daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
I’m just gonna let the photos speak for themselves. (Sorry, vegetarians!)
I hope you had a nice day!
またね～
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today I got an early Fathers Day gift: a Ryobi ONE+ 8 in. 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Pole Saw. It’s basically a mini-chainsaw on a stick. 😄
Our trees are getting way too overgrown, and I thought that instead of hiring the tree people to come out again, I would trim the branches myself. Honestly, the trimming is not the most difficult part of the job – it’s the disposal of the branches that is the real pain in the butt. I read great things about this Ryobi chainsaw, though, and figured I could use it to not only trim the limbs that are high up (without using a ladder) but also to cut the fallen branches into smaller pieces which I could then simply throw in our trash bin. (we don’t product much non-recyclable trash, so the bin always has plenty of room)
My goal is to be able to trim a little bit here and there, just enough to fill the trash bin, and if I do that every couple of weeks, I could get the trees under control. So for the first “test-run”, I cut down a few of the smaller limbs, then trimmed those smaller and filled up the bin. It took only about 40 minutes, which is a lot quicker than I thought! I estimate, though, that I only did maybe a sixth of one tree, so it would take many 40-minute sessions to clean up the two front trees.
Operation of the Ryobi Pole Saw is really easy. It runs off a lithium battery so it is convenient and quiet. You don’t need to fill the chainsaw with gas, nor attach a long extension cord. You do have to add lubricating oil which can get a little messy but other than that, it’s very simple to use. I had to say that cutting the felled branches into smaller pieces isn’t as easy as I was expecting, so maybe the trick is to make multiple cuts while the branch is still attached to the tree. But I think the easiest solution is to get a small hand-chainsaw like this one but that’s another $99. We’ll see how it goes the next couple months before I decide if I need that, though.
And of course the cats loved trying to get into the box the saw came in. I think it was a little too tight a fit, though!
I hope you had a good day.
またね～
They grow up so fast…
It’s true. I remember taking Bay to daycare for the first time like it was just yesterday! Now he’s finished with high school and off to college in a couple of months. Wow.
The graduation ceremony was very nice. It was held at the sports arena nearby which was the perfect size to host a ~525-student graduating class and families. In fact, the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park hosted 4 graduations today, starting at 8 am. Bay’s graduation was at noon, which I think was a perfect time because when it was finished, we had good light for taking photos, unlike the last ceremony which started at 8 pm and ended probably around 9:45 pm. Plus, after Bay’s ceremony finished, we could go home and relax a bit before heading out to a graduation dinner. Perfect timing!
By the way, the entire ceremony was live-streamed on YouTube. You can see when Bay’s name was read and he got his diploma in the video here. Enjoy!
I know that Koa’s high school career will also go by in the blink of an eye, and Bay’s college career as well, so I should try to step back and enjoy all the little moments before they pass me by.
またね～
Friday dinner: Yakiniku! Pork, beef, jalapeño, onion, kimchee, leafy lettuce, shiitake, sigeumchi-namul, kongnamool, cheese, pickled daikon/carrot, and Scotch Bonnet peppers… yum!!!
On Memorial Day weekend, Koa decided he would try to watch all the Harry Potter movies, but when we got to move #6, we discovered that we couldn’t find the disc. I’m pretty sure we bought all of them, so it is a mystery as to where it could be. Thankfully our library has a few copies of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince so I picked it up, and we could resume our marathon, albeit a few days after the holiday weekend ended.
I forgot a lot of the Harry Potter story, so it was cool to rewatch them all again and catch all the details I missed before. And Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is still my favorite movie of the series, but I have a new appreciation for Goblet of Fire. But one thing that I find a bit perplexing is when everyone turns against Harry in that movie, especially his best friend, Ron. I mean, Harry has never done anything to make Ron distrust him, right?
That reminds me, I should read the books… I’ve only read the last one, which was fantastic.
I hope you had a magical day!
またね～
