erudity.net prattlings on via nattering nabobs

Fall Upkeep and Some Recommendations

Most of my friends, after deciding to buy a domicile, settled on condos. Figuring I could keep the house maintained on my own cheaper than a monthly condo fee plus random assessments plus my slight DIY streak, I opted for a house in the city of Norfolk - another difference there.

With a house comes other things, like a backyard and trees that must be kept up. I've always enjoyed yardwork - there's something very relaxing and centering about the reverse entropy that is getting your yard into shape after the wild, undirected growth of the plants, weeds, etc. has thrown your previous work into disarray. I'm an old hand at lawn maintenance, but trees, shrubs and other landscaping elements are new to me. As such, when I was back and then had to deploy rather quickly again, I thought "meh, how much can the trees grow if I skip a year of pruning?"

As it turns out, quite a bit. I had branches overhanging my house - oak and crape myrtle - and the crape myrtles out front were low enough that you had to duck while walking on the sidewalk. I remembered from way back when that you need to wait winter and/or the leaves are gone to cut trees back. Today's high being 60 or so with almost all the leaves gone from the crape myrtles, I decided to chance it. There was a LOT of trimming to do, to include some high-wire acts on the roof and one rather large branch to the head, but otherwise nothing of note other than the sheer volume. In order to deal with the great amount of wood that I now have in my backyard, I got this chipper/shredder. It's nothing special, but it's far quieter than a gas powered one and perfect for the branches that I'm able to cut with my tree pruner - anything bigger I just bundle up and put by the curb for pickup. (Sorry to those of you who were hoping for a massive conflagration.)

A couple of huge endorsements - first to the tree pruner, which was nothing less than stellar in reaching and taking care of some very high branches. Second and actually more important were the gloves. I use Mechanix gloves while preflighting, but had used standard cowhide gloves for most of my yardwork and home improvement - until I got a large hole in the palm of one of the gloves. As a replacement I got some Mechanix CG Impact Pro gloves, which were instrumental in getting any work done since I practiced a bit too long on the drums last night and ended up with a couple of wicked blisters. Highly recommended for construction/renovation, yardwork, anything in general that you might do around the house or yard.