Spring work

Well, more work has been done on the garden, in fact enough to do some planting. Peas, potatoes, asparagus and spinach are in. Now to get a fence up before the deer figure it out. I borrowed a tiller from one of the neighbors and man did that make quick work of things. I had been turning the ground by hand with a shovel and pitchfork, but in about 2 hours I had made more progress than I had in the past 3 weeks combined. Oh it’s so good to have the right tool for the job! The tiller was a Craftsman 6.5 hp 17” rear tine heavy duty tiller. Boy was that baby sweet! I wrestled all 206 lbs of it up, down and across the slope for a few hours till I thought my arms just might fall off. Happily I report, they didn’t.

After making such quick work of things, I decided to expand my garden another 25-30% and create a berry patch. So thanks to Gurney’s great web coupons and B1G1 sales I am the proud owner of 100 strawberry plants, 9 blueberry bushes and 4 raspberry bushes. Now to get them in the ground and keep the bears away from my harvest.

Josh had a meet Saturday and did really well. His team has qualified for State in the 4x800 a few meets ago and they were attempting to qualify for the 4x400 this time. They just missed it. Maybe next meet. So far no schools in their division have qualified; they were hoping to be the first. They did take 6th out of over 30 schools in the 4x400. Josh had the final leg and he shot out like a rocket and held the lead in his heat till the end. After a few years of struggling, he finally has his run back. We’re looking forward to seeing him run in the state meet in Pueblo. In high school, I missed making state in the 1600 by 2 places, placing 6th in my district. I try not to think it could be a bit of vicarious living though him, but…

Steve & I hiked up our hill last weekend and spent he afternoon together just enjoying the views. Things are starting to green up a bit, finally. The hens are laying…a lot. And things are starting to come together around here. I helped Emily put a hammock up in a couple of trees in the creek, so when summer hits she can lay in the hammock in the coolness of the creek bottom and hide out from housework and the summer heat. Ok, I’ll admit, I did try it out for a while; it’s a nice, relaxing hide away. Sometimes it’s hard to keep focused on my work and the children’s ministry we lead with so much else vying for my attention.

Em has taken over Becca’s room and Steve has plans for a real office in Em’s old room. I’m still trying to organize and de-clutter around here. EBay has helped kick that process into high gear. There is always something to do around here.


Checking out the garden to see if I'm open for business yet. I bought a roll of 8' high fence. Hope it keeps em out! suppose they can read? No shoes, no shirt, no service!


After 5 loads of maure, the garden is ready to be tilled again.


After a few days of taking the long way up to the garden, I got a shovel and started to craft some steps. It decided to snow a bit one night and made for a nice picture.


A relaxing afternoon up on the hill. What a great view! If you could zoom in, you'd see the downtown Denver skyscrapers off toward the right.


The deer were brave and came up to the house to get the nice green tender new grass sprouting near the sidewalk. There were 18 plump does in the yard; we ought to see some new fawns here pretty soon.