August 15, 2014 Rain, Rain, Wonderful Rain!

My quilted girl!

Wednesday 8/13. Fog wafted in and out all morning, and our high for the day was 72.  A great day for working outside, which is exactly what we did.  I planted the yellow raspberry starts that Claudia had given me.  They are the most delicious raspberry I have ever tasted and have taken their place next to peaches as my favorite fruit.  Then I dug up and split my irises which have become quite prolific.  I replanted some by the garden where they had been, and planted more along the edge of the gravel near the lilac bush.

After lunch we cut down five small trees near the north ridge to continue thinning them out.  I limbed two of them and saved the rest for later.  I really needed to restack the row of wood that had fallen over in the wood shed.  It was a very solid row and I was positive that some critter must have gotten in there and caused the problem.  Sure enough, I found pack rat poop.  Something has died in the shop, so I can only hope it was the culprit.

We heard distant thunder about 4:00 pm, which gradually became not-so-distant.  The lightening was fairly close, so after dinner JB drove Miss Kitty out to check for strikes.  Thank goodness the land was so wet with all the rain we had received.  The thunder began again after 10:00 pm and lasted most of the night, going to the north and east of us.  But the dogs were pacing and JB could not sleep.  He ended up going into the living room at about midnight.  About five minutes after he sat on the couch, the dogs settled down and went to sleep.  Unfortunately he could not.  When the thunder finally passed at about 4:00 am, he came back to bed and slept in til 9:30 am.

The hikes I took with Claudia really got me going, so I took the dogs for a hike up to the peak, and hope to do that every morning.

There are signs in the area where Claudia lives stating that your are in grizzly bear habitat.  That's a little scary, but she and her neighbors have only seen black bears.  Years ago Claudia had a malamute named Bear.  One night she went to call him in to the mud room.  It was dark and she saw him just off the small porch.  She called to him but he wouldn't come.  She called again, and just then Bear barked from out in the yard.  It wasn't Bear that she saw - it was a bear!  Her neighbor had one raise up and look in their screen door when their back door was open.  So glad he at least had the screen door closed!

Thursday 8/14.  It was 56 and cloudy this morning.  We already have more than 1.25" of rain for August.  That has to be some kind of record. 

I went on my morning walk again with the dogs before breakfast.  Very invigorating, but not nearly so much as Claudia's.

After breakfast we drove Miss Kitty out to look for "sleepers".  Since it is so wet, if lightening strikes a tree it can just smolder for a while until it goes out or bursts into flame.  We didn't see any smoke, but sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference from the little fog/cloud fingerlings that were everywhere.  JB showed me some new roads that Larry had shown him while I was gone.  On our way back home, we dug out three drainage ditches, the biggest one being at our hair-pin corner.

We had rain and fog off and on all day, and our high was just 62.  I did a load of laundry, but hung it inside.

After dinner JB suggested we have a campfire under the cover of the baker tent.  So we carried out some wood and our wine, and did just that.  What a great evening! 

Friday 8/14. It is cloudy an 59 this morning.  JB is going Down There to get an estimate for the insurance on his Jeep.  Some critter chewed the wires to his front right turn signal and light.  He is also running a few errands including buying spigots for our three "new" water barrels and pipe to connect a couple of them.

More rain is in the forecast for today, but the weekend is supposed to be nice.

Thought for the day: Public apathy is more powerful than public opinion. There's more of it. Dr. Jim Boren