The snow has finally melted, but I don't want to jinx it!
The ice is coming off Reitz Lake...just a little bit left to go.
And with the temps finally rising, we've taken Axel out of hibernation, where he's been since he was born, almost three months ago!
Thought it was about time he got introduced to that big bright, yellow ball in the sky.
I think he liked it! Get this guy some shades!
The dogs were in heaven.
People frequently ask us how the dogs are doing with the baby. They really have been great! Other than just being big and curious and totally unaware of their size, they have continued to be very protective of their new little brother. Their favorite room in the house is still the nursery. At bedtime, the dogs will usually come in the room when I am feeding him or reading a story and lay at my feet. The challenge is always getting them out of the room when we put Axel in his crib.
Have you ever tried to move 200 lbs. of dead weight dog? It's not easy.
Belle is particularly motherly.
Funny how gender differences carry over into dogs. When I knelt down to let the dogs see and smell the baby while he was in the Baby Bjorn, Belle gingerly walked over and sniffed the baby, gently nudging him with her nose, tilting her head in curiosity.
While Tux just sat there scratching himself.
Rattling his collar.
He's been just as curious, but he lacks the delicate touch. Poor guy...it's tough to be delicate with paws that size!
Belle even tolerates a ride on her back.
Tux gets too excited when we try to do this to him.
Our neighbors dropped by the other day too.
No, they are not Amish. But they do have horses and came to stop by to see if we wanted to take a wagon ride.
You just don't get that in the city.
Or the suburbs.
We had to pass on the wagon ride because we were expecting some vineyard equipment to be delivered any minute, but we did get a quick family picture with the horses.
Except we had to put the dogs inside. They didn't quite know what to do seeing four-legged creatures that much larger than them.
They barked and ran circles around the horses, who just stood there like, "Yeah, whatcha gonna do?"
Aaron's been busy, busy out in the garage building all sorts of machines and I finally got out to the shop to take a peek. For instance, this debris fork and sprayer he built from scratch as tractor attachments.
Kind of intimidating looking if you ask me! It's like a big, black, ominous piece of metal sitting at the entrance of the garage. It almost looks like a security device!
But I will say, pretty amazing Aaron's managed to use whatever spare time he's had this winter to build these things.
And he even gave us a preview of the air blast sprayer he built for spraying the grapevines for fungicide this year. It was pretty exciting seeing the final product in action. It works!
The man is handy.
And resourceful.
And efficient.
....
And creative.
Why waste a perfectly good, clean pair of Pampers just because the tab fell off when putting on a new diaper?
Duct tape can fix anything!
Next weekend is going to be a big vineyard maintenance weekend. Anyone around looking for something to do, come on out and help! We'll get a big bonfire going if we have dry weather. Just let us know if you plan on coming and we can talk details.
Have a great week!