Northern Chores

We have been "home" in Green Bay about a month now; yet, we have not been home all of that time.  After we returned north, we took a week-lomg trip to Minnesota to stay with Stephanie after she had surgery for a torn meniscus.  As the week after surgery wore on, she started to get stir crazy being home, so we ventured out to see an open house on a townhouse that interested her.  Long story short, Rick was impressed with the builder, we all liked Jenna, the real estate agent, and a couple of weeks later Stephanie was signing papers to have a new townhouse built for her.

To add to the madness, she also was promoted just before the surgery, so she was getting used to her new job.  As she was trying to handle that transition, Jenna put her house on the market.  Because newly graduated doctors were coming into town to start their residency, housing in Minnesota was at a premium.  Stephanie met with Jenna to discuss how much to ask for her house. They agreed on a price, and Stephanie's house was set to hit the listings on Monday. On Friday, Jenna showed Stephanie's house to a real estate agent.  On Saturday Jenna called to ask if she could show the house to a young couple.  On Sunday they made a full-price offer and through negotiations, Stephanie sold her house -- one day before it was set to officially go on sale!

The only drawback is that she would have to move to temporary housing until her new townhouse is finished.  She has been spectacular about making a million decisions and arrangements.  We returned to her house at the end of April to help her pack as much as we could.  We agreed to return this coming week to help her finish packing so she can move by Wednesday into temporary housing.  We leave tomorrow and hope to have her safely moved by Wednesday of this week.  Whew!  This has been a really busy spring.

We also are trying to figure out how much time, effort, and mostly money we can dedicate to some much-needed improvements of this northern house.

Two winters ago, the cold was brutal in Wisconsin.  One particular type of evergreen was really devastated, and our large burning bush shrub suffered over a 50% loss.  I cut out the dead parts last summer and pruned it way down in the hope that it would send out new shoots and fill in.  It looked pretty pathetic last summer, but I hoped that it would be better this spring.  Sadly, it did not rally, so this morning we hooked up the truck to the scraggly bush that was left and yanked it from the ground.  We did the same to two pygmy barberry bushes that were woody and ugly, too.

A new little burning bush occupies the corner where the old
bush once stood.  Eventually the new bush will fill in the
whole corner.

We had purchased new bushes yesterday at the neighborhood nursery, so we wanted to get them into the ground before we leave again. With a little more digging and lots of effort, we have the three new bushes planted.

Two new crimson pygmy barberries add a touch of color to the garden.

Then we were off to the nursery again for a yard of deep brown mulch. The yard almost covered the whole front garden.  We are not too upset that it did not quite reach to the end because we still have three large, overgrown evergreen trees in that area that we want to remove.

New mulch will help retain moisture as the daylilies cluster
near the sidewalk and the hostas  start to emerge in the front
garden. Once grown, they will fill the entire garden.

Part of yesterday was spent at the tool store looking at chain saws.  We finally got smart and decided to buy a SawsAll instead.  We used a SawsAll in Florida to remove tree roots when we put up our fence.  With a pruning blade, the saw works great.  We were looking at a $300 chainsaw that we would probably never use again.  Then I saw an ad for a SawsAll.  "Why not buy another one of those?" I asked.  Rick agreed that we would get a lot more use out of a SawsAll than a chainsaw, and I know that he is more comfortable using a SawsAll in the end.  The price was half of what a chainsaw would have been, and we can use the saw for other home improvement projects later on. I guess that is my Mother's Day gift this year!

The landscaping today took its toll on our energy levels.  We both had just enough after all of our gardening to do some last minute jobs.  I mowed the front yard (Rick had mowed the back yard yesterday) while Rick washed a layer of yellow pollen off the truck.

We are off early tomorrow morning for Minnesota again.  I know that Stephanie will be relieved to get out of her house and into temporary housing.  That is just one more step toward getting into her big, bright, beautiful townhouse.