Christmas in March

Hi! I'm alive! All is well. We're just really busy, and I'm spending all my spare time thinking about kinnikinnick and evergreen huckleberry.

The Big Cooks and Antarctic Uncle/Green Thumb Auntie have been visiting, and doing extraordinary amounts of home improvement chores* as well as keeping the kids busy and happy.

I have been gardening. Mostly what I've been doing is killing the lawn and coveting plants at a local nursery. I've never been interested in landscaping, having a primarily utilitarian approach to gardening, but I find myself pretty excited about the idea of filling our property with native plants and edible plants. (And when I find a native edible, I get VERY excited!) We have figs and grapes already, and I will be planting strawberries, blueberries, and salmonberries this week. Salmonberries, you guys! My plan for the summer of 2016 involves eating our own huckleberries, salmonberries, blueberries, strawberries (wild and cultivated), thimbleberries, and currants. I'm not sure if this plan will survive my laziness, my lack of horticultural expertise, and/or birds, but we'll see. It's a nice dream, at any rate.

I asked a local arborist for free wood chips, (on the advice of an avid gardener I know) and he delivered unto me a truckload of chipped up bits of Douglas fir. I have no idea if this is a good mulch or not, but it's all over our yard now, and it smells like Christmas everywhere.

And I'm alive! I hope you are all alive as well.

*Removing ancient contact paper from built-ins, removing a TV antenna from the roof, fixing both bathroom fans, installing baseboards, painting, replacing switchplates, sanding, organizing, and generally troubleshooting all day long.