Changes are coming

A year ago this weekend we hosted an absolutely fantastic event that started with Jake's Eagle Court of Honor and the party afterwards. On Sunday we enjoyed the company of family: Farm Grandpa and Grandma, Gaylord Grandpa and Grandma, Mark and Sam, Nano and Paul. Much of our events were centered around our patio and deck. Less then a month later, the big tree that shaded the patio lost half of itself in a wind storm, taking out the line of big old shrubs and trees that had marked the property line to the south.

Since October we have been slowly progressing towards finishing the landscaping in that area. First we had to wait for the stump grinder man to return and do the "free" grinding (he owed us for the freestanding driveway light that they knocked down when they took down the tree.) He returned at the end of April. Then we had to wait for the lawn man to come in and regrade that area of the yard ( in years past, Kent would have been doing this but he is under the whip at work and with his Dad's affairs.) Greg finally came and did the yard on Wednesday. Kent got home late Friday so we used our Saturday to go pick out trees and put them in the ground. Since Kent did all the digging by hand he has asked for at least several weeks of respite.

Where does time go?

I can't believe how fast time flies by. Next weekend is the Memorial Day holiday. Jake is all done with his first year in college and Alix has finished her third. Mom and Daddy have been gone for 9 days now. And Amos is almost 3 months old.

We have a new family in our neighborhood - in our household to be exact. A pair of robins have built a nest on the edge of a porch pillar. It took them several fruitless days until we had rain and they could use mud to plaster the nest to the wall. I would have knocked it down before completion but it is too high up. So high up that I'm pretty sure they won't get any nestlings safely to the ground. I'll get a picture and post it later.

We did have some excitement a week ago. Jake discovered a football sized mass of honeybees clustered in one of our bushes about 3:00pm. It had just formed since lunch. We called our local "honey" man. He came and put out one section of a hive with some attractant in it. The next morning he came back and took the hive (with the new queen and most of her workers. He told us that what we had was a swarm of bees caused by a hive splitting into 2 hives. He was very encouraged to see a hive healthy enough to split. Since CCD (colony collapse disorder) started we have lost 1/3 of our honeybees. Improper use of pesticides is considered a major player in CCD.