Jumbled June

Early June was quite a rush with as many things as possible done by the 10th: last garden plants out, an extra zoning conference fit in, new window balances installed, hair cuts, transfer of the boat to Paul and lots of planning for the trip to southern Missouri. Hilde had Irene and Melodie out for crafts, and rushed through a lot of sewing, which was fun. The flowers were really nice this year: clematis are both doing well and birds have been frequent visitors. In fact, our red-bellied woodpecker brought her young one to the feeder, stuff some seeds into his mouth and then left him to the buffet.

Things never seem to go in a straight line, and this June was a perfect example of that. Mark and Hilde had done all the planning for a lengthy (three-week) trial in Springfield: Mark had shipped 14 boxes of documents and hauled another 5 along in the car, Hilde had made arrangements for the animals and had others take over her meetings, everyone concerned had gathered, set up the courtroom and even the jury selected, Mark primed to give his opening statement, but after only one day, the trial delayed until next May and everything had to be canceled, changed and replanned due to ill health of one of the plaintiffs. Hilde had one day of being at leisure by the pool; Mark ended up doing a 6-hour video deposition, then they turned around and came home.

While coming home early was irksome (and took a full 14 hours due to road delays!), it did allow Mark to rototill the entire garden in the one dry day before a week of rain and gloom. Other places enjoyed the longest day of the year, but in Wisconsin, the evidence of sunlight was not there! Being home for Father’s Day let Mark to do what he wanted: which was to crawl under the deck, jack it up and replace supports to remove a slight sag. Since this had been nagging at him, Mark was very satisfied to get this remedied.

Hilde was glad to be back for county board and for marathon mowing and weeding days: the rain really brought things along. Food production has begun, and the last day of the month was spent on freezing the peas for the year. Toward the end of the month, Hilde was tickled pink to watch Rhi crawling via skype. She knows where she wants to go and now she can get there! It should be fun to play with her when the family gathers.

Anticipation and excitement is mounting for John and Evie’s wedding, the whole focus of July is that happy day. Those two are very organized and efficient and have really gotten lots done while both are so busy, and seem happier as the day approaches.