Sigh, I'm going to miss that thing

My husband and I moved into our present home in 1974, one of the first of 42 houses on a mesa that now holds thousands of homes. For the first couple of years we had a steady stream of cars cruising through our cul-de-sac checking out the neighborhood. As our living room was at the front of the of the house, we got pretty tired of being on display all the time. So, DH built a stucco wall enclosing a brick courtyard in the front of the house. On that wall I grew - for over twenty-five years - a gorgeous trumpet vine. I called her my hyperactive child, difficult to manage but oh, what a glorious thing!

The last spate of wildfires in SoCA were driven by the worst Santa Ana winds in my memory, and I've lived in this area for all of my 56 years. The winds did severe damage to our fences, including this stucco wall. There is no way to repair the wall. It had to come down. Unfortunately, according to the fence man who will replace the wall with a wooden fence, my trumpet vine also has to go because she will knock over the new fence.

This weekend, DH and DS2 worked their butts off taking down the wall, starting with the vine.

Poor DH hasn't done any real physical labor for at least ten years (he's 68.) At one point he came in to wash his hands and asked, "Am I hiding my pain well?" An hour later, I had to haul DS2 to the walk-in medical center for a tetanus shot (gored by a piece of chicken wire). But, they got the thing done.

I'm proud of them, and it had to be done.

But I sure am going to miss that vine.