wild winds

[songbird]

always do when i'm out in the gardens as that holds a towel in place (which soaks up the sweat so it doesn't drip down my glasses and also keeps the sun off my neck).

songbird

[Steve Peek]

Good idea, I'm a "redneck" every summer.

[songbird]

...about the towel and the hat trick...

:) i figured you'd be blue by now with all those berries. how's the season going this year?

songbird

[Steve Peek]

They're running a bit late this year. I've only picked a couple of gallons so far. Darn groundhog has eaten most of my beans and started on the sweet potatoes. Lettuce, spinach and peas are done, starting seeds for the fall c rops. Looks like the garlic is ready to come out and the onions won't be fa r behind. Steve

[bluechick]

Yep. We keep inviting friends and family members to come over to pick blackberries since they're still so plentiful. It has been very hot here but if we can go out and pick 'em they can too. No one has taken us up on our multiple offers. Well, I hope they don't want blackberry jelly this year and I'm not baking any more cobblers. ;)

I have sent lots of berries to a neighbor. He has plenty of his own but isn't able to pick them due to bad health. I just made another batch of jelly and will give him some as well. He has given us some of his excess green beans. We had them last night and they were delish.

[bluechick]

This was the first "cool" day we've had in over a month. We got all of 7/10ths of an inch of rain, too. Wooo! Well, it's better than nothing and it did cool things off a bit. Our heat+humidity has been oppressive. We managed to pick MORE blackberries (heh) and I got the herb bed weeded. Found about a dozen lime or lemon basil plants, self-seeded from last year's plants, hiding behind the rosemary. I may have to move them since their forebears weren't that close to the rosemary last year and the rosemary won't be happy that they're there.

What fun. :/ You don't want to breathe in that stuff.

My husband was on one side of the tomato bed and I was on the other yesterday morning when he flushed out something. I wasn't expecting to go to the garden so was wearing sandals, not proper footwear for gardening (we've seen snakes on the way to the garden so I usually don't take chances). I felt the unknown object, soft and furry, hit the top of my foot. I may have made something that sounded like a girly scream but I admit nothing. Turns out, said unknown soft, furry object was a baby bunny! So, now we have four footed critters in addition to the multi-legged buggy kind. Joy. My husband won't stop teasing me about the fiendish attack bunny.

Well, just down the hill from the garden is our lake but since it's been dry I have put out water there. The anoles that are patrolling the tomatoes won't touch it, preferring to lick moisture off the leaves, but I guess the wascally wabbit will appreciate it. I guess he's afraid to try to make it to the lake. Too many hawks around waiting for something like that.

[songbird]

... the followup continues to be interesting from the tornado as we've learned more and heard more stories.

the two houses that lost their garages were shifted on their foundations and had to be moved back, but it looks like now they are fairly recovered. one already has the new garage put up, the other seems to be just starting work again.

the house out back, which from here looked like it only lost part of the roof, from the other side had extensive damage to the windows and interior. the family there had been just sitting down to dinner and had a 30 second warning. they'd just made it down to the basement and the Dad had just grabbed the dog and was trying to pull the basement door shut when the tornado went by and tried to pull the door open again. a very close call for them. they are temporarily living with friends until the windows and interior walls are replaced. they had a large amount of damage to the wallboards/plastering. at least the roof is now repaired.

the house across the road with the most damage had

2x4inch boards go through the kitchen in two places and they also had pieces of wood go through their garage (hence the blown out garage door). they are getting new siding. by the looks of things they are reusing the bricks for something so i didn't ask if we could reuse the bricks.

the house that had the tree put upon the top is just now starting to be reroofed, they've already fixed the smashed part and the chimney's have been replaced. we were able to scavenge bricks from them (with thanks from the owner as he would have had to pay extra for the overweight tonnage in the roll-on-container).

we had a visit with one of our relatives last week and while we were driving in it looked like a warzone there. after a bit we both said that it looked like a tornado had gone through there, just like our neighbor- hood with all the roll-on-containers, tarped roofs and various trees down or already having been cut up. sure enough one had, but it appeared to be slightly larger as there was much more damage. at the end of his street and around his place, but he had no damage to his house. there wasn't any news of such a storm a few weeks ago in our local news so we never even knew to check on him sooner. as this happened near the city where i was born which always had a lot of tornado activity anyways it made me think again of one of those early memories of staying in the basement while the storms were going by.

songbird