Timber... at Steven and Keela's

This past summer we were up at our neighbor's house talking about the trees in their yard.  They had two trees that were starting to die.  One of them was leaning toward the house.  One was a monster oak tree that was approximately 90 feet high.  Of course when you have a friend with a backhoe and a willingness to help a neighbor out, you end up with a plan of "hey when it is cooler we can do that without you calling a professional".

Fast forward to a 65 degree day in January... Rod had cabin fever and was feeling the need to play on his toys.  So he called Steven and said "hey, lets do it this weekend".  So we have one system admin and one high school math teacher ready to work.  Never fear, all is ok, because we have at least 1 that is in flannel... In typical fashion, we had plans on Sunday and Rod said to me... we can do this in 2 hours.

Tree one went almost according to plan A.  The only problem was it got hung on another tree.  Rod was able to hook a chain up and twist and it came right on down.

Tree two took a little more planning.  After plan A, B, and C were deemed unsafe, the drop went according to plan D.  (this was after E, F, and I am not sure how many others were discussed and they went back to the original D).  This tree was huge!  I did already mention it was leaning toward the house..

Steven and tree two giving some perspective on how big around it is.

Plan A had them trying to put a cable as high as possible.. which is why the ladder is in the bucket of the backhoe.

To give another idea of the height... this is a 12 foot 2X4 and you can't see the top of the tree!

So the playing turned into work.  Breaking 2 steel cables and 6 hours of work later.. 2 trees were down, no one was hurt, the house was untouched, and Steven and Keela saved a few $'s.... success!

Click this link to see the video of it coming down! As Keela is doing the commentary..."Timber" is not the word you will hear when it falls...

Sebastian

So my birthday was a few days ago and tonight I was asked to dinner by my mother-in-law, Annette.  While I was having a peaceful dinner talking about everything going on in our life.... Rod and Tina were plotting against my sanity.  While I was calmly shopping with Annette... they were carrying out their plan.... And when I got home at 8:45 at night... there was dog # 6!!!!!  Who needs 6 dogs???  Who has any sanity left after 6 dogs???  I guess we will see if I make it or not! :)

Really we got a new dog a few months ago named Marley.  Marley was supposed to be another outside dog to help keep predators such as foxes, raccoons, and coyotes away from the chickens.  Marley was just not cut out for the job.. she doesn't bark!  So although she is sweet and certainly has her place here, she is not a guard dog (now herding the goats - she has that down 100% and even herds them when I don't want her herding them)

So while I was eating my peaceful dinner and shopping, Sebastian found a new home here at the Cagle Compound!  Rod found him on craigslist.  The people seemed to have cared for him even though he was living on the end of a chain.  They were not willing to give him to anyone until they saw the home... little did they know that Sebastian hit the lottery tonight.   He is 8 months old and has not been neutered yet (we will take care of that immediately).  He seems to be full of energy, very friendly, and social.  Marley and him have not quit playing for the last several hours.  So far he has gotten along with everyone with the exception of Sadie -who doesn't get along with anyone.  Bear has his nose out of joint a little and will not quit rubbing his face all over me!  He wants to make sure he is still Momma's # 1 boy.  I'm sure Sebastian is going to make a great dog for us.

So hopefully we now have our 2nd guard dog so that Rod can stop browsing craigslist!

Jackson Hole - Day 8

Well today we packed up and we are on a long trek home.  I have talked about all our activities, but there is a big part of the trip that I have not talked about - our hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton Homewood Suites in the downtown Jackson area.  The people there were AMAZINGLY NICE!  The front desk people that I learned by name and they learned our names were Kelsey, Cindy, and Levin.  There were others that were nice and greeted us with a smile and any help, but these 3 were the ones that I interacted with the most.

The daily breakfast helped to save us some $ for sure.  We never ate breakfast out.  Monday - Thursday they had some small meal in the evening that we ate once.  But Tina's favorite part was in the late evening.  There was a man named Levin and one of his many jobs in the evening was to bake and set out cookies and milk at 8:00 pm every night.  Tina and Peter got cookies every single night we were there!  One night we were going to the gun barrel restaurant and were going to miss "cookie time".... Tina talked to Levin and he saved her a stack of cookies.  We came back in and he had them saved and went to the kitchen to get her some milk!  Rod and I spent several nights talking to him.  Learned he was a retired teacher from Texas.  We talked about Tori and the fact that she was a new teacher, talked about Tina and Peter and how they are both hard workers, talked about Tina and her scholarship to Austin Peay, etc.  We learned some about his kids and the fact he found out this week his daughter is pregnant with his 3rd grandchild!

This morning we needed to ride the shuttle to the airport at 10:45. Last night Tina was not able to get the last souvenir that she wanted.  We called the store and at 10:00 they were still not open.  One last call at 10:30 and they were open.  I went down and talked to the front desk and explained our problem.   He told me "we are here to help"... and so our shuttle driver made the 3 block detour to the store, parked on the curb, let Tina run in... and get her shorts she wanted!  Then we headed on to the airport. I would absolutely recommend this place!

Here is Levin and Tina on our last night with her last cookies!!!!  Thank you so much for your hospitality!

Jackson Hole - Day 7

New Year's Eve!  Today is our last full day in Jackson Hole.  We have bought ski lift tickets and headed to the slopes at Teton Village.  Since I only handled the cold so-so on Tuesday, I decided to hang back and be the photographer.  Tina started out with her boots having problems.  She struggled with her feet and calves hurting.  We were able to switch up her clothes some and get different books and that made it somewhat better.   Peter did much better this time didn't fall nearly as much.  They even braved a ski lift that you get on and off of while on skis (as compared to the gondola where you walk on and walk off).  Rod and Peter each fell the first time using the lift... Tina was fall free on the ski slopes for the entire trip!

After skiing we headed back for some down time at the hotel before walking back to the square.  One of the lodges did a nighttime torch parade down the slopes and we could view that from the square.  We had a little more shopping to do and were surprised to find that many of the shops closed at 7:00!  Seemed crazy to me that it was so crowded downtown, a Saturday night, and New Year's Eve and they were closed....

Since we had so much extra time before our dinner reservation, we took some more pictures and then tried to get into eat before our reservation time.  We ate at a small Italian place that Rod like and the rest of us thought was just fair...  Walking back was COLD, but we made it back to the hotel. Not sure any of us made to stay awake till midnight in the mountain time zone.  We just joked that we rang in the New Year in the Central Time Zone.