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| Taken from Plank's. The landscape shows a variety of textures. |
When I awoke this morning, I could smell the smoke and even taste it. A fresh breeze blows this afternoon, and the smoke has cleared to some extent.
I was late taking this morning’s walk – too late. It was after 9:00 and already hot. Mike and Bess had walked around the north field earlier, so Bess wasn’t much interested in a walk with me, especially if Mike wasn’t along. She went around the pond with me, but she watched me from the kitchen porch as I went down the lane.
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| Leyland cypress in town |
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Mike has flat churned out the work this summer. Besides splitting and stacking wood, fixing the chimney, and spraying the Canada thistle, he took down the fence around the lilacs and hauled the posts and fencing to town where installed them around the Leyland Cypress he’s planted on the bank behind the town house. A couple of years ago, the mule deer just about obliterated the first trees Mike planted, and he doesn’t want a repeat of that experience.
I was sorry to see the fencing go at the farm because I have enjoyed hanging solar lights on it, but the good news is that now I have a place to hang lights in town.
Over the weekend, Mike and Clint made a circuitous overnight motorcycle trip to Challis, Idaho, going by way of Hwy 12 and coming back through Banks and Lowman and onto Hwy 55. It was hot, and Mike reported that the traffic was terrible. I dined with friends in town on Saturday night, and I, too, was surprised that so many people were out.
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| Bess watches from the porch as I head down the lane. |
We came back to the farm yesterday (Monday, July 26), and I was so pleased to see that the tomato and zucchini plants had not wilted. The plant nannies really help! I might water the plants twice a day while it’s so hot since the tomato is showing some leaf curl.
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| The morning smoke is obvious in this photo. |
The washing machine at the farmhouse – our old machine purchased in 1998 – has an intermittent leak, leaving water on the floor after it runs a load. This morning, Mike took the face plate off and lay on the floor to watch it run in hopes of diagnosing the problem. Naturally, it worked perfectly – no leaking. Well, if it has to be fixed, he will fix it because it just isn’t worth a service call at this house – perhaps not at any house.
A few hummingbirds still flit around. Mike identified bear scat this morning. And the deer have eaten the lower berries off the black hawthorns in the lane. KW
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| The north field, looking northwest. The wheat looks ready to harvest. |
We're getting a new iron filter for our water system tomorrow. We had a load of whites turn yellow and orange recently, which was definitely not a thrill, so the time had come to replace. There's always something, and we are thankful we can replace if needed. Meanwhile, the smoke is coming in rather heavy as I type, so I don't know what's happening. It was pretty clear earlier. This is reminding me of the summer of l967. So hot and so many fires.
ReplyDeleteI remember when we hardly dared drink the water in Moscow. Do you have to have your own water filter, or has the city made corrections?
ReplyDeleteThe smoke seemed better this morning, but this afternoon it worsened. I suspect this drifting smoke will be the norm for a while. We also had three very brief rain showers yesterday -- just enough to mess up the car, Mike said, but I don't even think it was that much.
I don't remember much about fires in the summer of '67. I'm sure you would know, though.
We aren't on city water. We live outside the city limits and have our own well, which is why we have a whole room in our basement dedicated to making it suitable for indoor use. We call it the Culligan Room. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, '67 was a bad year. Someone even referenced it in the paper today in the front page article "A fire season without precedent."