Just in case you're wondering from the title- no, I wasn't the one with the chainsaw. :) But I would have been more than happy to man it. What we were supposed to be doing around 4:30pm today was heading to STAG- I happened to hear our landlord outside though and wondered if he'd finally enlisted someone to whack back that eucalyptus, so I went upstairs to our bedroom to look out the window and sure enough, there was his son in the tree, and they were trying to prevent a rather large limb from falling onto the neighbor's rather flimsy fence. I'm sure that none of you are surprised that I volunteered to help them by hooking a rope around one of the branches and holding it from the window while they took the branch off. :) We managed to fell it right onto the path, which was perfect.
There are some people who can just sit by and watch people do something physical like that- either from lack of strength or lack of expertise or lack of being asked they prefer not to do anything. I have never been one of those sorts of people- growing up in a house where we always did everything ourselves, and there being only 4 of us, we all just helped do everything. When I look around my parents' house inside and out I see family projects everywhere, from the shed we built ourselves, to the deck we added ourselves, to the stone path we put in ourselves....the list goes on. In any case there's no way I'm going to sit inside and be busy when of the 3 of us (the landlord, his son, and me) I have 2 summers' experience working for Grounds, felling trees and all sorts of similar things. So out I went, and G came as well since we both think it's all good fun. :)
I had a blast- the fact is I love working with my hands, sawing, and throwing in my 2 cents about the best way to prevent the giant branch from smashing my entire garden. :) I've put some pictures up for your amusement. G is very handy with knots, and by his suggestions several times we reduced the garden damage and prevented anyone from losing a leg. Alas they don't believe in real chainsaws here (this is a Nanny "state" after all) so they had to use this ridiculously underpowered, teeny toothed electric chainsaw. It wasn't much better than the hand saw I have, if it was better at all.
2 hours later and we had removed the 3 Whomping branches, and generally trimmed the tree up to look nicer. I also convinced our landlord to whack back the ugly English Ivy which had completely taken over the fence, and it turns out WAS the fence by this point, as the wood had rotted where they ivy was. :) Things are looking ok in the garden- most of the plants were still small and managed to not be too harmed by the proceedings, although a few will need to be pruned back and allowed to grow again. Most of the small flowers weren't flowering yet, so the carnage was indeed minimized.
By 6:30 it was too dark to continue, although all that's left is to cut the largest of the logs into small pieces for our fireplaces. I can't wait to burn some- it smells very good, and there's nothing like enjoying the fruits of your own labor. I felt fortunate that my being a woman didn't encourage them to eliminate me from using a hand saw, loppers, or hauling logs and branches. In fact I was blessed that the landlord considered me a bit of an expert, which at least made me feel like I wasn't overlooked, which has been known to happen all too often to perfectly capable women in a field that is dominated by men who all think they know what they're doing. :D Of course since I had the camera there are no pictures of me- you'll just have to use your imagination I suppose. Ld willing we'll sleep free of the noise of thrashing branches every 30 minutes during the night tonight and from here on out. :)
To top this story off, Richard happened to mention to me that he had previously sold this cottage, some 20 years ago, which is why he was putting up the fence (which is now sadly decrept.) He said his putting it up was a contractual agreement with the buyer, and he took a bit too long in putting it up, which he acknowledged. However when he finally did put the fence up, the man who had bought the place decided to sit outside in the small garden and read his paper while Richard put the fence up. I found that story to be unbelievable- how anyone could sit and watch someone put up a fence while they sit by and read a paper is beyond me. Richard is a nice man, very kind and friendly, although he does tend to take a while to get things done, which is sort of typically British. But the buyer of this cottage was North American- either American or Canadian, and perhaps he thought he was making a good neighbor out of Richard by examining his progress? In the same situation I wouldn't do the same thing, and I hope that it could never be said of me that something was being done and I just watched it happen when I could have positively contributed in some way. Even if it was just to offer tea or water and praise the progress of the work, and watched it going on and chatted with the workers if I could do nothing else.
I doubt that man thought about the impact that his completely justified albeit callous actions had on Richard, who also understood that the man was justified, but whose opinion of Americans was definitely shaded by him. People go on about how the world views American differently because of these wars and all the problems with our government, but when I see Americans abroad I sometimes wonder if their personal example could be doing more harm than the news.
Besides representing my country, like every person who believes in JC I'm representing him as well. I call myself a follower of his, and people gain an understanding about him and what Gd is like from my actions, as imperfect as they are. I hope that today Richard's impression of Americans will improve, and that his impression of followers of JC will be good as well.
Richard (our landlord) and his son Jason, who built the blue shedthere when he and his family lived in our house.
Jason making the first cuts.
George manning the rope to prevent the branch from crashing down.
The largest branch after it came down. Richard's friend in the background, and Jason's little daughter watching her dad cut the limbs. I remember watching my dad and grandpa cut a huge willow tree down at about her age.
This is of course the true "man discussion" about what to do next. :) 
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