Plant it in your orchard

Work
Lots of work at our house lately, and sadly not the kind at home. Ken has been staying late for weeks now and I'll have spent three saturdays at work out of the last 5. Usually, I'd be a bit fussy about it, but I like my job so I don't mind so much. Plus it's not a regular occurrence. Things are busy for me though -- one coworker just left since she's moving out of the country and another left in March for a (permanent) maternity leave. So now I'm spending time between two offices but getting more experience in a short period of time than I ever dreamed. I'm going to DC for a meeting in a week and a half. Plus, I'll be going back in November for SfN! How fun! Can't wait to see everyone.

Family
Other than work, we spent the last week in April in Hawley, PA for Ken's family reunion. It took us 12 hours to get there -- the closest town is Scranton, PA if that tells you anything. We had a great time and it was wonderful to see everyone. There were ~30 of us -- very fun to get everyone together at one time -- especially since nobody has to host. Or cook. Or drive. Or organize activities. You just hang out, play games, eat meals and drink together. It was great to catch up -- I hadn't seen most of them for two years.

"Friends"
I finished the rock border in the backyard this weekend, but my biggest update is that I planted a peach tree in the backyard. He gets 12' tall, is self-fertile and disease-resistant. I love him dearly and took a picture of him, but it's on Ken's camera so this one that I found on the internet will have to do. Plus, there's a chicken in the picture so it was the hands-down winner. Anyway, the peach tree is awesome. Reddish bark. Bright pink flowers. I can't wait to pick peaches in my own backyard. For drinks. To grill. To eat from the tree. Awesome.

The most hilarious part is that when we first moved into our house and planted our $5 cherry tree, the lady told us to "plant it in [our] orchard". Of course, our orchard! Now, 3 years later, our small 50x100 foot lot in the middle of Portland has the following perennial edibles (none of which were there before we moved in):

Peach tree
Apple tree (5 varieties)
Asian pear tree (5 varieties)
Bing cherry tree
Yuzu citrus tree
Blueberries (3 varieties)
Strawberries (100+ plants, 5 varieties)
Gooseberry (Captivator)
Red Currant (Cherry)
Black Currant (Crandall)
Lingonberries (4 plants, 2 varieties)
Rhubarb (Victoria)
Hops (4 varieties)

I feel very lucky. Dwarfing, disease-resistant trees make me so happy. They're not expensive (especially in bare-root form) and they give back so much. Even Ken is excited! I think my pressure canner will be very busy this summer.