A few weeks ago, Kelly went down to see her parents. They celebrated Jan's birthday...

They took a nice picture out in the yard...

She took a picture of a solar halo on one of our dog walks...

Last weekend, we got another snow storm. The Ironwood newspaper says 254 inches. This was the parking lot at work...

The spring flowers had been growing. A few days later, they started blooming...

With the buds starting to open on the apple trees, I pulled out the bee house...

I kept a bunch of last year's cocoons in the basement fridge over winter. I hope they survived...

I know you're all here for the puppy pictures. Kelly had them out in the pond yesterday...

Willow is up to 34 pounds, about three-fifths of Finlay...

imgur album for future reference

We'll start with three weeks ago... Finlay and I were still snowshoeing...

The bench at the trailhead was just starting to poke up out of the snow...

Yes, that's a real-sized bench. Remind me to get a picture of it this summer.

This past week was up in the 70s a few days. Most of the snow in the yard melted...

We were able to walk down the old highway next to us. All the tools the snowmobilers lost started appearing...

Kelly found the ultimate wrench yesterday... a 1/2" & 9/16" combo. While she was out walking Fin, Willow took a nap...

She's up to 27 pounds. Twice the weight as when we got her.  Half Finlay's weight.

And then, there was a blizzard warning for last night. Woke up to over seven inches of snow...

The Courthouse is closed, so I get a snow day today!

Kelly had bought me a pack of Peeps for Easter. One was a pirate...

imgur album for future reference

We'll start with a picture of Finlay so she doesn't feel left out...

"Let's go!" she says.

I put Fin's neck-gator on Willow...

It was a fearsome opponent.

She wears everybody out...

She discovered sunbeams today...

"There was a mighty duel. It ranged all over..."

imgur album for future reference

Kelly wanted me to post a video of her walking...

I was looking through the photos on my phone and found some to share. Here are the first ducks to arrive on the pond last April...

An owl up in a tree in Minneapolis...

Violets in the lawn...

Kelly's bleeding hearts...

My apple blossoms...

The dogs snuggled up in the way-back of the car...

A turtle in the puddle on the driveway...

Turks-cap lily growing wild in the county...

And our new chickens...

I met a guy in a park-and-ride parking lot at 7:20 this morning to get them.

Here's a superb owl picture I found on the internet...

We've been doing all kinds of skiing and snowshoeing.  Kelly goes most every day to wear Finlay out.  I join them a few times a week.  During the week, it's usually dark when we are out, so we wear headlamps...

We have lights on the dogs, too, so we can keep track of where they are...

We have a silly orchid that has decided it is time to bloom...

There's seven more buds on it, so it will be blooming for a few months.

January was the month of heavy frost...

The trees were fuzzy there was so much frost...

A few weekends ago, I made a pizza...

I let it rise a bit too long, it was almost two inches thick when I pulled it out of the oven.

Friday, I had to do snowblower surgery...

We had gotten about seven inches of snow Wednesday-Thursday.  I finished the driveway and was starting on around the house when the spring at the end of the cable that engages the auger broke.  Luckily, I was able to find one within 100 miles of home. 

Well, the snow is getting its butt kicked today...

Temps are up in the 50s and the sun is shining.  Yesterday, today, and maybe tomorrow.  Then, the forecast is for rain.

That's the good news.  The bad news is my beehives are dead.  I peeked in yesterday and nobody was home.  I'll pull them apart this afternoon to see if there are thousands of dead bees in the bottoms or if they flew off last fall after I closed them up for the winter.

Speaking of last year, here's Kody with a Christmas bow...

We had our MECCA Ski Club Candlelight Ski and Snowshoe a couple weekends ago.  I was in charge of the campfire...

A few of our chickens are currently laying super-jumbo eggs...

The largest of the three is 3.5 ounces (99 grams).  "Jumbo" starts are 2.5 ounces.  Each of those is basically twice the weight of a medium egg. They'll settle down into "Extra-Large" (2.25oz) or "Large" (2oz) sometime, but it's fun getting double-yolkers for now.

And last weekend, the turkeys tromped a path through the pond...

When they finally made it around the chicken coop, they crossed the road into the woods...

I had run to town to do some grocery shopping and errands, so I missed seeing them.

With the recent high temps down there, I thought I'd prove that it gets hot up here, too.  With July starting tomorrow, I even pulled the flannel sheets off the bed...

They'll be gone until at least some time in September. Yes, that is a flannel blanket, and I haven't put the fluffy comforter back on the bed, yet, but pay no attention to that.