Are We Having Fun?

Mike is having a lot of fun taking pictures.  He loves the Sony camera we bought before we came to Vermont.  Mike loves taking closeups. We thought it was fun to see the hair on the legs of this beetle.  Double click and you can see him full screen.   We saw this beetle the day we hiked Queeche Gorge.  Mike took this picture of an Eagle the same day.  If you look closely you can see the tiny hair-like feathers on his beak.

We have a lot of wildflower pictures. This is an unusual one that we hadn't seen before.  I love the color.  One thing about having a long winter is that you REALLY enjoy spring when it finally gets here!  Actually the truth is that we had a lovely mild winter that was pretty much like being back in Utah, except that we didn't have as much snow this year as we did most winters in Utah. 

We have been really busy cleaning up.  Mike has taken on the nasty job of "Barberry Removal."  You should see his arms.  They are painful looking.  This huge pile in the picture above is only about a fourth of the bushes he has taken out.  It would be much easier to cut them down, but they would just come back.  He is digging (and digging and digging) and pulling them out roots and all. 

In the picture below you can see how big one of the bushes is. 

Today Mike started a new project.  He is cleaning out brush on Patriarch Hill.  The mountain is named Patriarch Hill because of a HUGE maple tree that is growing there.  The oldtimer tree is named Patriarch, and it is over 200 years old.  I put a picture of it in our blog last week.  Speaking of old, I should share a story with you that Jeremy told us.  It was May 14th, Jeremy's birthday, and his son Tagg asked how old he was.  Jeremy told him 35.  Then he asked how old Grandma was and Jeremy told him.  Then Tagg said, "How old is Grandpa?"  Jeremy told him Grandpa is 68.  Tagg thought for a minute and said, "Wow!  Grandpa is almost a hundred!
Sooo.... for all you grandkids who thing Grandpa is older than dirt, now you know that he is REALLY almost a hundred.   (and he is still as tough as nails)   Love to EVERYONE!

A Hike up Patriarch Hill

 Saturday, May 5th, was a beautiful day.  In the morning we had lunch with Senior Missionary Couples from our mission and in the afternoon we hiked the trail to Pariarch Hill.  We had driven the road in one of the 4X4 Gators but I had never hiked the trail. It was a beautiful hike.  It was fall when we went before. It looks quite different in the spring.  There are a few HUGE trees.  This one I am standing by is a maple tree over 200 years old.  The middle of the tree that is hollow, but it is still very much alive at the top.

Mike is standing beside the same tree in this picture.  He is in pretty good shape to have made that hike to the top and back.  I didn't know before coming to Vermont is that if you don't mow an area it will become a maple tree forest.  There are thousands and thousands of little maple trees coming up everywhere on the grounds.  We pull them up out of the rocks, and weed them from the flower gardens, and mow them in the lawns.  Everywhere you see a meadow it is because someone is keeping it mowed.  If they don't mow, it becomes a forest. 

It turned out to be a busy week so I didn't get this finished until it was time to write again.  We are happy when we are busy.  Hope you are all busy with happy things too.  Love to all!