Picking Up Sticks - the BIG Cleanup

My sister, Karen Franzen, and her son, Mike, and granddaughter Kaetlin, came to Paducah to help "pick up the sticks" in our yard. She said the photos I posted earlier didn't give a true picture of how many trees and limbs had fallen. Maybe these photos will give you a better idea.

Katie (the assistant cashier), Mike (the manager), Karen (chief flunky), and Wayne (the boss - on the tractor) filled this trailer numerous times as they gathered the sticks into piles in the backyard. They decided they needed to have titles - so they came up with their own.

This is the back right corner of our yard. Several large limbs fell in this area.

We had some fun while they were here too. We went to eat at Patti's Restaurant on Thursday evening. Here Katie gets her first look at the 2-inch pork chop we all ordered. We ate about half and brought the rest home.

The side yard - several limbs fell on the roof of the house on this side. We also lost a big pine tree on this side.

The "crew" was able to get some of the sticks burned, but then the winds pick up and they couldn't do any more burning.

Central Paving is one of the sites that is accepting limbs if you haul them there. We drove by and saw this huge barrel chipper machine they are using to chop up all of these limbs.

And this is the pile that they still have to chip. To get an idea of the height of the pile, compare the pile to the large pieces of equipment sitting in front of it.

Mike starts sawing up the limbs behind the garage.

Mike used the chain saw non-stop to get it into pieces small enough for the rest of the crew to stack into piles to be burned in the back yard.

Here are some of the 25 six-foot tall piles of sticks in the backyard, all ready to be burned when the weather cooperates so Wayne can get out there to do it. On Saturday, when we wanted to get the last of the sticks picked up, it rained in the morning. So we went out to pick up some souvenir T-shirts and stopped by to visit the National Quilt Museum. By the time we arrived back home, the rain had stopped and the wind had died down so we were able to finish it. By the time we finished, snow showers started and the winds picked up again. The weather cooperated just enough for us to get the sticks all stacked and ready for burning.

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Karen, Mike, and Katie came on Wednesday and went home on Sunday. They helped us whittle this huge clean-up job down to a manageable size. Now Wayne can get his hose out there and start a couple of piles at a time to get it all burned.

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Thank you Karen, Mike, and Katie - we would have been weeks trying to get all of these sticks picked up. We had some fun, and we went to some of our favorite restaurants in the area too. We took their photo in front of the fire station in Possom Trot...and of Mike pumping gas at the Possom Trot gas station. GRIN! I guess they will have stories to tell when they get home.

Oh, and by the way, I also gave Katie and Karen some tools so they can do some quilting. Katie went home with some of my books, and some that have some good projects for her to get started. While they were here, we made a baked potato bag...and they went home with the instructions. Katie did all of the sewing to make it too.

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And now we are all exhausted...today was spent napping, watching the Nascar race, napping, napping, and napping.