Second half of May

 To celebrate that the pool was opened for the summer, some friends came over to enjoy it!

Evelyn got out her pool toy to enjoy, she's been hanging on to it since her birthday, just waiting for the pool to open.

Swimming early in the season is always chilly, so the kids soak up in the sun on the hot stones.

We had a surprise windstorm pass through. We only lost one tree near the house, and several trees in the back fell over too.

I got the old chainsaw out and Matthew helped me clean it up.

Just a random 17 year old shot...they are hard to come by.

Our power was out for several days. Melanie had made a crust for a cheesecake, and we only needed to add the whipping cream. We found a way to power our whisk...it was slower than the mixer, but way way better than trying by hand!!

Daniel set up a mixer with technic, powered by a Lego motor. It was pretty nifty.

But we used the drill since it was faster and more powerful.

We went for a walk to see all the neighbourood damage. Clearly we were not going to get power to the house anytime soon. There were an incredible number of trees fallen down on the north/south streets and lots and lots of broken power lines.

By the third day our food was starting to spoil. I was so thrilled to find out that someone nearby just got power at their house and no longer needed their generator. I whipped over there and snagged it. We really needed to plug in the fridge and freezer--they were getting so so warm!

Board games are a great activity when there is no electricity, Matthew and Evelyn enjoyed a game.

Melanie plugged in a sewing machine via extension cords to the generator, and got some sewing done.

We weren't able to get the pump running via the generator, so we had to haul water from the pool so that we could flush.

Spring is here! Such a beautiful time of year!

Matthew was kept busy with various projects, like hauling dirt to the pool...it needs some dirt to level out the side so that we can put the big stones back around the edge of the pool.

He also helped me with the rototiller. Preparing a site for a cherry tree.

There go the babysitters again, off to work.

Matthew hard at work.

The  bird house had been on the pine tree that blew over in the windstorm. It had also been a fence post a few years ago and blown over then too. Evelyn and I moved it over, to hopefully, a more secure site. Poor birds.

Matthew had some actual in person activities with his cadet program at the end of the school year. And then there was an annual ceremonial review. For a group of kids that only practiced marching three or four times before the event, they managed to do a pretty good job on the day. So I was told.

We saw that some neighbour was throwing out a chair that matched our chairs. So the kids went and fetched it. It didn't have pillows, but since we'd just ordered some online, we could do that same thing again and have a complete matching set.

Guys in the garage.

My garden is all set to go. Yay!

I got free rhubarb from a friend. My own rhubarb is doing ok, but not THAT good. We have enough rhubarb in the freezer for pies until spring. Yum!

Planting time. The kids like having the drip lines to guide their planting. Might as well put the seeds by the drip holes.

When the work is done, time to play!

Matthew took over the mowing this year. Nathan would usually still do the line trimming, but Matthew would cut the grass. If Nathan didn't think it was being done right, he'd offer some tips on what to change.