Frost Advisory

So on top of it being a lousy summer for growing vegetables with too much rain, too cool temperatures, (thanks to global warming) tonight there is a frost advisory! Good thing I checked the zucchini and cucumber and pumpkin plants today to verify that there is nothing to pick. There are a couple 1 inch zukes, I got 4 badly shaped pickling cukes, and there are NO fruit at all of any size on the pumpkin vines. So there is nothing to worry about, nothing to cover.

There was a frost already yesterday in the inland counties but it didn't reach this close to the lake. It's down to 51F already, last night it dropped to 38.8F. I wonder if next summer will be the same or more normal. This is the 3rd cold summer in the 10 years I've lived here and the second in a row.

It's nuts.

Kayaked Today - I'm Exhausted

For the first time since last summer and Uncle Butch's stroke. Besides myself and Uncle Butch his 2 daughters were there and a granddaughter. Also 6 children. One daughter has a health issue and could not help in getting her dad into and out of the kayak. Things went pretty well for a while then suddenly Uncle Butch went off kilter and into the water he went. Of course, he did this in a mucky bottom deeper section and since he refused to wear his PFD standing him back up in the current and corralling his boat and paddle while keeping ourselves from falling out or losing our paddles was an experiment in managed chaos. His daughter_in_law also tried to help but she was holding her 20 month old baby.

During all this one of the younger boys in his own kayak started crying because he was suddenly alone and floating downstream. We finally convinced his mom to leave us and go "save" him. (Incidentally, all the kids wore their PFDs).

In the end, some tubers came over and helped out by picking up his kayak and his daughter's to empty the water out and re-float them. (Her kayak had filled up when she jumped out to rescue him.)

Other than that little incident the trip itself was nice. The day was hot, blue sky, big clouds, very pretty. We were supposed to leave for the river at 10, didn't get on the road till 11:21, and didn't get to the water's edge till 1:21. We didn't get off the water till 5:30 and not back to the house till a little after 7 pm. Longest kayaking day I've ever had for what is normally a 2.5 hour water trip.

It's possibly the only time I'll be able to get on the water this year though, so I'll try to remember the good parts.

A Few Dogs at the Lake

Back on July 21 my friend and I took our 3 dogs to Jewell Lake for a swim. Mr Mike, an English Setter, and Luna retrieved a dummy till we got tired of throwing it while Rocket lazed around on the bank or occasionally in the shallows.

I thought it was about time I posted a few photos.

Luna really liked to leap after the thrown dummy, unless she decided Mikey was closer, then she'd just wade off and wait till the next throw.


Now and then Mikey seemed to protest Luna winning most of the races so he'd try to get his own piece.

These photos aren't all from the same retrieve but they might as well have been.

I need to call my friend and set up another lake date. And there may be another dog, he says he got Mikey a little sister.

Mid August Update

Summer is back again. It's trying to get into the 80s and it hasn't rained in a couple days. The mosquitoes are thick especially at night down at the hutch run. I just hope the birds aren't getting sucked dry. They seem okay every morning.

I'm again using my new laptop. It's very nice. It took a week of trying and one email but the registration process for Windows 7 free upgrade I was promised finally worked. So when it becomes available supposedly I will only have to pay shipping and handling to get my upgrade disk.

We bought a large dehumidifier 2 days ago since last year's died last year. I got tired of buying a new one every year from the big box stores so went to a real appliance store and purchased a heavy duty one. The basement humidity was 75% and things were smelling musty. It's dropped to just over 60% which is much more comfortable. And now things in the basement pantry like flour won't go moldy. Hopefully, that hasn't already happened.

Mrs Duck's 3 ducklings are hanging out on the pond every day. And now Mrs Duck has 8 new eggs as of yesterday. She hasn't started sitting yet but I hope I get some more girls. In this photo you can see Mrs Duck behind the other 3. The smallest white one is the female.

Hal's off to his camp now to finish planting the food plot he started yesterday. I need to mow the lawn before he gets back. Should have dried from the morning dew by now.

My New Laptop is Here!

Three days earlier than expected! It arrived in a nice little box with a handle. I signed for it, popped it out of the box. plugged it in, turned it on and followed the instructions on the screen for registering, etc. Setting up the wifi network connection was a pice of cake, too. It searched for it, found it, I typed in the password Hal gave me and boom, I'm on the network and then online.

Now if I could only find reasonably priced broadband around here as there isn't any DSL or cablemodem service available. Doesn't look good, either Alltel for $60/month, Directv for $50, or HughesNet for $60. Dial-up is slow but it's only $10/month. I guess we'll be suffering out here in the sticks a while longer.