When we first moved to our current house I was very impressed that we had nine trees of various types and sizes on it. My wife, it seems, is not as big a fan of trees as I am.
Shortly after moving in, I almost pulled down a tree in the back yard on top of her. We hadn’t realized that it was dead. Since then, the rest of the trees have been numbered.
The one at the very back of the yard was brought down as it gave too much shade to the pool. The pine in front died out due to the trees on either side choking it out. We had the one on the side taken down as it was growing way over our neighbor’s house and power line.
I brought the last one in the back down myself and was very happy that I was able to drop it without hitting the house, fence, or deck. When one of the crab apples in the front broke in the heavy snow a few years back, I also safely dropped that one as well. The last one on the side of the house was a different story though.
She has been wanting it down for the last few years as it gives too much shade between the houses, scratches on the roof, and drops a lot of seeds every year in May through the whole back yard, especially into the pool. I’ve been meaning to trim back some of the branches for the last two years but could never get the kids to hold the ladder for me in spring or fall.
When we finally decided to cut it down, my folks and son were going to help. On the day, they showed up later in the afternoon. The tree had one branch extending backwards that we cut off. It had another paid of branches that extended out over the roof. I had originally planned to trim them back as well but, due to the time, decided we could probably leave them with the tree.
We notched the trunk, and were worked at opening up the notch when the tree tipped slightly and pinned the chainsaw blade. It had leaned over onto the house. I said I could go up on the roof and trim back some of the branches but my folks wanted to go to the store and get another blade for the chainsaw.
While they left, I went up on the roof and cut back a lot of the branches using a hand tree saw. I cut back enough that I was able to move the tree off of the roof.
Now, this would have been a great time to wait for my folks to come back and help guild the tree to the ground. But I thought that if I pushed it off of the roof, with my son pushing from below, it should have enough of an angle to carry it down to the driveway.
I was wrong.
The tree cleared the roof, but caught the overhang over the front door on the way down, and pulled it off the front of the house. So, my son, folks and I spent the rest of the week that I had off taking apart the old overhang, and rebuilding it back on to the front of the house. We were able to get it reshingled, tarred and caulked, and even had time to touch up the paint before we got snow.
We live in a region that has snow for four to six months of the year. Growing up, we used to have ‘all-season’ tires on our vehicles and thought that was fine. Since then, they had come up with specially formatted ‘winter’ tires but we never really thought much of them, until we tried them.
Up here, the temperature can drop to as low as -40 degrees Celsius (234 Kelvin), and regular tires, even all-season tires, get solid and lose a lot of their grip. Fishtails and sliding on ice are sort of a rite of passage for young drivers. It’s like drifting, but with actual snow drifts.
When we inherited the van from Shan’s dad, it also came with snow tires. When we had them installed, we noticed a major difference in the stopping ability. Instead of that slow sliding which normally accompanied stopping with all-season tires in deep winter, braking occurred at a much shorter distance. It is a total game changer, and one that I highly recommend for those people who experience actual winter.
It is a major expense, both for the tires themselves, and for the extra rims and possibly sensors needed. Plus add the cost of having them changed, or having to change them yourselves twice a year. But it is easily worth it, both in the better traction and safety as well as not having to deal with cracked bumpers, or the hassle of getting stuck. Plus, your tires will last longer as they are only being driven on half as much. You can’t use snow tires all year as they as softer than regular tires and wear out much quicker on the summer roads.
The only thing to watch out for is that people behind you may not be able to stop as short as you are if they are still trying to get by on all-seasons.
We used to go to the movies quite regularly in the before times. We tried to get out at least a couple of times a month. Since the shut downs, we have been keeping our movie night, but watching them at home.
The last movie that we saw in a theatre was back in March 2020 when we saw Onward. I wasn’t as impressed with it as some were but it was still enjoyable. We had seen some movies in the drive in since then. We saw New Mutants last fall, and the new Suicide Squad this summer.
We were getting ready to go back in September but then they had changed the rules and open up the theatres to the entire population, vaccinated or not. So we decided to pass for a while. They soon restricted access back to vaccinated only as the number again increased.
Our first movie back was the new James Bond film No Time to Die. It was a bit of an odd experience. The theatres used to include buffer space between guests but have dropped that so we had people who had bought the seats right next to us. Because there was the space, we shuffled over a seat to allow room.
I found this movie okay as well. Daniel Craig isn’t in my top three Bonds, and I was never a fan of the reboot when they brought him in. This had a lot of nice nods to older fans but, with this being Craig’s last film in the franchise, I am not sure how they will continue the series without another reboot. Which would be a shame as they have built up a really good supporting cast.
I suppose that we will have to see where they go from here.
When I found a Blood Bowl Treeman figure, I had to pick it up. The squirrel that comes with it was given Star Player rules in White Dwarf and the figure has been very hard to find.
I was also finally able to find an original Batwoman figure. I'm not a fan of the newer figure on the huge gargoyle.:strip_icc()/pic6467692.jpg)
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May
Design for Death by Barbara Jones
Albatros Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks
June
Albatros Aces of World War 1 Part 2 by Greg VanWyngarden
Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City by Joseph A. McCullough
Nieuport Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks
Pusher Aces of World War 1 by Jon Guttman
SPAD VII Aces of World War 1 by Jon Guttman
July
Fokker Dr 1 Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks and Greg VanWyngarden
Frostgrave: Perilous Dark by Joseph A. McCullough
Dolphin and Snipe Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks
SPAD XII/XIII Aces of World War 1 by Jon Guttman
Sopwith Camel Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks
Aug
Fokker D VII Aces of World War 1 Part 1 by Norman Franks and Greg VanWyngarden
Scale Aircraft Drawings Volume 1 – World War 1 by Air Age Publishing
Fokker D VII Aces of World War 1 Part 2 by Norman Franks and Greg VanWyngarden
Sopwith Triplane Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks
I worked on a few more Dracula's America's figures but did not complete any this month. I also started a bunch of Heroclix figures for Marvel Universe and western based games. I did assemble my Dark Elf Blood Bowl team, and primed more of the new set of Batman Miniatures figures.
So, while my purchases were low, I did not manage to finish any painting.
Bought
BM – Wonderland Gang – 4
BM/DCU – King Shark – 1
DCU – Atrocitus – 1
Painted
Aug total – figures bought 6, figures painted 0
Running total 2021 – figures bought 243, figures painted 84
