Destruction on the Hollow

Hubby, riding through the tree tunnel on the hollow.

I'm madder than a wet hen!  I could just scream, I'm so angry right now!  My blood is boiling and I could spit fire and nails!

The Spring tree trimming crews have descended on our quiet little hollow and they are absolutely butchering our beautiful scenery.  Our local electric cooperative has hired a bunch of tree trimming contractors to make sure wayward limbs and branches are cleared away from the power lines.  These so-called tree experts are taking things to extremes when it comes to them having their way with our blessed trees.  You should see the absolute mess they are making!

They come onto our properties and hack away at the trees without a care in the world!  There must be six huge orange-colored Asplundh trucks all along our winding little road, with big cranes and wood chippers and chain saws, ripping away at trees that have stood majestically proud on the hollow for close to 100 years, if not more!  Some of the trees they are hacking away at aren't even close to the power lines, yet there they are chopping and sawing and savagely butchering these gorgeous trees.

We have this awesome tree tunnel halfway down the road that is so pretty this time of year with all the leaves so green and lush.  The trees have grown together from each side of the road until their branches are intertwined and the beautiful tunnel was formed.  It makes you smile to drive through it every day.

This morning, however, I rounded the bend to see that our beautiful tree tunnel has been forever marred by these savage beasts!  They have chopped several trees down to mere stumps at the entrance to the tunnel and others they have cut the limbs so far back the poor trees don't even resemble trees at all!  They might as well be bare telephone poles sticking straight up into the sky!  How humiliating for these majestic trees to be stripped of their beautiful arms!  Not to mention all the birds they are evacuating from their newly built nesting areas.  Don't these yayhoos know it's Springtime?  Eggs have been laid and baby birds are soon to be born in those tree tops!  Or at least they were, until these guys came along and knocked them all down!

I wanted to stop my car and jump out and scream bloody murder at these stupid tree killers this morning, but it wouldn't have done me any good as the majority of them probably don't even understand English anyway!  If I knew how to speak Spanish, I would have given them a good tongue blistering for sure! 

I dread the drive home tonight.  Our beautiful little hollow has been torn apart.  All the way to work I was wishing bad things upon these awful, careless men!  I hope their underwear is infested with sawdust and that ticks and chiggers crawl up their pant legs.  I hope they get huge splinters and that cardinals and angry wrens dive-bomb them.  I hope they come across a huge hornets nest and suffer painful stings!  I hope they leave our hollow and never come back!

Oh what a beautiful morning!

I just love a pretty Springtime morning!  This morning, Duds woke me up to go outside a little earlier than usual - two hours before it was actually time for me to get up!  I blindly made my way through the living room to let him out and when I opened the front door I was bombarded by a deafening symphony of millions of birds singing!  It sounded like every bird in Tennessee was in our front yard.  Even the turkeys were gobbling across the road.

Poor Duds seemed a bit bewildered as he made his way down the front steps and out onto the lawn to do his business.  He just stood there looking this way and that, trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from.

On my way to work this morning, I saw so many turkey out in the pastures doing their little mating dancing and prancing.  The toms were all puffed up with their tail feathers fanned out to impress and the hens were doing their best to ignore them as they strutted back and forth.  The fields are so green right now and there are random patches of daffodils here and there as if God dropped bulbs all around willy nilly so even the cows and horses could enjoy some of their beauty as they munch on grass.  All the trees are budding and blooming and everything looks so fresh and new.

Happy Spring!

A Day with Duds

One of our very good friends came by the other day to visit with Daddy and Dudley.  It just so happens this friend is a super fantastic photographer and he brought his camera with him, so he surprised me with some wonderful photos of our favorite floppy-faced boy.

They played in the yard with Duds, put hay out for the donkeys, sat by the fire and talked motorcycles and enjoyed a nice springtime day.

The donkeys lined up at the fence to watch all the commotion when Dudley took his first ride on the lawn mower and then chased Daddy all around the yard.

Poor old Duds was worn out by the end of the visit!

Thank you Bob, for the beautiful photos!  You're the best! xoxo

Happy Dog

Dudley's First Easter

Yesterday was Dudley's first Easter.  I felt kinda guilty because for the first time ever, I didn't even fix up an Easter basket for Hubby, let alone sweet Duds.  I guess I got lazy this year.  I did get Hubby a card, and a couple pairs of new jeans, but no jellybeans or chocolate bunnies.  We just had a nice dinner and I baked him a coconut cake.  Dudley's treat was a little turkey bacon at breakfast and some carrots as a snack later on in the day.  He loves carrots!

My sister sent us an email with a bunch of pictures of dogs in silly poses with signs that had funny sayings to go along with the photos.  We laughed and laughed.  She challenged us to come up with a similar photo with Dudley, so this is what we came up with.  He was a trooper and hammed it up for the camera, bunny ears and all.  Hooray Dudley!