We continue to have warm weather with highs in the mid 80s each day. Fortunately we received approximately 3 inches of rain early the week before. We must have also received some high wind with the rain, as the Adirondacks were all blown over and Tender's water bowl was all the way over by the house. The first thing I did was walk over to the Loveable Loo house to make sure it was still standing.
The Red Buds had faded and were replaced with the bright white of Dog Woods. The valley along Rock House Road near Winona Church was just spectacular. Ours in the valley next to the road in, broken and deformed from the ice storm, were also very nice. And out of the three Dog Woods we planted south of the house 7 or 8 years ago, we finally had our first bloom – exactly 1 bloom. I am sure next year there will be more.
Well House
Now that winter is long gone, I pulled all the insulation out of the top of the well house and bagged it up. I was surprised I didn't flush any mice out, but I could see where they had been nesting (and you could smell their urine). Next year I ought to get new insulation. Sally complained about seeing the bags in the back of the chicken coop where I stash them through the summer.
Loveable Loo
I needed to level the rock floor. So I took a crow bar over, jacked up the back rock, and filled in under it with some dirt. Moving those huge rocks around is not easy, especially now that the house is built around them. The floor is now more or less level, and I filled in some of the bigger holes between the rocks.
Next I needed to cut off about three inches of the door so that it would clear the rock stoop/step I have in front. I then attached the hinges to the door and took it over for placement. The lower 2x4 cross brace on the door was a fraction of an inch to close to the jam, so I decided to chisel out a notch for it (skinned up my knuckles in the process). 
I mounted the door only to find the lower hinge a tad too far off the siding (I'm sure both problems are the result of that post not being perfectly vertical), so I had to scab a piece of siding under it. I then laid out the placement for the handle and the latch, drilled a hole through the door for the thumb activated lever, attached the handle, and then screwed the latch to the jam. To finish it up I added a thin piece of cedar (left in the barn) to the jam. Opening and closing the door from inside and outside worked great.
For the Loveable Loo itself, I purchased the materials and built it in town except for attaching the top and seat. (It was nice using my table saw at home for the cuts.) Mine is probably 5 inches higher than their specs, but I like it. With that additional space I built a shelf for the bucket to sit on (versus the floor). Sally was anxious to use it, but we need to get some sawdust for cover material. Now I'm working on her to let me build one for us to use in town.
Flower Bed
Sally had some flower seeds she wanted to plant and since most the (dis)Obedience plant out front had succumbed to the drought, that was the place for them. She got me out there with a hoe to loosen the soil so we could pull out the weeds. Then I worked in some wood ashes and the last bag of compost I had. To water, I had to pull out the double hoses I use on that end of the house and hook them up.
Wind Damage
The Adirondack that got blown over the bluff last year and that I patched together, did not survive this tumble. The problem is the two lower back braces are too thin to receive the bolts from the arms and legs. I screwed the back off of them so I can use them as templates to cut new pieces. It will be difficult because they are curved. We'll see.
The south latch for the front barn door also suffered damage. Apparently the wind was out of the east, so it blew right into the barn from that side and nearly tore the latch off the door – it was bent and twisted and hanging on by one screw. They should have used two screws on the top of these brackets, but in all six latches there was only one screw on top. I took off the twisted one and straightened it enough and then attached it with two larger screws. I went around to the others and tightened them and added a screw as well.
Pond
Saturday Sally went into town to shop, so I loaded my backpack sprayer with the remainder of my Cutrine Plus and headed to the pond. There was still no sign that the fertilizer had clouded the water any. (I've always wondered how it would work when a big rain could wash lots of water through the pond – like we had the week before.) I sprayed the algae and grass around the dam and half way up the south shore. I hope I will see better results than I had in previous months. Once the water warms up I'll try more of the bacteria I bought last summer.
Blue Birds
There were now 4 blue bird eggs in the house by the pond -- adding 3 to the one I had seen two weeks earlier. On the way up the hill I also checked the house that sits midway and got this picture of 5 eggs. Whoopie! There are nest in the houses in the front yard and back yard, but they don't look like blue bird nests. There was also a wasp beginning a nest in the house in the front, so we totally cleaned it out. (Lots of wasps were out building nests. With a fly swatter I got about a dozen of them.)
Barn
While Sally was in town, I decided to go ahead and tackle cleaning up the north-west corner of the barn where surplus materials are stored – mostly wood Eddie left behind. I picked everything up and re-stacked it all, eliminating two regular pallets and one long double pallet (I'm thinking of using them to build the compost bin). I was surprised I only flushed out one rat, and wish I could have taken a stick or shovel to him. (He took cover in the cedar posts still there, the ones for splitting.) I think it looks good and I've got it blocked off so Tender can't get behind anything. Sally hasn't seen it (though I did show her several pictures), so I'm not sure if it is going to gain final approval or not. I do keep reminding her that it is a barn after all.
Deck
I'm going to finally repair the little deck in the front yard. The nails are popping up and need to be replaced with screws, but the real problem is the sagging support in the center rear. Once I got a few boards up it was easy to see the problem. The center joist has pulled loose from the rear ledger. I've got some lag bolts left over from our Houston deck I plan to use to re-secure the joist. I may actually add a second joist if I can find a 2x6 long enough (they put two on the other side).
Mower
I had wanted to do some mowing. I even made several stops on the way out to find jumper cables, since I know I will have to jump start the battery (mine got stolen out of the truck over the winter). But it was not meant to be. The front left tire was completely flat, and with a hand pump I could not get the tubeless tire to seal. So I just took it off and put it in the car. (I was able to air it up using compressed air, and it seems to be holding.) We've talked of getting a new mower, but I guess it can wait until this one really gives up the ghost.
Fruit Trees
You can see the tiny fruit on the peach, nectarine, and pears. The apple is still flowering and there is only the one mature enough to fruit. We'll see if it gets pollinated from any neighbor trees. I fertilized them all, sprayed the apple for cedar-rust, burned some tent caterpillars out of the apple, and trimmed some large dead limbs from the peach. The Alberta peach looks like it is struggling and I will be surprised if it survives past this year.
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