November 2006 - Dam?

Jeff built a dam on November 5.
It appeared to be working when he and Palmer returned two days after Thanksgiving.

October 2006 - Company Comes

Autumn arrived and so did some city folks looking for a countrified good time. Jeff and his Uncle Palmer did some chores, cleaning up dead trees, chopping  and transporting cooking wood for dinner.










The ladies visited at the campsite after touring Covo Hills with Jeff on the ATV. Aunt Rita enjoyed the ride, but Chris (my mom) kept her eyes closed and held on for dear life. Jeff shouted questions back to her but heard no response, so he rode around until she yelled, "Yes, I saw the corn" and "The view from up here is beautiful"and "Can we quit now?"

We stayed by the fire from dusk to darkness, watching the fireflies in the cornfield, when suddenly the ladies saw the lights come on in the condos above the distant trees. "There's no condos over there!" Jeff exclaimed. "That's the glow of the moon over the trees." We all laughed.

June 2006 - Taking Form

By mid-June, tiny evergreens were visible down by the ponds, especially in the carefully mowed areas. Covo Hills is starting to take form with walking and ATV riding paths winding through the hills and flat lands.

And it looks like a real farm with harvested hay bales evident in the distance.

May 2006 - After the Planting

Digging holes, planting and hand-watering 500 evergreen saplings in one day is no small task even with a willing team of  workers. Which is probably why we didn't take photos that day in late April. We were too busy working! Some funny moments came out of that day. Well,  they didn't seem funny at the time, but in retrospect, they're the kind of moments that bear repeating time and again.

Ten-year-old Mitchell and his older sister Jessica were positioned down at the creek refilling the empty jugs used to water the plants. He silently watched Jeff scoot around on the ATV delivering saplings to be planted and jugs to be refilled while commenting on one thing or another as we all worked down on our hands and knees. Later, Mitchell innocently observed, in a classic "out of the mouth of babes" moment, "Gee, I didn't know Jeff was so bossy!"

We all chuckled, even Jeff, who said, "It's  a tough job being supervisor, but somebody has to do it."

Look very closely to see the tiny saplings popping up through the grass. As small as they were, larger holes had to be dug in the hard ground. Jeff rented an auger to bore the holes and put Uncle Palmer in charge of returning it on time. Uncle Palmer! The guy who never changes his watch from eastern to central time. You guessed it! Uncle Palmer had the auger back by 5 p.m. Michigan time - forgetting that we folks in Illinois could have used it another hour. Out came the shovels to finish up. Deena was good at digging!

Enjoy the springtime shots of Covo Hills, all dressed up with wildflowers, courtesy of Mother Nature.