TIMBER.... & more.

Some life updates for you today --

1. We had nine trees removed yesterday, and one (the huge evergreen in the back) drastically cut back (de-limbed & thinned out). A local company, For The Love Of Trees, took care of this for us. The crew was professional and fast. They were at our house at 8am, and gone by 330p. All branches & debris were either run through the chipper or otherwise cleaned up & removed, and the trunks were cut into logs for firewood. We don't have a wood-burning fireplace, but we do have plans for a fire pit in the back yard. Not sure if it will be wood-burning or not, so for now, we will stack & keep the logs. They will return Friday to grind three of the trunks down.

2. We continued tweaking the plans on the computer program; filling in the back yard with some misc plants (in the proposed veggie garden, as well as around the organic pool), etc, to give us a better visual of the finished yard. These plans will continue to get tweaked as we move along in executing them (we also need to figure out plans for the front yard, but that will come later). Now debating adding a tree back into the back yard on the west side, but not as close to the fence as the previous trees were, to give us evening shade over the patio, but not to interfere with the pool.

3. Decided our next step (this weekend) is to go talk to Lowe's, since the shed company we're going to use is through them. We need to figure out how big our concrete slab needs to be, how far from the fence line, etc... Then, we need to order the shed and schedule install.

4. Elvis' training is going super-well. We are so impressed with him! He passed the first six-week course with flying colors, and we have three more left in the second round. His house-training is going well; we started him on a 4ft tether, and he has earned being on a 12ft tether as of last Monday. He has not peed in the house since tethering started, but we have yet to allow him to freely roam. His commands now include: sit, stay, down, off (different from down), wait (different from stay), release (a potty command), and come. He knows his humans and which toys are which; if we ask for a certain one, he will get it (bone, rope, Kong, football, etc) about 90% of the time. He is friendly to everyone and respects Izzy as his elder. He walks loose-leash about 90% of the time (only pulling when we get close to home from a walk or whenever he thinks he knows where we're going), as well.

5. My accident attorney is in settlement talks with the woman's insurance company. I need one more visit to my PCP, and possibly one more to my OT to get my current grip strength on record. We're estimating, after all is said & done, I will cash out at about 1/3 of what Ace got (which is fair). Not sure exactly what I'm doing with it yet, but I will probably give some to Ace to contribute to the yard upgrades, and save the rest for a new (to me) car in a year or so.

6. My family law attorney has the Satisfaction of Judgments ready to go (these release MG of all past, present, & future financial responsibility to Princess & to me), but after the last communication he had with MG, and MG's lack of response, I've decided to continue pursuing his financial obligations to me. As much as I want him to just sign the consent & allow the adoption to happen (which will cost him NOTHING, and be over in one to two months), I can't force him to do so. This "I'll sign it if..." crap has been going on for six months, and I honestly don't believe he'll actually sign it. Collections is a slow process, but it *has* been started.