So picture this....Melissa is relaxing after a long weekend of cleaning out the basement by herself and 3 trips to Goodwill. (I can't believe the memories of my childhood. I consolidated 4 boxes of memories into 1 box!) It was just Melissa, Brewer & Gatsby (brother's dog) for the weekend while Shawn was in Door County with JoBu and some of Shawn's relatives. Shawn apparently did lots of yardwork and and cottage maintenance. So fast forward to 5pm on Sunday night, Shawn had a freshly opened a beer, the oven was preheated for some potatoes and we were about to put the chicken on the grill when we had some large gusts of wind come through our neighborhood. We were sitting at the kitchen table when we heard a sound similar to some chairs turning over. Well! Melissa looked out the front door window and saw leaves blowing around, which had not been there 5 minutes ago. Oh crap! Our front tree had gone down. The neighbors had seen its gradual fall as it had cracked in half. Thankfully, nobody had been walking by at that exact moment. We all know how the Bansemar's are in outside preparation...no long extension cords, no tree trimming equipment, no chainsaw...nothing! Our friendly neighbor, Tony, said he had a chainsaw, but it was electric with a loose chain and it was starting to drizzle. Typically, not a good combination! Our other friendly neighbors, Joellyn & daughter Kelly, came down barefoot to report that husband & father, Rob, was on his way back and very excited to help in the removal of our tree. Unfortunately, Melissa did not think to take any "before" pictures of the tree but once Rob brought out the rope for Shawn to aid in the direction of the tree falling and Rob was at the trunk of the tree, she knew that it needed to get scrapbooked/blogged! It took the 5 of us less than 45 minutes to completely remove the tree. Thank goodness for friendly neighbors! In the end, we had 12 piles of branches that line the entire front of the house. We are hopeful the City workers will pick them all up next Friday during brush pick up.
Melissa, Joellyn & Kelly are standing clear
On Saturday, Uncle Fred & Melissa went into town for some groceries while Shawn & Grandpa Fred stayed behind to do a little yard work and cottage maintenance. Saturday night we cooked out for dinner and Melissa was a little of her card playing game and let Uncle Fred beat her by over 100 points. Ouch!
