I knew we were set to get a cold front. Wind gusts up to 45 mph were forecasted. It ended up arriving shortly before nightfall. As the yard darkened i realized that the trees had grown considerably since i last pruned the branches. Oak branches were battering the laundry line and the cedar tree that held up one end of it was rubbing notably on the weathered canvas top of the chicken pen. I ran to the tool shed and dug around for my tree sheers. They did not appear to be in the tool shed. They had to be in one of the other two sheds. The newest shed was constructed after i had used the sheers last so i guessed they werent in that shed. I wrestled with the floor to ceiling door of the middle shed. The wind ripped it out of my hand and it flew with a sickening noise into the left support beam for the roof of the shed porch. I retrieved the door and shut myself in while searching for the sheers. I found them tucked behind a stack of egg cartons. I liberated myself and the sheers from the shed and then hurried across the yard to the laundry line. I snipped all the oak branches that were hanging down and making contact with the laundry line. The wind was whipping the trees about violently and rustling all their leaves with each thrust of their branches. Air funneled through the maze of tree trunks in the woods and made a noise resemblant of rusty machinery and air surging through a hollow tunnel. Once i had eliminated the threats to the laundry line i turned my attention to the chicken pen. I tried to convince myself the tree wasnt even scraping the canvas that often, so i would have an excuse to go inside where it was warm and bright and not worry about the uber heavy ladder buried somewhere in the toolshed. A gust of wind captured the trees and threw them into each other with ridiculous menace. I sighed. The tree branches scraped across the canvas roof with an unmistakable finality. The weather was showing me with 100 percent certainty that i was wrong. The project was indeed very necessary. I would have to find some way to get up there and trim those tree branches before they tore a hole in the canvas roof of the chicken pen. I hurried to the newest shed. It had an outdoor wooden chair on the porch. I grabbed it and dragged it across the yard until it was right beside the chicken pen. I stood up on the chair and held the sheers over my head to snip off all the branches that were scratching the pen roof. They fell one by one at the legs of the chair. When i was satisfied i had cleared the branches from the immediate area of the canvas roof to the chicken pen i grabbed them up and dragged them into the dog run for Sili and Cashew to chew on the following day. I threw the sheers in the shed and fought the wind to keep the door from slamming into the porch roof support beam again. I gathered the dogs and ran them inside to the house. I put the door on the chicken coop and retreated to the safety and warmth of the tiny house, away from the aggressive push and pull of the wind. Disaster averted. A few more hours under the circumstances and those chickens would have had a new and welcome escape hatch in the ceiling.
