April on Lot #3 - a photo essay of sorts

After a couple of days of raking...tarp in background

 Steve, Penny the wonderdog and I headed out to Lot 3 in April.   Thanks Doral and Anita!

It is as beautiful as ever. 

Here are some photos to whet the appetite of the rest of you planning your summer visits!

Tis, of course, the season for gardening.   And given that this is the middle of the forest, there is lots of gardening to be done!

Penny guarding the growing leaf pile

Steve is the one who caved first, and gave up on the idea of rakes alone:  he found some magical 'leaf sweeper' that you can push around the lawn to gather up the leaves, and take them to the burn pile (as opposed to Arta's usual method of dumping the leaves on a blue tarp, and then dragging it across the lawn. 

Bonnie joined us for the festivus of yardwork, and we settled down to cut back the raspberries.     

I discovered how much i like pruning back branches on the willow trees, so they don't stick out so far into the road.  Steve would pick up the branches, cut them down to size, and wheelbarrow them over to the burn pile on lot 4.  As soon as he passed, i would find a few more branches.... Steve did wonder at how more branches would miraculously appear in the zone he had already cleared. 

Penny checking out all the smells

adding more branches to the pile

In one of the encounters with the willow branches, it won: a lovely hole at the knee.   No blood involved, just a big rip in my jeans.   

Bonnie offered to find me some duct tape to close the gag (so that they would really look like Arta's gardening jeans)

The branches won this round of the battle!