Timber

 And once again I managed to load the photos exactly backwards. I'm going to blame chemo brain for the rest of my life! *sigh* Okay, audience participation time. Scroll down to the bottom and work your way back up here. =)

Thing Three is now taller than me so that gives some scale as to how big that root section is. We keep hoping Bosley will enter the underneath section and that the tree will magically stand up again, but no such luck... yet.

However, our basement stayed dry (thank you, sump pump) and our roof seems intact. Definitely blessed to add intact house and cars despite trees crashing down and figuring out logistics to deal with that mess. Thank you to those of you who've reached out to check on us. We're all good! Please pray hard for and help others who were not so fortunate. It seems like the more I read the news, the more I wonder how insurance companies still want to be in business at all between the fires and floods! Stay safe out there, people. We aren't even halfway through April! 

Darn near full ditches and the arrested fall of the pine tree.

Dada's 30th birthday present also toppled over and that is one heavy sucker so it gives me a very good idea of how hard the wind was blowing. It has been righted but not yet used, so here's hoping it still works. If not, you know what Dada will be getting for his 50th birthday...

Along with the buckets of rain, we got the wind. Miraculously, our party lights survived and didn't get smashed to the ground by falling branches. Nor did our playhouse get squished when a big pine tree decided enough was enough and toppled over, taking my clothesline with it, only to be sort of arrested by a locust tree...

Sorry the screen got in the way, but look way out towards the far trees on the horizon. Those are all fields up to the trees, and you can see all that shining water. There's not supposed to be a lake there! We've had geese and ducks wading in fields all week.

These woods out back edge our property line and you can see the low, pond-ish area in there. Last year we dug out some small trenches to help get the water to drain from the perpetual puddle in the woods to the drainage ditch. We had just cleaned out those trenches the weekend before all this rain hit, so it was immensely gratifying to see them running full!

The kids generally call this right side The Leak because on the other side of the treeline is our neighbors' pond and the whole area is low enough that we get water laying there forever as well as the lobster-looking crayfish and their mud towers. However, it's not usually that deep OR anywhere near that bad on the left side of the driveway...

We had tons of rain during those storms that were dumping water all over the central US. Welcome to mud season, for sure. Some of these photos were taken from upstairs windows to get better vantage points. I don't remember seeing water pretty much from the fire pit to the garden before...

New addition

Some of you know that our eldest vehicle, Pepe the Pilot, is indeed on the elderly side. He's a 2005 Honda. We took him in at the end of last year to see what could be done to shore up his underparts since, like many similar models in our climate, the Ohio salt brine has done a number on him. Sadly, there was nothing to be done- his frame is too rusted to weld anything TO it to improve it. At some point his bum is just going to fall off, probably. So we have had it in the back of our minds that we should probably be on the lookout for a new-to-us vehicle. We've been test driving and checking things out slowly but surely, trying not to fall in love or anything. You know how it is. 

Assuming that towards the end of the year dealers might be more willing to make a deal and hitting the last day of the month during that time frame seemed like a good idea. 

What we probably shouldn't have done is take Thing Three test driving with us. I'm sure our purchase had absolutely nothing to do with his nonstop chant of "Jeep! Jeep! Jeep!" emanating from the backseat. At least we knew what his vote was. 

Either way, allow me to introduce (Badass) Gladys! There's been some pushback about having this Gladiator be a HER but I figured since it's been almost 18 years since I've had Seal, it was high time for a female. I Googled it, and there were indeed female gladiators back in the day. 

We've had the roof off once and a certain child keeps campaigning to take the doors off, but as it's gotten chilly that might have to wait until next year. We've also acquired our first duckie, which is apparently a part of Jeep culture; if someone likes your Jeep, they leave you a toy which you then display on your dash. Now you know why some Jeeps you see have an entire line of them across their front! 

We drove a lot of PIlots and some Highlanders and both of those felt completely comfortable and familiar. We ended up going with the Jeep because we figured if we got her we would be more intentional about building in fun activities. A Jeep can go places that a Pilot can't necessarily, or at least not well. We could drive her in the sand at the beach, something Pepe would really not appreciate. She's also a workhorse as she's part truck. We can't fit all 5 of us and both dogs in her unless the dogs ride in the back, but since it's increasingly rare that all 5 of us and both dogs go anywhere together, we didn't feel it was a big enough issue to pass on.

Thing Three's first crush, haha. 

Come on out and we will take you for a spin! 

 

Twelve years of the Damonater

Another school year on the books; last day of sixth grade for the Damonater. Dada and I had to perform the traditional we-must-embarrass-you-at-the-bus-stop ritual which included sign and pirouettes from Dada. He threatened to wear a pink tutu while he did them... methinks I should find elastic and pink tulle and call his bluff. Watch out, Damon- Dada might actually have a tutu for the last day of seventh grade next year!

So then this kid went and had a birthday. Yes, for those of you keeping track, I didn't forget the firstborn's (again), but these pictures were easier to access and therefore get to go first. Since this kid loves A) anything water related and B) sugar, he got a fair amount of gifts relating to one or the other. 

Yes, that is indeed the Christmas tree still up in the sunroom. Don't judge. Let's talk about that: Honey is terrified of not just storms but also precipitation. We have a metal roof. It is incompatible with her terror of water coming down from the sky. Especially if there is lightning or thunder involved. Therefore, if we leave the tree on like a big nightlight, she is a little bit less affected by the variations of darkness versus darkness with lightning. We also play music through multiple rooms if we know it's going to rain. And we leave the basement door open. Any mixture of those actions may or may not invoke a night of sleep for the rest of us, or she may still decide to bull her way through the baby gate into the kitchen with an almighty racket which then leads to sleep deprived family members staggering downstairs into the light and music to reinstall said gate and grumble. I actually spent a night in our playhouse out back this week so that I could sleep through a rainy night and not have to deal with her. So yes, tree is still up. 

Or the short version, we're supposed to keep the Christmas spirit in our hearts all year long.

Or the shortest version, we like it lit up.

Yes, that's an 8 on the cake along with four red candles. Dada was in charge of the math and he declared that two red candles plus the 8 equaled 10 and then two more red candles makes twelve. 

How can our baby be twelve?

He was laughing about the difference in our skin tone and I told him I've been sitting at his baseball games and working in the garden and he'd been in a shirt in school, so it wasn't a fair comparison. He'll get there. While we protected his arms and neck and ears his first day at the pool this summer, his nose burned and then his mask rubbing made it blister which he then peeled off, hence the scab(s) on his nose.

I was tremendously pleased with his cake. I figure it's Grandma Barb worthy, and that's high praise. It's all gone now, so I must have done something right!

 

In progress

As usual, my photos loaded out of order, so feel free to mentally shuffle them. This is our small shed, which houses extra wood, our gardening Stuff, the tractor, assorted wasps, carpenter bees, and mice. It's needed a new roof for awhile, and while it may take us awhile to figure out how to install the metal roofing we have waiting to go on it, we had to take care of the old stuff. First things first. 

The bucket on the tractor works well for yeeting all the old shingles into, plus serves as a handy ladder to the first level of roof. I mean, uh, no, Mother, we weren't climbing up and down the tractor. What's that over there? Butterfly!

Generally, our back to school days lead to crazy weather. Extreme heat, high heat indexes, storms, fog, you name it. It's holding true this year, too; public school, which was slated to begin today, declared they'd wait until next Monday to start because we were/are to have around 6 days of 90+ degrees and most of the buildings don't have air conditioning. Due to safety concerns, they are unable to air the buildings out overnight, therefore the start date gets pushed back into more reasonable weather of 80's. We hope.

So we work on the shed roof. Haha! We took plenty of breaks in the shade and had our water and gatorade. The main aim was to remove the old shingles, replace whatever plywood needed replaced, and then get the watertight seal paper over it all. Dada and Liam finished that yesterday, and good thing, because around 3:45 this morning Honey let us know it was storming!

Everyone enjoys sweating like a pig and being covered in plywood dust, right? 

The garden doesn't look quite so bad from this angle, haha. Pay no attention to our strawberry patch in the foreground which has been completely usurped by weeds and small trees. It hasn't produced well for the last few years; we gave up on it completely this time around. We plan to clear it out and start over with fresh plants. The cherry tree in the far right also isn't doing well, but continues to hang in there. Two of our apple trees also look absolutely dreadful. Everything has its season, but it hurts my Hobbit/Wood Elf heart to see trees failing.

Li-am in the skyyyyy with shiiiiiingles... oh well. I tried.

Fun to have a different perspective. Still not enough to turn me into a fan of the high dive, haha.

Metal roof beginning

It's happening! They are starting to put on the new roof!

Not It

It's not that I don't love y'all or that there is nothing to write about, it's more where-in-the-world-do-I-fit-it-in lately. 

For instance, school is back in session, so yes, I'm clicking my heels and singing praises, but that also means I'm making lunches and checking backpacks and reminding and nagging and coaxing and dragging people about. Carrie has had a humungous biology project looming since the start of the school year that was due today and she isn't home yet to grill about how it all went down. She's been on my laptop about six times as often as I have been, and it even went to school with her yesterday like Mary's little lamb. 

This morning Liam reminded me that he has online math he needs to be checking into, ideally daily so that he doesn't get behind and have a ton to do at the end of the grading period, which means he needs the computer. 

Damon just wants to be on it and finds random games to play, haha!

Bosley is ever Underfoot and a general Stupid Beagle. Australian shepherd and lab mix, my never mind! He has yet to figure out that he's to use the brain which resides between his ears to think about sounds and what they mean instead of just letting us know he hears e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. and barking about it. Insert multiple eye rolls here. Grandmama calls him Cottonball Brain. He is all reaction and no thought.

Yes, I know that I have a tiny personal, portable keyboard which connects to my phone but I got a new phone and am not seeing the version of the blog that I'm used to using- ugh, technology! I'll try to do better.

In the meantime, in protest of Winter and precipitation, I've been busy making lemon sugar cookies and the accompanying mess. 

As a tidbit of what's to come, we will be having both our roof and our fireplace replaced (separate issues) in the immediate future. There will be no shortage of A) mess, B) process, C) people tromping through the house, D) money flying out the window, E) more mess... lucky for you, that translates into blog posts! Stay tuned.

Camp ain't ALL roses...

Sometimes there are accidents at camp.

The toilets clog.
 

 

The steps break, nature takes over.
 

 

The Dutch oven dinners burn to cinders.

Boots fall off.
 

 

Your buns... er, the kitchen's buns get really big.

Uninvited guests show up and expect to be fed.
 

 

The roof springs a leak.

The Hobart destroys your water bottle.
 

Not only do you get into the wrong shower, you forget to get undressed entirely!