he's a lumberjack, and he's ok.

so Mark's memorial day weekend was probably not just all fun and games like i might have led you to believe yesterday. he had some pretty hard work thrown in there too.

on Sunday night, while i was on my way home from the beach, we had a little mini-storm at our house. the winds picked up, the rain poured down, the thunder and lightning came out to play, and part of one of the trees that line our driveway fell over.

into the neighbor's driveway.

narrowly missing their cars. (whew!)

but even though thankfully nothing was damaged, since the trees are technically on our property (at least we're pretty sure) we had to do something about the fact that our neighbors cars were blocked into their driveway.

so on Monday morning, Mark and his borrowed chain saw took on the tree. i helped at one point to get the blade unstuck from one of the thicker branches, but mostly i stayed far far away from that terrifying chain saw. (read: i went shopping and out to lunch with a friend) (ps never ever use a chain saw when you're home alone. they are dangerous. and terrifying)

after about 4 hours, Mark had the tree out of the neighbors driveway, and mostly cut up and stacked with our firewood out by the shed. some of the leafier branches are still in need of attention, but they seem perfectly happy to wait. so now it just kind of looks like the tree fell into our driveway.

these trees are apparently Bartlett pear trees, which are kind of known for their tendency to rot and fall over once they grow to be full sized, which is exactly what happened in this case. we're thinking that it might be a good idea to get the other ones checked out by some sort of tree expert, just in case. there is little to no chance of a car or house being hit by any of the other ones, (since they are all further down the driveway from the one that fell) but its probably not the best idea to have a bunch of trees lining our driveway that are rotting from the inside out.

so, anyone else out there doing some memorial day landscaping? was yours planned, or rather unexpected? if you're feeling left out of the fun, you can always come over and help us get the rest of the tree out of our driveway! just bring your own saw, and we'll pay you in s'mores!