Spring 2015

Jenny & David's Wedding hike eagle

March 27th - it's officially Spring, but we're still getting a bit of snow.

Happy early birthday, Roger!

Roger is totally surprised by the computer monitor he and Dad picked out at Costco.

Whatchya looking at!

New apricot tree, ordered from California. This Tomcot apricot is supposed to be cold-hardy.

morning frost lingers in the shadow of the oak tree

Happy Birthday, Roger!

April 4th, another bit of snow.

snow on the rhubarb

April 5th, Easter at Grandma & Grandpa's. The man next to Steph is her boyfriend Jason, from Calgary, Canada.

Since we hadn't been healthy enough to host a birthday gathering for Roger earlier, we took a cake over for dessert after Easter dinner.

Totally chocolate.

New apricot in the ground.

It came with apricots already on it, but has since dropped them. Being from Central CA, it was a bit ahead of the seasonal schedule here.

backyard forsythia

S'mores

I moved the stump of the pluot tree that was ruined by the car on the lawn, just to see what it might do. It's growing back from the rootstock, so probably a Citation Plum.

Burgundy Plum tree, blooming like crazy.

Snow! April 23rd.

We zigzagged fishing line over top the tulips to discourage the deer. It appears to have worked!

Macintosh apple blossoms.

The Granny Smith apple finally decided to bloom this year.

First rhubarb harvest of the season, from our yard.

We decided to move one of the seckel pear trees. It was stunted from being downhill and in the shade of the oak tree.

It took all four of us, but the tree is now in its new spot, between a taller (but same age) seckel and the Macintosh apple.

Roger works on his cardboard boat for the physics class regatta.

As a Cooper in good standing, he made a barrel.

The day of the Cardboard Regatta. Students dropped off their boats earlier and then rode a bus from the school to the Brecksville Rec Center for the event.

Roger is ready for his match.

Sadly, barrels are not easy to get into without tipping.

But it was quite water-tight. 15 minutes later, Roger could was still pouring water out.

Sarah and Chris sent me flowers for Mother's Day/Sarah's birthday.

We made cupcakes for Sarah's birthday, and ceremoniously lit candles.

Yay, plums!

Seckel pears.

apples on the Granny Smith.

Finally, purple iris.

This log came down in a storm, right on the brush pile - no need to haul it over.

Another branch came down on the hemlock cage. I managed to mostly straighten it out and free the hemlock to be upright again.

Some of the loot from German Club. Smurf candy! Both Roger and Alan won a lot of the raffle prizes at the last meeting of the year. Entries to the raffle were done by each meeting you'd attended during the year. If Herr Moore had not put a limit of 2 on how many prizes you could win, Roger and Alan would have come home with 7 between them.

A 10-12" tree came down in our lower yard.

What an opportunity to try out the little battery-powered chainsaw!

Glen got through 2/3 of the tree before the batteries both needed recharging.

The flag was all that was left of the USS Barrel Roll. Roger used it as the base for a banner to give Mr. Benich (physics teacher) as a memento the last week of school. Alan made chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips to share with his teachers.