July 27, 2018 A Garbage Run, A Snake & Hot, Hot Hot

Smokey haze to the north. . .

. . .and west.

Wednesday 7/25. We filled the trailer, made our garbage run, and were home by 11:30 am.  Lots of smoke coming down the Columbia River to the north from the fires up there.  The summer flowers and bushes are in full bloom along the canyon: fire weed, asters, thistles, wild currents and deer brush.  So pretty.

A breeze teased us all day by picking up and dying down, picking up and dying down.  We tried to stay cool, but kind of hard to do with a high of 86 (that's in the shade on our porch).

It looks like the hoard of humming birds that was here the other night was just refueling for their journey and has moved on.  Only four or five seem to have stayed.

Thursday 7/26. It was 66 and clear this morning.  JB drove down in Miss Kitty a little after 8:00 am to meet the person coming up to give us an estimate on cutting down five trees.  He arrived in a street-legal 4X4, having been up our road a couple years ago.  He gave us a good price that we accepted, and will call with a date.  We will have to take down most of our decorative fence and move a lot of the flower pots before they can take down the trees.

This should be the last time we will have to pay for having trees taken out as these are the last ones too close to the house.  I will really miss the tall pine tree out front and the shade it provides, but it is really too big and too close to the house in case of fire.

I baked bar cookies for our weekend guests, then just tried to keep cool.  There was an off and on breeze again today with a high of 87.

After dinner I discovered a small dead rattlesnake behind Miss Kitty that JB must have run over either coming or going this morning.  It was covered with bees that were pretty much stripping it.  And I heard crickets for the first time this year.

Friday 7/27. It is 68 and still hazy on the horizons this morning.  There is no air movement, but supposedly our temperatures are supposed to drop down to normal beginning this weekend.  I will meet our guests at the gate so they can park their car at Larry and Elsie's, and bring them up in my Jeep.  Sure looking forward to their visit.

Thought for the day: My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit.  He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.  Indira Gandhi