Merry Christmas To Me!!

Yup! Christmas came early to this house! Yesterday morning my son came over to help me with a 'little' job around the house and after some raspberry-filled Munchkin's from Dunkin' Donuts out on the patio, we ended up going shopping instead! It wasn't planned, but you know how sometimes those spur-of-the-moment shopping trips turn out to be some of the best?? Well, let me tell you, Christmas came early to this house!! I've coveted one of these for several years now and any time I see someone with theirs, I think "Gosh, I wish I had one of those.... do you know what I could do with one??!!??"

Behold my new present from Santa (aka myself):

That's right! I got a new CHAIN SAW ON A TELESCOPING POLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Behold its glory and omnipresence!!! Behold it's power and possibilities!! Behold its promise of dead branches gone!! Isn't it gorgeous??!??

After a bit of assembly and some oil to get things lubed up, the time came to power this baby on and get to work - and WORK we did! Actually, I should state right now that of ALL of the branches we cut, my son did them all, but one. To tell you the truth, he was stunned by the shear power of this little gadget and after the first 'little' branch came spear-heading down into the ground, impaling itself upright and proving to be more like 18 feet tall, he was like a little boy with a new choo-choo train to play with! Of course, others gathered to witness the greatness, too!

We spent 4 hours trimming off branches from my back jacaranda, my pine tree in the English Garden and my front jacaranda. He even cut up 20 foot branches by detaching the chain saw and cutting them up into firewood logs for his outdoor fire pit! This toy works like a CHARM and made child's play of every branch we tackled. It was awesome!!!

Yes, there were a few bumps in the road - like me falling flat over the extension cord - in front of prospective buyers for the neighbor's house. (I'm sparing you pictures of my bruises - trust me, they are not pretty.) An injured thumb was acquired on the way down, too. We started early in the day to avoid the desert heat, but there's no way to do that at 1:00 in the afternoon. It's never a good sign when it's 100 degrees outside and you're getting 'the chills' (even after drinking plenty of water). But we managed and I dragged, raked, carried, stacked, crushed, swept and trashed all of the big limbs, broken branches, pine cones and other debris into the driveway for bulk trash pick-up this week. And the result is this:

It makes me want to do my happy dance!!

After a cold, cold shower and more water, the Magster and I headed over to son's house and I treated everyone to a pizza dinner (and ibuprofen, too!). So I don't get that macro lens for my camera this year....it's okay. I'll just place a big red bow on my chain saw and carefully lay it under the Christmas tree. (Oh, I hope my tree is okay with that!)

And the beauty of all of this????

Bulk trash pickup week for the month of October!!! I can't wait!!