Oh no, not again!!!

Another project was decided upon after the Spring Thaw uncovered two wrecked flower beds on the north side of the pond. This happened once before: one of the critters that frequent our "Little Piece of Paradise" is a muskrat. It burrows into the bank and undermines the flower bed planted there. This time, it almost caused Dot to give up on having perennials there and just turning these areas back into sod. But she just couldn't dig out and destroy the grasses and other plants that were there, so she and Lee filled in the holes and repositioned the plants. It was also decided to bolster the rest of the banks on the east, west and north side of the pond -- with more big rocks.

Of course, this once again tore up the lawn because the big rocks had to be hauled in by big dump trucks and positioned by a front loader. No photos of the latter process because Dot was too busy directing which rock would go where.

Then the area to the west of the pond, determined to be complete once the windmill was in place, was once again leveled with more top soil, and then seeded and watered.

The area to the north of the pond, quite messed up with the heavy equipment, will be completed after we finish adding the conservatory to our home this Spring.

Below: The Barnett version of "The Sower."
Yes, it's true. We have been working for two years on plans to add a conservatory onto our home. It will be a place for all of Dot's 500 plus orchids, and a warm retreat for anyone who comes after us.

We even took a couple trips this summer, to places where the greenhouse will be manufactured and some of the interior structure will be made. While we were in North Carolina, we visited the Biltmore Mansion and enjoyed it's lovely grounds and a tour of the home's history.

We ran into a lot of rain in the mountains, but were lucky to have a pause in the precipitation while on the tour -- and when we went on to do some research for one of Lee's projects.
While we were walking about the Biltmore Gardens, we heard a buzzing sound. No swarm of bees this time, but a gardener was felling a tall tree, in pieces, as we observed.
We had a lot of tree-trimming done as well, this summer.

Many of the trees on our property needed shaping and dead limbs removed. The tree by our garage, especially, had overgrown the house. It is amazing how much more open that area is now.

It is also amazing to watch the tree-trimmers at work. They are like monkeys, but oh, so careful as to how they secure themselves and how they navigate the treetops.
No, that's not our planned conservatory. That's the one at the Hearst Mansion.

Ours won't be quite so elaborate, but hopefully we can fit all the pieces together to make it happen.
John, our tree-trimmer, had to come back several weeks later to clean up a tree that had fallen into the river from a wind storm. Lee put on his swim trunks and made like a log-driver. The photo of him is courtesy of John.

It seems there is always a pile of brush to burn.
Not that we spent all our time with yard projects:

Lee authored seven articles during the year. He would have written more, but the state is talking about eliminating the Library of Michigan, which he relies on for much of his information. Since there is a chance the institution might be closed in the not-too-distant future, he spent a good part of the year doing research while the getting was good, rather than spending time putting pen to paper.

For about eighteen years Lee has been a contributing editor to Michigan History Magazine. This autumn the journal was privitized, so Lee has lost his old position. He is, however, still contributing editor to Chronicle magazine, a periodical put out by the Historical Society of Michigan.

Dot received two AM/AOS awards, one for her Phragmipedium La Vivace Epicure Phyllis D. Turner and one for her Paphiopedilum charlesworthii, album. She also received the Orchid Digest Diamond Award of Excellence for her work on the Greater Lansing Orchid Society's newsletter and web site.