Abbie's Real Life Blog

I bought two trees over the weekend and I failed to remember exactly how heavy trees are, especially when you buy them from the tree farm and they have 2.5″ trunks.  Those root balls are insanely gigantic.  I am no lightweight, but I can’t move them on my own.  On the other hand, I hadn’t exactly decided where they’re going yet.  I mean, they’re going in the front yard and I know approximately where they’re going, but I hadn’t picked the exact spot yet.  After my sister and Tracy pretended to be trees in the yard while I stood across the street and yelled directions at them, I now have a couple of wooden stakes pounded into the grass.  When I get home tonight, I have to dig the holes, so I better have picked the right spots.  It’s a permanent decision!  Not easy.  Tomorrow my dad will bring a dolly and help me get the trees across the yard into the right positions.

Both of the trees are crabapples, but one is a Prairie Fire crabapple (with purple blossoms in spring and purple berries in the fall) and the other is a Sugar Tyme crabapple (with white blossoms in spring and red berries in the fall).  I love multi-season interest and I love trees and shrubs that attract birds and butterflies.  The trees will be the same height and vaguely the same shape eventually, but the Prairie Fire also has a purplish bark while the Sugar Tyme has grayish bark.  I am very happy with the pick.  I think they’re going to look really nice and provide some shade with our full-west exposure, while not overwhelming our one-story ranch house, and they’ll be consistent in terms of design without looking too matchy-matchy.

I finally worked on some California pictures, finally, just in time because of course I have two photo events this weekend so I will be overwhelmed with other work over the next couple of weeks.  I also have a photo in a photo essay at Inside Columbia magazine this month.  I have a post at the photo blog with pictures.

I also went door-to-door for the Jay Nixon for Governor campaign on Saturday.  Obama didn’t take federal financing, which I knew, but I didn’t realize how that affected local campaigns.  The state campaigns have a separate office from the Obama campaign, which means that when I signed up as a volunteer for the Missouri Democratic Party last week, they sent my name to both campaigns.  I mean, I want to do what I can, but it’s frustrating to see that I have to split what little time I have between the two worthwhile campaigns.  So I walked miles in penance for Jay Nixon on Saturday and plan to attend a meeting for Obama tomorrow night.  I have every intention of really helping as much as I can.  I’m not really sure that knocking on doors helps the campaign, but I tried to be quick and painless.  I was kinda surprised at how many people will answer the door in their pajamas.  I certainly wouldn’t if I were them.  Weird.

I am getting a new roof on my house!  I know, I’m sure you’re jealous about my spectacularly amazing home-buying skillz, now that I’ve had to do that foundation work and get a new roof and it’s just been two years that I’ve been in the house.  I am very excited about the roof, though.  I’ve got two estimates lined up tomorrow (while I will be digging my holez in the front yard) and I hope to line up a third estimate as well.

And generally that’s what is up with me these chilly fall days.  Somebody on KBIA this morning said that’s it’s FALL, it’s FALL, whee it’s FALL, and I just gave my radio a LOOK like “what the hell are you talking about?  have you ever been to Missouri?  are you even familiar with this state?  because we have several weeks of summer left.  this is just a little bitty blip.  it will hit ninety again before this summer is through.”