Fall Plantings

The spring is the most popular time of year to plant trees, but fall plantings have a better chance of survival. New nursery trees always need a good watering for the first 6 months.  When you plant in the spring, the natural moisture is good for the first 2-3 months, but then you gotta be diligent about watering through the summer.  When you plant in the fall you only have to water for a couple months before the tree goes dormant for the winter. Then it has 4 good months of spring moisture after that. I still try to water through the summer, but it's OK when it's missed.

Hello and Goodbye

Owning a riding lawnmower is a lot like owning a car.  You grow attached to it.  Or maybe I'm just a little sentimental because we got our little green mower when we first moved into our house - before we had kids.  I loved the simplicity of not having a battery or electrical system (pull start).  But our friend Tim offered us his big jobber, and we couldn't say no.

Conflict Resolution

It usually starts with a little shouting or crying and sometimes escalates into an all out brawl.  And now we have a new rule when it ends with one kid telling us that the other did something bad.  Kids needs to learn how to settle their own disagreements.  So when they ask us to get involved we now give them a 5-minute timeout together.  If they still want our involvement at the end of the 5-minutes, we become Judge Judy and get to the bottom of it.  If one kid is completely innocent, the guilty one gets a consequence.  But this is rarely the case, so the other part is that they both get a BIG TIME consequence if we find fault in both of them.  It's been about 2 months, and they rarely come to us anymore, and when they do, they always seem to have things worked out at the end of the five minutes.

Happy 70th Popper!

Pop turned 70 one week ago today. We celebrated in Grand Haven with an early morning fishing charter on Lake Michigan, and then a dinner in Spring Lake where the restaurant served up the fish we caught.

War on the Mosquitoes!

The mosquitoes can get pretty bad in our area because of all the shade and moisture. But we are now armed with the Flowtron 80-watt mosquito zapper! I'm somewhat skeptical of the effectiveness it'll have on the local mosquito population, but I was sold on it when a friend described the satisfaction he gets while sitting on his back deck listening to them being fried.

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school for the boys. Last week was filled with fun including field day, and whacky hair day. We're looking forward to a great summer!

Raising Boys

Soon after becoming a dad I read this book, Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph. The author describes 3 stages of boyhood.

1) Birth to 6 years - where boys get most of their security and comfort from mom. Even though dad plays a big role, they are basically a momma's boy.
2) Age 6 to 14 - they adore their mom but they get interested in becoming a man and being more like dad. This is the time for dad's to really step up.
3) Age 14+ - boys will pull back from their parents, and they need influence from good male mentors such as coaches, teachers, grandpa, etc.

So... we are solidly in the Stage 2 area with all 3 boys (Kurt-6, Erik-7, Peter-9). It's daddyo time!