July 30

 

    I might need to reconsider that whole early fall thing.  Our weather has taken a swing from cooler than normal straight to the dog days of summer.  The last couple of days have been terribly hot and it looks like it will be that way all week with scattered thunderstorms being the only predicted rain.  When it is this hot, those just make the humidity worse.  It was so hot yesterday when we were at our friends' home, Dave got sick from the heat and had to go lie down for a while.  He should have rested longer than he did, but is a typical guy....he kept saying he felt like stupid because the heat was bothering him and like a bum because Tim and I were working on his shed while he sat down.  Nothing we said could get him to just watch so we all kept an eye on him and made sure he drank a lot of water.  He really scared us.

    Tim's alarm woke me up this morning and I just couldn't get back to sleep so, it has been another long day.  I made a deposit at the bank as soon as it opened this morning and then stopped at Wally World for a few groceries and another bottle of fish oil capsules for the poodle.  The hair is growing back on his tail, but he's still acting like it bothers him.  Tim had the trunk of the car full of his tools so I had to put the groceries in the back seat.  I put the eggs on the back of the seat so they wouldn't get broke......and forgot all about them until about three hours later.  Guess who had to go back to the store this afternoon for more eggs?  I just hate it when I do dumb things like that.

    Mom and John were working in the garden when I got back so I walked up and talked to them a little bit.  They are trying to get as much picked and canned as they can because they leave Friday for a week.  Mom is a delegate to the National Rural Letter Carrier's convention and John wants to stop in Ohio at the NRA shoot.  They picked a lot of zucchini, green beans, peas, and cauliflour.  I will take over the picking while they are gone.

    Megan finally came home around 3:00.  She had been at a friend's house since going home with her after the concert Saturday night.  She was exhausted but had a very good time.  The friend is the FFA chapter president and lives on a farm.  She and her brothers started teaching Megan how to care for a steer since that is what she wants to show next year.

    We tried to find some sweet corn for supper, but everyone was packed up and gone.  Either they sold out very early or it was just too darn hot to sit there.  Maybe I'll find some tomorrow.  Supper was late because Tim had to stop by his aunt's and look at her truck, but it was worth the wait.  We had oven fried pork chops, garlic and cheddar mashed potatoes, and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.  Mm-mmm!

    Another of Megan's friends is spending the night here.  Life is just one endless slumber party around here.  LOL

 

July 31

 

    It doesn't seem possible that another month is gone and summer is more than half over.  Meg will be back to school and I will be back to work this time next month.  It seems like the older I get, the faster time flies.

    I wanted the girls to beat the heat today so took them to the barn as early as I could get them up and moving (10:30).  They walked all the lambs, cleaned out the pens and fed everything.  I was "talking" to one hog that is in his own pen.  Turns out he is the one that didn't sell at the Derry Ag Fair....something about his weight.  Well, he is a fine looking pig now and still has to be sold.  I told Holly to find out about it for me.  Her mom might buy half, but if she doesn't we'll probably take the whole thing.  I'm going to have to quit talking to it, though, or I'm not going to want to eat my Christmas ham.  He's such a fun pig with a ton of personality.  He runs to the gate for a scratch and conversation (I grunt back at him) and he "paws" at me for attention just like the dogs.   I swear he smiles and he has the longest eyelashes.  You should have seen him playing in the spray from the hose.  Hooo-boy!  I think I'm in trouble already.

    When the girls finished at the barn we went in search of corn and still had a tough time finding a stand selling local corn.  I finally went to the produce stand outside of Blairsville.  Since I drove that far, I got a dozen ears of corn, a 10 lb. sack of potatoes that are a nice size for baking, and plums and peaches.  The peaches are so sweet and juicy!  We had hamburgers, corn, baked potatoes, and cucumbers and tomatoes for supper.  I love summer suppers.  If it were up to me, I'd have a couple of vegetarian meals a week, but Tim and Megan wouldn't like that at all.  Growing up we often ate nothing but fresh vegetables from Dad's garden for supper.

    Tim let the girls drive the tractor for a while after supper.  Being farm girls at heart, they were in their glory and had a ball.  Tim loaded up some things he'd been storing in "my" shed.  It didn't help.  I still can't find anything of mine in there.  He says he is taking more out tomorrow.  He's going to have to take a lot more out pretty soon because he's planning to take the workbench out and give it to our friend, Dave, for his shed.  He promises I will get nice shelves and a smaller potting table.  I don't care what I get, I'd just like to be able to get to my stuff when I want it.

    Pulled a tick off Tim's side tonight.  He was showered and changed and watching TV when all of a sudden he jumped up and asked what was on his side.  That's the first one we've had in years.  We don't know if he brought it in from outside, or if the dogs brought it in or even the kids since they were in and out all day.  I sprayed the heck out of the chair he was sitting in and I guess we'll have to get something to spray all around the shadynook and shed.  We certainly don't want ticks hanging around. (Shudder!)

 

August 2

 

    Eh, it was another extremely hot and humid day.  I've been wanting to do some baking, but have kept putting it off.  The house is staying around 80 degrees even with the central air running nonstop all day (I don't want to see our next electric bill).  I sure don't want to add to the heat.

    Megan stayed home all day.  A couple of her neighborhood friends came around and wanted her to do something, but she told them she didn't feel like it today.  She isn't sick.  They are a couple of years younger than her and I think she is just beginning to outgrow them.  I won't complain it's been a nice change of pace to have her home and happy about it.  At 15, she usually thinks she should be going somewhere or at the very least someone should be here.  ALL the time.

    We took Tim's aunt and her son to Avonmore right after lunch.  Tom, the boy, has a job for the next three days as the "nurse" at a girl scout camp.  I thought it was a little odd for them to hire a teenage boy in that capacity at a girl's camp, but he did just graduate and is a certified EMT.  Still, as a parent I think I'd be a little uncomfortable with the situation if it was my daughter and a boy I didn't know.

    I played around on the computer and read the rest of the afternoon.  Megan just kind of puttered around doing bits of this and that.  She wanted to make supper and fried some minute steaks with onions and peppers.  She did a good job. 

    Mom and John are leaving tomorrow morning for their trip.  Before she left her house this afternoon she told me the peas and beans needed picking.  I went out while Megan was making dinner.  I didn't find too many peas.  Probably just enough for one serving and in a day or two I'll be able to pick that much again.  Now, green beans are another story.  I picked about a peck of them and will have to pick them again tomorrow night or Saturday most likely.  I didn't get finished before dinner was ready and was shocked when Megan came out with me afterward and helped pick.  She complained, but she stuck it out.  We also found 6 more zucchini and one pepper.  The pepper plants are really disappointing.  They are beautiful, full plants, but there aren't any blossoms.  There are two more peppers coming and that is it.

    We all went up to the barn this evening while Megan walked her lamb.  Her friend, Holly, met us there and with Tim's help they walked all the lambs and fed the animals.  When we got done there we treated ourselves to ice cream at the local drive-in.

 

August 3

 

    Hot again, but we got a much needed thunderstorm this afternoon.  I can't say that it cooled things off any...in fact, I'd have to say it was muggier afterward.  Still the rain was a good thing.  Everything (except the ground around the pool) was getting dry. 

    Megan was home all day again, though a couple of the girls from the neighborhood were around.  She's been such a big help the last couple days that we let her go to the drive-in tonight.  We were supposed to be going on a shopping trip for her birthday tomorrow.  She wants to go to Pittsburgh Mills, a new mall that is arranged in five "neighborhoods" and has glow-in-the-dark mini golf, bowling, movies, a playground, etc. right in the mall.  Kind of like a mini Mall of America, I guess.  Anyway, it turned out that neither of her two best friends could go tomorrow so, maybe, we're going Sunday.

    I got the peas shelled and the beans snapped this afternoon and while it was raining (it was a little cooler during the actual storm) I even got some chocolate chip muffins baked.  I did some more laundry today and cleaned the kitchen up and mopped the floor.  It was a semi-productive day.  It could have been better, I suppose, but I spent a lot of time playing around on my new blog getting links connected and whatnot.  I've had a blog for years, but it's been generic stuff....more of a journal and place to socialize.  I've focused the new one on our dream of having a farm some day.  Stop by for a visit if you're interested.  It's called Never Wanted Nothin' More.

    The arrangements are made for the hog.  We have to have him at Weimers Meat Packing at 8:00 Sunday evening.  They'll keep him over night and take care of butchering on Monday.  I'm still not sure exactly how we're going to get him there, but Tim seems confident that we will.  I guess we'll figure it out tomorrow.  With not going shopping, Tim will have time to work on that as well as some things around the place that he's not had time for lately.

    

August 4

 

    Megan and I did some grocery shopping today.  We hit Aldi's for staples and then stopped at Wal-Mart for dog food, razors and such.  Tim had gotten home before we even left and he slept the whole time we were gone.  He didn't sleep well last night and was making up for that, I guess.

    After unloading and putting away the groceries I really didn't do much else.  Tim built a pen of sorts on the trailer so we can haul the hog tomorrow, but that was pretty much it for him, too.  It was just so hot and it was nice to just relax.

    Tonight I took Megan and one of her friends up to the Ag barn at the school.  She was just going to walk her lamb, but decided to walk them all so Amber and I helped.  While we were walking them, Holly, Megan's friend and the pen manager for the lambs showed up to clean out the pens so we stayed and helped with that.  Meg helped shovel out the dirty bedding and I fed everything but the hogs.  I draw the line at walking in the hog pen in flip flops.  I'm not quite that much of a country girl.

    Amber is staying the night and in the morning we are driving to Hillsdale to pick up our niece, Ariel.  Megan wanted both of them to go with us tomorrow for her birthday shopping trip.  Since her two best friends aren't able to go, she decided to just go to a regular mall tomorrow and save Pittsburgh Mills for another time.  I think we're going to go to the Galleria in Johnstown since it is the closest to Ariel's house.