blossoms and dandelions

Rory is so, so thrilled about this. That black tape above is where he grafted a Zestar branch onto the old apple tree in our front yard. He has tried grafting a number of times, but this year he went to a grafting workshop, learned a few things and came back and got to work. And now about half of his branches are budding and alive! It's a cool thought that we could Zestar and Honeycrisp apples growing on the same tree one day!

Those pictures above are lovely, aren't they? Spring is just so pretty. But I want to show you two other pictures. Last night we were driving to a park for dinner and on our way out of the driveway Rory said, "Kids, have you ever seen a dandelion farm? That's what these people are farming right here..." And the kids were quick to point out, "Daaaad, that's our farm!" And he replied, "that guy really needs to mow." "Daaaad, that's you!"

But we still love our dandelions. Rory reminded me this week that Elsie used to call them DandyLands. I did not remember that at all, so I thought I'd better write it here so it's documented. Because that's pretty adorable.

Our Chicken Yard project continues. Yesterday we painted in the hot, hot heat (Rory said it was 86, a friend said she saw 90 at the bank). Well I should clarify that Elsie painted for about three poles before she started complaining long enough that I was fine to have her mojo go into the house. Ivar worked until noon, the time his dad said he could be done. And he was cheerful the whole time. "Mom! Only 17 more minutes and I'm done!" And I was the last one, painting until the sun when down last night. But we got it painted! Next is the gate, the wire fencing and then closing up the birds. We painted it brown, which was a big deal because we haven't done any brown around here yet. But Rory chose it, and he nailed it. It actually blends in quite a bit and matches our house nicely. The color was parkbrown and I'm pretty sure it's the brown you see at every National and State Park.

So that's the latest. We're pretty tired around here after a full week of summer weather and spending every moment of every day out in that glorious sun. But it feels really good. We're getting things done and that's a special kind of motivation and reward.

Happy Weekend everyone!