misc

 

I go through our yard every day and pick up dog poop so that no one steps in it... especially daycare kids.  The last month or so, we've had lots of mushrooms.... even during the drought.  My thought is that it's because we have a lot of decomposing tree roots under the grass.  Most of the mushrooms have been growing along the root lines.  I filled a whole bag of these giant ones on Friday.  They had been growing on the base of a dead aspen tree that we haven't gotten down yet.  I don't know how I missed them earlier.  They were huge!

I was standing out talking to Bobbie Graham and the cat wanted to be part of our conversation.  She would lay only in my shadow.  It was pretty funny.

Misc catch up pictures from this week

 

Jer is amazing.  Our dog is getting old and definitely has arthritis.  We have a basic dog house with a basic heat lamp in in during the winter.  He did research and has come up with a design that traps heat and is a little larger for her to move around in.  The kids have helped off and on with this one.  Another way to learn some skills. 

The stump got taken out this week too.  I was weird and wanted a picture of the kids on it before they took it all the way out. 

This is Ada's list of Brandon Sanderson swear words for Jer.

Sam's attempt to put away washed sheets, towels and blankets.  This made Jer laugh so hard.

Seth got the front runner train for Christmas.  He LOVES it.  More than I thought he would.  Jer knows his boy.

Evelyn has been picking up random books in the house and reading them.  I love it, but it means that I'm always looking for the house library under her bed.  This year she found, read and loved The Forgotten Carols book.  I always want to go to the musical with the kids but I'm always put off by the $20 ticket price tag.  This year, because of Covid, they made a movie of it and local theaters were showing it for the couple of weeks before Christmas.  The Scera bought someone's old film and offered $5 tickets.  I bought tickets for the day after Christmas and it was basically us, my Mom and 2 other people that showed up.  It was cheesy and fun.  Evelyn loved it, Seth and Sam liked some of the songs but didn't like sitting through the "moral of the story" parts of it.  Overall, I think it went well.  Definitely $5 tickets are better.

Ada and Aubrey.

The Mulberry Tree

 

The workers showed up to cut down the tree and we had 3 family members in tears.  I didn't think I'd cry, but I did a little.  It was fascinating to watch them cut the tree down.  Hauling themselves up the tree by just a rope and then cutting branches.  They actually cut 4 of our trees down.  A couple were leaning into a neighbors yard and making him nervous.  That makes 5 that we've lost this year and 9 that we've lost since moving in.  We have another 4 aspens that are needing to come down, but I think we're going to do those ourselves.  The daycare kids were glued to the windows and doors.  It was great 2 days of easy entertainment for them.  Our backyard now looks absolutely huge and empty.  We want to plant a southern live oak, but we don't know if it would survive here. 

The stump is wide enough that you could fit 4-5 kids sitting on it across.  And you can see where the split was happening right in the middle.

My memories

Showers, parties, family reunions, Thanksgiving dinners, etc... Jer and I called it the Party Tree for a little while.

Family soccer games.

I also have so many pictures of nieces and nephews hanging out of the tree.  My nephew, Matthew, made a swing out of a rope and a bit of pvc pipe.  It was used for years until Jer had to limb it up last year and took down that particular branch.  This picture is after it had been limbed up very dramatically for two years in a row.

Daycare and kid playdates.

Anti-social weekend

 

While we're not sure whether we've been exposed to the virus or not, we've been keeping ourselves busy.  I replaced the bottoms of my Great-grandma Camenish's chairs because they were torn and threadbare.  Jer introduced the kids to pickleball.  And sadly, we said goodbye to our marvelous Mulberry tree.  It's scheduled to get cut down on Tuesday.  The crack in it it has widened to 7 or 8 inches and I'm so scared that it will fall and hurt our house, fence, swing set and our neighbors tool shed. It's a good thing, but man I'm sad about it.  I have loved that tree for 14 years.  It will make raking leaves easier for the next couple of years.    I'm grateful for professionals that are willing to come do the job instead of Jer doing it on his own.  It's a very heavy and big tree. We figure that Jer can be the man that can talk to the tree guy.  He didn't have very much contact with the daycare, and if we are contagious then he's least likely to have gotten it yet.