My Hometown

Well, after spending more than a week at my parents' house, I became nostalgic and decided to take several pictures and tell a little about where I grew up every once in a while here.  It all started because I helped my dad mow his huge lawn (it takes an hour on the riding lawn mower, and about an hour and  a half of trimming), and then watched him as he watched my three nubbins jump on the trampoline. As I looked around at the place I grew up and knew best, it felt important to write somethings down. 

First of all, I want to show the burn pile. This is a place way behind our house in between the fields and a creek, where my dad stashes all the branches that fall from the trees and the grass clippings (he even lets the neighbors put their grass clippings in there!) and once or twice a year, depending on the tree carnage, he burns it.  I remember as a teenager begging him to burn it so I could invite my friends over for a bonfire. It never happened. He always seemed to burn it when I wasn't around, so I've honestly never seen the huge fire that happens. This spring my family spent several hours helping to clean up the old orchard, and we pretty much built this burn pile in one day.

The trees that surround my parents house are huge HUGE HuGe HUGE. They are so old that when there is any kind of wind, we hurry to move all the cars down the hill behind the house so when the branches fall there is no vehicular damage.  On Tuesday morning of this week I went to get in my parents' van and found a branch about 4 inches in diameter and 3 feet long that landed just behind the car.  And, on Monday we saw a massive branch that fell down while we were celebrating the 4th of July that morning. It was probably 2 feet in diameter and 30 or more feet long. No major damage there, though!

I hope you enjoy seeing these photos and learning about the place I still call home.