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| Digging out |
April was an unusually wild ride in central
Wisconsin. It was a record-setting month
for weather, with it being both the coldest and the snowiest on record, and it
came mostly in two major storms.
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| April 16 |
Mark had depositions scheduled in Dubuque just
before the monster, three-day snow storm, and together with another lawyer and Hilde,
they hurried home on the beginnings of it, arriving home as rain turned to
driving sleet and then to snow and more snow.
Church and schools were called off, the mailman got stuck in the road
and the neighbors enjoyed another week of snowmobile fun. With sufficient warning of the storm, Mark
and Hilde pulled all the taps and got the sap equipment put away beforehand,
but the syrup season was also the best yet, with lots of syrup for once.
April was the finale for Hilde on county board,
which was bittersweet. After 18 years,
it was hard for her to say good-bye, and know that with the turnover on the
board, all the major assignments changed.
The thanks and plaque that Lance Pliml gave Hilde were his final actions
as county chairman, one of the best county leaders in Wood County. Adjusting to life without lots of emails,
phone calls and meetings (and turning in the county iPad) is taking some time.
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| Lance Pliml with retirement plaque |
Mark and Hilde had many taekwondo activities during
the month, to help take up time. In
addition to the first black belt testing on the 7th, they filled in
for Master Johnson at two days of College for Kids and then a half day at a
grade school doing intro to taekwondo.
The challenge at the latter involved sharing a small gym with a “ga-ga
ball pit” which is a large inflated arena for kickball. The volume of the game and the LOUD drumming
of the ousted kids on the inflated rim combined to painful decibels, but master
black belts persevere and they managed four mini-classes during the cacophony.
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| Re-emergence |
After the major storms, it was pitiful to see dead
robins and hungry deer, but eventually everything warmed up and the Henkels
were able to get out and enjoy starting the spring clean up around the
yard. Mark tuned up the lawnmower and
Hilde enjoyed starting the weeding in the perennial beds. The chickens are extremely happy to be out in
their run, and Spock is happily chasing rabbits and chipmunks. Spring may be condensed into a shorter time
in the area, but it is always beautiful.
