There is this pile of wood that has been sitting in the back of our yard since we moved in. One of our requests when buying the house was to remove this very large, dead tree that was in the back of our property, but the seller’s response was that the tree could be chopped up, but to have it removed would be an extra several thousand dollars.

So, we agreed, and this pile of wood was put in the back of our yard, hidden behind the garage, where it just sat.

There may be snakes in the pile, though I have never seen one. Rosie has been told just to avoid that corner of the yard, and she has.

It is hard to capture just how big this pile is- but there is a problem: I cannot remove it. I dont have a truck, and in order to rent a truck, it would take a whole day just to go back and forth to the dump- time I don’t have.

So, Taylor’s idea was to put an ad on the Nextdoor app. Post a few pictures of the wood, and offer $300 for anyone to come remove it.

The first person to respond was a nice man in his fifties who has done this kind of thing for a long time. He was very kind, and took a look at it and said:

No way. There is no way I can remove that wood for that price. Those larger logs on the bottom, I’ll need special equipment to move them”.

– Experienced handyman.

Ok, this wood was huge. It was an old oak tree that was 3 feet wide. So, I called the second guy who responded on Nextdoor: a “college kid” who “heard from his mom that there was wood that needed to be removed”. You can tell where this is going, right?

In my mind, this is a college kid just like me: a string bean. And if an experienced guy couldn’t do it, there was no way a “college kid” could. I posted extra pictures, with a cinder-block for scale, just to ensure he knew what he was getting into.

The guy shows up at 6:30 pm that same day, and I was laughing with Taylor all day thinking there was no way this guy could do it. He texts me and says he is here, and on my front porch is the strongest man I have ever seen. He was the hulk. And very, very polite.

I showed him the pile, and he said he could do it. He knew a place to dump some of it (his grandma’s house), and the rest he would split and use to heat his own mother’s house.

After 2 truckloads, I saw there was a third row of logs, and they were some monster pieces of wood, we felt bad about how much wood it actually was, and upped our price a bit.

Lumberjack Luke brought his wedge, axe, and sledge, and split all of that wood in our backyard. We were out of town in the mountains that weekend, but the security system was set, and so were the outside cameras. And when we returned, this is what we saw:

This is a small brag about Rosie.

Our afternoon routine usually involves Taylor picking up Rosie from “Kid’s ahead”, the after-school program Rosie LOVES, and picking up Mercy from Daycare (Usually I am able to drop off in the morning). When they get home, usually Mercy just immediately cries until she is fed (unfortunately, this has put us in the super-early dinner time pattern of eating around 5:15 or 5:30).

So, it works best if the girls play outside for a bit so that Mercy can be a bit entertained and distracted from her whining.

Rosie is just a gem. Mercy is almost 2, and I can count on one hand the number of times Rosie has complained about her little sister. Her patience and genuine joy when she plays with her little sister always blows me away.

I wish I could freeze these moments. It is something I don’t deserve.

On the opposite side of the workday, chatting with Rosie and meeting our neighbor on our walk to school, is also special every time. During this brief moment, I have no cell phone, no distractions, and Rosie just opens and shares about her day. I treasure that time.

App State

Also, Taylor and I got to watch APP State beat #6 Texas A&M this weekend. It was amazing, and the biggest win for App State since they beat Michigan 15 years ago. Rosie was out of town at a sleep over, and Mercy was asleep- so Taylor and I got to enjoy the game. It was so much fun, and I am thankful that Taylor and I both went to App State to have such fun together watching it.