The huge pile of wood-chips we had gotten from the electric company when they were cleaning out the powerlines shrunk a lot the days before the pig roast. Sammy, Anja and Tina worked like crazy weeding and mulching the last flower beds around the house in time for the pig roast. The mulch did make everything look so clean:
Speed-weeding and power-cleaning continued throughout the last weekend and all week, as we try to get all the flower beds, vegetable garden, grapes and berries to look their best – all at one time, for this one weekend when all our relatives and friends are visiting. 
When Tina finally decided to clean the dark hole at the back of the house – also known as the screened in back porch (something everyone has been avoiding for quite some time), it was hopeless. 
Luckily Zach was visiting that week, which meant one more strong (and determined) person, willing to run a reciprocating saw and swing a sledge hammer. 
We thought a long weekend over Easter would be ideal for leaving the garden and yard to fend for itself – after all, it was rather cool yet, all cold weather crops had been planted, and nothing much should get out of hand. We were only gone for one week and left PA in cold, foggy, drizzly weather.
We did enjoy a wonderful week in Hilton Head Island – lots of swimming (yes, the pool and ocean were warm enough), biking and running on the beach. It was glorious.
But during this one week, the weather in PA decided to skip spring, and went from cold to hot – with lots of rain. When we returned everything had gotten overgrown – literally. We got home early Wednesday morning and by that afternoon, we were running both lawn mowers and the bush-hog, trying to find the yard…
Luckily, the days are getting significantly longer, and each evening since then was spent weeding another flower bed or garden section.
Today Jeff ran the disc through the yet unplanted garden to knock down the weeds, and we planted carrots, red beets and about 1/4 row of dill. Also used the rest of the lettuce and spinach seeds for a second batch (the early batch has been growing in the kitchen garden). Jeff also ran the disc through the grapevines – very slowly and carefully, as is barely fits. Did not loose a single plant, the grape patch looks much better with all the weeds knocked down.
We spent nearly the entire weekend at the High School gym with the junior bulldog wrestling team. On Saturday, our school hosted the weekly Central Pennsylvania Youth Wrestling League match for five of the 19 participating schools. We started setting up for the match at 7:00 am and were there until the very last match of the day, around 4:00 pm. On Sunday, we hosted the “Dog Duals” tournament, for 7 junior traveling teams. With three mats, we had six teams wrestling at one time, while one team had a break. Official “weigh-ins” started at 7:00 (we cooked breakfast for the wrestlers), the actual tournament started at 9:00 and lasted until 5:00. The Big Spring Bulldogs got third place.
We also started to jack up the barn beams, in the one section where there was noticeable “sagging”. Right now, we have temporary posts holding that section up, until we can get it to the correct height, and until we know where we will put up walls, then we’ll place permanent support posts.
We also placed our order for another 500 blackberry plants – this time we chose the thornless “Triple Crown” variety. They are supposed to be shipped the first week in March!
Saturday:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
