Beautiful wife and I started the week by listing tasks to ready Serendipity Farmhouse for planting season and the changeover to warm weather routine. More than 35 tasks emerged from this session. Many of these are non-trivial and labor intensive.

When the list was complete, sweet and loving wife looked at me, smiled at the thought of how beautiful SFH would be once the tasks were accomplished, and then looked at me with a stern expression that said: “Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work.” And so I did, and so I have been doing all week. But, I must add, my industrious spouse has been working just as hard as I have.

Highlights: Here are just two recollections of this week’s many memorable events.

09 APR – The Battle of Good vs. Evil:  I was intently working on a research task in my luxurious and stately office in my Class C RV El Camino Del Monte. I was only slightly aware of the sound from the river and the rustling of branches in the breeze. Suddenly, the RV began to shake violently. The wind increased in speed and I distinctly heard the sound of what seemed to be several rocket engines. Then, great and thunderous animal-like roars, bellows and screeches pierced through my ears, reverberating within my head. The yard was filled with dust and smoke so I could not see what was happening. I had only heard such things once before. That was in the true-to-life, scientific documentary entitled: Gamera vs. Barugon (大怪獣決闘 ガメラ対バルゴン, Daikaijū kettō: Gamera tai Barugon). What I was hearing was a titanic battle between “the invincible friend of all children” and the evil monster Barugon. I knew this had to be what was happening because I had seen the documentary and because my son had given me the plastic model of Barugon to remind me that we must be prepared to battle against the evil in this world just as Gamera had.

Then as quickly as it had started, the violence and commotion ceased. I glanced through the window of my RV and noted that Gamera had taken on a more normal form and was walking through my driveway. I quickly bolted from the RV and rushed over to talk to one of our family’s great heroes. He allowed me to take some pictures and then had to depart quickly to save some children on a small Japanese island whose lives were being threatened by a terrible, hideous creature from the sea.

13 APR: Mother Nature Still Calls the Shots: The task was twofold – power wash the deck and paint & stain where necessary. This was not our immediate nor our highest priority. Beautiful wife wanted to prepare new tomato boxes and some other things first. We figured that there was no rush. The area on the deck that needed the most work was easy to get to as long as the hostas were not up and opened. Based on the last few years, we figured we had a week or two to do other things before they would be a problem. Mother Nature, however, is giving us a Spring like we haven’t seen before. Everything is happening all at one once. So, without warning, there they were – the hostas, the hostas sprouting, the hostas shouting, “You waited too long, now try to paint that deck without tripping or slipping on us!”

Frustrated wife and I had to agree. There was no alternative. Paint today, paint without delay.

In a mad rush, I was off to the co-op to buy a paint scraper. Dear spouse was searching for the white paint, masking tape, and the proper brush. In the time it took for me to go to the co-op and come back, the hostas had grown two more inches. Laughing they were, laughing at me. And, in the background, Mother Nature was laughing too.

Scrape the blistered paint, I did. Sand the rough edges, I did. Apply the masking tape, I did. Then industrious, but overly rushed wife followed with paint and brush. The hostas continued growing and laughing. Wife was painting and panting. She worked at a frenzied rate.

And then, in a moment of sheer triumph and victory the job was done. We had faced off with Mother Nature, and to our joy we had WON!

SFH WX Station Report: There may be some more frosts, but the weather pattern is now shifting to a warming trend. And it wouldn’t be Spring without some rain. Here are this past week’s statistics: