You don't hire someone to do the easy 95% of the job. You hire someone because when you find something crazy in the hard 5%, they have the experience and skill to pull it off while making it look easy.

I'm not downplaying how much someone of average competence can pull off, but when the chips are down experience counts for a lot.

I say this having replaced 140' of rotted logs in our log home this summer. Some full length. We got it done, but there was some sketchy use of car jacks, bottle jacks and a comealong to finish the job. I am 100% certain a pro would've gotten the job done with far less stress and far safer setups.

Kids, shit. I'm 42 and any time I run across a copy, I re-read it just for the sheer pleasure of seeing what all's happening on every page!

Have I got a treat for you:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BD5oBHGmes8

This tracks for us in Vermont. It's barely rained since early July, and of the trees in our yard, the birch is damn near bare, the oak is starting to drop, and the maple is just holding on to its leaves. In the wider area I drive in, the trees are starting to show some color.

We're looking forward to some rain this week, but we're a ways behind[0]. If you have New England fall foliage plans, you might want to move them up if you can.

[0]https://www.drought.gov/states/vermont

Sorry for the slow reply; it's noticeable in practice. I'm pretty sensitive, and it's usually a good indication that it's time to sharpen knives when I start crying a lot. Sharpening generally improves my onion-cutting experience, unless it's a particularly pungent bag of onions.