss the snow, rain, and wind and had fine weather almost all of the time we were in Victoria. Even the days there was rain, we managed to be in pockets where it wasn't pouring.

The Salvation Army and Value Village will never be the same since Carolyn and Phyllis' visits. Some of the best bargains they had have now reached our closets! Walmart in Duncan will continue to operate for another day or two based on the purchase of video cameras by Gary and Lewis. We have managed to do some filming since we got home. Now we have to figure out how to download and clear the card--but a little reading (and likely a few mistakes) and we'll get it done.

The major excitement since we returned home was prepping to take out the huge Scotch pine that was in front of the house. It would have been a gorgeous tree out in the forest, but it was a big pain in the butt here on a city lot. Every year it shed a truckload of cones (this is NOT an exaggeration) that had to be hand-picked and disposed of. They spit all over the driveway and sidewalk and were such hard little suckers, that stepping on one could cause a severely twisted ankle. Once out on the street, they were run over by vehicles, making it look like we still had our milk delivered by horse-drawn carts.

Each fall it shed its needles. We all know from Christmas experiences that a Scotch pine is far more difficult to clean up after than a "regular" Christmas tree. Besides all this, the people from whom Phyl bought the property had made the mistake of surrounding the tree with a layer of small rock over landscape fabric. So there was no raking or sweeping or blowing the debris away.

Needless to say we learned to despise the tree. Phyllis had an on-going battle with the city over whose tree it was. For four years the city insisted it was "an asset of the city" and that it was on the easement. That means that although the tree and lawn "belong" to the city, the homeowner is tasked with looking after it. Finally this spring Phyl wrote a pointed letter stating that the city's "asset" was paying huge dividends, and perhaps they would like to come by and collect the proceeds. Failing that, perhaps they could send someone every second day from June 1st till September 30 to tidy up behind it as it rained cones and needles.

This brought the city arborist out to our property with his tape measure and clip board, not once, but several times. Finally he came to the door and advised that it had been determined that the tree WAS on our property and not on the easement. Therefore the city would take it off their inventory and we would be free to do with it as we pleased. We made sure that we got a letter and an email from the city informing us of their decision. Once done, we planned our action.

Lew took off the lower branches up to about 16 feet high. Then he tied a cable around one of the main trunks as high as he could reach on the extension ladder. The other end was tied to the Sorento. We had our friend Arden over, and he sawed out the wedge, then back-cut as Lew put tension on the cable. Over it came with a beautiful thud, and pine cones flying in all directions! This is all documented by Phyllis on video. Lew, Arden, and Phyllis wielded chain saws for about an hour, limbing the tree, packing the "slash" into the trailer for composting, and sawing the branches and trunks up into manageable lengths. Lew's friend Bill will take the wood for burning in his fireplace. We have a wood-burning fireplace, but it is so ineffecient that we have blocked it off and put an electric insert in.

Once the wood was all out of the way, Phyl called up Big and Low Stump Removal. The owner, Gerald Bigelow, came over and assessed the situation, then arrived the next day with his truck, bobcat, stump grinder, chain saw, leaf blower, and two dozen other small pieces of landscape equipment. Within 3/4 of an hour, he had all the rocks scraped up and into the back of his truck and was prepped to grind the stump. We had issues over where the water valve happened to be in the yard, so the whole episode got put on hold while the City shovel-leaners blundered around finding it. Turned out that the stump didn't get ground until the next day. It was quite the process to watch, and again it is all captured on video.

We now have a nice, flat black front yard that is calling for some fill and sod next spring. We know in advance that there will be some sore muscles in May! We are planning to plant a recently developed tree to replace the Scotch Pine -- a EuroCADyenUSD $$$$ tree. If we can get it to grow, we'll send you the address of the secret place we were able to obtain it!

All of the flower beds have been cleaned and put to rest, and the pots are tucked away until next year. We feel like we have everything ready for winter to officially set in. However, the past few days have been quite lovely. We have had a bit of mist, but usually the clouds part and we have several hours of sun. It is just a bit cool for shirt sleeves, but certainly one can work in a sweatshirt very comfortably.

Lew is back to playing bridge and we are both bowling on Wednesday nights. Phyllis is attempting to go to the gym five days a week, but finding it rather gruelling until the muscles get used to the work out. Lew does 45 minutes on the treadmill almost every day. Phyl is singing in the University Chorus and practises every Monday evening. Hunting season for deer is on so Lew is trying to find a week when there are no other appointments on the agenda so that he can head to the cabin. We have begun the annual ritual of attending Symphony, Gateway Players, Persephone Players, Live Five Players, and Amati Quartet concerts. When there is nothing else to do we wedge in visits to the Bassment (the local jazz venue) and some small University concerts. There is certainly lots to keep us busy.

Well, that's about it for this report. Hope everyone stays well. Use lots of hand sanitizer and stay away from crowds......

Phyl and Lew