I was told when we relocated to Wisonsin from Texas last fall that Wisconsin doesn't have spring. They go from winter (through the 3rd week of May) right in to summer. This years seems to be a nice "fluke" as I couldn't ask for more spring-like conditions. Today was mid-60s so I figured that Whohead could go outside and doodle on the driveway with her sidewalk chalk while I continued work on stripping the office door.

We had been outside for about half an hour or so when my neighbor M and her twins came out. She offered to let the Who come over to her yard as it is completely fenced in (ours isn't) and I wouldn't have to worry about her running off down the driveway when I wasn't looking. Who LOVES sidewalk chalk. It ranks higher even than blowing bubbles in her book. So off to M's yard she goes and spends about 10 minutes scribbling away. M decides that this is a perfect day to do some yard cleanup and pulls out a rake and yard waste bags to clean up residual leaves left from last fall. Whohead apparently has aspirations to be a master gardener. As soon as M starts to pick up the first pile of leaves and put them in the bag Who runs over to help. The twins, not to be outdone, go and join her.



After about 20 minutes or so the twins decide they have had enough of being helpful and run inside to play. Whohead is still feeling like yardwork is more fun that artwork. Once M has finished with the rake, Who takes it upon herself to see if she can improve upon M work. When that fails she follows M over and helps her week the flowerbeds!



One of the funniest parts of the day was when M tried to show the kids an earthworm she had found. Who had seen her pull it out of the ground and apparently felt that it should stay in the ground. So she kept picking up handfulls of dirt and mulch and trying to cover the worm with in...while it was still in M's hand!

Anyway, while all of this was going on I did manage to get quite a bit more of the door stripped. First with the heatgun, and then I tried a liquid stripper on the last panel that had full coats of paint on it. Let's just say I am really glad I spent the money on a heatgun. Liquid paint strippers SUCK! They are messy to apply and even worse to remove. Tomorrow I will remove the final panel's paint with the heat gun and leave the liquid stripper to remove residual paint only. I will say the liquid stuff did a pretty good job removing the residual on the door today. It probably would have done a better job but right after I applied it the temperature outside dropped and it fell outside the "optimum" temperature for application. I didn't want to leave it on all night so I stripped what I could and will continue on in the morning...or the next sunny day we get.



As if that wasn't enough, after Who went down for her nap, I even managed to get my vegetable garden prepped. I got rid of the dead branches and rocks that had found their way into the bed. I even managed to get the soil turned and leveled. When I went to the store last week I picked up starts for blackberry and raspberry bushes. Neither of those will actually be in the garden. The blackberries will be in the area of the yard that the dogs are in. I am hoping the thorns on the bush itself will help keep the dogs from digging out the back fence. The raspberries will grow along the fence between M's & our yard. I have decided to limit the actual garden to tomatoes, garlic, basil & strawberries. If everything grows well this year I may get brave and try a few new things next year. As I mentioned at the start of the post Wisconsin "doesn't have spring". They have been known to get some pretty bad frost this late in the yer so I will wait a couple more weeks before I actually put anything in the ground...but at least now I'm ready!