While she was here, we went to a nursery and I picked out a pretty pin oak. Yesterday Dave dug a hole for it, and today we picked it up and planted it. Dave's student, Patrick, came over to help. 
I don't know how we could have done it without him! It was so heavy! Here are some photos of the planting in progress and the finished product. We love the tree. It really makes the house look prettier. We are excited to have a hardwood in the yard too. The man at the tree nursery guessed it was ~12 years old. 
The garden is exploding now.
We have sunflowers blooming, and we are starting to get a ton of tomatoes. We are having a great time with it. 
Right now we have plenty of beets, chard, basil, and carrots. 
In the past week or two, we have been dealing with various critters who think the ground beneath our breezeway is great for burrows. At first it was a skunk family. Dave never saw them, but Columbo and I saw them multiple times. A mom and three babies! When we came back from Vermont last week, the skunks were gone and a woodchuck had moved in! We have been spraying critter ritter (Dad's idea) around the hole lately. I haven't seen Chucky for a few days, so it might be safe to fill in the hole now.
This is the hole. We will try to get back to working on the house soon, but we are having more visitors in August so things will be busy!
