Purging and Shrinking

Crystal helped me clean the storage room yesterday and decided it was time to divest herself of her treasure trove of floppy animals. We loaded up the car today and took them to Goodwill. Hopefully, they will find great new adoptive families.

On, the bright side, finding this chair at HomeGoods made her feel small. It was a very good feeling after 18 month of being a giant in El Salvador!

Big Water

We've been fortunate to have a wet spring. Everything is even greener and prettier than last year. We had a pretty big downpour yesterday that washed part of our landscaping onto the patio. As you can see, we had a little drainage issue!

Today the landscapers stopped by and redid that area. Hopefully, it will keep things more stable. We're supposed to have another downpour this afternoon. That will be a good opportunity to test the new design!

Welcome to the Backyard

We're almost finished with the back yard! It turned out so beautiful. Here is the walkway from the driveway, with our buckeye tree on the right.

Here are the steps to the lower level, complete with our crazy looking Dr. Seuss tree at the curve of the pathway.

The pathway steps have garden on either side of them, with clematis for the trellises.

There are some dwarf crepe myrtle in front of the rec room windows.

We have a nice fire pit with some chairs by the basement door. Anyone for s'mores?

Scarface

I had my basal cell cancers removed today. Crystal was nice enough to drive me to the doctor and wait for me. She also took this picture of me with my new sutures. I'm going to end up with a nice cleft in my chin!

I went to a specialist who is supposed to do a really nice job and leave only a faint white line for a scar. With the bandages and the swelling, it's looking even worse this afternoon!

It is a little painful, so I used that as an excuse to lay on the couch and watch old episodes of Drop Dead Diva this afternoon! By the time the new season starts in June, Crystal should be all caught up!

Dead Tree Down

Ed, after studying the dead (white) tree from many angles, decided the only thing keeping it up was vines from the adjacent trees. We decided today was the day to free it! As Crystal and I whacked our way through the tangle of vines, we became cautiously optimistic that today would be the tree would be released from the evil grip of the vines.



Here is a video of the tree coming down. We were successful!

The back yard is a happier looking place now! It makes me want to go out there for a picnic!

Exercising the Horses

Lenny and Crystal took the horses out to the corral to get some exercise this morning. The horses are so beautiful, and what a gorgeous morning we had! Here is Mr. Genes taking a run.

Crystal took Bali for a walk before her run.

A little snap of the whip was all it took to get her moving.

We're trying to decide whether this picture is of Bali frolicking and having a good time, or of a horse saying, "I haven't run for 2 and a half years, and I'm not about to start now!"

Black Eyed Susan Flyer

We had band practice today, and we're close to being ready for our gig this month. We took a picture for a publicity shot for our flyer. We missed Carrie at practice today, but we're happy that Crystal is going to play with us at our gig! She is a great addition to our old lady band!

Here's our song list:

Soldier Set

Jambalaya

When the World’s on Fire

Tennesse Waltz

Polly Wolly Doodle

You’re My Ticket to the Carpool Lane

The Water is Wide

Golden Slippers

I’ll Fly Away

We'll have to either sing real slowly or talk a lot to fill up 45 minutes!