SUMMER??

Now I ask you: Do these pictures make you think of July? This is what we’re looking at this morning. And it’s just as chilly as it looks. At 8:00 a.m., it was 53 degrees. The predicted high for today is 66, but tomorrow it’s 55. Well, I can take advantage of this cool spell to finish an afghan and do some baking.

 

We think of the Fourth of July as a hot day with picnics, watermelon, and ice cream – but it’s not always that way in the intermountain Northwest. It was cool enough that Mike wistfully checked the weather forecast in Moss Point, MS, where he grew up. The high would be 90 there, he said, which is good and hot in that environment. In the afternoon, son Clint, Elisha, and Maycie came. We enjoyed snacking while we visited and then had Warnock burgers for supper. They left at 8:00.

In the past we have watched Orofino's fireworks display from Gilbert Grade, but the program didn’t start until 10:10 – past my bedtime. Mike said he could see flashes in the sky from the fireworks as he put the dogs to bed. We might have enjoyed watching those flashes from the porch, but I was sound asleep.

Tuesday and Wednesday (5th and 6th), we spent in town. Unfortunately, I left the charging cord for my laptop behind and also Mike’s thumb drive with files relating to his next trip. Some things can’t be helped, but some things can. I have ordered a cord for my laptop so that I have one in each place. The handwriting is on the wall. The less I’m responsible for carrying back and forth, the better off we’ll be.

 

We returned to the farm on Thursday, the 7th. Mike rode his brand new Triumph Tiger XRx. I guess it’s called an “adventure bike.” It will carry him on his next adventure later this month and be more practical for regional rides.

Recent highlights:

·       A mouse (or mice) was again storing Nell’s food (inadvertently left out one night) in the oven. I placed a trap in there and YES! I caught one.

·       Thursday night, the coyotes carried on for 15 minutes, yelping and yodeling. They were close! – and I imagined that they were letting little Bess know just who’s the boss in this neck of the woods. I know they keep the rodent population down and thus are my friends, but it was eerie and disturbing nevertheless.

·       I could hear a bird above the damper in the fireplace, so we opened the damper and found two of them in the fireplace insert yesterday morning. We lowered the blinds, closed the inside doors, opened the front door, then opened the insert. It’s a process but it works every time.

·       Mike delights in watching the family of coots on the pond. They frequently disappear into the cattails, especially the four young-uns. KW