The Grass is Greener...

I realize we haven't totally exhausted the subject of snow removal yet, but it's Memorial Day weekend... Perhaps we should begin talking about the green stuff that's beginning to ask for hours of our lives every week.


Faith says push lawn mowers have been perfectly adequate for the last 30 years and should continue to serve us for 30 more. Riding lawn mowers may be fine ... for 85-year-old great grandmothers with large yards! Heck, she shelled out plenty for this lawn mower 10 years ago... Recently, in a weak moment, she surprised me and said she might consider allowing us to save up for a pedal mower!

Number Two

The reason Dan and Mark are still in the race is because they both do more than their own driveways.

Dan and Jo come in at number two with 450 feet.  The road going into their driveway is not maintained by the city, so Dan does his driveway, then Hill Trail Court from Hill Trail North to the end of their property line and then just for the fun of it he does Al and Veronica's driveway.

Once in awhile neighbor George does the first half of Hill Trail Court with his ATV but not often and lets not complicate things - right?

Dan has not used a shovel on his driveway since Peter turned six.

Spring

Here are a few spring photos taken in the past week or so.

Number Three

If Dean and Kurt just shoveled to their doorway, Steve would have beat them easily, but no, they shovel all the way down the hill to the shed giving them an impressive 365 foot trail.  They are, I believe, committed and dedicated shovelers through and through.

By the way a violent tornado went through the Twin Cities two days ago hitting North Minneapolis and the northwest suburbs.  I'm thinking that one of these days one of us should check with the Carlsons to see if they're goners, buried under a pile of rubble, or not.

Number Four

The three driveways done so far were all under a hundred feet.  The last four are all going to be longer than football fields!  Like that football field behind Paul and Faith's place.

When I started this I assumed Steve would be in first place, but unless I made a mistake in my calculations he's not even in the top three.  Coming in at number four is Steve at 325 feet.

Steve's preferred method of snow removal is the snowblower.  So if anyone has one to give him he'd be more than happy.  But until then he's stuck with a lousy shovel.

By the way I know it looks like the road is 20 feet east of where I put it, but that cleared area is for the power line going into his house.

Number Five

In fifth place at 75 feet are Jean and Ralph.  I'm not sure who does the snow removal in this family or what the preferred method is.  Perhaps we will be informed in a comment.

Notice that these first three are all standard urban driveways.  The ordering is primarily determined based on how much of the driveway is double wide. The final four will prove to be more complicated.

Number Six

Paul and Faith best Greg and Denise by 25 feet with  62 feet of space (meaning 62 feet long one lane wide).  Paul is a shoveler and Faith applauds his choice.

By the way Google Maps didn't spend much time in Roseau judging a. by how blurry the photos are and b. the street designations missed the actual street locations by a good 20 feet - notice how they have 7th ave ne going right through Paul's neighbor's house.

Snow

Since we are still writing about snow here are a few photos from winter that i was going to post somewhere, but kept putting it off...

Number Seven

Regarding the issue of snowblower verses shovel, one needs to consider how much snow needs to be removed.  Towards that end I checked everyone's yard with Google Sattelite and calculated the area of removal for everyone.  Today I'll present the person in seventh place.  But. . .

1. I measured each home with the zoom at 1 inch equals 100 feet.

2. I marked in yellow the areas that are one lane wide, and I marked in blue the areas that are two lanes wide.

3. I'm ignoring sidewalks

4. If you want to challenge my assumptions. . .have at it.

Okay.  Drumroll.  Number seven: Coming in at a scant 37 feet - Greg and Denise.  Greg's usual mode of removal is the shovel.

YAY FOR THE HEIDI'S!

They did it!  Heidi B's experience sounds a lot like Jo's with Peter.  A lot of concerned looks on the doctor and nurses and then all of a sudden she's being whisked away fast to the surgery room. Without modern medicine Jo and/or the baby would have died both times!  Glad everything turned out.

God's hand was on me

Thank you for your prayers for my surgery. I had the least invasive surgery that I could have had. I don't really know what the surgeon did as my head is still all wrapped up. I hope to have it removed on Wed. I had plastic surgery to repair the wound on my head. It was difficult to anticipate how involved it could have been; praise be to God for the outcome!

Ralph's mom seems to be "out of the woods". About 2 weeks ago we really didn't know if she would make it. We went to see her in Duluth while she was in ICU. She looked pretty bad. She is recovering quite well and is at what used to be Lake Haven Nursing home.

Heidi and Josh are still waiting for their baby. We call him baby "B" She is in "practice labor", that is what the dula calls it. Maybe he'll come soon, hopefully in the next day or so. She is already about a week and a half overdue.

Snow Removal System

What's all the fuss about snowblowers! Faith says our snow removal system has been perfectly adequate for the last 30 years and should continue to serve us for 30 more. Heck, she shelled out plenty for this shovel 10 years ago... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I guess I can't argue with that logic.

Me Too

It was the dead of winter.  A bad storm was coming.  Our 25 year old snowblower was kaput.  Jo was quick to say, "I guess we have to get a new snowblower" and I grimly and soberly and in a mature fashion nodded in agreement.

You can see from the picture that it was a tough decision for me.  Afterwards I felt guilty and told Jo the snowblower would count as my birthday, anniversary and Christmas presents combined.

Leeland Hollis Quick

Heidi and John had their baby about 2:15pm Tacoma time. He was a big boy at 9lbs. 4oz. and 21 inches long. He has big hands and way more hair than grandpa. I added another photo of the Quick family. John looks like he had a harder time than Heidi ; )

When do you think Heidi B. will have her baby? I guess 4/19 at 9:29am

email notifications

OK. Here's my post for the month.
I got an email notification when Mark posted his post.
That never worked for me in the past.

Getting ready for robins

I got a new snowblower a month ago and have only used it once before last tuesday. From early on tuesday morning we got 10 to 12 inches of wet snow, and look how far the snow is blowing! Lots of fun. The day following this snow the temperatures went up to 40 degrees and the 10+ inches melted down to 2 inches in one day! Now a week later I'm keeping my eyes open for the first robins.

This searching for robins has caused me to subconsciously check out the e-RR and nothing has been posted since the robins flew south. We need to revive the e-RR when the robins return this spring. During a belated birthday greeting to Dan we talked about asking everyone to post something once every month or two. Facebook works good as email with photos and it is easy to comment, but it is harder to go back and find historical events.

Next year i am going to go back to this blog post to see when the last snowstorm of 2011 happened. So do you fellow e-Round Robiners feel you can post something each month? And what kind of topics would you all like to read about?

Family reunion photos

Below are some sort of good photos from the reunion:

In this photo everyone is sorted by the brightest on the right.

In this one the persons with the longest arms on the right.

Sorted by most light-headed on the left.

Sorted by cameras.

Finally the cousins sorted by height. Everyone smile!!

Party Time!

A Time to Relax

And Smile

The Greatest Sport in the World

Girls!

A Thief Caught in the Act

We Walk it Off

catching up

In order to keep some things from getting on the google worldwide I will use first names only. I read a couple of books recently that I have really enjoyed. "Making the Blue Plate Special" subtitled The Joy of Family Legacies by Florence Littauer, Marita Littauer, Lauren Littauer Briggs prompted me to get in touch with a couple of people that have touched my life and probably some of you guys as well. I wrote a letter to Dick and Bette and Les and Marlyn. Dick and Bette are still in their apartment in the downtown area of Duluth. I found Les and Marlyn in an apartment on Haines Rd. by looking in Dex Knows. Of course until they respond I won't know if they are all alive. I wrote to these folks by snail mail (what in the world is that?) first and will contact them by phone if they don't respond. One thing I wanted to know from Dick and Bette is if anyone has done any genealogy on Dad's side of the family. I wanted to thank both families for their impact on our young lives.

Anyone want to respond about their experiences, memories? I will let you know if any if them call or write back.

Jose's 3rd Birthday/Summer Get-together

José is almost 3!

We're going to have another party! Please join us if you can make it. We'll do another BBQ /potluck. Start around 2pm. Eat at 5pm? (July 4th) It's on a Sunday this year.

See chickens and lambs. Play games. Go hiking. Sit around and talk. Sit around a fire? Sing? Fireworks?

I looked back at last year's post for José's 2nd birthday. It says: "He likes wearing caps. He's talking, but barely. He loves cars, trucks, and tractors."

He still loves cars, trucks, and tractors. Add to that, trains. (We'll have to take a train ride sometime.) He talks a blue streak! He's funny. He's good-natured. He's pretty good with his fine motor skills. He's in the middle of potty training. He'll be going to pre-school this fall!