Trimming Branches

We have been cleaning up the yard and we have needed to trim a bunch of branches off trees and clean up some dead-fall. It has been accumulating in a couple of different piles around the property. I took a couple of days to trim up lots of branches into smaller pieces to use in our fireplace and the junkiest bits will be used for a bonfire sometime soon. As fall is approaching we are already seeing the nights turning cooler. It is always amazing to me that so much work, collecting up wood and trimming it, can burn so quickly in our fireplace!

This job is satisfying to me, but not easy. I find it hard to be bending down over and over to pick up the branches and kindling and it makes me quite dizzy. I can only carry a little bit at a time, so there are a whole lot of trips carrying branches and twigs to make piles and sort them out. My physiotherapist calls it "functional exercise". At any rate I was pretty stiff the next day.

I was also collecting pine cones to use in a craft for this Christmas. I was going to leave them out on the porch, but Bob pointed out that they won't be there when we came back next time. The little squirrel that lives in the pine tree will think I made life very convenient for him.