6/12/02
Wow — action!! Both your house and the Schultzes are going up — exciting! I hadn’t been south on 88 for a couple of weeks due to a conference and then a viral bronchitis (guess 2002 is the year for me to be sick — yuck!), so Tuesday morning’s ride was a revelation to me — and even from the road, I could see progress at both places tonight when I returned home.
Last weekend we stuck pretty close to home because we basically had no transportation — I think we’re running Dan and Jackie’s junkyard — 5 vehicles, and none of them truly worth a damn — but at least one runs at any given time. It’s truly been a plague. One benefit — our flower and vegetable gardens look superb, as we put all our energy into the place! Tonight when I drove in, I saw some of the roses had finally bloomed, along with a gorgeous iris — the peonies are ready to pop, but haven’;t yet. The River of Fire Druid group from the LaCrosse area is coming up here Saturday late afternoon to do their solstice ritual, apparently using a Norse ritual — so we’ve got our wooden carving of Thor standing out by the pond to look over it all, and we’ve asked the white deer to attend. (Since I’m not a true Druid, I’m not sure how far my magical powers will go, but I thought I could try!!)
If we have a vehicle running, maybe we can go check out your place this weekend……..!!
6/13/02
I’m glad that the garden is going well. We only have flowers – no vegetables. But this year I’ve decided to get rid of all the grass – who needs a lawn, anyway? It took a few weeks of work, but the grass is gone, and it’s mostly planted with native prairie plants. It will be fun to watch it grow. We also got rid of the grass at our cabin on the St. Croix this year. So now we have no grass to mow anywhere. (We still have too many houses, but at least there’s less maintenance to do.)
Marcie
6/23/02
It POURED rain this morning while we were driving to Alma for breakfast — and then to pick up our strawberries. But here at home we only got 1/2″ — whew!! That makes 10 and 1/2″ so far in June (rained two inches Thursday and Friday). We’ve kept our own records for years, and since I’m sure that Marcie is the only other person in the world who would really be interested, here goes, rain totals for June: 2001 – 6 and 1/2″, 2000 – 11″, 1999 – 3 and 1/8″, 1998 – 9 and 3/8″, 1997 – 4 and 3/4″, 1996 – 5 and 1/8″, 1995 (the year of the June heatwave) – 2 and 1/2″, and 1994 – 3 and 1/4″. Talk about variable!!!
One other note of interest — I saw my first scarlet tanager this morning! Dan has seen them in the past, and also saw one in our woods once. This one was sitting on a post by the rambling rose bush in our front yard — what a beauty!
It’s supposed to rain a bit Tuesday and Wednesday — but hopefully, then the monsoons will be over, and we’ll have summer — and we’ll start hauling hoses around. We’re headed for Cape Cod next week, but at this point, I don’t think we’ll need you to check on anything or water anything. I’m sure Emmett will pick up our mail, and our kids are coming out here for the long weekend, and they can water if it’s needed.
Thinking dry……….
Jackie