Picture Year in Review, Part 2: Springtime

 I am going to hit you guys with a bunch of pictures here, so be prepared.  Today's post is what we did in the Spring of 2025.  At least the hightlights.

Alvah was so bad mood-wise, even before Spring showed up, that we bit the bullet and took him on a trip (he loves car rides and going places).  We decided on Homer, hoping that he'd be away from the "usual boring stuff" for a few days and maybe would have a really good time while we were there and just plain give all of us a break from his bad moods.

Spoilers:  It didn't work.  He hated the AirBNB we rented and would not eat or drink anything while we were there.  Thank goodness there was a McDonalds in Homer or I don't know what we would have done (other than go home and eat the cost of the AirBNB).  The only time he was in a decent mood was when we were driving around.  At the AirBNB he'd just pace and demand to leave until he'd collapse (after more medication than I really ever wanted to give him) for the night.  He'd wake up about 2am and start the whole process again.  After that trip I needed a vacation to recover from the vacation, I kid you not. 

But, Homer was really pretty and we did get to see the town a bunch since we drove around for two days straight.  I am including a few highlight photos of the spit for your enjoyment.

A shot of the spit from far above when we drove into the surrounding areas...

And a picture of some of the boats...

We didn't get out of the truck much because it also rained a very cold rain the entire time we were there.  There was also nothing open, even though we were there at the beginning of May because I guess nothing opens before Memorial Day (good to know for future reference, I suppose), so there wasn't a ton of stuff to visit on the spit while we were there.

At least my husband had fun.  He really enjoyed driving around and looking at stuff while we were there.

Next up is the "Adventure of the Tree" I guess is the most dramatic way to say it.  

We had to cut down the big birch tree in our front yard.  I'd been putting it off because I really loved that tree and got a kick out of seeing it every morning in the summer and fall, but it was old, starting to rot in places and losing limbs. Then, one day I was out in the yard and I heard a huge crack.  I looked over to see the tree starting to list toward our power line.  I quickly called a few tree outfits, including AAA Tree Service who had given me the advice last year that the tree would need to come down soon (highly recommend them to anyone local, by the way).  They showed up quickly, got the tree felled in record time (while I, paranoid I was going to see a lumberjack get hurt hanging from that sucker, sat by and watched form inside my house to stay out of the way), got paid and were out of here in record time.  I was really happy with how it was done so well and so fast.  They made sure the tree was out of the driveway and the road and cut it into manageable chunks that we could then move to the backyard to use it for firewood later.  That came in handy when we needed to burn wood this month, I'll tell you what.

I still miss looking at the tree, but am so, so glad it worked out the way it did and it got taken down when it did.  We had seasoned wood to burn this way, and most importantly, we've had horrific winds this month and if that tree had still been standing it would have fallen into our house and well for sure.  So, yeah for divine providence in this case.

Since moving the tree to the backyard, these guys have shown up more than once to much on the, easy to access, tree branches...

And there you go.  Some of the highlights from Spring 2025.  

Enjoy.