| leatherman's log |
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April 2007 |
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| Week One: |
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| Usually it's March with
the wackiest weather, as the seasons change; but this year, the
award must go to this month of April. Coming out of March, we were
having a very unusual, but very welcome, warming trend. Matter of
fact, by the middle of this first week, we had hit a record breaking
80 degrees. Since I had already done quite a bit of Spring yard
cleaning and prep-work, I spent these nice days, reading up on the
pool deck. |
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| A single daffodil blooms behind the
house |
Some crepe myrtle peeking out |
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However, the day after we
hit that 80 degrees, Winter blew back in with one last blast, and we
only reached a high of 35 with snow flurries!  Unfortunately
that weather hasn't left as quickly as I thought it would when I
made my prediction the end of last month. Instead the cold has
settled upon us, and we've had snow flurries every day up until Easter. 
Luckily, I'm not still living in Cleveland, as they have had nearly
20 inches of snow from this latest weather pattern. |
| Snowy Spring Days |
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| April 5th |
April 7th |
April 8th |
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After a week of freezing
temperatures and snow, we're hoping to finally make it back up to at
least 50 degrees by the end of next week. |
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Week Two: |
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Ah!
 Some Spring has blown
back into town, so we've (meaning me and the doggies) have been
outside a lot the last few days. Plus, Jim and I have been doing
some more yard work. Out front, the lights lining the driveway are
all working, the grass has had it's first mowing, and the cosmos
seeds have been planted (4/19). |
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Unfortunately both Gabby and Joxer are
starting to lose their sight. Frequently I have to guide Gabby back
to the backdoor with my voice ,and I've learned not to toss balls
too far in the yard, so Joxer doesn't lose track of them. It's
really not surprising since Gabby is 10 and Joxie is 9 now. At
least, they aren't having serious cancer problems like the dogs did
in my first pack. |
On the other hand, one of my pups is
doing better than ever. Since moving in with Jim, Aries temperament
has definitely changed for the better. He still has some anger
management problems in regards to his brother
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whole, he's been so much nicer and happier here in our new home. |
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It's looks like another sibling rivalry episode about to happen. |
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Jim worked out on the shrub pile and
got things all stacked back up. I may end up digging some more out
later in the Spring to fill in some holes in the lawn; but it's been
rainy a lot lately (Thank God it isn't snow!) and I'm going to wait
till it's all drier. Heavy wet mud is just too much to mess with.
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WooHoo! This is the patch of irises out beside the pool. It's very
nice to see the green stems growing a bit higher every day. With the
rain that we've been having lately, I'm sure we'll be seeing runners
from the bamboo shooting up all through the yard soon. That means
we'll have to start "bamboo walks". A "bamboo walk" is walking
through the yard, searching for the shoots, and ripping out all the
runners that you can. Bamboo is very invasive and has to be
controlled so that it doesn't take over your whole yard. |
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Guess who's a year old now? It's Ella!
Here's the proud papa, Jason, showing off his little girl
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Mommy Tara helps
Ella unwrap her gifts. |
| It wouldn't be a real First Birthday
Party without pictures of the baby with her first cake.
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"MMMMMM. Cake is Good",
says Ella Shanklin. "Wanna handful?"
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| I can't forgot to show you a pix of
Austin, just because it's Ella's special day.
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Week Three: |
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| I'm only posting this picture because I
promised Ritchie that I would. Every couple of days, I un-braid my
pony tail and brush out the tangles. It leaves me with the huge
frizzy mass of hair that looks a bit like some hideous mullet!
ol03 |
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| The pool is NOT open yet; but
we've started the process. We removed the cover and have
started draining the pool. We changed this pool liner back
in May 2002 and had to
patch a small puncture the following Summer (Aug
2003). We are planning on draining all the water so that
we can replace that patch and prevent any trouble later this
Summer. |
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| It's been raining
on-and-off all week, so the draining process has been going slowly.
It's easy to tell that it's more like Spring up here now. Notice how
the rain and the warmer temps have turned the remaining water all
green. |
| Here's a chart of our opening dates for
the pool over the years. Even though we had that big snowy period at
the first of the month, we seem to be pretty much on schedule this
year. Of course, even if we get the pool patched and refilled with
water, I'm sure it won't be warm enough to get into the water for a
few for weeks. |
| 2007 May |
week 2 |
| 2006 May |
week 2 |
| 2005 April |
week 2 |
| 2004 May |
week 2 |
| 2003 June |
week 3 |
| 2002 April |
week 3 |
| 2001 June |
week 4 |
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After draining with and without the sump pump and in and out of
the rain, the pool is nearly cleaned up now. By the end of this
weekend, I'll have scrubbed up the last third and sucked out the
last of the gunky water. |
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| After I got the pool ALL
cleaned up, it was time to replace the patches. While Jim worked on
the problem areas, I put the ladder back into the pool, so Jim
was able to climb out easier after he was done. It's a lot harder
trying to jump up out of the pool when there isn't any water in it.
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We have found a use for all that bamboo that we cut down in the
front yard. Over the next week of sunny days, I'll be replaced the
broken old black plastic border around the pool base with a new
bamboo border. |
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Week Four: |
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| See those green sprouts near one of our
driveway lights? Those are the cosmos plants already coming up. I
bet we'll have flowers by the end of next month! |
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Section at the bottom of this page, if you'd like to leave me any feedback!
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