You Don't See That Every Day

  Spring is here. The daffodils are the herald for me. When I see those blooms, I know it's spring and warmer weather is on its way. They also remind me of my dad. Each spring he would send out the notice that they were in bloom, and he would tell us to come and cut a bouquet. If I had gotten married in March instead of May, I would have carried a bouquet of daffodils. This past weekend we finished planting the last of the hazelnut trees. Except for the pollenizers. In our orchards we have two main varieties of hazelnut trees, Wepster and McDonald. We have nearly 5,000 of each variety. Interspersed among those two varieties are the pollenizers, of the York and Yamhill variety. These are extra pollenizers as insurance for the early pollen and the late pollen. Well, this past weekend we finished replanting the last of the Wepster and McDonalds. Our Montana relatives were visiting and took the time to help us out, which made the task much more fun. And to my daughter's delight, an...

One of the things I love about my husband is his interest in the weather. He enjoys tracking the weather and keeping me updated on what's coming. It's a pretty important factor in a farmer's life too.  snow dusting a few weeks ago   So last week he started sharing the news of the coming snow. 6 inches, no 12, no, now they're predicting 17 inches of snow in our corner of the world. Definitely not something you see every day around here. I don't think we've had that much snow on the valley floor since the 1960s.  And I admit, I'm kind of excited about it. Yes, it will put a dent in plans for a four day weekend, but life is all about being able to change, adapt and overcome.  And spring is right around the corner!  

A week has passed since our spring break ended and I am finally getting to this. It went by too fast! We kept busy enough to feel it, but no so busy that we didn't sleep in. Oh, that felt good. And yes, Monday morning of back-to-school was very painful for all of us. We started the break with a wedding - friends' children who we've known since our kids were little. We all enjoyed the wedding .. it was simple and beautiful. Our Boy got a chance to serve - scooping ice cream at the reception.  We all enjoyed the dancing - The Boy and I joined in on the Mom and Son dance; The girls showed us their moves to songs we had no clue on; and The Mr had some great tango moves. It made me miss our ballroom dancing days. That evening we picked up The Cousins. What a giggle-filled three days those were! We took them to a local children's museum one day. There was an exhibit there for streams - and just like an engineer's grandchildren would do, they each start...

It's Spring! But I didn't need the calendar to tell me that. My 7 year old appeared in the morning dressed in tank top and shorts. Which was fine inside the house where it's about 70 degrees. However there was ice on the car windshield and the dogs water was also on the rocks. Thankfully by the time we finished lunch and school, the sun was shining and I let the kids go wild in the fresh air. The youngest reveled in having her older siblings home for the afternoon (the Boy is in Finals week; the Girl who Swims is recovering from strep throat). My 12 yr old took a First Day of spring montage for me. Here are her pics: In related news, Little K has been starting her schoolwork almost a soon as she gets up in the morning. She has connected the dots of finished work = time to play, and the sooner she's done the sooner she can play, which is her favorite thing at this point in life. One game they have been playing for the past two days is Find the Egg, aka Hiding Eas...

We didn't have much rain in April this month, which is very unusual for Oregon. But we got a lot of outside work done! We had a couple of days at the farm, along with working outside on our own yard, fixing up fences and drain pipes.  Grandpa had a couple of bicycles for the girls to try. Little K did her best to keep up with them, but eventually she ended up with mom on the back of the pickup, going for a ride with Grandpa.  It was a gathering sticks kind of day - a perfect job for people closer to the ground than us adults! They got a kick out of building up the burn pile. My dad cleared some land to plant new trees and he couldn't work the ground until those pesky sticks were out of the way.  Back at home the Mr has been working on getting our drainage problems taken care of. When we get the normal amount of rain for Oregon, our backyard starts to look like a lake, along with a nice pond in the front. We have finally discovered why, but it has taken a lot of ...

April is birthday month around here. Within our little family there are 3 we celebrate, and the extended family includes 7 more, and then there are a number of good friends with April birthdays. We start out with this man: The Mr and little K goofing around He makes me laugh. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. He knows when he needs to make me laugh, and when to be quiet. After almost 20 years together, he has that figured out. We had birthday pie, instead of cake, made by our girl  along with other presents from me and the kids.  We celebrated the 12 year-old's birthday this weekend. She had a sleepover and scavenger hunt with her friends who share birthdays this week, and then we had a little family gathering in the yard The weather is actually beautiful for an Oregon springtime, so we are taking advantage of the outdoors while we can.

The things about Easter in Oregon is you never know what kind of weather you will have. Will we be wearing raincoats or sweaters to hunt for eggs this year? Trying to find a pretty dress for each of my girls has been an endeavor of patience every year. Why, oh why, do stores in Oregon sell pretty spring dresses WITHOUT sleeves?????? We found racks of dresses with spaghetti straps, or thin straps, but very few with sleeves - and they are all short short sleeves. If I knew how to sew I might start a business in Oregon selling long-sleeve spring dresses! But we girls managed to find something new to wear - one of the few traditions we have for this holiday. And I managed to eventually get a good family photo of these silly kids. After church we drove to my sister's house for a family dinner. And the egg hunt. Notice the jackets? It was cold and wet outside! We managed to hide and find the plastic eggs in between rain showers.  Even the older kids searched - although or...

It's the first day after spring break. The older kids are back at school. The youngest has been falling apart all day. I didn't get enough sleep last night. And the other girls only had a very light day of schoolwork today (another nice benefit to homeschool!) But the fun of spring break and the memories made are worth it. We made a plan this year to actually do something over the break. I made up a calendar with a list next to it of things we wanted to do, and then we plugged activities into the dates. So it started with skating for one girl and her friends; and I took the other girls to the new movie "Cinderella". We all really really liked it! There was the requisite trip to the library to stock up on books for free time. And the cousins came for a three day visit - which included a fun time at the carousel. After they went home we joined some friends for a trip to the Oregon Trail museum in Oregon City. It was interesting to see the size of the wagons pione...