**Forget Mortgages, Live on a Plane**

Starting late next week, I will spend more time on planes over the course of a month than I have I feel quite sure I EVER would wish on anyone. Except maybe Bush - flying coach, of course.

I leave for Australia, and before I return to the east coast of this continent, I will have taken 11 flights. I am home for all of 36 hours and then fly on four more planes in order to get from this little town to Minneapolis. So in the course of one month, almost to the day, I will have taken 15 planes.

Without setting a foot on the first plane, I can say, with absolute certainty, I don't recommend this.

**There Be Real Signs of Spring Here**

Okay, so this image would suggest that the trees have not yet leafed out. I concede they haven't, but there are buds on bushes and daffodils are blooming. I am told the trees do leaf out before they turn fall colors.




We are in the process of building a garden. Of course that first meant tearing down the ratty mess of a fence left from the previous owners. It was functional, but an eyesore (see above shot) when trying to look at our serene landscape out the picture window with G&T's in our hands (see above shot and imagine a G&T in it). Of course the garden was home to an established planting of rhubarb... oh and a very established planting of WEEDS. Weeds by the way grow well, even in soil composed largely of the contents of the wheelbarrow below:




It did not take long to give up on the ideal of using local soil. We are putting up the beds I took from Oregon and filling them with lots of compost from a guy who stopped by our house looking for directions and just happened to have with him a truckload of shit.











And this picture is for Julie. She wanted to see the new toy. The dealer didn't give us a John Deere baseball cap. S. was disappointed to say the least. It is nice, but suffers from Kubota envy.

Note: The dog is not there willingly, but did acknowledge that S.'s lap was an improvement over when I made her ride in the cart.