May 4-5, 2012

We finally received some decent spring rain – an inch and a quarter was in the gauge. You could tell it in the garden as well. Things weren't great, but were better.

Cherries

Thursday evening Sally got an e-mail from Bev with a picture of ripe cherries. She and Brian live in Bentonville and have a great cherry tree. We loved the ones we got two years ago, but none were produced last year. You also have to beat the birds to them, so you have a small window to pick. We decided to go by on the way to the farm and spent two hours picking cherries. This picture is of my setup at home to do the pitting, but I did the same thing as soon as we got to the farm. I think we froze a couple of gallons at the farm and finished up at home, where Sally went ahead and made two pies which she froze. These tart cherries are really great.

Paint

Sally has wanted the living room painted for years, so this was the weekend. We had done just a little taping several weeks back, but there is lots of natural wood trim. We spent Friday evening taping and did the painting Saturday. This is some kind of sandstone and not quite as creamy as the previous color, but looks good.

Super Moon

Friday was the night of the super moon. It really looked fantastic in person, but is lost in a picture.

Berryville for Jumpers/Mow

After painting, I was anxious to get some mowing done as I would not be back out for two weeks. Wouldn't you know it, the battery was completely dead, I had left my jumpers in the truck, and we had come out in the 4Runner. I was actually not sure it was the battery, because when I got to looking I found another wire chewed off – those damn mice. I finally got another piece spliced in, but still nothing. Knowing that I had to figure out if it was the battery or not, I I choose to go to Berryville and buy more jumpers. Sally decided to come along and did some plant shopping at WalMart. It turned out to only be a dead battery, and I mowed over by the swing, down to the pond, around the spring, and in front and behind the barn. It was a late trip back to town (for us).