Sunday, February 20, 2011

Dead Cottonwood Tree




When we moved to Bluffdale in 1990, one of the first things we did was plant a cottonwood tree in the front yard. In was hoping to see brilliant yellow foliage in the fall like the cottonwood trees along rivers and streams in back country Utah. However, the leaves never turned yellow; just brown. The tree did provide shade and a lot of leaves and twigs in the fall that had to be raked or mulched.

Anyway, in the spring of 2010, we noticed that the tree did not fully leaf out. Over the course of the summer, it just kept dying back. Since it had been trimmed by Rocky Mountain Power about 6 months previously, we wrote a letter to RMP asking them to come cut the tree and take it away. Although they denied responsibility, they did cut the tree down in October of 2010 but I had to haul it away. After cutting it up as best I could, I loaded my trailer 8 times with chunks and branches about 4-5 feet deep and hauled it to the dump. My left elbow has still not recovered.

And I still have the two-ton tree trunk in my front yard but I've made arrangements to get rid of it soon. More photos can be seen here.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Messiah Sing-In




I think I forgot to mention that this last Christmas season, I think it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, JoAnn and I went to the Messiah Sing-In at Symphony Hall. We bought tickets for Senta and Greg but they ended up having other plans. For the uninitiated, the Messiah music book is about 3/4 inches thick and weighs about 5 pounds. Luckily, it only takes about 1 ½ hours to sing it. I really developed an appreciation for the music and I now keep a copy in the stereo in my car and listen to it quite often.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

PJ's Fifth Birthday



The first leg of PJ's fifth birthday began on January 22 at Jungle Jim's. It is amazing how much fun a five-year old can have at a place like this especially when his five-year old best friend, Trey, is with him. The second leg was on Sunday at our house when he got to open presents again. Unfortunately, the Lego toys his dad ordered him from Brick Trainshop have still not arrived. More pictures of the birthday boy can be found here.