Backyard Thistle

We can officially say we are in summer in Summer Lake. Last weeks thunder and lightning have turned into not a cloud in the sky and hot hot hot! Yipee, it has begun and I have a sunburn to prove it! (ouch)

I have had the good fortune to not have to go into work the past few days. Mini vacation! Actually, Josh is on a solo project at work and there is no way for me to help. He has taken on the monumental task of removing the blow in insulation from the old homestead building at the Inn. This is now day five… He is wearing a mask and using a big sucker machine that goes slow, but today is the final sucking then to the dump. His contraption is ingenious. He put up large sheets of plywood with braces on both the truck and the trailer (both have dump features) then plastic to contain the fluff that could get out and has attached a pipe to the tube running from the sucking machine to send all of the debris shooting into either the truck or the trailer. He comes home really dirty but in surprisingly great spirits!

This thistle is growing wild in the backyard. It is really pretty but mostly likely not soft! I remember when I was a kid I spent 17 days at my aunt Ronda and uncle Jim’s house in Northport. My cousin Jessica and I would take off to the hills with kitchen knives and have battles in the fields with the hundreds of thistles that grew there. I don’t plan on going to battle with these cuties but I remember that at the time it was a lot of fun. Funny the things we do as kids.

The chickes are doing good at making us two eggs every day. They have figured out our bedroom window and they come around in the early morning a squawk for their breakfast. Good girls.

The garden is doing really well. We got the grass seeds in before the rain and now we are about ready to find a mini mower. It is the tiniest little yard ever! We planted carrots and cucumbers from seed a couple of days ago. We have 13 established tomato plants, three leeks, one bean, three squash and one not so good looking basil. All of the sunflowers are almost over three feet tall with some pushing four. We transplanted some wild grass from the field, most of which has begun to established itself. My friend Jan gave us mint, comphry, fennel and some oregano all of which also enjoyed landing in our secret garden. The yard looks like my Mom’s so I know we are on the right track. I would like to get some rocks to go around the beds to help contain water and to make it look even cuter!

Cherry truck is at the mechanic. We are really doing it up this time. The original stutter is still there, so we are looking into that getting fixed once and for all plus we are getting all sorts of underside work done and some new burly desert tires from les shwabies. Lots of $ and attention so she’ll run like a dream. We haven’t been able to drive around and adventure like we have wanted because she has been in pretty rough shape. But soon, oh the back country off road driving we will do! Our friends at work have lent us his Grandma’s car until Cherry comes home, very generous of them.