Heavy Lifting Back Home and Old Man Winter Lingers Still

This past two weeks were busy and physically demanding after the relative leisure of our winter away from home. The weather, except for a few days, continues to feel almost like winter. At this writing it is snowing heavily as it has done all day and beginning to accumulate. During the few dry days we put in many hours recovering our property from the ravages of winter. Little furry critters love to shred our beautiful lawn under the cover of snow every winter but this was the worst we have seen by far.

All the dead turf had to be raked off and nest holes filled. Every spring there is also a major cleanup of willow branches and twigs that have to be raked up from the property along the creek and burned. The pond as usual had filled to the brim with mud and willow branches which had to be dredged out by hand. All this was finished just before it began dumping rain and snow again for three straight days now. The creek is running at levels we have not seen since building here twelve years ago although Dad says we have seen nothing compared to several summer flash floods his family lived through on this property in the 1950's that saw the entire valley floor knee deep in flood waters. For those who have seen the quite pond and tiny clear stream that normally flows check out the following. In the second picture a 10" culvert through the dam is running at capacity but hidden by the flow over the dam.

In addition to yard work we have had the pleasure of babysitting Lance and Aubri's little Taylor several days as well as celebrating her second birthday on May 5th.

Then there have been major car repairs to our little blue Elantra. Two were an eventual consequence of inadequate protection from pelting gravel to both the radiator and air conditioning condenser while being towed, primarily during our Alaska trip in 2009. A recommended timing belt change whose failure would destroy the engine was also done. A big surprise upon returning was an offer from Dad's old employer to go to Belgium with Dave Gardner for up to three months to work on a fab automation project with which they are intimately familiar. There are many considerations but a major condition was that the company would also pay the way for Laurene and I to accompany them. We don't know if all conditions will be accepted and are awaiting the outcome of negotiations at this time. We hope to hear by the end of this week so that we can make plans to either leave the first of July for Europe or get on with summer plans at home. Finally, I had a wonderful Mother's Day, receiving gifts, visits, cards and/or phone calls from each of our dear children after very inspirational Sunday meetings to honor mothers.