First Robin(s) of Spring, Or Summer, Or Whatever

Part of our back yard looks like freshly-ploughed earth: which it is, sort of. That's where the skid loaders and trucks drove and parked while the garage went up.

This morning I saw my first robin of the year. Two of them, actually. Also two quite small birds that chased each other too fast for me to make out any details. They might have been really small sparrows.

Eventually that churned-up soil will get replanted and look more like a lawn. Meanwhile, judging from what the robins were doing, it's a great place for birds to hunt worms and other small critters.

New Office

My son is in his new office today. He finished moving stuff in yesterday, and started working at reducing echoes in the room. He does a little recording, and as he put it, his microphone hears better than he does.

Me? I'm still at my desk, by a north window. Which suits me just fine.

Related posts:

• "Home Schooling, a Garage, a Desk, and Business"
  (March 26, 2012)
• "My Son: First Paying Job"
  (March 5, 2012)

Home Schooling, a Garage, a Desk, and Business

My wife has another job, helping a family home school their kids. Today was her first day with the new folks. She and #3 daughter spent some time with lessons, some with the mother, working out how they'll schedule everything. My son will be pitching in, since this family wants to include computer skills.

We home schooled our kids, from grade 7 up. Their choice. This household could do everything except band, for my son, in-house. It helped that my wife's a computer science major with pretty close to a math minor; and I've got background in history, English, art, art history, and about half of a computer major. Not everybody comes with that big a grab-bag of experience. Which is why home schooling families share (pool?) their skills.

And that's getting a bit off-topic.

My son has been moving into his office today. It's a sort of oversize enclosed breezeway between the house and the new garage. My wife will have her big-enough garage later this week, when the concrete finishes curing. She's waited well over two decades for this, so I'm delighted that she'll finally have room to work with.

I still have my desk near a window in the north room. Which suits my needs quite well. I'll be moving back into the attic, maybe, starting this summer: but that'll be more of a library/archive and den. I like working here on the ground floor, where I can see what's happening in the kitchen and outside at the corner of South Ash and 9th.

Meanwhile, up in North Dakota, my son-in-law has moved Spiral Light Candle Corporation's factory and offices into their new building. Actually, the building has been around for decades: as a potato warehouse. It took a month or two to clean it out, install massive amounts of insulation, and set it up as a factory. With offices at one end.

I've seen what the place looked like when the walls were mostly up around the factory floor. It's changed since then, so I'm looking forward to getting up there and seeing the finished project.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "My Son: First Paying Job"
  (March 5, 2012)
• "Candles, a Spreadsheet, and a Really Long Week"
  (December 5, 2011)
• "My Son, the Techie"
  (October 9, 2010)
• "Saturday: About a Rabbit, a Leash, and School"
  (January 9, 2010)
• "Monday: Wedding on Saturday, But No Worries"
  (August 31, 2009)