Dear Kids,
          We had three days of spring, but this morning there’s snow on the ground again. Well, spring was nice while it lasted. We took advantage of the warm weather to start painting our moose. I thought he was mostly fine when we bought him, but looking closer, I saw there were little bubbles of rust all over him. He was made in California, and they just let the bare sheet metal rust, and then they sprayed him with floor varnish. Maybe that would be OK for California, but not for here. We’ve been sanding everything down and painting him with metal primer. Then I’m going to paint him glossy brown with metallic copper highlights. Oreo thinks we’re wasting our time and need to pay more attention to him.
          Speaking of Oreo, he brought a dead rat into the greenhouse and was tossing it around. Dad finally threw it out into the field. When I passed it on my walk, I saw a few bites had been taken out of its side.
          While it was warm, most of the snow melted, and left us with lots of mud. We have the pickup here at the cabin because we needed to go get more firewood, so Thursday we made our trip to Blazzard Lumber and loaded down the truck. When we got back to the cabin, in the parking area, Dad was backing it back and forth to get it closer to the wood pile. The truck ended up sinking to its axels in the mud. Dad could have called a tow truck to get it out, but feeling adventurous, he spent several hours jacking it up and filling the hole with gravel and slabs of wood. Meanwhile, I had to go visiting teaching to my one lady who lives at the top of the little loop, down a lane. I walked up there with a plate of cupcakes in my tote, feeling very virtuous. But she stood me up! I had a nice talk with her husband, however, and gave him the cupcakes. When I got home, Dad was still working on getting the truck out of the mud. He finished the next morning.
          Remember I’m cooking Sunday dinner next week, the 24th. We’ll eat at 5:00. The next week is Easter, and I guess our plans for the Saturday egg hunt are still uncertain. I hope we can have it someplace! The week after that is conference. Anybody who wants to come is welcome Saturday and/or Sunday, including the priesthood session Saturday night. I’ll fix dinner Sunday at noon.
          Life is good! Love, Mom