Reed had two weeks of block leave from his post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and came home for some R & R. He flew in on a Saturday night. The next morning, we drove to Fargo where the Legreid clan was gathered at a park near Oak Grove High School.
Reed greets Myrt Wick, Linda and Judy's mom.
Reed and Brent are both Army "lifers" and have both been deployed to Iraq. Brent has also been to Afghanistan. Oak Grove is Brent and sister Anna's alma mater.
Naturally, we had to put Reed to work while he was home. A willow tree in the back yard looked quite unhealthy and we made a deal with Reed. We'd buy his plane ticket in exchange for his felling the willow. He talked with an Army buddy who formerly was in the tree removal business and got some tips on how to proceed. First, he climbed as high as he could on an extension ladder and wrapped rope around the thickest limb.
The rope was then run through two pulleys tied to each of two trees in the direction we hoped the tree would fall.
My job was to keep the end of the rope taut as Reed sawed through the base of the tree. He took out a rather large wedge from the southeast side of the tree. Then he made another cut perhaps two inches higher than the missing wedge on the opposite side of the tree.
It came down EXACTLY where Reed planned it. My wife, who has a knack for conjuring up worst case scenarios, must have been beside herself as the tree came crashing down. But it missed our patio roof, the shed shown here, and the fence separating our yard from Betty Mills' yard. Reed made good use of brother-in-law Neil Heinle's chain saw. By day's end, he had the whole tree cut up into 24" pieces save for the base of the tree show here which was cut down a bit and now serves as a stool on the patio. Slick!
Mere and Reed pose in the front yard.