May in Minnesota

I was pleasantly surprised by a return of some mini grape hyacinths I had planted the spring before, and then didn't really help them at all. Randy has weed-whipped the area a couple of times since, so we'll see what they do next year!

CoViD-19 Affected everyone's life, but our lives were only really changed because church was different. The first 2-3 Sundays, church was only live-streamed. Then we set up a trailer on the side of the church with framed up tarps to block the wind (it's always windy there, and it was March in Minnesota, so it was cooooold). The tarps lasted a couple weeks and the guy who owned the trailer needed it back. Then someone lent a smaller trailer but for as long as we needed it, and we built a more substantial "stage" under the church entry awning. We still had to strategically position that thing every week, depending on which direction the wind was blowing. Sometimes it would blow from behind and make a wind-tunnel in the roof of the awning and come down on our heads. We were recording the services for those still at home, and I watched some of a service one Sunday afternoon. My hair was blowing everywhere! And I almost lost my binder of music off the keyboard a couple times while we were playing. I'm relieved not to be doing that anymore.

May 7: A friend from church gifted me a little nightstand/end table and I was inspired to give it a makeover. It had been stained, varnished, and painted 3 times, and the thick paint was chipping away, so I tried out some wood stripper we had sitting around. Had I known how much wood-stripper-applying and labor this little table was going to require of me, I probably would have given it a little sanding and another coat of paint instead. As it is, I learned a lot about refinishing furniture, the wood-stripper route. An hour here, a couple hours there, and it wasn't SO time-consuming.

May 18: layers of paint and varnish finally gone! Ready for some sanding..

All done! The hardware came with it; I just "frosted" it with some metallic spray paint I had on hand to spruce it up. It is a very nice little end table in the LR.

May 9: One of spring's many moods.

Also May 9: Charlie's ready for a spring haircut.

May 27: Charlie's haircut, half-done.

May 15: Bridget and Andrew's "playground".

Randy's brother's coworker was getting rid of some leather furniture from his storage unit, so Ken brought it to us! It needed some cleaning and conditioning, but it's just fine. The faux-leather couch I had salvaged from the dump for our pole-barn LR was gently but firmly tossed out the LR's future-screened-porch door. Actually, there was a really long pallet I leaned against the house to make a very steep "slide," so we slid the couch out, so as not to damage siding or break windows below. 😁 Here, Teddy is spear-heading the kids' task of moving the (lightweight) couch from the west side of the house, across the south, up the driveway to where the trailer was parked and gathering junk to take to the dump.

May 16: Most of our seeds sprouted!

May 16: Randy enjoys driving his tractor, and we enjoy what it does to our junky land. There's hope for some sort of yard!

This is what that space looks like today. There's some grass in there that could be mowed, but it's mostly weeds. Randy's tractor is currently out of commission with a flat tire (or two), so the yard improvements will wait.

May 16: The tarp on the tarp shed that we had bought a few years ago (to increase our last house's garage-storage space, mostly for old bikes) was meeting its end, so we took it off and moved the frame to its new home. It's currently holding up plants that need support, but we'll get some greenhouse plastic and extend the growing season this fall and in the spring. :)

(July 20) : Teddy and I just put down mulch on the floor (which was quickly producing knee-tickling weeds) yesterday. The plants are producing a lot! Yay!

May 27: I have continued to teach piano for one family (happens to be my oldest friend besides Randy in this area) through moving 3 times. ALL these kids love books, and love Marietta. Her older 2 are not pictured.

May 30: My parents and brother Andy brought my other brother Tim's 2 girls with them and we had 10 in our house (comfortably) for a long weekend! Dad and I built a retaining wall (in front of the garage) and Dad and Andy helped hang siding. Randy and I just finished the last couple rows of that section this past Friday, as a huge storm was rolling in.