Red Roof Co-op
A couple of weeks ago, we had a Spring rainstorm that included a lot of wind. I was sitting in the living room reading and I heard a snap. By the time I looked up from my book, right outside the front bay window one of the three fir trees had snapped between fifteen and twenty feet up and had fallen on the ground. Away from the house, by shear luck. These things happen sometimes. Suddenly and without warning. It wasn't an unhealthy tree and it wasn't rotted or weakened in any way I could see. The wind just blew hard on it, and it snapped.
As you can see from the photo, it was pretty close to the house! It was the middle of three identical trees that screened the front of the house from the road. There's also a fence and the road isn't that close, but it was still nice having the extra bit of privacy. On the other hand, it's now easier to look out the bay window and see the entrance to the driveway. I'm enjoying the added visibility and I'm sure our old dog, who watches out that window and alerts us of any movement on the street, will love it.
I was a bit busy with the end of the semester, so I let the tree lay for a couple of weeks. But this last weekend I got my chainsaw back on loan from a friend to whom I had given it, believing I'd never have much more need to use it. Over a couple of days, I took the tree apart. First, my friend stopped by with his (slightly older and smaller) original saw and helped me get started. We tied a rope to the back of his truck, to pull the remaining piece of trunk away from the house when I cut it. That worked well, and on the second day I cut up the rest of the trunk and piled the branches.
It was fun running the saw again, so naturally I started looking around the yard for other things that needed cutting before I give it back. There's a dead oak behind the barn that we have left standing for a few years because it looks cool and spooky. But it's starting to drop branches now, so it should go. And there are some downed "popple" trees in the woods that have fallen across a path we used to like walking. And another couple I can see that are leaning against live trees in a way I find a bit sloppy. So I'll probably spend a couple of hours over the next few days tidying up around the yard, before I give the saw back to my friend. We joked about the stuff we're sharing. He said that remembering someone else also wants to use a tool is an incentive to get things done that you might otherwise let languish on the bottom of your To-Do list. I observed that in the old days, farmers used to form cooperatives to not only pool their buying and selling, but to share farm machinery (my friend also frequently borrows my trailer to haul firewood). Since we have both replaced shingles with red steel on our houses, we decided to call ourselves the "Red Roof Co-op" (note: I adjusted the title following advice from
).
Your note about sharing farm machinery reminds me of my youth on a dairy farm. The farmers shared their labor -- several would get together at another's farm, and do the "haying" and sometimes sharing a hay bailer to get it done faster.
I just asked that because, here in Winnipeg, the Red River Co-Op is a big thing. They own and operate a lot of the gas stations and grocery stores where I live.