a treatise on a rose bush

It’s raining outside, and instead of doing dishes and cleaning this place up a bit, I’m going to write about rose bushes. And life. My life, actually, or perhaps more about how a rose bush gave me a new way of looking at stuff that has happened in my life.

Just so you know, I use the word ‘perhaps’ a lot.

When we moved to the Drunken Goat, the back of the sauna was completely covered by the most amazing array of rose bushes I had ever seen. They were so big and high that they reached the roof of the sauna and were killing the pear tree that was near them. I really cut them back last fall, almost all the way to the ground. I found the grandmother rose bush then, the matriarch, the one that started it all. It was her branches that extended almost as high as the sauna and reached the pear tree. I felt a bit bad about cutting her back, but I felt worse about the potential of losing a pear tree.

This spring, she and her offspring came back, growing taller than I thought possible in a short amount of time. Not only were they growing taller, but it seemed as if the rose bush garden was extending itself farther and farther outward. There was new growth everywhere. I decided all but the grandmother had to go. They were too much, too big, too wild, too uncontrollable. They took up too much space. They just needed to go.

So I started to dig. I really wasn’t sure where to start. The branches of the roses were everywhere, and I couldn’t see much of anything, certainly not enough to determine where the roots were. But I started digging anyway. Didn’t hit any roots, but I sure tore my arms up. Big scratches as I fought the thorns, the sun and my salty sweat making my arms feel blistery burned. It took far too long and way too much blood before I began to realize that the smartest thing for me to do was to cut them all back with the hedge clippers so that I could at least see where to begin to dig. Duh.

Cutting back the branches wasn’t any less painful than trying to dig without being able to see. In fact, it was a bit more so. Not only were my arms still getting scratched up, but the thorns penetrated my work gloves as I pulled the branches from the compactness of the bushes and carted them to the fire pit. And it took a long time to get everything cleared out. When I was done, all that was left were the stubs of many rose bushes, some bigger than others, some just single stems. I could have stopped there, for now I could see that there was room for me to plant flowers in between all the bushes. Perhaps not as much space as would have been healthy for the plants when they grew, but they could probably have managed, at least for a while.

It was definitely a lot easier to see where to dig once everything was cut back. But as I dug, I began to realize this amazing thing: although I was digging up what I thought was one bush, if I followed the roots, they were actually many different rooted stems that only looked like they were a part of one bush. The roots went every which way, and it didn’t ever seem to make sense. I would have thought that the same root would have spread and started a new bush close to itself, but this was not the case at all. Sometimes the roots crisscrossed each other, sprouting new growth far away.

At first I would follow the root of one plant, digging up it’s offspring as I went, but that proved to be difficult. Other roots would be spread out on top of the one I was pulling up, and it was too physically difficult to pull them out. So I began to work in specific areas, pulling up all the roots from one section at a time. I stopped following the roots and concentrated on digging out the sections first, thus the roots began to be cut at the source. The farther along I went, the easier it became to pull out the rest of the roots.

I saved what I call the mother bush for last. The roots that came from the mother extending to the other bushes were pretty darn big. It was quite amazing. Here’s what I found to be most interesting, though. As I dug, I found 3 roots (why 3?) that went very deep into the ground. I dug at least 3 feet down to try to find out where they went, and I finally gave up. Perhaps this rosebush wasn’t the first offspring of the grandmother rose bush at all, but its own separate entity with no connections. But I’m not convinced. The size of the grandmother rose bush was much greater than this one, and the roots that extended from the grandmother were also much bigger, leading me to believe that the she had lived far longer than this particular bush. But who can really tell, anyway, other than the person who planted them many, many years ago? And I’ve no one to ask, as the memory has faded.

The metaphor:

Sometimes circumstances, usually painful ones, help us see the things and people in our lives that might be too wild, too uncontrollable, too painful, take up too much space, or are simply no longer serving our growth as they once did. Perhaps the painful situation has taken us back to our childhoods and has asked us to begin to dig up familial roots in order to examine why we have made and continue to make the kinds of choices that have caused us so much grief.

Often, when the circumstance presents itself, we know we need to do some digging. Perhaps we want to begin to dig for the roots quickly without being able to see where we are digging. We make ourselves bleed, over and over again until we either give up or get distracted. After all, our scratches need soothing, and it’s quite pleasant to accept the gentle and loving touch that makes us forget why we were digging in the first place. Distraction to pain, distraction to pain, distraction to pain. For some, the pain from each resulting distraction becomes intensely deeper, darker, more deadly. Some get lost here in this place.

Maybe as time goes on, if we are the lucky ones, we recognize that those distractions, as wonderful as they are in the moment, will ultimately lead us back to the pain that called us to dig in the first place. There is no fighting it, no rationalizing it away, no numbing it into oblivion. It is time, and it must be done. We start to dig, but we know that we can’t see what we are doing or where we are going. We need to do some cutting back. Some cutting off. It hurts. It makes us bleed. But for some, it’s the only way. The cutting off doesn’t solve our problems, for they are far deeper than that which has been cut, but it lets us see. It gives us distance, room to breathe, and although the scratches might still blister burn, we stop bleeding. Some, though, start planting without digging up the roots. They get lost in this place.

And so we begin the hard work of digging up roots. But we might find as we dig that the bushes we are attempting to dig up have many different roots. We don’t know where they are coming from or where they lead. What we think might be the root of one bush is actually the root of another. Maybe we follow the roots, or perhaps we just pick a section and start digging. It will probably take a long time, but if we continue, the roots become easier to see, and easier to pull out.

But like the mother rose bush, there may come a time when we realize that no matter how hard or deep we dig, we cannot pull the root. We have done all that we can do at the moment, and it’s time to let it go, put soil back in the deep hole we have dug, and begin to start sheet composting. It’s about damn time we started planting flowers!

squishy

This is what the guys call Cinnamon. I think she likes it. Or at least she's always grinning at them when they call her that. Come to think of it, she's always grinning.

yippeeeee!

Just a few hours later and it's hard to remember what it looked like when it was up! Guess that means it wasn't supposed to be there.

Walls make things look bigger. If I look at the manure, it seems like it is going to be a very small garden. Weird.

julie's broken nest

It was a rough week for Julie. Tuesday night we had a bit of a storm come through the area, and although it rained a fair bit during the night, I certainly didn't get awakened to any major wind or anything. I was surprised when Julie called to tell me that the roof of her house had blown off during the night! It was pretty crazy, I guess. Huge hail, then it sounded like the windows were going cave in. She and her dog hid behind the couch, and just at that moment, the whole roof blew off.



Here is a picture of the roof. I couldn't believe how far away it blew. It's really crazy. I wonder if she was in the path of a small tornado?



I don't really know how much stuff she lost, but what I do know if that everything was soaking wet. I helped spread stuff out in the yard to get dry, and I think most of it will be salvageable. She's got stuff in storage, and will be staying in her avian. (I think that's how you spell it. Guess it is some kind of a small boat or something.) Regardless, Julie seems incredibly calm, and just very grateful that she is alive. It could very well have turned out to be a completely different story.


After seeing the whole situation, I've got NOTHING to complain about!!!!!

Neither does Vanna:

continuing demolition of the goat barn

Still been working on the goat barn. It is slowly but steadily coming down, which is the way I want it! I'm a bit nervous about it coming down quickly with me getting flattened, but so far so good! I'll start working on the back side of it today, and see how she holds up. I'm not sure how I'll get the second floor beams down because I'm fairly certain that once those come down the whole thing will collapse, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, which will hopefully be some time today.

I uncovered 2 layers of flooring, most of it is pretty rotten. The soil is going to be wonderful, I think. There are also big logs that run lengthwise on the ground that were used to set the floor boards on. Surprisingly, they look to be in really good shape, perhaps even better than the second floor logs. This is good news, as I am always looking for good building supplies. I haven't even really started thinking about the wood shed, but I know these will come in handy for that.

I'm also getting some great fire starters with the cedar shingles, as well as some nice ceiling wood. Overall, this has been a very successful project. As long as the thing doesn't collapse when I don't want it to, I am going to be very happy to have it down, and think that it will really change the feel of the place. It will be a great garden area.

the goat's loaded with horny males

It's starting to get ridiculous. Any loud squawking outside can be attributed to either Alfred or Chirp humping the poor chicks who are running frantically around trying to avoid them, or Station, the big-butted goose, humping Elvis, the Peking duck. I haven't noticed the turkeys acting up, but even Bill kicks up his heels whenever I come out of the house.

Males!!!!

Here are some pictures that the guys took of their pals.

Chirp, a fine looking male specimen:




Alfred, the nicest looking rooster I have ever seen in my life. His comb is just spectacular. We really should show him or something. He knows he's hot, and 8 times out of 10, he's the reason for the hens squawking:


Some nice shots of the turkeys. These guys are just really really cool people:

the bees are gone!

Forgot to mention that the bees have finally fled the manure in the old goat barn. I guess it was a good thing I started working on the herb garden project! I did kick up another bees nest by the compost bin. They have a nest in an old log on the ground. Pretty interesting. I've been reading that bees are responsible for almost all the polination that goes on in the garden. I guess I don't want to be messing with their nests any more than need be. I just need to remember to be more careful when I am cleaning sections of the yard up!

photos of the proposed herb garden

Before the lilacs came out:




After the lilacs were cleaned up:




The shape of the herb garden. Notice the cleaned out area by the rose bush!


Little Guy on the trellis. He's got a magnificent tail, doesn't he?

herb garden

So I started working on removing the lilacs for my pond idea. Here's what it looked like before I started:

(Ok--my pictures refuse to come up here. I'll post them separately.)

It was a job. Geez. I had to shovel the dirt out from underneath the roots, then take the splitting maul to break apart the roots from each other. I was actually really worried that I had hurt my back again. After a few hours working on Monday, I was in a bit of misery. I took some IBU, went to see Monster House with the guys, and felt better in the morning. I think it's the splitting maul that did it to me. What I'm going to do about wood this winter is very questionable. I have a feeling I'm just going to have to buy a few cords, and use then use propane if I run out. I was hoping the tank would last a few years. Who knows, I might get farther along with my wood then what I think.

Anyway, after I started on the lilacs, I began to think about that whole space by the huge rose bush. I have been looking at a bunch of herb magazines that were left here, and although I know next to nothing about them, I've always been attracted to growing and using them. So that's what I'm going to do! I ended up digging out almost all of the rose bushes (my treatise on the spreading of roses will come later), cleaned out that whole area underneath the pear trees which was filled with lots of old wood and junk, and cut back the grass. It is going to be absolutely awesome. I'm not sure I'll keep the old swingset as a trellis right there. I think it would look better if I built a teepee type trellis from branches, and I can move the old one somewhere else. We'll see.


The garden will end up being a half circle. I had seen this picture of a circle design mosaic made out of rocks that looks really cool. I'm thinking that something like that would look great in between the pear trees, and that I would make pie-like growing sections that would start at that point. There would be a small walkway between the pie pieces (although I'm thinking that these walkways shouldn't be in a completely straight line-some curves would be good) for ease of weeding and harvesting etc., and it would also make for a more visually appealing garden. I'm not sure where I would put the pond, but I still think it would be a great spot for one. I would have to find a way to keep the ducks and geese out of it or they would completely ruin it, so I've got to do some more thinking about that.

the geese

have now taken to banging on the windows when they know we are in the house and want us to come out. They try to follow us into the house, but like Bill, that is so off limits!!!

one more thing

before I quit. There is a very small little building on the property that I believe someone once lived in. One section of it has completely fallen down due to a tree growing up in the middle of it, but what is left would make an excellent little clubhouse for the guys. Right now there is an old mattress frame and other junk, but that could be cleaned out with just a little bit of trouble. There are 3 nice sized windows-one needs to be replaced- and it certainly isn't water-proofed. It would need some kind of siding and a roof covering. Maybe when I order the metal roof for the wood shed and duck house (now Bill's house-I'll explain in a minute), I can get enough for the clubhouse. I would love to give them a place where they can hang out. It would be very cool in the summer, and I would put a hammock and chair, as well as a desk, for them to use. I just think it would be an awesome bday present for them. They never go out that way, so they would have no idea I was fixing it up for them. I would so love to be able to do that. I have until September. Shoot, time is flying. And I was thinking of taking a short nap after this. Nope, got to get my butt in gear!


Oh, I forgot to mention that there is a possible gravesite next to the clubhouse. Either that, or someone who owned the property previously was into stealing grave stones. It does kind of feel like the place is being watched over, so perhaps we've got some dead people happy we're fixing the place up!I think there are 5 stones.


So back to Bill. I can't remember if I already mentioned that he is now living in the duck house and confined to the duck/geese fenced area. Life is 100% easier since he is no longer running around. I can't believe the difference, or how much I worried about him. The chickens are so happy they aren't being invaded, I'm so happy I don't have to carry him out of their coop on a daily basis, and the ducks and geese are thrilled that they aren't being chased. I do have an electric fence on order, though, because he is really doing a number on this one. Once I put the electric one up he will have more area to roam in, and that will be much healthier for him. He does love the little house, though, and spends quite a bit of time in there. He's getting quite big, and I'm not sure how much longer I would be able to carry him around. Geez.

the goat barn

The goat barn is slowly coming along. I think I would have been finished, but I am, quite frankly, very scared of the bees nest and of getting stung. Those were some vicious little bastards. I just have no idea what the heck to do about them. I tried to smash the nest standing on the second floor beams, but it just didn't matter--they just went deeper into the manure. I might just have to bite the bullet, cover up very well, and attempt to remove it completely. Before that, though, I will need to remove all the wood from around the barn so I have a quick escape if need be.

I had to clean out the horse barn in order to have a place to stack all that wood, so I spent a couple of afternoons doing that. What a mess. There were like 20 hoses all tangled up in there, along with tons more garbage. I was able to burn a lot of paper and old boxes, which helped, but I still will have at least one dump run in order to get rid of junk.
At least the one side of the barn where I will be storing the wood looks pretty decent now. I'll have plenty of wood, and it will be protected from the elements until I can get around to doing the living room ceiling. Some of the wood is in really bad shape, but I think I'll have enough for that project. I'm still not sure if I want to paint it, but I think if I don't the LR is going to really look dark. Perhaps I can whitewash it like I did with the walls in my bedroom. That lightened up things considerably.


While cleaning out the barn, I found a really cool old gate. Not sure what I'll do with it, but it will come in handy somewhere. I would really like to have an entrance gate to the yard, so maybe I will be able to use that by the pond and the brick path to the house. That would look pretty cool, actually. Hmmm. I like it! There is another very long gate (probably at least 8-10 ft.) that I want to use somewhere as well. If I don't use it as an actual gate, it would make a very beautiful fence for climbing vines. I could just have it standing in the garden somewhere. I love all these old fences.



So here is what the goat barn is looking like now. Lots of clean up work before I can get to the wood that's left, but it shouldn't take too long to actually move it.



I had thought that I was going to burn all of the tree branches in the burn pile, but someone just told me that they had seen a deer fence made up of tons of branches all woven together. That sounds just wonderful to me. That must have taken an enormous amount of time, and I'm trying to figure out how to even start it. I guess there weren't any posts holding this thing up--the branches woven together were enough. I don't see why I couldn't use old 2x4s as posts placing them every 4 ft or so and connecting them with other 2x4's. Maybe I would only need 2 connectors. That way I would have at least something to stabilize the fence, and give the beginning branches something to hang on to. I just can't figure out how else they did it. Maybe the branches were so think that you couldn't see the framing. Doing something like that would certainly be a good way to use up all that wood, as it doesn't seem to be turning out to be a bonfire summer. That's cool. Every summer should be different, and I haven't really even missed the bonfires much. Maybe next summer, with lots of these projects done, there will be more time for socializing. Right now I'm happy to be getting stuff done.

a long time coming

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote! It doesn't really seem like I have accomplished as much as usual, but I have been doing more triathlon training. That takes up a fair bit of time. I also had the guys for 2 vacation weeks, and would much rather play when they are here than work so much. I can't believe how quickly time is passing by. The days are getting a bit shorter and the nights a bit longer. It's a bit scary, but I do love our evenings and mornings now. It's been delightfully warm, and I've been enjoying having a cup of coffee or tea in the morning on the deck watching the geese battle Vanna for deck territory. Vanna's too nice to fight, so the geese usually win. Unfortunately. Pecking order is definitely not dependent on size. Vanna could kill them instantly, but their attitude and body language is a bit frightful, and keeps her in check. They certainly do scare people as well, although they have never even come close to attacking a human. They run up for some attention, but most people assume it's to peck their knee caps off. Just bending down and saying hi cuts the noise down to a minimum, and everyone's happy. (Kind of like Benj in this picture.) All except Vanna, that is, who would also enjoy some attention.



Started a bit of sheet composting by the rose trellis using the manure from the chicken coop. Boy, the storms and all the rain leaking into the coops brought out Barnyard essence more than I have ever smelled it before. It was pretty nasty. Mostly the coop with cement underneath suffered the most, while the coops with a sand floor did much better. I guess it only makes sense. When I think of the barns built for the commercial housing of chickens and other livestock, I can't even bare to think of what that must be like. Yuck. It is going to take a lot of manure to fill in this area, and I'm just not sure I'll end up with enough by the end of the season, but we'll see. It would be awesome if I didn't have to rototill, though!



I also just had an idea about how to landscape the front yard. So far I haven't been able to picture the finished yard very well, partly due to the fact that it slopes downward toward the horsebarn. Visually, it should slope more toward the house. Although the downward slop is great for drainage issues, I think I would like to diminish that slope a bit. So here's my idea.

Along the back of the horse barn, instead of building another section onto this end, I think it might be cool to begin to make some raised beds. Here's the view of the horse barn from the deck of the house:


I kind of started to get this idea when I began to look at the fencing that is behind the goat and horse barns:

I really love the look of this fencing, but I am realizing, as I am tearing down the goat barn, that the fencing is limiting how I am thinking of using the property. It is basically useless because it is falling down and rotting, and it wouldn't keep any animal but horses in. Because I want goats, it just isn't going to serve the purpose it was put up for. The posts are absolutely incredible to look at. I didn't measure them, but I'm going to bet that many of them are probably as big as 8 4x4's connected together. 6 at the least. They really are magnificent. So I think it would be cool to use the posts for the raised beds.

I would put the first bed against the horse barn and make it fairly high, lowering the height of each subsequent bed. I haven't decided if I should make a walkway between each one, although that would make the most sense as far as gardening goes, or if I would jam them all together, creating a bit of a sloped effect. If I did that, I would have to make sure that I make a walkway of some sort between each bed, but perhaps the beams themselves, because they are so large, would serve that purpose just fine.

I also started reading some old Organic Gardening mags that I found in the road house and found a great issue on building ponds. I still have the old tub from the house and it could definitely be used as part of a pond. It would be quite excellent, actually, because I would be able to drain it easily. I could bury it in the first bed, and use the shower back of the tub to grow some climbing plants. (The tub is quite ugly to look at it, so I would probably have to paint it as well.)So that's one option.

The other option would be to create a pond on the north side of the sauna building. There are a mess of untameable lilacs that I want to dig up, and the pond would fit perfectly there. I would actually extend the pond by making a plastiv liner section as well. The tub alone would be quite small and am not sure it would be worth it. I guess it is easier to keep a bigger pond clean than a small one. But what would be cool about having the pond by the sauna is that it would be a way for me to begin to change the structure of the driveway. I don't like the driveway coming up so close to the house, and the pond would really help to close that off. I could make a brick pathway from the pond to the house. I think it would be quite welcoming.

I am excited about this project now and would prefer to be working on that then on the goat barn, but I really do need to continue to focus on that.

forgot to mention...

that the metal rectagular thing hanging from the first posts will hopefully hold a drunken goat sign. Moe and Liz gave that to me and I just love it. Here's the picture of the drunken goat I want to use:


Right now I'm picturing a wooden sign with the logo burnt into it, then painted and sanded to make it look old. Liz is going to help me so we'll she what she thinks. I'm pretty open to anything, actually.

trellis finished!

So I'm finally finished, and I think it looks absolutely awesome. I still have more manure to put in the beds, but when I was getting some the other day, I uncovered some kind of bee nest. I got stung 2x, and it really hurt! Hadn't been stung since I was a kid, and it seems like it hurt worse this time. I had a hole in the finger of my glove and, of course, got stung there.

I'll get brave tomorrow!

I still have to do some digging on the far end where the grill will go, but I'm not really sure how to do all that yet anyway, so I'll concentrate on cleaning the horse barn out so that I have room to put the wood from the goat barn. I'll be using it in the house so I don't want it sitting outside.




I also made a wind chime today out of a bunch of neat metal pcs that were in the barn. I've got some cool stuff left, so we'll see what else I can come up with.



It stormed this morning--it was pretty awesome--and it was cool for a while. It's in the 80's now, but it feels a whole lot better than it did earlier in the week. We're supposed to hit 100 tomorrow, but let's hope it passes us up.

goat barn roof is off!

What a hugely busy day we had today. I started off thinking I would start setting the posts for the trellis, but wasn't happy with the ones that I had found laying around. I needed the ones that were holding up the roof of the goat barn. So I decided to bite the bullet and just do it. It's hard for me to start something if I'm not sure how to do it, or if I'm afraid I'll die in the process, but I needed those posts!

It actually didn't take too long--around 3 hours. I used the chain saw to cut the beams and some of the wood, and just started working the boards loose. It was interesting in that there was one board that was holding the whole thing up. It was rotted and barely there, and yet... Also, I found that one shouldn't underestimate the strength of roofing to hold a roof together. The side on which most of the roofing material was already off came down in a third of the time as the other.

It wasn't that scary either, although I had to make sure that I always stepped on the floor above the beams. The floor boards are really rotten and wouldn't have held me, I don't think. Besides messing the blade of the chainsaw up because I hit a few nails, everything went fine. The guys sat out there to make sure I didn't die, and if I did, we had a plan in place on who they were supposed to call and which neighbor's house to run to. Thankfully they didn't need to do that. Here's what the sucker looks like now! It's great to see the barn start to come down.


After I got the posts from the barn, I started setting them in. I also was able to get the 2x6s attached so now all I need to do is start the sheet composting. That should be fun. I'm sure Bill will do his best to make a mess out of it all, but hopefully I've got the posts set in strongly enough that he won't be able to knock them over. I'll put some top beams in to connect them all together, as well as run some supporting ones lengthwise up the posts. I can't wait until next year--it is really going to be awesome.



The other good thing is that I don't think the barn will take too long to get down, which means I'll have all the wood I need for my ceiling. There are also 8 very large beams that I can reuse for the wood shed. That will help a lot. Sweet, eh?

But I'm tired and didn't drink enough water. It's supposed to be in the 90s the next few days. Not sure how much I'll get done then.....

julie's bday

The party was a huge success--great friends, great music, great beer. Bill wasn't so great, but it was because he was hungry and I forgot to feed him. And the geese and ducks didn't want to go in for the night. They were too excited having people here. The icecream was the best I've ever eaten (and Diane agrees), and the scones for the strawberry shortcake were the best as well. Funny thing is the guys made both. I've got a couple of good bakers over here, no doubt about it.

Amlan did a lot of very serious singing and music talking with Erin.







Dave even made it till 2, which is quite amazing considering his trip to Alaska and the rest of his busy life. Kurt spent the day in the office rumor has it, and it was great he was able to break away. Diane even broke away from her dissertation. I think I might be an academic loser. At least I got lots of the deck done and I cleaned the bathroom!




Happy Bday, Julie!

the new deck idea!

The deck is almost finished. It really didn't take me long at all to do the framing, but leveling it was a different matter. I wasn't quite sure how to do it, but I think it ended up being ok. I had to build 2 separate frames and then butt them up again each other. I just realized what I didn't do, though--attach them! Shoot! Darn it. Hopefull the boards will keep them tight enough. Can't believe I didn't do that. Anyway.....I have another 5 foot section to get done tomorrow.

I got this great idea this morning: I've been interested in sheet composting because that's what Diane has always done. A layer of newspapers, a layer of leaves, and then manure. I found tons of old rotted hay that I can use for the leaves plus lots of manure from the chickens and ducks/geese. I was thinking that I would start layering that in the front yard, including the front of the deck. That lead to this next cool idea.

I decided to make an arbor along the entire front of the deck, using old 2x6's to frame in beds on the ground underneath the arbor. I will do that along the front side as well, leaving a doorway onto the deck. I can plant lots of climbing plants there. What's really exciting is that I decided to build a brick fireplace along the other end of the deck, by the door. It is going to be like walking into this outside room. I can't wait to get started!

Here's how it's looking so far!


The problem is that I need to get the logs for the arbor from the goat barn, which means I need to start ripping that thing apart. Whew. Lots to do!

lots of good stuff

So it has been an awesome week again. I'm drinking a shot of mango rum waiting for some friends to come over for a bonfire, and decided it would be a great time to catch up on the blog.

Lots happening, and heck if I can remember much of anything. I went for a 44 mile bike ride up to Copper Harbor on Sunday with Erin, and it took me the first part of the week to recover. Seriously. I did ok on the way up, but once we stopped and ate breakfast in CH (I ate like a pig), I could barely get on my bike! My legs were stiff, and the first little hill took it all out of me. Not so good that I was stiff, a whole lot not so good that it was so windy the downhills weren't really downhills, and really not so good that my legs refused to work. Seriously, I only made it because of my will and the fact that I didn't want Erin to have to come pick me up in the car. She cruised those hills like it was nothing and I ate her dust, except that she was too far ahead for me to eat anything. Regardless, it was an awesome adventure and will be great prep for the triathlon in less than 4 weeks. Gulp. We are going to try to go once a week.

What else.....

Had some friends over last weekend. Here's Amlan choking Lily and Lily begging for mercy.


Here's some more faces--Diane had already left:


Tonight we are celebrating Julie's bday, although she doesn't really know that yet.

Got a new fence for the geese. It is really something. 16 foot panels that I can put up by myself. I used bungie cords to attach them together, and they can be moved at any time. Extra great is the fact that Bill can't breach it, and the geese and ducks are quite grateful.


They have been sleeping in the chicken coop in one of the separate pens for the last week. I was out late the last 2 nights, and by the time I got home, they had gotten out of their fenced pen and were waiting for me in the coop. It was awesome. The ducks have no problem getting out of the pen, but the geese have to struggle a bit. It's just so cool to drive in and see them waiting for me. I sure do love those creatures, especially Station, the big butted goose. He wants hugs and loving every night before he goes to bed. He tries to jump on our laps and bury his head in our hair, trying to snuggle in. He's pretty cool.

And he's the boss. Wherever he goes, the rest follow.