Squirrel and orange

Super senior day at the Salvation Army. Will put this hand carved wood plate above the cabinets in the kitchen where it will match

One of the 6 or so planters I've made this week

The frog pond: note frog statue and frog planter. Still need to add stuff to this. Solar water lilies still work

dried up oriole orange..yum

Maya this morning

And last night. She hasn't quite got the hang of alternating force on the pedals. When she pedals backwards, the bike stops

Now it is summer suddenly with temps in the high eighties to 90s. It was only 40 degrees when I got up Monday but with the very low humidity, the temps skyrocketed 45 degrees. I've been trying to keep my new plantings moist until they have enough roots to fend for themselves.


Running, biking, gardening, running after Maya has been exhausting. We finally filed our appeal to the State to protest the over assessment of our property by the local yokels. The local board did cut the base half way between their outrageous assessment and what we paid but we want it down to what we paid. That is the definition of 'market rate'. For a while, Zillow was adding $1000 a day to our alleged market value though now it is only $500 a day. Are market prices rising that much in Michigan? Nope. For instance, the house that we backed out on has increased in value only about $3000 versus the $120,000 of this house. What is different is the township. One township's assessor is realistic and the other crazy pie in the sky.


 We will go out tonight. Yay!