I can't believe its been so long since I posted on this blog - in April we had 2 feet of snow and now it's hot, humid July with snow and cold a dim, distant memory! Nevertheless, a lot has been going on at Villa Mir, and here's some of what's happening:

- Upper fields have been tilled and planted for the first time in decades. We have about 6 or so acres of feed corn growing nicely in fields that used to sit idle or be mown for hay.

- We put in a test plot of blueberries, about 500 plants. It will take 3 years to our first harvest, but this should be a very nice yielding crop - a healthy food, relatively pest- and disease-free, with reasonably high margins. We are thinking to make it 'pick-your-own' but we'll worry more about harvest when we have something to pick!

- Plans for house renovation continue. We are close to finalizing a plan that will add a second story to the bedroom wing of the house, with an exterior elevation that looks something like this. Our architect has an extremely cool program that let's him move from plans and detailed layouts to these elevation views. This view - in case you don't recognize it - is from the little yard in front, the 'play-yard' - without the familiar trees and white picket fence, which will stay but aren't shown in the drawing. The interior will be renovated significantly, leaving the old living room pretty much as is, but opening up the kitchen and former dining room area into a very large common space. With the new upstairs - which is all master bed, master bath, and office/sitting room - we only need put two bedrooms downstairs, which of course will have their own bath. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the design and now we figure out how much it will cost and hopefully we start construction late summer or early fall.

Anyway, Don and I have been spending a little time there. I've been in Cleveland several times since Easter for the Case board of trustees meeting and in June for a conference at BioEnterprise on global biotech investing. Don joined me for this trip and we had a great time on our off days, building a stone patio at the pool from 'reclaimed materials' from Dad's junk pile. Pool is clean and got a fresh coat of paint thanks to Paul. We'll be back later in July, to enjoy the pool and pick some blueberries!