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| Mark tucking in the plants |
Instead of a gentle transitional month, this May was a
roller coaster ride with a couple very cold spells , tantalizing warm days and
then a week of rain, rain, rain. Hilde
was musing about the range of “summer” clothes needed in Wisconsin, and the
layers needed to cope with variations within a day. In fact, she waited until the second week to
put away turtlenecks and flannel sheets—and then the month ended with over 5
inches of rain and two nights of frost, just a week after Mark and Hilde had
planted everything out ---a big garden this year. So Mark had to painstakingly cover each of
the more than two dozen tomatoes, all the peppers, eggplants and pumpkins,
working on saturated clay loam.
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| Caleb at 3 weeks |
Despite the vagrancies of temperature, the spring bloom was
wonderful this year with lovely colors and scents in the wild flowers, trees
and planted favorites. Due to the less
than average snow cover, a few perennials did not make it but the rest made up
for it…really lovely tulips and lilacs this year. The ever-changing floral displays in
fencerows, roadsides and flowerbeds was spectacular this year.
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| Mark: attorney and arborist |
The family side was great in May, as it started with a visit
to Jim and Kayme’s. Hilde got to cuddle
little 3-week old Caleb at the college while Kayme accompanied her students at
a competition. What a joyous and
satisfying way to spend a Saturday! Mark
spent the time working on Jim’s wiring and fixed a room fan before tackling a
more complicated, mis-wired exhaust fan.
Watching Rhiannon and Rowan play outside in golden sunshine, paint their
toenails, giggle and tumble together
made for a golden day for all. Those
little girls are so sweet with their tiny brother! Attending church and Lord’s
Supper with the expanded family made for a great finale…followed by supper by
candlelight, until the power came back on.
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Daddy Jim with Caleb |
The family time was precious and needed before the trial
preparation took over the rest of the month.
Mark re-tried part of a three week case from 2012, where the plaintiffs
had added many more claims and wanted big money. Despite Mark’s best efforts, the jury awarded
much of that and the week in Buffalo ended with the home team pretty
disappointed. The intensity and near
round-the-clock attention of trial work is hard to imagine. Hilde had a much better time for the week of
trial: one day she re-trained on the
town website, another day she had a lovely lunch and visit with Laurel, and one
day was taken by review of the county board video---she missed quite a lively
meeting! The technical connections do
help Hilde when Mark’s work takes them out of town, and getting locked in the
bathroom added a little comic relief.
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| Sweet Sister Fun |
The best way of forgetting that kind of stuff is getting
busy, and Mark and Hilde really dug in the last days of the month. Mark only worked a couple half days at the
office, but he planted both gardens, fixed a lawnmower, trimmed trees, mowed a
year’s growth of weeds in the dog pen, stabilized the deck stairs, replaced
fence posts, fenced the garden and added fencing on the perimeter. After some shopping on the rainy days, a new
recliner is ordered and a hammer drill ready for the radon project, plus Mark contrived
some rain diverters to eliminate the rain overshoot problem. When he gets a head of steam of things really
get done!
Hilde has been struggling to
keep up with grass mowing, between the down pours and meetings. Amazing how fast the green stuff grows around
here. There was time to celebrate Dr. Stevens birthday, have lunch with the crafts gals and read a few books, thank goodness.
The surprising thing about Mark being home is that he is
getting things done remotely at the office,
finding lots to do here AND creating a growing list of jobs to work on. Hilde and Mark are much happier with the more
flexible schedule and Mark working from home more often. It looks as though the personnel issues for
the county will be resolved soon, so Hilde will see the special meetings let
up, too. Hurray for summer!
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| This smelled even better than it looked |
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| Sisters, Sharing Sunshine |
