More Pictures

Here's a sampling of our most recent adventure to the photo studio. Sorry about the poor resolution on these, I had to go through quite the process to get them this far, making them big and pretty will have to wait a bit. If you want ordering information or access to the others, let us know.

Garden

Swing Set up and functional!

It took a few more hours laboriously screwing six 2 1/2" screws into each of the floor boards, but here Morgan is enjoying the new play set. She calls it her "Park."



I plan on building a roof from left over roofing materials, so it matches the house, so yes, that part still needs to be finished.

Something has sprouted in the yard

Finishing the tower tomorrow to include a ladder and slide. Wanted to get the swings up today for obvious reasons.

Happy Spring!

The cold, dark winter has ended and the sun has returned to bring new growth and new life to our world. The Vernal Equinox is an ancient holiday that symbols the rebirth of the fields and is celebrated by symbols of rebirth, eggs, rabbits and chickens. The day will be equal length to the night. This holiday was be renamed, moved and adopted by a new belief system.

The Schorrs were hard at work in the gardens yesterday, making sure our new blossoms had places to grow. Last year at this time this house was vacant and no one was here to tend the garden. We had a great time.

Sprinklers were repaired and new sprinkler line installed. Large bulb flowers were relocated and errant wildflowers we enjoyed on cold mornings are being pulled to make way for the calla lillies that are coming in, and fast. I plan on taking some pictures in the next few days and will put them up as soon as I can.

Working in the overgrown garden got me thinking about our recent economic woes and it made perfect sense.

While our house was vacant, the garden grew and grew without anyone to cut it back when it was needed. There were dozens of different plants all growing faster and faster, overcrowding each other. When we moved in the garden area was completely overgrown, breaking out of the borders and trying to grow across the pathway to the side yard. There had been no one to cut back the growth at a safe rate so each plant grows to it's own full potential.

Instead most of the flowers and plants were choking each other off and the garden was a mess. Someone needs to watch over the garden and make sure it grows in a way that any plant has a chance to flower and if the conditions aren't right and the plant can't do well, we remove it and another will take it's place.

Yesterday I completely "regulated" our garden by pulling a very entrenched large bulb system of reeds which had cropped up around a leaky sprinkler. Had there been 3-4 plants, it might have been OK, but there were dozens of plants all packed into this small area. All were still reeds and competing for sun, water and nutrients against one another so much, not a single one of them flowered.

So what happened was we had no gardener tending our garden, aggressive plants took over and grew too large for the space, eventually choking off the rest of the bulbs. After I cleared it out last year and tended it early in the spring, in a few weeks we'll be treated to a wonderful, carefully minded garden.

And that's how you fix the economy. Forget economic theory, it has failed. just get out in the garden and it will all make sense.

That reminds me, would you like to buy some reed plants? I have extra.

St. Patrick's Day

Before drinking your green beer and pinching those not wearing green ask yourself one quick question:

Who was St Patrick and why do we celebrate a day for him?

St. Patrick was not Irish, but British, and was captured in Ireland sometime in his childhood. After a reported 6 years in captivity he escaped back to England intent on returning bringing the word of God to the heathens in Ireland.

St. Patrick received extensive religious training and was sent back to Ireland with a dual mission to testify to the Christians already in Ireland as well as convert the remainder of the country to Christianity.

St. Patrick is given credit for using pagan rituals to introduce Christian concepts and teach his religion to others. This may explain why most Christian rituals are Pagan rituals with different words. Lighting candles in ceremony, wearing hooded robes and burning incense all started in the church around the time of St. Patrick and are all Pagan elements of ritual.

So when you lift your glass of Guinness and endure corned beef and cabbage you are celebrating the conversion of the Irish people to Christianity from their native religion.

Imagine if we today celebrated St. Nero Day to celebrate the oppression of early Christianity in Rome. There would be riots.

Thank goodness we live in a place where we are free to practice the beliefs of our choice. Freedom of religion means ANY religion.

What do you think, gentle readers

According to recent opinion polls, most people think the nation is broken. Forget the "debate" about what, or who, broke it and how, let's move on to the solution.

What is broken where you are and how can we, as Americans, fix it?

I got the idea from this website what do you think?

Fate, luck, karma, God and a water leak

Everyone knows I had quite the OCD issue early on. It's gotten a lot better in recent years but sometimes it still kicks in and I can ignore it or just let it happen (like when the house needs to get cleaned up).

But last night I was washing my hands at the bathroom sink and the bottom cabinet door was slightly ajar. Only slightly, but I let my OCD kick in and I just HAD to get that door closed and lined up with the other one. I pushed and pushed and nothing happened. I opened the door to find a small space heater, unused in quite some time, was partially blocking the door.

So I removed it and replaced it forcefully (there's nothing important under there anyway) when I heard water sloshing. A basin was under the sink and had nearly a half gallon of water in it. The ring that holds the part of the sink that closes the drain when you pull the lever was not properly secured and had been slowly leaking, likely since we moved in almost a year ago.

I was able to repair the part easily and toss out the disgusting basin, but it got me wondering how a space heater was able to move just enough to open a door just enough to cause my OCD to kick in just enough to investigate what I never would have found on my own. And the basin just happening to be directly beneath the leak at the time?

Like the title says, God, karma, fate, who knows, but someone or something moved that heater.

Or it was Morgan.

Morgan's Party

We were hoping the weather would clear up for Morgan's party and indeed it did. It started a bit chilly, but by the time the hot dogs were ready, most folks were out back enjoying the first sunny warm day this year.




It was a pirate themed party, Morgan's choice, and our guests were met by a Jolly Roger flag out front and pirate crafts and coloring inside.

As mentioned in the invitation, we had grub and grog for young and old alike since we met new friends, Jason Katie and Faith for example, and old friends, Dickie Teri and Ori. The kids seemed to enjoy the yard while the adults hovered in the sunlight of the back yard.

It was a blast and Morgan got a lot of really neat gifts and enjoyed seeing all her friends.
Her favorite gifts so far are the little laptop game and her tea set. I've been to quite a few tea parties just in the few days since the party.

A good time was had by all, especially Linda Jeana and Jerry who were all able to make it up/down for the party and smother themselves in the girls' activities. We tried sneaking away one night but Eliza had other plans. I answered the phone at the restaurant, heard only screaming, said, "We'll be right there" and saw Kim finishing her drink in a flash.

All the party pictures are up at costco, for those who know the access code. They've also been added to the flickr slideshow at the top of this page.

Happy Birthday Morgan, Meadow and Jerry, all our March babies!