Reading While Knitting: If a tree falls. . .

In the yard, but we didn't mean for it to, but we're really not sorry at all, is it wrong to celebrate?

We've been having plenty of rain around here, and quite a bit of wind. We are grateful for our new roof, let me tell you. And how nice will it be when we've fixed all of our windows? By the time we're done stopping the drafts and reglazing the double-hung windows where that one is puddling and fixing the back door where rain blows into the house it will be very nice to have the drafts stopped, especially considering that we'll probably be quite elderly by then.

So there is a large tree in the back yard. We don't have a huge yard; no one here does, but it's okay. And this tree wasn't really "planted" there, because it's more of a weed tree than a desirable tree. In my opinion, a tree is desirable if it's bearing fruit that I want to eat; in my children's opinion, a tree is desirable if it's a good one to climb. This tree did neither. While it was big, the crown grew thick with tiny branches. Even my skinny offspring couldn't really climb in it. I had thrown a rope over a small branch, and they worked out some (never, ever enough) of their extra energy swinging and spinning on that rope.

We've been talking with friends who have a gardening business about a more unified plan for the yards -- we'd like them visually tied together and I would like them stuffed full of, well, edible things. They strongly suggested removing this tree, and pointed out that it would grow 10 feet per year, eventually becoming even more overwhelming. All of the Things who can talk vociferously objected. I realized that replacing a tree with that much play value would take either a lot of time or a lot of money, so we'd agreed to work around it as long as there were any tree-climbing Things in the house.

Soooooo. . . Thing 1 opened the door, and said, "Oh come and look!" Sure enough, the tree was at about a 45 degree angle right down the open part of the yard. It was leaning directly in the line of the wind. The combination of soil saturation, crown density, and a piss-poor root system was enough. Over the course of the morning, it settled to its current position, from which it's not going to move without help. Now all we have to do is get it taken apart and taken away. Either that, or enjoy it through a few weeks of green recycling. I thought fitting our Christmas tree in the green bin was going to be interesting enough.

While they spent about .09 seconds being sad about the rope, the kids discovered that running up a slanted tree trunk was pretty serious fun in and of itself. So while they do that, we can think of ways to play-enhance the yard without the tree.

Another thing we did today, it being a new year and all, was to tackle some of the unpacking that we have left from the move into the house. Fortunately, we had enough space to move from one quadrant of the basement into another, organizing all the way. When I saw this

I had to smile. It looked like a convention of the Heck's Angels had rolled into the basement. I may not like them running amuck, but they are growing up. I have three, four, and two-wheeled evidence for it.

Littlest Thing is being a tad difficult. Too little to put down, big enough to only want me, and my knitting suffers. I knew it was bad when I tried to knit a second mittlet without referring to the directions, and managed to make a right-leaning decrease that moved left, by placing them in the wrong direction, thus completing a toy for the baby. But how bad it really was I did not know until I finally bound off the final stitches for this dratted second mittlet. And saw this: