Tree Trimming

We had a lot of prunning done on our sugar maple today. Here are the first pile of branches taken off today, many more followed.

There were old broken cables holding the three trunks together. They think they were dated more years than one would believe. There are still three screws holding the three trunks together closer to the base of the tree, they think these are dated after the broken cables - or at least long enough ago that the tree has grown around them. Now it has been cabled with three cables much higher in the tree. There was lots of purning to keep branches that we thought were too close to our neighbor, and any dead branches. Luckily our neighbors were thrilled with the results - as we heard from the tree guys. It is an amazingingly tall maple tree. I think next year we will just have to see if we can tap any sap from it for syrup.





Here is one of the tree guys in the tree, Zane and I were watching and taking pictures from the second floor. They loved talking to Zane about what they were doing. He kept them busy with lots of questions. We watched the branches go into the chipper and Zane was amazed at how small they could make so many branches. All the brick planters were finished today as well. I think tomorrow we get the sod. We have a party one week from Saturday, so we are under the gun to get this yard done.

Memorial Day Weekend

We just spent the weekend at the lake house with O'd, Liz, Alex, Liam & Duke their dog, along with Ian & Diane and their kids Declan, Gwendolyn & Vivian, and the long missed Uncle Phil.



Seby & Liam could of used a few days without anyone else around. Luckily they were able to get their own time together and still make time to play with everyone else this weekend.



Here are Alex, Zane & Graham going for a kayak ride. Zane was pretty excited about seeing Alex. I was missing all my cuddles from him over the weekend - there was so much cuddle time he needed to get/give from everyone else.



Diane & Vivian before Viv got everything off for a dip in the freezing cold water!



Cody was missing hanging out with Wes, but he did a great job of being a big help to Slade and I, and Zane was happy to get some cuddle and book reading time from his big bro.



Here is everyone (with Alex taking the pic) from our cold Memorial Day Weekend. Of course the day we were leaving it was the warmest!



We all went for a family ATV ride before we left. Here is Cody & Zane and Graham heading off to lead our trip.



Seby followed with Slade and I bringing up the end of the line.



The first stop on our ATV ride was to the lean-to that Cody has been working on. He is looking forward to adding to it this summer.

We had a great time up there and all agreed that even when the weather is bad it is still great to be there. It always looks beautiful to look out at nature - beautiful day or stormy one. We are hoping for rain to help the vegie plants Slade and Zane planted this weekend.

Market Place

The JH had "Market Place" today. The kids have been working on business plans and figuring out what to sell, how to make it/buy it, etc.


Here are Cody & Sam - selling chocolate chip cookies, lemonade & milk. They were "dressed" up as "Grandmas." They had wigs when I saw them setting up, but I guess they changed their minds. Their business is 'Lil Cookers.




Graham & Nikki had a delay in "opening" - they lost their folder with all their needed papers to run the business. They had to work fast to fill out the right paperwork, and had eager customers waiting. Their business is Circus Town - they sold lost of small toys that young kids love.

Grilling

Here is Slade happy to be grilling outside. Saturday he made steaks and salmon, last night it was pizza. After xmas he bought a pizza stone to use in the grill and he has been eager to use it. We each had our own pizza's last night for dinner. It was a big hit with the boys. They had leftovers for breakfast and lunch today!




Here Cody & Graham are playing with the slot cars. We have been telling them that once the carraige house is fixed we will put the slot cars out there for them to use anytime they like.

Helping

Here are Seby & Zane helping move shoes out from under the bed. They just HAD to wear a pair as they did the job.

More Trees!

The area with the containers will be where a large brick contianer will be. There was a plant sale at the school this week and it was much fun to buy plants that we will soon be able to plant!! The dark area is where they laid compost today - the sod will go down next week. It is fun to watch the daily progress.

Something Green!

Something green is in our backyard!!! We got a few of the trees planted today! Very exciting. I can't remember what kind of tree this is called. It is one of those hardy kind, we had put one in our backyard in Chicago and marveled at how big it got. To the right is also a new tree - a birch. There are actually two of them to the side.

Mayor Bus Tour

We went on a great bus tour tonight with R.T. Rybak, our Mayor of Minneapolis. What a down to earth guy! It was great fun to not only get a tour from our Mayor, but also someone who grew up in this city and knows so much about it's history.

This pic was taken on the stone arch bridge over the Minneapolis River.

We were able to sneak in a pic with him at the end of the tour, with the bus we toured on behind.

Mud Boys

The landscaping started today, but by the looks of these two mud boys they could care less if it ever gets finished. They are so bummed that we won't have a mound of dirt for them to play in. I can't wait for it to be gone.



It is pretty cute to watch them have so much fun, but I'm sure they will have just as much fun running around the clean green grass and climbing up the two-story playhouse with a slide and a sandbox. I've told them if they really miss the mud pile they can make one somewhere up at the lake house. Hopefully they will forget all about it.

Seby's New "Bike"

Here is Slade riding Cody's bike with the new attachment for Seby. This was a quick trial ride.

Monday we are going to ride to school; Cody with the tandem for Seby, Graham on his bike, and me pulling Zane in the burley. Cody and Graham go on a week long bike ride with school for the last week of school - so they need to be riding to train for it. They have been riding to school when the weather is good for the last two weeks.

The other night they took a ride to a store and came back in a downpour which they said was a blast. I meant to get a picture of them to show how well they have acclimated to Minnesota. So many people here ride bikes in all kinds of weather, snow storms too. I've seen it or I really wouldn't believe it.

Block Club

Here is a pic of some of our block club at the annual Whittier Alliance fundraiser from a couple weeks ago. Whittier is the name of our neighborhood. Yes, that is Al Franken in the pic. No, he isn't in our block club, but he was a guest speaker so we had to have a pic taken with him. There was a "normal" version of this pic, but I was goofing around with my photo program and seemed to change the original - ops. Slade has attended some of the monthly meetings and we went to the fundraiser hoping it would start a trend of attending more neighborhood events. It was a fun group of folks to meet and gave us much encouragement to attend more events. Also, the food was all donated by local restaurants - so it was great to try some of the places we haven't been to.

Zane is a Big Boy

Zane says now that he is five he is supposed to be an Afternooner. That is what his schools calls the Kindergarten year.

He asked me to leave a message for his teachers yesterday to ask about it. This past week he has been "working" at home. Asking to write letters, use flashcards, and do sounds. I told him it is probably too late in the year, but we will see. Seby had a year of school where he stayed home most of the year and then went to school the last six weeks. It made think at the time that "spring had woke him up" and the same thought comes into mind watching Zane. In the above pic Zane has asked Seby to do flashcards with him. It is pretty cute to watch them.

I have been resting more these days with MS symptoms. The hard part is to not make things worse by refusing to lay down. I'm very stuburn about resting. So this week I found movies to watch on cable and that made it easier to stay put. And then there is the internet - laying down with a laptop can help pass the time.

I'm also trying to figure out how to add links and more to this site. I'd love to figure out how to put a video clip on here, in due time I'm sure.

Carriage House

Here is a current pic of the carraige house. It has been requested via comments on this site, direct emails to me, and a phone call that I put some current pics up. This pic was taken a few weeks ago, right now the patio is covered with yard stuff as we are finishing the tuckpointing and having the deck stairs stained/painted. After the yard goes in I will take lots and lots of pics.

Cody's new haircut!

Cody used to have very long hair. The front of his hair looked more like a crew cut, but all the back was kept in a ponytail. Years ago I would braid it for him, this past year and half he as worn it just in a ponytail.

Last winter while Cody was on his Residency (which is a six week stay at the school's farm in Wisconsin) the girls on his trip asked if he wanted his ponytail cut off? He agreed! We still have it in a bag, waiting to be sent to Locks for Love. His long hair had been many years of growing, and I guess he was just ready for a change.

Cody has been wanting to get a "real" cut ever since. We finally found a great place nearby that I think gave him what he wanted. He was pretty pleased sitting there having his cut by a dread-headed, multi-colored hair, tatoo covered arms beautician.

Here is a pic with his new haircut, and the Wiliam Tell Award that he won on Friday. His school had been doing archery and it was the finals. He was very proud to receive the highest score in the school history of archery.

Water

Here is Zane spraying water. His favorite outside activity. Reminds me of pictures of him spraying water at Prairie Crossing.

Carriage House

This is from last summer. I don't even remember where we were in the process. Maybe the trench had been dug from the house to the carraige house? There is old clay pipes that run between the two, it is how the house was heated oh so many years ago. There would be coal burned in the carraige house and that heat would travel the clay pipes to heat the house. Slade is always amazed that it was someone's job to keep that coal burning, and how much work that woud be and what a nasty job. The times they have changed. We ran gas piping for our heat and water. Of course we then had to have another trench dug for the electric, and I think one more time for something else? I was the contractor for the carraige house construction, this was our biggest fowl up. Notice the pray flags? Cathy, a good friend from Prairie Crossing, had brought them back to me from Bhutan. They found a nice home on the carraige while we were having folks look at it and tell us how we could save it. Many folks wouldn't even walk in it. Just tear it down some of them said. The prayer flags worked there magic! They will find a new home in a special place in the garden sometime this summer.




This is standing between the carraige house and the sunporch addition. This is where Papa & Clip Clop parked their first RV one summer. Now this is where our grill, table and chairs are.







This is looking out to where our car pad is now. We just set up the basketball hoop and played some HORSE last weekend. Graham and I totally kicked Slade's a**. This must of been after the foundation and basement was poured in the carraige house. Dave (the amazing concrete man) must have had some rough days in that old basement --Hauling out old fallen down walls that weren't up to the load of the structure.




This is all paved now along the stairs. It will be awesome to get green in that space!

soon we will have green grass!

We have nearly finished the carraige house - just towel bars, etc. to hang.

We also had the back of the house tuckpointed, and the chimney re-built. All that debris is making a lovely look added to our dirt yard. We have had a combination of gravel, dirt and blacktop for our backyard since we moved here. Of course the boys have loved it. They love to throw the gravel and play in mud, preferably with water.

The landscaper was given a good show of how our space will be used when we went over the plans outside, while Seby & Zane played with the hose on the big dirt pile. This soon required them to "need" to get down to their undies and run all around the yard with their sandles on. They then delighted in getting covered in mud.

We have agreed on a plan to get this job done. I promise to take pictures tomorrow before it all begins.




Finally a yard, with plants, and flowers.

Our first spring here I was hit with the MS and just didn't care about a yard, plants, and flowers.

This spring it is all I can think of.

We do have a front yard, but we have been holding off on any planting due to a falling down retaining wall. I'll post a pic of that tomorrow too. So there has been nowhere to plant yet. He says he can start in one week and be finished in three weeks. We can't wait.





We will have a graduation party here for Cody and his class, which is in five weeks. Deadlines are always helpful in getting things done.

So now I am pouring over info about plants and flowers for this area.