D reading to Polly after swim lessons

Planting time!

Northblue blueberry

Northsky blueberry

We've been busy planting various things: Latham and Heritage raspberries, Jersey Knight and Purple Passion asparagus, and Northblue and Northsky blueberries. The Jersey Knight asparagus roots were pretty puny and dried out, so I'm not sure if they will survive or not. It will be 2-3 years before I can try the asparagus if both varieties live. Supposedly, the raspberries will be ready to try later this summer. It will be 2 years before the blueberries are ready to try.

Siouxland cottonwood

We also got my first tree for the year planted: a Siouxland cottonwood. Yes, some of my family members have called me crazy. :) It was planted by the burn pile, so it won't be too far to haul the sticks and branches that break off.

Its a cotton-less variety, which should make Chris and the neighbors happy. I wouldn't have minded an old fashioned one like from when I grew up on the farm, but those are messier and bigger trees; the Siouxland one isn't quite as big or messy.

I have 3 more trees I want to plant this year: a northern catalpa (my mom planted one from a seed when she was little and it's still alive and growing today), scarlet oak and a cardinal royal mountain ash (my grandma had a mountain ash too, so that makes me think of her). The mountain ash is expensive, so if it dies, I won't be happy, so I'm still thinking on that one. I can get a bare root variety of a different type of mountain ash that would be ok and a lot cheaper, but I'd really like the cardinal royal variety since the berries are red, rather than orange.

I have more things I'd like to plant around here and there, but I do only have so much time to water, I (and family members) keep trying to remind myself. So, replanting windbreak shrubs that died during the winter will wait another year, along with some of the other shrubs I want to plant in our corner fence/property border areas. I also have a different corner garden area I'm also slowly working on... I have too many ideas and get too many plant catalogs in the mail!! I admit, I don't have a lot of patience and just want everything done right away and forget about the initial watering commitments that take a bit of time.

D has had fun helping plant everything so far. The blueberries are in pots so that I can keep the soil acidic enough for them, so that wasn't quite as fun for him since I didn't let him use his little shovel for those.

Purple Passion asparagus

Latham raspberry

Jersey Knight asparagus

Heritage raspberry

D has been enjoying the warmer weather we've been having and has been crazy exploring. We don't really have trees for him to climb, but he has decided to try an evergreen. Some of the lower branches had been cut off, so he's got toe holds and has been making use of them. He did fall down and scrape his tummy, but that hasn't deterred him from trying to climb it again and again!

He has also been wearing his bike helmet every where when he's outside, and not just when he's riding his bike, so I guess if he does fall more out of the tree his head will be ok! ;-)

The county scraped a bunch of gravel from the shoulder into our mowed ditch this winter, so it has not been fun getting that raked and picked out of the grass. We should have been working on it earlier, but were trying to get the basement done before the nice weather came. The basement isn't done, but we needed to get outdoor stuff started. A big thanks to my mom for all the help she's given us!!!

We mowed the lawn for the first time this week--argh! Not quite ready for that weekly chore to start, but am definitely liking the warm weather and all the plants coming alive again. Hopefully we can escape all of the crazy severe weather this spring and my little plants that I've just planted will get a chance to grow!

D climbing the tree.

Transportation!

They've been discussing and learning about different types of transportation in Preschool and encouraged anyone that had something different to bring it in for the kids to see.

Basement...2nd house

We've been remodeling our basement (a few years earlier than intended, so some of my outdoor projects are put on hold until next year). We had to do this at our last house since the basement flooded. This basement also had water issues, in addition to a crawlspace that was dirt and had some water mold issues (dryer used to be vented to it), and in May last year, we had a drainage system with sump pumps and dehumidifier put in to take care of water issues in the crawlspace and basement part.

We've been working on the basement since then. And had various basement things scattered around our house and my parents house.

Today, drywall is going up! We did the layout, framing and electrical ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the drywall and texturing. Got to admit, I was really nervous last night, thinking that we'd missed something and weren't ready for the guys to come today. They come a little later than they were going to originally since we got a snow storm.

They've got the ceiling up and are working on the walls now, so in the coming weeks, we'll have painting, electrical to finish, flooring, doors and trim. Not to mention a few new pieces of furniture.

It's going to be a multi-purpose room as there will be an elliptical, our old wood kitchen table, probably a small tv area and a place for a rice box for D to play in.

It's quite a change from what the previous owner had. We had to tear the base cupboards when we moved in as they had molded. We also decided to take out the upper cabinets and aren't going to put them back.

Basement when previous owner lived here

Basement when previous owner lived here

D loved to help clean up the floors!

New layout, with two rooms and a closet, compared to the original layout with one big room.

New haircut

D wanted his hair shorter like Daddy's. He got a lot of hair cut off today. We didn't cut it as short as Chris' so he still has some bangs left.

D needs a vacation...

Evidently, D decided he needed a vacation today.

He had asked me earlier where his swim trunks were, and I said you didn't need those right now as we weren't going swimming.

Well, Chris said, "Hey, have you seen this?" and I said, "Seen what?"

Well, D did pack a bag after I left his bedroom.

He packed all the essentials: socks, underwear and hot wheels... :)