Because I wanted to.

The Grandmother Oak has towered over our back yard for much longer than we've been here - perhaps 200 years or so. She is absolutely massive, and beautiful in a weathered, experienced sort of way. She really ought to have the services of a professional tree surgeon to trim out some deadwood and offer support where necessary - but the estimates I got were all in the $8,000 range, and so we decided she was going to have to muddle through on her own.

Recently, on a beautiful clear day, she suddenly dropped a huge limb. The limb (which had held our tree swing for the last 8 years or so) appeared healthy, and we found no rot or other internal reason for it to go. It reminded me of an elderly lady who suddenly breaks her hip.

Rick got up there with his ladder and not only cleared off the splintered remains of the limb in question, but did his best to trim an equal weight of dead wood from her other side so as to keep her as balanced as possible. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it will be enough.

The party details for today:

1. The tent guy can rig for lighting, and is ready to finalize his set-up.
2. The church is not booked up on the 8th, other than a Historical Society tea in the early afternoon, so the meeting hall can stand in as "Plan B" in case of rain.
3. George, the guy raising the pig, is going to call me with an estimate. (I was going to go actually see the pig, and perhaps name him "Orville," but Tasha feels that it would be in bad taste.)
4. Tammy wants to see a picture of our wedding cake. She's already making the party cake the same flavor, but now she's also considering copying the actual style of the original.