Family Mellmann

With temperatures reaching almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit today and a bright sun in the sky, it was a good day to work in the yard.  Patrick helped me move stones, which we salvaged from Isle LaMotte two summers ago, from the pile where we abandon them to their new home on the east side of our property.  Two summers ago we did a deforestation project removing nearly all of the soldier pines and many of the hemlock from our forest.  In the newly open space, Patrick helped me build a patio space for the fire pit and my swing. Leveling the ground was nearly impossible as we fought with tree roots and buried logs from the logging operation, but we managed to piece together a patio. While I was leveling ground for the stones, Patrick did the ugly work of collecting dead bur plants and preparing them for a fire.  Last summer we were gone for a month which, during the summer growth period, is a really long time.  The weeds took over, and the worst weed is the bur....

It is the end of our third week of distance-learning school and, I think, the end of our fifth week in quarantine/“stay home, stay safe“ (I honestly haven't been keeping track).  Katherine now gets to enjoy one week of Spring Break (Vermont schools were instructed to honor their regularly scheduled vacation plan), but for the rest of us things are pretty "normal" (I use that term loosely); Patrick will continue his schoolwork, Jörg continues working, and things remain constant for me, although with Katherine out of school it will be more relaxed and flexible. I am hoping that the weather is warm and springy next week so that I can spend time working in the yard and garden preparing for the summer.  I am ready for some fresh color in the gardens, birds at the bird feeders, and enjoying leisure time listening to my little fountain. I have used my altered schedule to work on projects that have languished on my want-to-do-list for a very long time.  One such proje...