Still good people in this world - Page 1

As some of  you know, I bought a dog kennel last summer. Well, it turns out that some of the kennels and part of the house are badly infested with carpenter ants. I had everything professionally sprayed, and was warned by the pest control guy that I should inspect the property for trees that are infested with ants, as those will serve as sources of a repeat infestation.

I found two trees that were just CRAWLING with ants. I called in an arborist to give me a quote on removal, and he wanted $1,600 for the one tree and 1,500 for the other. In the meantime, I sprayed both trees several times, but wasn't able to make even a noticeable dent in the traffic up and down their trunks.

One of my cousins is helping me with the bookkeeping and accounting, and I happened to mention the problem to her. Her face lit up. "Oh, I'll ask my husband if he can do it. He LOVES taking down trees!"

"That would be GREAT!" I replied.

A couple of weeks later, a wood splitter arrived on my property, and was left there. Then, yesterday, both my cousin and her husband arrived at 9 am. She set to work on my books, while he got the chainsaw ready....  s14.photobucket.com/albums/a344/Sunsilver/Tree%20Felling%20October%202010/

I was amazed by how fast both the trees came down (note the times I posted.) One of the trees was in a very tricky spot, surrounded by other trees. He lined up his cuts so skillfully that it never even touched another tree on its way down, and it also missed the nearby composter and fence.

My business partner's son and I helped out a bit, as did his wife, but he did 80% of the work himself. I was amazed by how quickly two large trees were reduced to firewood and slash.

The really funny part is that, like his wife, he's trained as a CGA (accountant) and banker. In recent years, his day job has been training bank employees. I asked him how he got so good at felling trees, and he said, "I think it's in the blood," and he reeled off the names of several family members who had made their living as sawmill operators, or working in the bush.

So, now you know what REAL Canadians do on their weekends, eh?  And he refused to take a single penny for his work.. He wouldn't even take the $30 I offered him for gas!  

"Pay it forward," he said....

 Sunsilver,

Your words and sentences were so simple and clear and beautifully put together, I felt I was reading a novel till you made the last remark "Pay if forward", I searched my old dictionary, no clue what this means !!!

Ibrahim

Simple concept, pay it forward.  Keep goodwill going by doing good deeds for others, thereby repaying your debt to one who was kind to you.

Nice story to share, Sunsilver!  It restores faith in mankind, too seldom seen anymore.

Oops, that typo didn't help! It should have been (as GSDTravels said) "Pay IT forward".  I guess it's the modern day version of the Bibical "Do unto others".

BTW, here's what the willow looked like earlier this week:



Now, I know I live in Canada, but this much snow in October, in Southern Ontario (Canada's 'banana belt') is RIDICULOUS!

It was very pretty, though!

Well, the bad news is the ants seem to have gone into hibernation, in the roots of the trees. We didn't find a single ant!  As for moving to a new tree, that's exactly what might happen if I don't do some serious spraying next spring. You'll notice in either the last picture or the second last that there is another stump very close to the stump of the spruce tree we took down. I think it might be a previous victim of the ants.  I may also try removing the stump, but that's hard, hard work with trees this size.

So far, I've just tried surface sprays. Next spring, I'm going to do a soil drench. I got rid of an ant colony that was in a previous house I lived in by drenching the soil around their access point, then sealing up the crack in the brick they'd entered through.

Imagine, coming downstairs at 2 in the morning, to find several thousand ants having a mating flight around the light in your living room...   Our landlord's solution was to put out ant traps [shakes head].  The ants just laughed....

LOL, I didn't even notice your typo.  I love your entrance, very welcoming!

 GSDtravels & Sunsilver, thanks for the explanation, in many places people pray to God for rain and snow and when they receive it they thank God for his Mercy, looks like you have a lot of Mercy so early in the year,  better thank God for it.

Ibrahim

Ibrahim, well, we are having a superabundance of mercy this week. Here's the forecast: www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/on-25_metric_e.html

I wouldn't mind so much if my roof AND the kennel roof didn't leak!  I have hired some contractors who are trying to make repairs, but you can't work on a roof when it's raining!

Yeah, I inherited a lot more problems than just the ants. Actually, the water leaks are what caused the ants to come in. They only attack wet wood.

I do thank God for the roof over my head, though, even if it does leak. So many others are not so fortunate.

 I think to protect wood people apply sealer, it protects the wood from humidity, maybe from ants too.

Ibrahim