Gardens

Being so far away, many of you can't stop in to see the flowers that are blooming around the place this spring. With the slightly cooler weather many have been around much longer than they often are. Here's a little glimpse of a few corners of Evelyn's gardens.

the clematis and johnny-jump ups-- glory at the foot of the locust tree



the bleeding hearts



the late-blooming rhododendron



the ferns



even the pine trees are blooming



the japanese barberry



salvia and purple irises



perennial asters



the berries on the holly bush by the front side porch



In amidst all of the flowers, several of our plants have special memories of friends and family

The hostas in their new home. The one in the center is Grandma White's August Lily. Other fun names are the Robert Frost hosta to the left and the Francis Williams hosta to the right.



Grandma White's peony usually blooms for memorial day. We didn't think it would this year, but voila



The mountain laurel shrub purchased at Espenshade's last year is getting ready for its first bloom



Cuttings/starters from a boxwood..trying out Aunt Nora's technique of growing cuttings. Hopefully it will work as well for us.



Lucy's purple and white irises.



the Dwarf Alberta spruce surrounded by pachysandra

Jim's other projects...

Along with planning the new addition, he's had several other projects going. One of these projects has been to take down several of the trees around the place that had seen better days.

The buckeye tree out front came down in three parts last fall



All the wood then needed to be chopped...



The only potential casualty appears to be recovering nicely



Next up for chopping? the locust tree that used to stand where the new addition stands



Another project has been to convert the first part of the barn into a workshop. Notice the new concrete flooring ....



After learning how to lay concrete from a pro, he used his new knowledge to make himself a set of ramps in another section of the barn



Next project? Worm all those sheep that lost their winter coats yesterday....

Memorial Day Cookout

Evelyn and Kristin made quite a feast for us today! (Even if it was a bit of a longer walk from our garage kitchen to the patio area) So much good food .....

Getting the barbecue ready for grilling...




While we waited we had a few appetizers. For starters we had a spinach salad with strawberries and mandarin oranges. This was tossed with a home-made red currant vinaigrette. (To make the vinaigrette - take 1/4 cup of red currant jam and heat it with 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar to make a red syrup.)

Here's James enjoying the potato salad



Once the grill, was hot we got down to the business of grilling -
First we toasted Italian bread to spread with an eggplant dip (made of roasted eggplant, roasted green peppers, and olive oil) then sprinkled with a bit of feta cheese




After that the many veggies- asparagus; mushrooms; wooden skewers of potatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and shallots



And the bbq ribs.... Kristin had cooked the ribs (baby back, western style, and spareribs) in the oven, slathered in barbecue sauce, for 9 hours at 190 degrees. They were then grilled for 10-20 minutes. Incredibly tender. The barbecue sauce was a homemade top- secret recipe which included jalopeno peppers. MMMmmmmm.



And for dessert... lemonade cake and grilled pineapple.



The recipe for the lemonade cake can be found at abcnews.go.com/GMA/Recipes/Story?id=4869594&page=2
(scroll down and look for the pink lemonade layer cake)

Putting on the roof

Basement Floor

Pouring the concrete for the basement floor



smooth finish

Building a Chimney

Putting the scaffolding in place



Building the base




All finished!




Inside view of the future fireplace in the living room



Inside view of where the wood-burning stove will be in the basement

5-16-2008

Update for the day...

The windows have finally arrived. You can see the mission style window we have chosen here:



Getting the upper casements ready for the new windows:

Taking Shape

I'm having a little bit of a hard time accepting or believing that this is what is being built; it is just much larger than I had imagined. (jim)





If you look closely, you can see a part of the addition through the trees.

A look from the inside

A preview of what we'll see out the window . Hard to believe there is building right there!



a look back toward the old part of the house. You can see the mud insulation in between the beams. and the small door up at the peak used to open into the crawl space above the old kitchen.

Matilda and her family

A black snake (or one of her descendants) has lived under the back patio for a long, long time. Mostly she has kept to herself .......

With all the contstruction going on, Matilda decided it was time to move last weekend. In through the washer vent and out into the laundry room.

As no one was ready for another housemate, Jim relocated her out to the grasses near the neighbor's corn crib. She seemed happy enough, and everything was quiet until...

5-9-08

Matilda’s partner appeared on the scene today. The workmen kept seeing it peer over the wall and finally the long black snake crawled out into the open and caused the carpenter to feel rather creepy when it began to crawl onto his ladder….about 10:30 am I heard a knock on the laundry door and the Amish workman asked “may I kill the snake?” I said yes, please do. He attacked it with a digging iron as it slithered along the foundation and then buried it right there along the foundation of the new addition. My sincere hope is that will end the appearances of black snakes. I still haven’t made a trip to the basement, somewhat fearful that I may find another of their kind….

Watching the walls go up

It is interesting to live on the construction site and watch the happenings every day. I am always amazed at the coordination & balance demonstrated by the workmen as they walk along walls & beams rather high off the ground with such ease, tool bags dangling from their belts, and performing their tasks with such precision.

Placing the I-Beam