April 12, 2010

I'm a little late this week since we had a very busy weekend and there just wasn't a good chance - or the energy - to post yesterday.  The region has started to dry out after the rains although it will be some time before everyone has returned their house back to normal.  We have a couple of bridges still out of commission due to either damage or the inability to tell how damaged the bridge might be.  Hopefully, we won't see another rain like that for some time.  The week in terms of work was pretty standard.  Jo traveled to NY for a day and I'm still without a boss.  The weather on the other hand has started to show why spring is such a lovely time of year.  Temperatures are routinely getting into the 60's during the day although night can still be chilly.  This warmer weather caused our magnolia to put on its annual spring flower show.  We took advantage of the weather by spending almost the entire day outside on Saturday and Sunday. 

Our big event for the weekend, as previously announced, was we rented a chipper help clear dead branches out of the forest as well as make mulch for our garden and path.  That was our major chore on Saturday and involves lugging heavy branches out of the woods and to the chipper.  The chipping part is fun especially as you watch it eat a 10 foot long tree - but that goes relatively fast compared to the lugging portion of chipping.  So that you can get the full enjoyment of our weekend, the before, during, and after photos are included.  As you can see from the last photo we managed to chip ourselves about 10 yards of chips in 2 days. That represents a whole lot of branches from the yard since any one branch really doesn't produce a significant amount of chips.  Needless to say this left both of us very tired and very sore.  We didn't move too much Saturday of Sunday evening and were quite glad each day when the sun started to go down.  One upside, since we knew we would be exhausted on Saturday we headed out to dinner to pick up our first lobster rolls of the season (at Captain Scott's).  They were as delicious as ever and you just can't go wrong with melted butter over lobster meat on a bun.  Couple that with an order of onion rings and while your heart is crying for help, the rest of your body is saying ahhhhh that was great.

We also managed to squeeze in getting our vegetable garden underway for the year.  We planted our peas (that's Jo in the process of planning out how many rows and which varieties), onions, potatoes, and lettuce.  Now all we need is the right amount of sun and some periodic rain and we'll be eating fresh veggies.  Notice that hope springs eternal every new year that this will be the year that our garden actually thrives.  I'm getting some idea how farmers must survive - endless optimism.  We finished Sunday by getting the grill out of storage along with the flower pots for the front steps.  We savored some brats, grilled potatoes and onions, and green beans from last year's harvest.  All in all a great weekend, but we will both be sore for days.  Sure was a lot easier doing all these things when I was in my 30's.

Jo is spending the week in NY as she has both a conference to attend along with her usual mix of business meetings.  While, wait for it, yes you guessed it, I stay here in CT waiting for my new job to start.

I should mention, that 10 yards of chips now has to get moved, 1 wheelbarrow worth at a time, up the hill to the garden.  The fun just never stops.