Monday, July 27, 2009

HOT< HOT< HOT!!!!

And HOT again!! It is already 85 out there on the back deck, And the sun just hit it! Whew! Now the weather man is saying that we are going to break historical records for alltime number of days over 90 degrees F. For Western Washington, that is SOMETHING!!! and the hot time has not even hit yet! We usually have a brief hot spell in May, then it rains all of June and then gets nice and dry in July and heats up in August and Sept. But NEVER like this! We have no AC in our houses, because we don't need it! Needless to say we all zone out someplace cool and try to ride this out as comfortably as you can.

We went out to dinner in a restaurant that was in an old victorian home in Coupeville. It was a Thai restaurant. all the windows were painted shut, and the doors were wide open but let me tell you folks, it was HOT in there!! The food was really great, and we will go back, but not until it cools down! It is hard to tell the flavor of your food when you are sweating so much it dilutes your fork before it hits your mouth!

I just came in from finishing painting the back deck. Had to wait for the sun to hit it so it would dry faster, then I painted it, then rushed into the house to wait for it to dry. Sitting here under a fan, drinking an Orange diet soda. As soon as it is dry enough to walk on, I will let the dogs back out for their pottie time, then back in to the house. It is too hot for them out there.

Yesterday I had the BBQ blocking the deck stairs, so Sadie could not get onto it, and she went BALLISTIC!! YAP YAP YAP YAP YAP like there was a threat in the yard. I ran out, and she was barking at the BBQ. I yelled at her to shut up. It is the BBQ!! I MOVED IT! LIVE WITH IT! nope, not having it, so I had to bring her in. It took her two weeks of yapping to get used to the doghouse being in the yard. She is soooo STUPID!

I made sure the bird baths were all full of clean fresh cool water, and now I am going to finish doing some work on the Computer. Then get the Minutes ready for my Board meeting tonight.

WHEW!!!! HOT!!!!!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

oh I shouldn't oughta....

Back when I was a kid, the boys in town were always running around looking for mischief to get into during the summer. Nothing really bad, just tipping a few cows, moving a few out houses, and putting an old VW Bug on top of the high school. You know, fun stuff!

The other day Bob and I were coming home from dinner. We rounded the curve at San de Fuca and noticed that the farmers were cutting and baling the hay. The fields are right up against the water at Penn Cove, separated only by the two lane highway. At the corner where the Highway turns and goes through the trees is a piece of land called Grasser's Hill. The Grasser's used to live there. Their house is long gone now, but the huge apple tree is still there, and the steep hay fields are still un blemished by development. The Ebby Prairie Reserve has designated that area a no-build zone. the hay bales that the farmers are putting out now are big and round like giant lozenges sitting on the fields. They were all over the fields, sitting there drying so they can be covered with white plastic and then look like giant marshmallows.



Bob mentioned that the kids now a days just do not have any imagination. They sit in front of the tv playing their video games or texting on their cell phones, or working on their computers. for three weeks now, those giant hay bales have sat on the steep field with their flat sides facing uphill, just begging for two senior citizens to run up in the dark of night to the very top of the hill, turn them around and roll them down down down the field across the highway and into the water.

GOD!!!! The tempation is sooooooo strong!!! Never let it be said that you lose your sense of fun as you age!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Lazy? Summer?




HA! I have been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger, and our summer went South, I guess, because I Am freezing! Had to turn on my blanket last night. I came home from rehearsal last night, cleaned the kitchen and made another batch of jam so the berries would not rot. One batch did not set correctly, so tonight when I get home I will re-do that batch, and I will be done until Blackberries are ready. Donna always likes blackberry cobbler on her Birthday, so they had better be ripe before then or it is back to angel food cake! Himalayan Blackberries are very invasive here, they are the KUDZU of the Pacific Northwest, they grow up anything they can find! but they put out TONS of berries. You have to wear body armor picking them though, because they are very thorny. And they grow THICK so when you go into the thickets you get wounded. The birds love them too, and when they poop, the berry seeds get scattered, thus the proliferation of the bushes. CatmomaJ has quite a few bushes taking over her yard, so I may have a source there. They grow along every fence line in the fields, but the farmers get nasty when you pick them. Every vacant lot has tons of them too until time to pick and then they are full of people you have never seen in your life! All after the free berries. They are so worth it though.