Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[hqueen13]

Smart move! It was NASTY humid here this afternoon, and pretty hot as well. Storm got to stand in his stall cool as a cucumber. I hosed him down an extra time this afternoon, which is getting faster and faster since I keep cutting his hair off

We had a little storm roll through, but it only served to get the rain gauge wet :-/ I think it cooled things off a bit though

 

[Denim Deb]

Tonight was the night my motorcycle groups rode. I had thought of going to the farm from work, and just doing some work at the farm, but decided against that. I wanted a chance to go home, eat some dinner and relax for a bit first. I left the house at shortly after 5:00. I had to get gas, so went there first. Kinda hated to do it that way since the gas station is only about 1/2 a mile from the church, but I wasn't sure I had enough gas to go to the farm and then the gas station. Got the gas and started out to the farm. Didn't get far B4 I started to feel something hitting me. I'm looking for bugs, then realized it was rain! I thought about pulling over and putting on my rain gear, but decided against it. Got to the farm, and the rain stopped. But off in the distance, I could see really dark clouds. Plus I was hearing thunder.

Called hubby and he checked the radar. There were storms in the area, but it didn't look like anything bad. Then he called me back. If I hadn't left early, I wouldn't have been able to go on the ride! He could just barely see the goat pen. There was a lot of thunder and lightening, and we lost our power! I called him right B4 I left on the ride, and the rain STILL hadn't stopped!

On the ride, we went past places that still have trees down from the June 30th super storm. The local state park is still closed. We did go past that and I couldn't believe the damage that I could see from the road. We also went past some stuff that came down from this storm. And in places, I got cold!

By the time I got home, we had power, so I was able to get my shower. Now I'm relaxing and hope to get to bed soon.

 

[Denim Deb]

Doesn't seem possible, but I'm almost done my 3rd week of work. This week, the kids have gotten a few thrills. We saw a great blue heron the other day. Most of them have never seen one. Yesterday, we saw 2 fawns. Today, we saw the great blue at the same spot and another deer. Don't know if this one was a fawn or an adult, I couldn't see it good enough, but I think it was another fawn. And that's good. I know we have coyotes in the park-I've found scat that's too big to be fox, and has too much hair in it to be dog. (Unless it's a wild dog! They can be worse than a coyote any day!)

I was finally able to get a walk in during working hours. And, I saw a whole bunch of wild turkeys. Thought about going out again, but it was too hot out, so I hid inside and got a bunch of copies made for next week. Next week is supposed to be cooler, so I'll be able to hopefully go out then.

For the first time since June, my field is clean. I've been letting Misty and Stormy in the area I seeded for the past 3 weeks. Next week, I'm not letting them. We really need rain, and I don't want them to overgraze it, so I'll let it rest for a week.

I've finally been getting a schedule in place at home. In the morning I do house work. Then I go to the farm, then work, then the farm and back home. Once home, I feed the animals, then if I have clothes on the line, I take them down, then work in the garden. Then I come in, get a shower, eat dinner and relax B4 going to bed. Well tonight, that schedule went out the window. I was working in the garden when I heard them playing my song! The ice cream truck was coming down the street! My street is not very long. If I had walked, I would not have gotten any ice cream, so I actually ran! That's the best I've run since my operation! And I was bad, I got a pineapple sundae. But, I so very rarely buy ice cream from him that I figured I could splurge. And it tasted good.

They're calling for thunderstorms tonight. And I honestly do believe that we're getting them. Reason? The 4-H fair started today, and we normally do get some pretty severe storms on opening night. One year, my DD and I got stuck in the horse barn for hours! The storms moved in so fast that people just barely made it to the barns. Then the power went out. We were camping there, and ended up w/cereal for dinner.

 

[hqueen13]

Wahoo for running!! It will be 3 years post surgery (I think...... I can't really remember!) and I am FINALLY figuring out how to run again. I can't do much, and I found out the hard way the other day that I shouldn't try to all out sprint, but I can kinda jog for a stupidly short distance
Yay for treats!!!

 

[Denim Deb]

I checked the radar. And, if it was right, the 4-H fair got socked and so did the farm. All it did here was spit a bit.

 

[Denim Deb]

It doesn't seem possible that it's almost the end of July! 3 weeks of my job are done-and I'm not sure I'm looking forward to next week. We're going to have 23 kids. It's not bad having that many kids inside, but when we go outside, it can be hard to keep them all together and out of trouble.

I almost have my garden to where I can plant some corn and beans. They'll be late, and there's some I won't be able to grow, but at least I'll be able to get something out of my garden. It was just too hot when I planted my tomatoes, and I did lose some-plus I had a cut worm. The thing I have the most of is pumpkins and don't ask me what kind. They're volunteers. And they look to be a pretty good size. I've never heard of poisonous pumpkins, so I'm assuming they're OK to eat. I also have at least 1 gourd coming up. Not sure what I'll do w/them.

I'm missing the old pool I used to have up. I'm going to have to set something else up. When I had that up, it was full of dragonfly larvae. And I had plenty of adult dragonflies flying around. It was rare to see a mosquito. Now I'm getting eaten up. So, in the not to distant future, I'm putting something else up. I'm tired of getting bit!

ETA: Oh, we did get some rain here last night after all. So, I didn't have to water the garden, and the farm got a good watering!

 

[moolie]

Yay rain!

Tons of recipes out there for pumpkin: bread/loaf, lasagne, soup, pie, really anything that calls for any kind of winter squash

 

[Denim Deb]

Seems weird to be sitting here on the computer at this time of day. I feel like I should be frantically rushing around trying to get stuff done B4 I leave for work! Afternoons at work are the worst right now. It's been too hot to do much outside, and I'm not used to being inside for that long a period of time. But, next week will be cooler. Monday and Friday are only days I plan on staying in and that's only because the Sr. naturalist won't be there. Normally on Monday I give the place a good cleaning and on Friday I get ready for the following week. I already have figured out what I'm doing the other days.

Tuesday-we're doing a stream walk on Wednesday, so I'm going to check out the stream ahead of time to be sure there's no broken glass, fish hooks, etc in the stream.

Wednesday-we taking the kids kaynoeing on Thursday. The water level is way down, so I'm going to go and check how we normally take the kids to make sure there's enough water to get thru it!

Thursday-I'm going out in the canoe again to go and check out the part of the park on the other side of the lake. I'm supposed to do a project that will be educational for visitors, so I'm doing something to let people know what kinds of trees are in the park, what they look like, where they can find them, and why they're important to the wildlife in the park. I am a bit rusty on a few species, so I do have to brush up on my knowledge of them. I'm looking at some of the oaks and trying to remember which of the several oaks we have in the area that they are. I am adding one plant that's not a tree since it does grow in the trees and is important for people to be able to recognize-poison ivy!

Another reason I want to get out in the canoe is because of the eagles. We saw one again yesterday. The kids kind of surprised me. They weren't as interested in that as they had been in the heron. You see herons more often than eagles, so I dunno. I'm wanting to look for a nest. If I found one, my project would get changed in a hurry!

 

[hqueen13]

Yay rain!!

Enjoy your day off!

 

[Denim Deb]

I am! I went to the 4H fair, and took a pic for Pinky. I'll be posting it later. Stormy got his 2nd feeding early. It's just too hot out there to go back out, so I fed, went to the fair, and came back. I know I posted in the Bible study thread about some horses that got spooked at the fair and were missing by 18 hours. Found out today that while the horses are fine for the most part, they're both lame and couldn't be used in the fair. And while there are other horses the kids can use, I know for them it's not the same. I feel bad for them.