We have moved up to the guest house/cottage/cabin and our perspective has changed a bit.

We are cozy and sleep well with all the work that we’ve been doing. I haven’t heard a train (despite the fact that it is closer to my sleeping head than ever) in a couple of days but the bird activity on the near-empty feeder has been amazing and yesterday we believe we saw a juvenile Bald Eagle fly up the lake.

Ned moved the hummingbird feeder up to the guest house and a ruby throated hummer found us yesterday. We happened to be chatting with our neighbor when the bird came for food and was within an arms reach. We all stood stunned by the little bird.

Yesterday was an emotional day for me. Ron (our excavator extraordinaire) came down with the little backhoe and dug a ditch where the electric to the guest house will go. (Underground is best here in snow country.) While he was here the boys took down one cluster of cedars and a birch down by the lake and two thirds of the cedar cluster by the screen porch.

We didn’t want to remove the trees but to satisfy the powers that be in our permitting process and because there is a “creek” on one side of our land, we offered to set the house back five feet and move it over a couple. The trees were making it difficult to get the machinery into position and block a lot of valuable (in the winter) afternoon sun. Listening to the cracking and creaking of the trees as they came down hurt my heart. The trees have been there for nearly all of Ned’s lifetime and all of the time I’ve come here … even way back when I was here in 1976. They’re nice old trees that have sheltered the house and provided a place for kids (big and little) to swing. We’ve enjoyed their shade on hot days. I cried like a baby.

Today my perspective has changed a little.

Not only are my pictures of the day from a different perspective, but the way I’m looking at the loss of our trees has changed, too. The trees will keep us warm in the winter (not this winter, next winter) and the view from the big house is so much more open now. And, until Ned gets all the wood trimmed and cut, the birds are totally enjoying hiding among the branches on the lawn. This is such a beautiful place and we can enjoy our little perch above the lake this summer. It may test us along the way but there will be such satisfaction when we move into our new house and our new view of our beloved Messalonskee.