Strawberries and Carpel Tunnel

We dug up and brought these strawberry plants from the old house, they are full of red berries but they're not quite ripe yet. Mmmm. Oh and now you can see fruit on the cherry, apple and pear trees. I've been reading up on how to keep birds out of fruit trees. I think it would be cool if we actually got some fruit from them.

So Aaron had his appointments with the doctor last week and they confirmed that yes, it's carpal tunnel, no, he doesn't have nerve damage, but yes, he does need surgery. They say with the surgery he will be able to make a full recovery. So he's going to go ahead and do it as soon as school is over so he can use his hands pain-free again. It sucks but at least it can be fixed.

Last weekend we gave the deck away!! Yay! Thanks to Katya for setting that up. Now there's a big empty dirt area on that side of the house that's just screaming for some plants. I never quite started a garden from scratch before, it should be fun. I'd like to put plants in to attract hummingbirds and butterflies since this area is visible from the living room. And herbs. There's lots of room to work with and no hurry.

Last week I started the planning on the kiln. The concrete pad has been laid thanks to Aaron, the bricks have been ordered and new blowers are sitting in the living room ready. I just need to figure out how to replace them on the old burners. This time I'm making some adjustments to the design so the kiln lasts longer and I don't have to fire as often. Hopefully I'll get as good or better results from this one. I spent a bunch of time last week on the phone talking to the brick and burner guys, well worth it, because I had forgotten a bunch of stuff from last time.

Here's a couple more shots, Ted and the barn next door-