Some kinda weather going on here, but reports from the truck driving duo, the Hack, and from writer extraordinaire Jen, it’s not JUST here, it’s running outa control in the western region.  The winds came with the rain, each taking its turn, at times raging in unison, the forecast for good weather is out there somewhere, but definitely not here, not now.  The mountains have a major head of snow – visible when I first got up today but covered now in a shroud of mist and clouds and buried behind a wall of rain – just where I’ll be driving tomorrow. OMG!  A duck just swam by my window!

I have plans to meet Clearspine and his wife tomorrow in Vegas.  They will be in for a continuing education thingy and what better opportunity to meet, have lunch, perhaps play a little poker, and get to know one of PokerWorks’ writer/bloggers?  This is our first meeting and I’m looking forward to it, even tho he’s giving me some grief because I ‘drew out’ on him in the PokerWorks Family Tourney – What The Heck – like he hasn’t drawn out on me before?  Tsk-Tsk!  And I do love to draw out on people, if I get the last redraw, they don’t have a chance to re-redraw out on me.  *LMAO*

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I don’t watch TV – as stated many times before – and I definitely wouldn’t have the heart to watch any of the Haiti tragedy that has been going on.  I did go to my PokerStars account and signed up for one of the dummy tournaments to donate to the cause.  There are other poker sites and poker forums and blogging tweeters that are setting up financial aid means to Haiti also.  Some people live their lives, others watch it go by, get involved PEOPLE!

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Mz DigDug was a busy gal.  I thank the God for the ability to devise ways to do things that are bordering on impossible for a single granny which this project was an extreme for one person. I managed the trench dig that the trees were going into without much of a hitch other than a troublesome shoulder and stiff muscles from digging and lifting. I knew these trees didn’t have much of a root system on them but they are still 6 feet high with a root ball about a foot and half to two feet deep and about the same diameter.  I dug around them to the size of their branch width and dug down/chipped about a foot and a half – a totally miserable frigging dig, the dirt/silt was like clods of concrete and never giving up anything easily.  The three that were moved previously, I had soaked the ground everyday for a week or so before starting, but it was also warmer weather.  The downside to soaking the ground is that it’s like a bog and sticks to your shovel making it impossible to just shake it off, soon your shovel weighs a ton and has to be power rinsed to get it off, but granted, the trees come up out of their nesting place much easier.  The first three, I did most of the digging but the truck driving duo helped me with lifting and moving them to their new bed.

Once the root ball dig was completed, the tree had to be broken loose from the earth below it.  Hello Silver Steed.  We had a wide towing strap with a heavy chain tied into it for pulling the other trees out of their nesting ground.  I was sure if I tried to just set the strap around the base of the root ball, it would just slip up and off and wouldn’t do the job.  I laid the towing strap flat to the ground on one side of the root ball and took two shovels and hammered them horizontally into the base of the root ball, just above the towing strap; hooked the chain to the Steed and away we went, the shovels worked perfectly as the wedge that popped the root ball loose.  As I was patting myself on the back and putting away the towing strap, etc., I forgot one thing.  The tree was still in the hole.  H-E-A-V-Y!  I didn’t want to try and drag the tree out with the strap and perhaps destroy part of it.  So…Mz IronWoman took over.  I jumped into the hole, got my arms underneath the root ball and struggled to roll/lift it as far up the side of the hole as possible.  I then rested the root ball on my knees, until I could get my arms back underneath it and roll it on out of the hole.  She’s dragging ass for five minutes catching her breath It was a real slice of pie…NOT!

The next step was to put a piece of tarp down and roll the tree onto it.  I pulled the tarp about 60-70 feet to the trees’ new home – one at a time – stopping to reset them when they started sliding off the end of the tarp.  And then rolled the tree to the edge of the trench where I wanted it to live permanently and then stood it up as it slid off into the new bed.  After I got all three of them in the trench, it was time to make sure they were standing up straight – from all angles – and start loading in potting soil/Pahrump silt.  I had one arm shoveling silt under the edge of the root ball while the other kept the tree at the right alignment. Mz Iron Woman was doing the slow crawl the rest of the afternoon/evening.  It just knocked the hell out of me.

The trees are waiting for their blanket of mulch, that is waiting in the bed of the Steed, that is waiting on MOI, that is waiting for the frigging rain to stop so it can be applied.  Then a nifty border of windsor stone, which of course, weighs more than I like but it will be loaded one by one into the wheel barrow and transported to the new bed – if the rain quits and the grounds dries out enough to push a wheel barrow over it.

Picture time.  The 1st one is where they came from – sis’s front yard; the 2nd one is where they are now; the third one is the other end of the coach, where the 1st three were planted.

While I’m groaning and moaning about the hard work, I’m really happy that I’m able to do it.  In the meantime, I’m going to go see if there are any more ducks  swimming by, and start looking for that ark.