One wonderful neighbor

so my tree had been knocked down and was covering our front yard and part of the neighbor's driveway. i felt i had to act quickly, but didn't want to spend the money having someone clean it up. (Plus, i don't know when he would have gotten to it) my husband sent me a handful of ideas, most of which involved some work for no guaranteed outcome, such as searching craigslist. but one idea that i never thought of was our tree trimmer. we have a tree trimmer that is a pretty good size and can get through lots of branches. so i went out and started hacking at the thing, cutting off all the branches that were smaller than about an inch and a half, stacking them in the driveway. the baby interrupted meat least every 20 minutes, but i got a good way into it. same on saturday, the pile of branches grew to be taller than my husbands car! i was thinking that if i could get it clean enough that the lawn wouldn't die underneath it, and get it out of my neighbors' driveway, then i wouldn't have to make a quick decision about anything. i could figure out what to do more slowly, let it all sink in, decide whether to take out the whole tree, or whatever. so on sunday when i was out again, having taken off most of the branches that i could, one of my neighbors said "want some help?" i told her "absolutely," and she came over with her trimmers, which are bigger than mine. so she was able to clear a small pile of branches that i couldn't, and then together we dragged the really big stuff out of the front yard and into the side yard! so even though there is still cleanup work to be done, it can wait...it can wait even until jason gets home! sweet!



so I am not trying to indict any of my other neighbors, but i find it really interesting what they said. all the women, save the one who helped me, basically said something to the effect of 'wow, thats too bad, thats $600 you didn't want to spend.' all of the men, save for the neighbor whose lawn it was on said 'if i had a chainsaw, i'd lend it to you' (thanks, but who is going to run this borrowed chainsaw?) and the single mother out taking care of her own yard is the only one who offered to help. it was so generous! thank you, neighbor!


just as a ps to the story, another thing i find really funny...at this point i have everything almost taken care of. there is still a small pile in my driveway that needs to be bundled and hauled to my side yard, but otherwise its fine for now. a few days ago i hadn't raked the front yard to get up all the teeny sticks and leaves, and i guess the next door neighbor wanted to mow. so he raked his part of the lawn, and deposited the mess on the sidewalk just over the property line. Really? you really couldn't just throw it in the trash, you had to push it over for me to clean up? legally, its not my mess. i was counseled that because the storm was an act of God, anything that crosses the property line becomes the property (or problem) of that homeowner. so had my tree fallen on his house, his insurance would be liable in nebraska, not mine. so technically, none of that stuff was my responsibility; but that seemed a little silly to me in these circumstances, so i pretty much handled it. but he did have to rake. sorry i didn't get to it quickly enough. my mom thinks i should be a smart aleck, bake him some cookies and apologize for not raking! my husband thinks that he was acting like a cat when it leaves a dead bird on the porch "see what i did for you?" i have gotten a very good laugh about it. =>