Over-filled May

It’s a good thing there were 31 days in May---but a week extra would have helped fit everything into this month for the Henkels. The busy-ness meant missing some family events, like Leslie's confirmation and Evie's bridal shower, but they were thought of, for sure. Mark’s trial preparation is really dominating the schedule and meant that Mother’s Day was spent on the road to Springfield MO again. But making lemonade from lemons led to going to Madison the night before and having a great dinner at Delaney’s with John and Evie. Since it was still very chilly and un-green in Wisconsin at that point, driving south was a fast-forward into spring with lovely flowers and , of course, road construction delays. Meantime, in Maryland, Jim and Kayme took Rhiannon strawberry picking for the first taste of berry good stuff.

That evening, food as always was great at Zio’s, spiced with a strange encounter with a lady from down there who “just felt” that Mark was a head directed person who needed to ‘listen to his heart.” Doesn’t sound like good trial strategy advice. She also told of trying to use a long feather-duster to wave the flies off her employer’s purebred cattle….imagine the ensuing stampede. Lots of interesting folks out there.

The trip to Missouri was just short enough that Mark and Hilde were able to get back to taekwondo on a very hot night in time for the celebration of Dr. Stevens birthday. Mark had to fly back to Springfield the day after the terrible tornado down at Joplin. Flight down was just bumpy, but trying to get home was much longer and round about.—Mark went to Denver, Minneapolis and then Mosinee. Since he had departed from Appleton, Hilde had to retrieve him from one airport and then the next morning drive him to Appleton to retrieve the car.

This has been a fantastic month for flowers: the cooler damp weather was great for holding the blossoms on all the fruits trees: cherries, crabapples, apricot, pears, apples and for the first time, blossoms on the little hardy peach tree. Lilacs, and lots of spring flowers made it a delight to spend hours land hours on the lawnmower and on weeding the two raspberry beds, the foundation beds and the rose bed. The rabbits have done serious damage to the roses (how can they nibble on those thorny stems?) to the naking bush cherries and even the burning bushes. One smart-alec bunny came up on the deck all winter to nibble on the upper branches of one burning bush, since there was fence on the lower portions.

Mark managed three spring projects in and around his travels. He cleared out and sorted through all the junk in the north shed to get the fishing boat out of dry dock. It had been out of the water for 22 years, and the mice had chewed up the floatation vests, leaving lots of Styrofoam loose all over, but he cleaned it out, replaced the wheels and tires on the trailer, and repacked the bearings. The motor may not be repairable.. Mark also dug out a new strawberry patch and got that planted just at the right time, converting the old patch to a melon bed. Then Mark tackled the brick pillar holding up the rooflet over the front door. The plastic qualities of our Rudolph clay make stability a problem, but it had been up for over 20 years. He did a great job tearing out the old and mortaring a very nice new pillar. When spring comes, he really gets going.

Hilde has been pushing the whole month with lots of meetings, including the public hearing on and approval of the tentative county redistricting plan. Mowing seemed to be unending, whenever it wasn’t raining or too windy. The last days of the month featured very strong winds which snapped off the young sugar maple transplanted from the Henkel land in Lomira.

There have been more skype visits with Jim and Kayme to enjoy the antics of Rhiannon. She is rolling and squirming around now, almost crawling and loves bouncing in her play saucer. She recognizes and smiles at “Grandma and Grandpa in the Box” every time.

It was a very busy month, June looks even wilder, but we are counting down the days to John and Evie’s wedding for a great celebration and family gathering, before nieces Alana and Heidi head off to their grad schools. Thank goodness for facebook, skype, blogs and cell phones to help keep far-flung families in touch.