A Difference in Style

It took us awhile to learn that the hatch can be closed with the push of a button. We're always trying to close it by slamming it down as we had to do with the old car. It doesn't like that much and gets confused about whether it's supposed to be opening or closing. In the old car I was always afraid I would slam it down on Ozzie, but this car it slowly lowers and latches with a gentle click. Maybe that's why Ozzie feels he needs to keep an eye on it.

OilMan and Dana have been trimming the live oak trees on the back hill. OilMan meticulously cuts each branch, with it's extremely prickly leaves, into graduated sizes that fit either into the green can or in a pile up by the road where the city chipper will come by, chip them and either spray the chips back  back into the field, or in a pile to be used for mulch.There are quite a few rules about the size of what goes into the chipper and how it is bundled and piled by the road, I think it's a kind of meditation for OilMan. 

There is a fence between our garden and our field, a two acre patch of dry grass and weeds. We are required by the fire protection district to keep it mowed in the summer. OilMan realized yesterday they there are about a dozen baby trees growing up around the  big tree in the field and felt that they were probably a fire hazard as well.

OilMan wanted to hire our gardener and his crew to cut down all the little trees, but Dana wanted to rent a chainsaw and cut them all down in a half hour. She was always a bit of a tomboy, and she loves speed, efficiency…and a challenge. I'm afraid I had to burst her bubble by outlawing the use of chainsaws. Undaunted, she came over today and with  Oilman cut down all the trees, some ten feet tall with 4 inch diameter trunks, and dragged everything halfway up the field toward the road. She's nothing if not efficient…keeps OilMan on his toes too. She scoffs at rest breaks…perhaps because she knows that when OilMan says that, he really means a beer break.

They are going to ask Pedro and his crew to load up his truck and  take it all to the dump.