The wildflowers have been beautiful this spring.
Violets in our yard.
Steven mowing while Odie supervises.
The goat, while tethered on a runner rope to graze on whatever grows, leapt onto this scrap pile and butted heads with a pine tree!
A bracket was broken that holds out tailpipe on, so Steven got out the generator and his welder, and welded it. Now our tailpipe doesn't wag back and forth when we drive!
"Hmmm...are mosquito larvae a protected species here on Mosquito Mountain?"
Odie won the flip of the coin and gets to serve first!
...and she leaps, and she twists...
...and smacks the ball!
Her opponent goes for the 'unconcerned defense' play, with hands casually in pockets!
Back to welding. Steven fixed a picnic table Stephen's parents gave us.
When he was done, it was a pretty solid table!
If the weather ever dries out, I'll paint it.
Marl Lake in the spring.
We finally got over there to do some fishing.
Too many good pictures to choose just one.
This one was taken while ont the water in the lagoon, looking over the north end of the lake.
A loon, maybe?
From the boat launch area. (it's to the right, not in picture)
A Redwing Blackbird
(I think. It's what we always called them.)
You're fishing with THAT??? What are you after...minnows?
Let me show you what I'M fishing with! (Scroll down)
Now, THIS baby is gonna catch some REAL fish!
Or not. We didn't catch anything. :(
Ah, laundry! After having to wring the laundry by hand for a couple months it's nice to be able to use the hand-cranked wringer again! I feel positively spoiled! The 'rapid washer' is great too. It has several layers of metal in the cone with holes and baffles that force the water through quickly and get the clothes really clean. What better way to do laundry than out in the fresh air and sunshine! It's a blessing to me!
Steven went over to the buffalo pen to get some of the trampled hay and manure from where we had been feeding them over the winter.
Odie went too, but decided to stay in the truck and listen to the radio.
(now if only the truck HAD a radio... lol)
Steven gets a kick out of my 'pretzel' poses as I sit on the floor and read by the woodstove in the mornings! This is one of my herb books.
A Mommy moose and her new baby, on our road yesterday.
Since we had to go to Eureka anyway we decided to kill as many birds with one stone as we could...and gee, that's not a very nice expression!
We hauled the trailer along and picked up tires behind the tire shop to use in the garden. We like the fat truck tires because when they're laid on their sides they make deep planters.
Some people worry about chemicals from the tires/rubber, and that's something I've read debates about and still use them. Mostly I put herbs and things like rhubarb plants in them, because it contains them nicely.
Among other errands we stopped by Krystina's parents' house and her Dad, Randy, dug up some little Choke Cherry trees that were coming up thickly in a corner of their yard, as well as some kind of perenniel flower that gets little purple bell-like flowers on it. Later I dug up some lilacs in front of the Fortine church where they keep pruning them back and more keep coming up around them! We went to the Farmer's market in Eureka and I finally found celery plants. I bought a flat of 4 plants and picked up one for Kathleen. They were the only two I found anywhere in Eureka.
Barbara and Victor's driveway, before mowing.
After mowing.
And so it begins...the covering of plants. Another long summer ahead of doing just that, now that my potato plants are coming up.
I make rings of dirt around them so that when I water, it keeps the water in by the plant. Cuts down on weeding and saves on water.
I'm hoeing rows to plant leaf lettuce.
This is one of my Oregano plants, which I was in the proces of cutting when I took this picture.
There's the Oregano on a drying rack on a shelf above and next to the woodstove.
It'll take about 2 days to be dry enough to put in a jar and store it.
The celery plants were VERY root-bound, meaning they'd been in their little starter-planter pots too long!
I gently pulled the roots loose and straightened them out before setting the plants in the holes and carefully filling in around them with dirt.
Steven cut the sidewalls out of the tires to make a bigger planting space. It cuts easily with a knife.
I stood on a stump to take this picture. In the back left I planted broccoli seed. The two small square beds in the back right have carrots planted in them. In the middle on the left is the celery plants I put in. Bottom left is Chard. Bottom middle is four rows of leaf lettuce, and lower-right is four rows of spinach.
All that's left to plant now is onions. I'll wait another week to plant the rest of the potatoes and peas. Then I just have to keep the whole thing watered, weeded, and safe from frost for the next few months!
"I just know this uhaul-camper is a magic box! If I go inside, then come back out, we'll be in a hot, sunny place with lots of sand and water and palm trees!"
We did a bit more work at Barbara/Victor's site the end of the week. We chopped down the driveway entrance, cutting through the berm with a pick, then shoveling away the dirt and rock. We filled some of the low spots in the driveway (you can see one near the motorhome) and some potholes in the road. Probably won't help the potholes much, but we did make sure there were a bunch of rocks in it too, not just dirt.
Despite the dampness we were able to get fires burning, so we burned off the brush piles. One was near the left of this picture, by that farthest back stump on the edge of the house site.
The last picture was looking left-ish and this one is looking right-ish from the same spot.
Steven did some shooting with one of his muzzle loaders Saturday. He's capping the powder horn after pouring a measure of powder down the barrel.
When he was done with the loading process, which involved things like a ball and patch, in addition to the gunpowder and a ramrod to pack it all down tight, and some kind of flint thingy (I think), then he aimed and fired.
Three test shots, all on the paper plate but above the center hole. So it's firing high. 
The cat inspects the lumber while Steven gets the first board onto the sawhorses and prepares to mark the cuts. We're working on the porch railing, using the sawmill slabs and other scraps we picked up there last week.
Steven used a chalk line to mark a straight edge, then made the cut with his circular saw (powered by the generator).
First section done. We put the curved side of the slabs outward.
And put the cut, plank-like sides toward the inside of the porch.
And here it is, done!
Before...
...and after!
A closer look.
Before...
...and after!
And with the table and bench back in place.
