Becca had been begging for a haircut, so I took her in on Saturday with a printout of some really detailed character sketches of Cortana (from Halo).

After many, many assertions that yes, she did want a short shaved undercut, she ended up with just a passing nod towards an undercut. I ended up fixing it at home with a set of clippers.

It is so hard to rebel around here.

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She was with me when I did my weekly grocery run at Wal-Mart, and the clerk wanted to see both of our IDs. I appreciate that we can be mistaken for sisters, but not more than I like being able to buy wine.

Last week, Matthew and I spent a few hours planting 80 red osier dogwoods up and down the powerline cut because I’d mistakenly received someone else’s trees in the mail. When I called the company, they shrugged and said to keep them, and since I didn’t want to waste plants…

Then I got an email telling me I’d mistakenly been shipped unlabeled Jersey Supreme instead of Jersey Knight asparagus. This weekend, I doubled the size of my asparagus bed by hacking out more stupid English ivy and forsythia and roses and planting another 25 crowns. The Jersey Supreme grew over two feet in the last two weeks; I’m pretty sure the Jersey Knight will be aboveground by tomorrow.

The cacti are doing well. I was afraid the pads were dead on arrival, but they rooted just fine and are producing little baby pads. I’m hoping to germinate some Italian caperberry plants to grow near them, since they all like rocky soil.

I’m still waiting on cranberry bushes and wintergreen and pecan trees. I had mixed results with the bush cherries and may end up needing to find a different edible to plant in front of the house.

Fingers crossed that the lilies of the valley win the turf war over the periwinkle. I detest periwinkle. The daylilies are okay, we just have too many of them.

Abigail helped me dig out homes for our two Crandall American black currant bushes. They’re supposed to be good for butterflies and fruit.

Madeline and Abigail both helped get all of the bush cherries into the ground. We planted the four Nanking cherries near their bus stop, so they’ll have something to nibble while they wait. Joy and Joel went in next to the house to replace some of the bushes I tore out, and the Carmine Jewel is in a nice sunny spot on the hill. I’m still waiting on two Polish dwarf cherry trees.

We’re running a bit of a potato experiment this summer. We have a box that we’ll fill with straw or soil as the indeterminate potato grows up, a chickenwire construct of straw on the outside and and soil in the middle with potatoes planted in a spiral around the outside, and IKEA bags of soil.

I still have to deal with the lingonberries and cranberries when they arrive.