Neighbors

Lately, it seems that we have spent a lot of time with our neighbors.  That is very rare for me as I usually spend most of my days quietly by myself working on projects around the house.  The changed started the week that we had the garage sale.  Before then I didn't realize how social those events were for a lot of people.  I had told Roger and Darlene that we were having one so that Roger could get his stakes in the grass to prevent his yard from becoming a parking lot.  After that, they stopped by every day to check on us, to see if we needed help or to purchase a few items for their special friends.  They even brought over homemade lemonade on the hottest day.  The garage sale also brought out the neighborhood kids, some more than others.  I enjoyed getting to know all of them throughout the week. 

The next event that seemed to attract neighborhood attention was our tree removal.  The ones that we had taken out professionally didn't garnish a lot of attention, but I did have to talk to the Miller family quite a bit to coordinate the removal of a large dead branch from our oak tree hanging over their yard.  What did attract a lot of attention was Doug working to remove a pine tree out front.  It had been dying for the last two summers.  I had asked Doug to leave it as the birds liked perching in it.  I realized this summer, however, that it had become an eye soar and that we would need to take it out before we sold our house.  The fall was the best time to accomplish this task as it would give Doug time to plant grass once it was gone, so he started on it last Sunday.

As soon as Josh saw Doug out with his chainsaw taking off branches, he rushed right over to see if he needed help.  He had just bought a new gas powered tree trimer and it quickly took out all of the branches.  Josh then grabbed his chainsaw and within seconds the tree was down.  He asked Doug if he wanted to keep the stump or have it taken out.  Once he heard Doug say that he had planned to have it removed, he ran over to his neighbor and asked him to help.  The diesel truck and tow line soon left us with an empty place in our yard, which we really appreciated.  We were also glad that there were no injuries, although we did think that we had seen the last of Josh's wedding ring.  It got caught on a stump as the guys were stacking the branches in the lot and flew into the middle of the pile.  It took about 45 minutes with all of us looking before it was finally found.  That was a relief.

Our last big events with the neighbors occurred this week.  During the garage sale week, Doug had asked Roger and Darlene if they wanted to go out to Sleepy Owl with us one Wednesday for half price pizza night.  They agreed instantly and asked if we could wait until "Sis" got home from Chicago.  Meg was more than interested in going.  Thus, this week we enjoyed a nice dinner and some great conversation.  

Last night while Doug was out burning the pine tree, both Josh and Kyle walked over separately to see what he was doing.  They also wanted to let us know that they had played golf with Grandpa Cutes today and had a fantastic time with him.  I knew that Grandpa had enjoyed it too as he had sent a picture of them to us earlier in the day.  Once they left I realized that was probably the end of our interaction with the neighbors for awhile as I know that we will keep getting busier and busier with tennis and the start of football season.  It has been fun talking with everyone and having my own little fan club when I go out to water my flowers hearing the little girls yell, "Hi, Mrs. Heinisch!"  It definitely made the end of summer a little more enjoyable than usual.