Niece Visits

My niece came up today from Eugene. She's trying to get into the army so the army will pay for her medical schooling. She's been accepted into medical school. She broke her hip when young so was denied the Air Force. Hopefully she'll get into the army. She just has to serve four years after she graduates and gets a full scholarship through medical school, if she gets in.

She came up to help me cut branches off the splitting maple out back. But, I had not looked at the far side of the tree. On that side, the crack extends clear to the ground. She was horrified and did not want to attempt it with merely a sawzall and a hand saw.

I poured water into the bucket like hole of the main trunk, which is the cause of the rot all the way down the middle of the tree. We watched water ooze from the crack near ground level. That was interesting. The tree needs cut immediately. She called her father, my brother, Mr. Landlord, and he says he'll come up and cut off most of the branches as soon as he can.

After that, since there was no sense attempting to remedy the split tree problem with puny tools, we went to Corvallis for lunch then for a walk along the river. We threw little sticks into the river then tried to hit them with rocks. Takes very little to entertain me.

Fun day and the sun is out too.

When I came home, it appeared the far side crack had enlarged even farther, scaring me. I was able to remove one branch with the sawzall before the battery went dead. I left a message with a tree removal company but no reply so far. It's now I think an emergency.