Bird Haven

                               Rick putting the post in for the bird feeder

                         Bird feeders all up and hopefully squirrel proof

                                        The Baltimore Oriole feeder 

                                        My rock garden is looking pretty good

                               One of the orioles we have coming to the feeder

We put our repaired bird feeder back up today. The squirrels ate a huge hole in it this winter, I was so mad! I had to take it down and take over to Dad so he could fix it for me. After he gave me a lecture on how to take care of it better he fixed it all up. He even put some metal over the parts that the squirrels like to eat so they cannot do it again if they manage to get back on it. We moved it to the front yard so hopefully they will not be able to jump off any trees to get on it.

While we were at Dad's we got a oriole feed to put up. As soon as I got it out the orioles were all over it. I have to put new oranges and grape jelly out everyday. They are so pretty it is fun to watch them.

I should have repainted my flower pots this year but it never stops raining and they were wet so I just went ahead and put plants in them hopefully this year the dumb squirrels do not dig the plants out like last year. I filled the dirt with crush red pepper because I was told that will stop the squirrels or at least give them some very hot mouths. As you can tell I am pretty much at war with the squirrels in my yard. In my eyes the only good squirrel is a dead squirrel!

My rock garden looks so nice this year. The hostas are really looking nice. Last year was so dry that they did not look so good by the end of the summer. Of course it is pretty hard to kill a hosta plant. Hopefully I get some flowers on my iris plants this year. Last year they got huge but never flowered.
I am working on getting the rest of my flowers planted but I ran out of soil and of course now it is raining. I can only hope that tomorrow will be a little dryer.

I got some paint yesterday to paint the picnic table and the swing. I am going to paint them emerald green. It is the color of the year. I wanted to have something a little brighter then just brown! Of course there will be no painting until it drys out. The stupid rain is really messing with my weekend plans. I am sure in about two days we will have so many mosquitoes in the yard that we will not be able to go outside at all.

Yesterday Rick and I went to Star Trek. It was very good! I loved watching Star Trek when I was a kid on TV. They movies are really fun to watch.

Later Sharon 

Rain, rain go away and come again another day.....

 This past weekend Amy and Christa had a garage sale at our house. Friday It rained and rained most of the day so that slowed it down a little. But Saturday it was nice out. They both did good selling a ton of stuff. I got to watch Oliver while they were running the sale on Friday and then on Saturday I watched Liam, Josie and Eli for a short time in the morning.

Sunday Rick and I went to Faribault to get our deer stand out of Dad's woods. It sounds like the sale of the land will be happening soon so we had to get it out. Of course once we got out to the woods it started to rain. We got soaked! It seems like it is never going to stop raining!

I heard them talking about the above exercise program on the radio the other day. You do each exercise for only 30 seconds take a 10 second break between each exercise for a total of 7 minutes. The whole idea is you get your cardio going and hit a lot of different muscle groups and in no time you get toned up. So I thought I would give it a try. Well two days later my legs still hurt!!! It kicked my ass. Who knew that doing 7 minutes of exercise could actually work. Of course you will need to changes things up and do it longer if you want to continue to improve. I think I will do it again tonight after work. I have to watch Eli while Liam and have Josie have soccer so it will be something I can do while he is there.

Monday Rick left for Utah to go the the Hoyt Factory to for two days of classes. He gets to build his own bow on the last day. I talked to him last night and he said he is having a great time. He said that the Hoyt company is treating them very good and he is leaning a lot. It is the longest that we have been apart since we have been together. I may have accidentally let the dogs sleep with me the last two nights. They are loving it. I am sure they are not going to love it when they have to go back to there kennel on Thursday night.   

Christa had some pictures taken of her and Oliver for mothers day. Oliver was being shy at first and would not look at the camera but I think it is a cute picture.

Our lawn is starting to look like a hayfield. Hopefully it stops raining soon so I can get it cut!

Later Sharon

Weekend in Lanesboro

                                                   All set up in the campsite

                                Paul and Rick trying a little trout fishing

                                   The ducks trying not to freeze to death.....

We decided to do a weekend end in Lanesboro for our first camping trip with the new camper. Jane and Paul also went so they were a big help when it came to all our questions about setting up the camper. I think we have it all down now and should be able to do it on our own. It really is not to hard but when we picked it up they told us so many things it was overwhelming. Now that we have done it we realize that it is no big deal.
We are so happy with the camper and are very happy that we decided to get it. It was so nice to have a bathroom! No more cold, dark trips to the campground bathrooms in the middle of the night!
We brought our bikes with us because the Lanesboro area has lots of great bike trail. To bad we did not have good biking weather. We never even took the bikes off the truck. We were going to go on Saturday but we had 30-40 mph winds. Even Rick said that was to windy for him to bike in. So instead we just spent the whole weekend relaxing. It was wonderful. Rick has been so busy with work and making strings that he needed some time to just do nothing. We did a little trout fishing, but they were not biting. Maybe because it was to cold!! It got down to 30-35 both nights we were there. I don't know how the people that were in tents did not freeze to death. I was glad we have a heater and a nice warm feather-tic.
We packed up Sunday morning and were on the road around 9:30. On the way home we stopped at Menards and pick up a couple things we needed for the camper. We  were back home and unpacked by 1:00. It is so nice to be able to leave most everything in the camper now. It makes packing and unpacking much easier.
Today it is back to work, but only for 4 days since I am on my weekends off. Not soon enough.......

Later
Sharon

"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride." ~John F. Kennedy

                I thought I would share some pictures of flowers and bikes, two of my favorite things.


Rick and I took our bikes to Morristown and got on the newly paved Sakatah bike trail. It was so much nicer now that they finally repaved it. It was so bad that we have not been on it for years. They only did 15 miles of it, I hope that they have plans to do the rest soon. We only biked to Faribault and back so we did 17 miles total. Of course when we got to Faribault the DQ is right there at the  end of the trail so we had to stop and have a ice cream cone. It was fun to be out on the road bike again. Last year I was on it a total of 3 times. I wanted to run last summer so that is what I did. This summer I am going to try and do both. More biking then running I think.

It has been so nice to have the windows open and let in the fresh air. The dogs have been going crazy running around outside. Of course now that the windows are open they have to bark at every little noise. Hopefully they settle down soon.

Tomorrow I am babysitting Amy's kids overnight! I have not had them overnight since Eli was about 3 weeks old. It should be fun.

I start my 4 day weekend tomorrow so today is a good day since it is my Friday.

Go for a bike ride....
Sharon

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." - Steve Martin

I like everyone else in Minnesota am so sick of the cold and snow. I cannot believe we got 10 inches of snow on May 1st. What kind of crap is that! It is hard to be a good mood when you have had 6 months of winter. It is depressing. I am sooooo happy that the weather outlook is much better. It even looks like we might get to see the sun again today or at the latest tomorrow. I will be very happy to see it.

Since I was on my day's off when the snow came I made the best of it and got lots done in the house. I  got the house nice and clean. I also was able to get a dress cut out and about half sewn. Hopefully I will be able to finish it after work this week. I will post pictures when I get it done, well if I like it I will :)

 Rick and I have been busy getting stuff for the camper. It is so exciting to be able to get things that we can keep in it. There is so much storage room in it. It is almost like having a second house. I can't wait to go camping.   We also got a new bike rack for the truck. The one we had was for the car and did not work on the truck, When ever we took the truck we ended up using budgie cords to keep the bikes in the truck bed. This should be way better. When we go to Lanesboro camping we are going to take the bikes so we will be able to give it a try.

Yesterday Rick helped Adam out and said he would watch Eli for him while he took Josie to gymnastics. He said it went very good until Eli decided to put his whole granola bar in his mouth, chew it up and then decide he did not like it and spit the whole thing on the floor. I thought it was pretty funny but Rick did not. Good thing the dogs were there and cleaned it right up!

Think Spring!
Sharon