April and Easter

April and Easter are anniversary reminders of John's death and Tom's illness and so are tough in terms of being the start of Springtime and thoughts of new life. This year we wanted to get right to work over at Sarah's house helping her prepare her garden after the extremely difficult winter we all endured this year. It began the day after Christmas wih a blizzard that forced us (Dan, Maia, and I) to hunker down and stay overnight with Sarah. Matt left just before the storm worsened for Providence. We played Scrabble and Monopoly and really enjoyed it as an indoor bonding experience. That storm was followed by more and more snow. Sarah had to use her new snowblower a LOT to get out every morning to work. Most of us had to deal with ice dams and damage from heavy snow on our rooftops. Roof rakes to rid the homes of daggerlike icicles were in demand. Therefore, when we sensed a bit of warmth and after all the snow and ice had melted, Matt came over from Rhode Island and helped - he also ordered a load of manure as a surprise and the weekend of Easter we all went to pick out a new chicken coop so that the new chicks would have a fresh new place to live. All was going well untill people started getting stuck in the mud. After all was said and done, it was quite messy and more than a little frustrating, but it all went down as an unfortunate series of events that we had to just get past and move on. My Memorial Day, the garden and the chickens were all taken care of and the mowing had begun. Between Tom's brother, Rob, and me and Sarah the grass gets mowed regularly. One tractor repair session was all it took from the Sears guy who is a familiar part of the scene now to get the old Craftsman running fine. It should be good for this season and then maybe next year she can consider a new riding mower with a larger cutting span.