Bye bye bushes

I lived in the same house all my life until I left home at age 18 to serve in Brethren Volunteer Service.  After just over a year of service in Dixon, Illinois, I lived at home for a year while I worked to save money before attending Elizabethtown College for four years.  After graduation I lived at home for two more years until Dale and I married.  So, for 26 years (off and on) this was my home.  The bushes in the front of the house were always there.  As a child I played around them and hid behind them.  When the realtor came to look at the house she strongly suggested we get rid of the bushes.  Although we had to agree, it was hard to see them go.

Yesterday Tim used Dad's chain saw to cut away the bushes, and Dave moved the branches out of the way and stacked them on the back of Tim's truck.

While Tim and Dave worked outside, Kenzie watched and took rides on the back of Tim's truck as Tim hauled the branches to the burn pile on what was once Pappy's garden.

I busied myself inside cleaning out the bottom of the filing cabinet where I found more family history information.  My brothers agreed that all the family history information should be kept together in one place and that I could be the person to hold onto it!  I also cleaned out a corner of Mom's closet where I found, not only more family history information, but every card, letter or drawing the grandchildren ever gave them!  I'm hoping this week to go back to the house and finish boxing up the kitchen.  The more work we do, the more we pack up, the more we remove from the house, the emptier it becomes and the more difficult it is to walk through the front door.  I don't look forward to the day it's empty and belongs to someone else.