Burn, Baby, Burn

So far, April has been a pretty slow month. Josh and I have finished most of the plaster removal. Josh has started tearing down the chimney, but there is not much that I can do to help with that. The girls and I have been out to see if we have any plant life. You can see the lines of a large flower bed in the yard, but it is terribly overgrown with weeds. It will be interesting to see what continues to appear this spring and summer. So far, I have been able to identify peonies (what old house doesn't have them!!), Virginia Bluebells, road lilies, poppies, and a rose bush. I don't know whether the roses will produce; they have not been maintained for so long. The girls and I transplanted several bluebells, taking some into our house in town and moving others to a spot where hopefully Josh won't run them over:)
Josh has also been doing some yard maintenance. He cut out the poison ivy around the corn crib, without suffering any effects! He brought in a load of rock for the driveway, so we won't cut as many ruts in the yard. Josh also leveled out the spot in the yard where the garage stood and cleaned up all the bricks and concrete from the foundation. He had the new mower out today at the house in town, just playing around. I will have to mark out where he can't mow so he doesn't destroy any of my flower treasures:) He also burned off the ditches and the lot to the west of the house. This helped make things look a little better.
Speaking of fire, we had an interesting night at the beginning of the month. Josh was burning lathe one evening. We have a pit by the corn crib where he has done most of the burning. He has had to be careful in choosing what times to burn because we have had a very windy spring. Josh had also moved the small garden shed out between the corn crib and the burn pile so that he could do some dirt work. On this particular evening, the girls and I were out with him. As we watched the fire, we noticed that there was some smoke on the shed. Josh started looking more closely and realized that the shingles were starting to smolder. He ran to get the skid loader and pushed the shed out of the way, but it was too late. So he went ahead and pushed the shed into the fire. It made for some really cool pictures, even if I am disappointed that my shed is gone!

On a sad note, we have had to create a pet burial ground. My cat, Butterball, died at the beginning of the month. He was 12 years old. Josh buried him and the girls and I are creating a marker.