Don't Try This at Home

So Monty says that tomorrow (Monday) rain or shine the trusses will go up.  More on that later.  But meanwhile work needs to be done and one of the biggest jobs is trimming the Mock Olive hedges on our properties to a reasonable height.  Do not, I repeat, do not let them grow for a couple years because this is what you get.  A really tall, close to twenty feet high hedge that has to come down or it
will turn into a tree.  So Tony let his and ours get too tall, so this weekend we attacked them and literally gave them a buzz cut.  But don't worry.  This is Hawaii and they'll grow back, but after all that work, I'm never going to let them get that high.

You can see to the right where Tony has cut them almost down to stumps.

Here's a broad view of the cut hedge and in the background what needs to be cut.  Notice the piles on the left.  Yes, we're renting a chipper next week.

Now while some parts of our hedge were tall most of it wasn't as tall as Tony's, so we got it down to a reasonable height around eight feet for a little privacy from the neighbors.  The platform we made makes it perfect to stand and cut the top of the hedge.  One person drives the truck and the other cuts.

So this is what ours looked like when we finished.  Still a lot of shrubbery to chip, not counting what was on the other side of the hedge at my neighbor's.   So now you see Hawaii isn't all fun and games, but I definitely prefer this to ice and snow, Look how I'm dressed.

On a tamer note, we planted our first tree.  Crissie wanted a Cherry Blossom because she loves the pinkish flowers when it blooms and it was Cherry Blossom Festival in Waimea this weekend.  We didn't make it but we've seen it before and will definitely blog it next year.  Marilyn says if you want good luck to plant trees in odd numbers, so we started with one.  If we do another it will have to be two more.

You can see the brown dirt of Waimea.  Very rich, but then you hit lava rock eight inches down.

Hard to dig.

But we got it in and we'll see if we have a green thumb or not.