Action packed weekend on both fronts. Nies family fully moved to new house while the girls joined the Janowiecs at Flambeau for quite a bit of everything.
Rowing across the big lake
To find an eagle overlooking things
But then moving to a different perch
Lots of big bass
And lots of tie-dye
Nearly noon by the time we got around to breakfast, and then we got even farther behind. So much to do….
Water sports, animal catching, hiking, geo-caching, movie night, to mention a few.
The hidden treasure was found efficiently and quickly.
…after a lively afternoon.
…in a pond.
Inspired by cousin Art and his radio-controlled T37 model sailboat, I visited the local club at a pond in Elkhorn. Nice group of guys (older, of course), and I was loaned a boat for four races. While never quite winning, I never came last.
In the neighborhood.
Warming up, but still very dry. Planted two little bare root Shrubby St. John’s Wort (Hypericum prolificum) twigs—native shrub, bee magnet, and good to look at. Deer resistant. With luck we will have, in a few years, beautiful big bushes occupying the few sparse places at the edge of the yard.
…in the readjusted garage.
So little rain that the creek is running low and clear.
Plenty of room when you get rid of a lot of junk, especially when you have a narrow boat.
Lunch with Tom and Mary, indoors, at Paddy Coughlin’s in Fort. Small crowd, well spaced out, and, we can assume, all well vaccinated like us.
Finally, internet service has been restored. After observing the tech, I’ve realized I could have done the repair myself, though more slowly and without the fancy connectors. And, I’ll be ready for the next time I go nuts with the cutting pliers.
And yet the garden flower bed extension got finished, and the garage paint job neared completion.
Operating with the best intentions but in thoughtless mode, yesterday, attempting to be helpful and to get the garage more presentable and paintable, I took a side-cutter to the tangle of wire that had accumulated there over the past decade or more. Thanks to inviolable law of stupidity, two of the wires I cut provided our internet service. Realization, of course, came a nanosecond after the snip.
My attempts at repair faltered when I hit some specialized ATT connectors, so a technician was scheduled, surprisingly for this afternoon. No sign of such a person, as of the present, however. So we continue to limp along using a cellular hotspot.
Trim bushes and take a few photos, at the new house, on what was not really a work day. Nonetheless, the bushes got chopped, and James caught a grub, also known as a “grump,” but during lunch, in a moment of inattention, Paxton ate it, much to the chagrin of the hunter.
…and garage painting.
This is going to be a mini annual flower garden, which is a new idea for those of us who have a tradition of not being here much in the summer.
And, the garage is being transformed.
But also, time out to attend the Urban Forestry Commission’s dedication of a new purple martin house.
…I didn’t remember to photograph any of it.
Walked with Ben and James from Victoria Lane to Fowler Park and then around the east side of Fowler Lake to the Roots bistro. We observed robins eating worms, crabapple blossoms, tulips and daffodils, a garbage truck, a big transport truck loaded with sewer pipes, a fork lift, lily pads, and a guy trying to fish up-wind, of which there was plenty, and plenty chilly too. Luckily, we got a lift back home and didn’t have to plow home with the wind on the nose.
We are talking about the garage here.
…with a few strawberries. Some like it tart.
Garden finally fenced all around, and garage nearly half way painted. Beautiful spring day.
Whitewater Grocery Company, that is.
Four year anniversary of the beginning of an attempt to form a co-op grocery store here in Whitewater. As owner #73 out of the current number of 743 I had become frustrated by the slow pace of progress. According to co-op guidelines, 780 members are needed before anything much can really happen.
I therefore, about a year ago, decided to stick my oar in, to try to goose the process—my philosophy being, of course, that a membership drive should actually have some drive to it, and that people like engaging in things rather than just picking up a brochure or a wooden spoon. I therefore developed a number of quizzes that passers-by can interact with. At today’s event (disappointingly small) my Goofy Food Quiz got a lot of laughs—and one new member.
…and perhaps enough to do some good.
I spent the best part of an hour (even 30 minutes can be the best part under certain circumstances) out on (the front porch, this time, facing west) just soaking in the beauty of moisture, and every time that I thought, “well, that’s it for now,” I heard a rumble and the output increased. (N.B. I love deserts too, just not here and now.) The robins are beside themselves (or each other—I can’t tell which).
And now I can stop worrying about the immediate impact of climate change in the immediate vicinity, and begin worrying about something else, of which there is no shortage of subjects.
…to some real heat, after a great weekend in the north woods.
…and still many hours to go.
…and rows well, too.
Thunder and a lot of wind, but hardly any drops.
…in case border closed another summer. Whitehall pulling boat one part, and this could be part two.
Magazines sent by cousin Art, who built, and is now racing, his boat. I would like to build the same boat Art did, but perhaps I should check to see if there are any fleets in the area and what class they sail.
And, if you really want to hang onto your hamburger, this from Alexandra Petri, one of my favorite humorists.
Not exactly fine art, but the walls look good. Helping out at the new house in Merton.
