Monday, August 29, 2011

August 29, 2011

Grasshopper on yarrow
Our plans have changed for driving to the west side of the mountains. Bob's brother is going to have a family party for their Mom's 90th birthday on Saturday, September 10. So we will drive over on the 10th and come back on the 11th. We'll sleep in their pop-up trailer that I used in 2008, so the dogs can be with us. In preparation for the party, I spent most of yesterday looking through photo albums and cd's for appropriate pictures with which to make a memory book, and scanning hard copies into the computer.  Still not done. Ninety years is a lot of pictures! Not sure yet exactly how I am going to do this.  A digital frame may be the answer.


Yesterday was a good day to stay inside as the temperature was into the low 80's. NOAA is predicting a cold front will move into the area today bringing lower than normal temperatures for the rest of the week. Yippee! I am planning to go Down There on Tuesday and just could not face it if the heat was going to persist.

August is definitely the month of the Buzzing Mountains this year. Usually that starts in July. During the day there is a constant buzz of insects outside. A low drone in the background. This year we also have many more grasshoppers than normal. Didn't think much about it and neither did Larry and Elsie until they realized the grasshoppers has started munching on their blueberry plants. They hightailed it to their supplier and bought an organic spray to use. It worked.  Their plants are safe and healthy. And the berries are still delicious.

In speaking with his brother, JB found out that with the two trees that were cut down there was almost 200 feet of wood. Divided into 16" pieces, that equals about 150 pieces!  Actually I got an e-mail from JB's sister-in-law advising that there are approximately 120 pieces. We'll be renting a truck, not a trailer. I just hope it can make it up our road with that load.

I just finished reading a book in my very favorite series about my all-time favorite hero - Harry Dresden. He is a wizard in modern-day Chicago. Fantasy is not the ilk I prefer, but Jim Butcher writes these books so well that I am hooked. I read the first one a couple years ago, and as soon as I finished it, I turned around and read it again. Never done that before. But they are just that entertaining, and I am always laughing while I am reading them.  Dresden is completely irreverent, and as one critic put it, "Harry Dresden is a cross between an adult Harry Potter and private eye Jim Rockford from The Rockford Files."
Not much else going on except that Dinga discovered a frog in the house a couple days ago, and another mouse was executed last night by one of our traps. I am confident that chocolate chips are the best mouse bait. They work for me too. Fortunately I have my own stash and don't have to go raiding the mouse traps.
Our first "outhouse" for Rose Camp, 1989
Across which Bob's Mom put this
ribbon to be cut by the first user.


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