August Already!

I cannot believe it's been a month and a half since I last posted! We have been busy, busy, busy, though. The house is coming along, the garden is coming along, complications arise and are ironed out, dealt with, or worked around.

Grandmother accused me (probably more than once) of telling everything I know, but some things I will wait to report to the Whole Wide World until the fat lady sings, as they say. In some cases, for similar reasons a pitcher doesn't talk about a no-hitter-in-progress, in other cases - ah - more along the lines of the fifth amendment.

Here's what I can tell you.

It's August and, Baby, it's HOT. I checked the weather earlier this week and the five day forecast said Sunny and Hundred degree high temps for each day of the forecast.

The masons, Tom and his son Tommy, have built us a beautiful chimney (pictures later).

The garden is exploding, along with the population of cowpea aphids (accursed vermin!) and some creepy black bugs with pointed butts and orange or red markings that make them look scary that are eating my tomato leaves, beet greens and swiss chard leaves down to the ribs. I thought they were blister bugs, but they might be something else. I despise the ugly things, though, and smash them every chance I get.

Progress continues on our house. Steve has accomplished an unbelievable amount of work almost entirely by himself, but we are far from done. Plans are in the works to get him some help so we can get enclosed before cold weather arrives in Central Oklahoma. Yes, all my northern friends, I know - after having lived seven years in central New York, "cold" is a relative term, but something resembling winter will visit us in a few months and we need to be ready, so we are working on getting some help and a way to pay them.

My online venues' hearts are still beating, but their pulses are a little weaker than I prefer. The host for my main store, EightSusquehanna.com, migrated to a new server, which will be great once I learn all the new tricks. I think everyone can find it okay, but some things behind the scenes have changed, so I have more things to learn. My eBay store sells well enough that my inventory there is getting pretty skinny. I hope to make a couple days in the near future to evaluate and restock both inventories.

We brought the cats, Muffin and Cookie, out here a couple weeks ago and both their countenances improved immediately. Seems like they remember the place and are happy to be here. They spend their days who-knows-where and materialize at the sound of my voice in conversation or at the far end of the garden where the Catnip grows, or at dusk when we feed and retire for the night. The Mighty Muffin has become our Brave Protector, warding off would-be trespassers of the feline persuasion. What a guy, that Muffin!

Unfortunately, before he came out here we were graced by the darting presence of a painfully skinny, pregnant, half-grown kitty. Believing her to be the last of the strays the former tenant left behind, I attempted to seduce her into captivity with the idea of turning her over to Animal Control. A smart one, she was, and would not be tricked into any box or cage. She finally allowed herself to be petted if one had food and I took the opportunity to pick her up. Big mistake. She turned into a little tornado of a cat, all claws and teeth. She had her teeth in the heel of my left hand when I dropped her into a pet carrier, much less graciously than I had intended. Now we await the results of rabies testing. Kids, when your parents and teachers say, "Never touch a wild animal or any animal you don't know," they are not kidding, so pay attention.

What else? I go into town about every other day and wash the laundry and bring it back out here to the place and hang it on the line. In this heat it dries almost before I'm done hanging it! It's a practical and somewhat romantic throwback to my youth when it was common to see clothes hanging on a line to dry. I'm having the time of my life.

I'm learning about the plants that grow here, and about the symbiosis and pattern of life here. For instance, we have many plants here whose presence is indicative of acid soil. We had blossom end rot in some (but not all) of our tomatoes, which is indicative of low calcium in the soil, which is another symptom of acid soil. But we have "high" levels of calcium in our well water - so what happens is that the acid soil causes the calcium to wash out of the soil and into the water table. I figured that out all by myself.

Some mornings before light we can look outside and see deer in the yard. In the dark of dawn or dusk we are likely to see rabbits, who are probably the little dickenses who are eating my tomatoes before I get to them.

Priorities have not yet lent themselves to figuring out how to get television out here since all the stations have now gone digital, but we sure do get that Sirius Radio signal! We like the Deep Tracks station (Sirius 16) quite a bit. Jethro Tull, Little Feat, Leon Russell, to name only three of hundreds. It's great!

This has been something of a stream-of-consciousness post. The longer I sit at the keyboard, the more things I think of to tell you, but we'll leave some for next time. This post is long enough. Thanks for reading!