Every life must, inevitably, come to an end. For our majestic silver maple, which took such a beating in last year’s ice storm, that end came this week. I had tried so hard to bend reality to my denial, refusing to entertain the hideous notion that the Queen had to go. Once tall and proud, Her Majesty had become a doddering old dowager, given to shedding her limbs in a most untoward fashion.

Silver maples grow tall and full very fast, faster than they should. Unlike her slower-growing neighborhood peers, the Queen was never destined for longevity. And like many girls forced to grow up too fast, she did not age gracefully. While her trunk was sturdy, her largest branches were hollow and her smallest were frequent casualties to the wind that comes sweeping down our plains.

I did not know her in her youth–the Queen was a stately old matron when she came into my possession. But the past year has really aged her. Even though the ice storm was unavoidable, it saddens me that it happened on my watch; that I could do nothing to protect her. She just could not bounce back from such a devastating blow. The Queen had to be felled, to be put down.

One more winter could have seen her topple over, finally, onto the House. As much as I loved the Queen, I love the House of the Burning Prairie that much more.

It is quite a bit of work to take down a 50-year old silver maple; luckily there are people who do just such a thing for a living! So I farmed out the onerous task of taking the Queen down, as well as two other, less majestic trees that had suffered the same damage, to people who know what they are doing.

The Queen came down in uneasy stages. The first day all of her still-leafy branches were cut away. Then on the second day, her trunk was cut into more manageable pieces. Those more manageable pieces are still quite large and are now sitting at the curb, waiting to be hauled away. Her branches, however, were cut and stacked in the back yard, where they will stay, seasoning, until spring. While those branches will no longer shade the House from the summer sun, they will warm our House next winter.

I think the old girl would be pleased.

Some things the House does right:

1)We bought an existing house, 2)We walk Monkey to school in all but the very worst weather, 3)I quit taking the daily paper, 4)Reusable grocery bags! 5) Buy local food when available, 6) Don’t own a Suburban anymore, 7)Recycle the copious number of magazines that we always seem to have, 8)Re-use plastic bags, 9)HE front-loading washing machine, 10)Fluorescent light bulbs.

Things we do that aren’t so good:

1)Disposable diapers, 2)Buy water, 3)Forget to compost, 4)Forget to recycle everything else, 5)Old house is not well-sealed.

One thing we’ve done that is better for the environment, but is actually done to save money: curtailed or eliminated driving-for-fun.

Something we’ve done that is better for the world, but is actually done to spare our frazzled nerves and keep from pissing off strangers-that-never-did-anything-to-us: Take the kids on a real vacation (we always drive).

Someday(doesn’t everyone say that?), I’ll do better. Solar power for the House, hybrid or electric car, alternatives to air-conditioning for the House, gray water for the yard.

Things I need to do NOW: plant a vegetable garden, put up a clothesline, potty train Pumpkin, recycle everything recyclable, compost all plant matter, remember to turn off the power strips at night.

And I don’t care if this is Oklahoma and it does start getting pretty hot this early, I REFUSE TO TURN ON THE DAD-GUMMED AIR CONDITIONER IN APRIL!!!!!!!11!!one!!!!!!eleven!!!!!!

We have had rain the last several days, boy howdy have we had rain. The tornado sirens went off in the early hours of Tuesday morning and Monkey couldn’t go back to sleep in his bed so he stayed with me. Tuesday was quiet and dry, but Wednesday brought even more rain.

Monkey, Pumpkin and I got caught in a down-pour and couldn’t walk home from school. Hubby had to come and rescue us! It rained the rest of the afternoon and night. So we’re pretty water-logged right now. Some parts of the metro area are flooded; streets look like creeks and creeks look like rivers.

The drive home from class last night was a little nerve-wracking. When I got home there were buckets and towels on the floor, for the leaks. We really need to get the roof replaced soon, but right now I have sort of a hillbilly outlook on it. Can’t fix the roof in the rain, and if it ain’t rainin’ it ain’t leakin’.

Another little hillbilly touch: I could’ve run a bait shop out of my den this morning. I have removed seven worms already and the day is young. This is, sadly, not the first time this has happened and I know just what to do. My worm-catching kit comes in quite handy because I do catch-and-release. Worms are good for the yard and that’s right where I take them. My super-duper worm-catching kit consists of a big plastic cup and a plastic butter knife. And I have a technique: 1)guide the worms into the cup with the butter knife, 2) dump the worms in the yard.

Oh, and if you find yourself in my enviable position, just remember this: don’t put more than two worms in the cup at the same time. They use each other as ladders and will swarm out of the cup and sometimes land on you. Ick.