Tuesday Twitterdeedee

Soggy! Only way to describe this morning after a night of heavy rain.  Parts of my manure-pile garden have turned into little lakes.  

A wind blew also, leaving limbs and leaves around the newly mown yard.  When I walked to the hay field from putting horses in the pasture,  I spotted several heavy waves of hay lying different directions.  I hope the hay will stand up again.

The rain has settled down for a while, but this morning's sky still looks pretty ominous.  And, we'll be back in the 30s tonight.  

I knew how to bring the temperatures down; transplanted my cukes on Sunday. That will do it every time.  With luck, the warm soil in the manure-pile plot will protect the plants.

Overnight while the sky was rip roaring, a raccoon discovered the Folgers coffee can, filled with doggie biscuits next to the dog run gate.  

We figured it was a raccoon cuz it had to take the top off the can to get all those biscuits and rip apart that plastic bag. 

Guess the biscuit can will go INSIDE the dog run from now on.  

Do raccoons climb six-foot-high fences?

Having finally mowed the lawn in its entirety all at once for the first time this year, I now have some extra time to work on other projects today. 

One may involve moving the small, transportable dog run into the large fixed run.  It will serve as a shelter, once some tarps attached.  

I might also continue with the job Bill has begun in the barn.  He's removed most of the rotted boards from one stall floor.

We found a pleasant surprise too.   We can actually do the finished product ourselves, since there's soil and rock just below the boards.  

Once the floor and support beams are removed, we'll just bring in loads of three-quarter minus gravel  and fill it up to the level where the boards were.  

Then, we'll put the rubber mats on top, and the stall surfaces should work pretty much forever.  

Nice to know that it's a project we can do ourselves and that the only cost will be the gravel.

Today could also be a good time for pulling more tall grass from flower beds, and, believe me, that project alone could keep me busy all day. 

I'm noticing that the Love Canal lupine show is starting---about two weeks earlier than last year.  It's hard to tell if it's going to be as spectacular as last year. 

I'll post a photo, taken last June 25, to provide an idea of just how pretty the lupine should be once it reaches its peak. 

Every year I keep scattering more seed down the canal banks in anticipation of the day  when the entire stretch comes alive with all those beautiful colors. 

I've finally reached a point where urgent work of late spring is giving way to the fun part of maintaining the beauty and working on improvement projects.

Having pretty much completed the two writing assignments,  nagging me for the past couple of months, I'm figuring those will wrap up my life of deadlines.  

Writing is fun.  Deadlines are not. I've discovered over the past several months that life is so much more fun without deadlines.  

So, I can finally write for fun and leave the deadlines for someone else.  

Mighty good feeling.  

Oh, speaking of fun writing, my daughter left a comment about yesterday's SQUATCHIN' topic.  She's a believer too.  

As I said, every group of believers needs a skeptic, and I'm happy to fill that role for our family.  Still, it's fun to listen to their theories and plans for going out squatchin.  

Happy Tuesday.