Did you know there are self-peeling bananas?

Who knew? 

 

Garden status

Many, much tomatoes. Come on over and get some- we have bajillions so help yourselves!

Marigolds and borage, both of which came up on their own. I planted marigolds but nobody came up where I put them!

Pretty sure this is a baby spaghetti squash. That's what I'm hoping!

It's been really hot and dry this week, but that's all to change. It must be perfect tomato weather- some good soakings followed by time to dry out. They're going crazy.

One of the spaghetti squash mounds. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

In progress

As usual, my photos loaded out of order, so feel free to mentally shuffle them. This is our small shed, which houses extra wood, our gardening Stuff, the tractor, assorted wasps, carpenter bees, and mice. It's needed a new roof for awhile, and while it may take us awhile to figure out how to install the metal roofing we have waiting to go on it, we had to take care of the old stuff. First things first. 

The bucket on the tractor works well for yeeting all the old shingles into, plus serves as a handy ladder to the first level of roof. I mean, uh, no, Mother, we weren't climbing up and down the tractor. What's that over there? Butterfly!

Generally, our back to school days lead to crazy weather. Extreme heat, high heat indexes, storms, fog, you name it. It's holding true this year, too; public school, which was slated to begin today, declared they'd wait until next Monday to start because we were/are to have around 6 days of 90+ degrees and most of the buildings don't have air conditioning. Due to safety concerns, they are unable to air the buildings out overnight, therefore the start date gets pushed back into more reasonable weather of 80's. We hope.

So we work on the shed roof. Haha! We took plenty of breaks in the shade and had our water and gatorade. The main aim was to remove the old shingles, replace whatever plywood needed replaced, and then get the watertight seal paper over it all. Dada and Liam finished that yesterday, and good thing, because around 3:45 this morning Honey let us know it was storming!

Everyone enjoys sweating like a pig and being covered in plywood dust, right? 

The garden doesn't look quite so bad from this angle, haha. Pay no attention to our strawberry patch in the foreground which has been completely usurped by weeds and small trees. It hasn't produced well for the last few years; we gave up on it completely this time around. We plan to clear it out and start over with fresh plants. The cherry tree in the far right also isn't doing well, but continues to hang in there. Two of our apple trees also look absolutely dreadful. Everything has its season, but it hurts my Hobbit/Wood Elf heart to see trees failing.

Li-am in the skyyyyy with shiiiiiingles... oh well. I tried.

Fun to have a different perspective. Still not enough to turn me into a fan of the high dive, haha.

“It’s only a flesh wound…”

I have no idea how this happened as I used zero filters or anything, but Liam snarked, “just a construction accident; nothing to see here.” Please leave jobs like these to the professionals.

 

How’s your summer going?

 We’ve had, like many of you, a series of storms pass through this week, which doesn’t bode well for me getting sleep. This isn’t a pity post, it’s just a “oh, that’s why she is making less sense than usual,” notification. 

I happen to love storms and especially love listening to them. They remind me of camp, both as a camper on Lake Erie and as a counselor in the hills and forests surrounding the Allegheny River. Something so comforting about hearing the storms roll down the river, thunder kabooming over your adirondack, branches blowing in the wind, rain dripping off the leaves. I love it all.

However, our Great Pyrenees does not. Not even one little bit. She starts panting and drooling all over the floor as she paces, so it’s slippery inside and nobody wants to be barefoot to then step in a puddle of drool. She also won’t eat, which then calls for vigilance on our part to make sure that Bosley, who will eat anything, doesn’t mosey over to eat her food. That tends to not go over well. Think siblings with only one last candy bar. 

“That’s mine and you know it! Give it back!”

“Then you should have eaten it, shouldn’t you?!”

“I said ‘give it back!’”

“Finders keepers, losers weepers!”

*fisticuffs ensues*

“Mooooommm!”

“I’m going to clobber you both!”

Anyway. 

The rescue from which we got her claimed she was crate trained. She was for the first two weeks, before she started dismantling and sneaking out of it, sometimes becoming stuck to the point I thought she was going to cause internal damage to herself. Therefore, we gave up on the crate, call her Honey Houdini, and just try to barricade her out of the kitchen as best we can during storms. We’re getting good with arranging baby gates, chairs, and random pieces of furniture, which she is becoming adept at removing from her desired location through sheer brute force, dedication, and persistence. I also try to remember to close all the curtains before bed and leave a few lights on to minimize the scariness of the lightning, and leave Pandora on to help cover the thunder. Maybe it all helps a little, but I can hear her butting into the baby gate from upstairs along with other, sneakier sounds, so I usually end up downstairs on the couch to keep a closer ear on her. She's been known to get into drawers, boxes, bags, (haha, "packages, boxes and bags") and I'd rather head it all off at the pass than have to clean up after the fact.

This morning she got herself into Bosley’s crate.. he weighs around 45 pounds and she’s around 100. He was not pleased. Dada said to just shut the door, to which I reminded him that, while I was tempted, she would just destroy his kennel and then we’d be left with none and they’d both be loose. Neither of them can be trusted farther than you could throw them, so thanks but no thanks. Somehow she managed to turn herself around and got back out, but it was photo worthy anyway for your entertainment:

We've not had an opportunity to see the Perseid meteor shower yet because of the rain, but we've had some breaks in the weather with beautiful skies. 

I had just told Dada yesterday that I'd planted some additional, different morning glory seeds this year because we have bajillions of purple ones annually and I wanted some new friends to smile at, and I was lamenting that none of them had come up. I have an almost solid wall of them in the garden behind the garage and they are lovely. 

Then first thing this morning, I spotted this guy! YAY!!

I didn't get a good shot of it, but the clouds and rain were so cool the other day in different sections of the sky.

As most of you know, Dada and I have this ongoing argument over what is a flower versus what is a weed. To my consternation, these cheerful blue roadside flowers are called "Blue Weed." Figures. I love how they contrast with whatever the vibrant yellow flowers are and against the deep soybean green, which is one of my very favorite greens. This picture doesn't do the Blue Weed justice.

Summer smorgasbord

I guess this qualifies as late summer, sad as it makes me to type that. It was an incredibly more normal summer than 2020, for sure. We did our usual haunts like our favorite ice cream parlors and the Outer Banks, as well as trying new things like making the baseball team, ordering from the flower fundraiser, and coping with Dada's affinity for auctions and estate sales. *insert coughing fit here* 

Soon it will be time for more new things like sixth and tenth grade, and for the new graduate, not getting up while it's dark to take the bus to school. But in the meantime we intend to enjoy the deck, the garden, hopefully the city pool, and more ice cream while squeezing every possible drop out of summer.

Here are some samplings from this summer.

Damon, which when spelled backwards reads "nomad", holds true to his name as he roams the house in search of the perfect sleeping spot. I never know where I'll find that kid when I make it downstairs in the morning. This time it was quite the nest on our red couch.

School supply lists and related emails are appearing in our inboxes. But back to summer...

I found a small friend who I mistook for a leaf until I noticed his feet. Apparently he's an owlet moth, and he makes me smile. I hope to see more of him and his friends now that I know not every "leaf" is a leaf!

We did our usual "let's go to the fair so we can eat our way through it" evening. I have no illusions. Damon wants the rides, the adults want the food, Liam just wants to be home with whatever book he's immersed in, and the firstborn declined. So we had the hamburgers and the milkshakes and the corn on the cob and the elephant ears and the cotton candy. And we giggled at the baby animals and admired the art and the projects and we people watched. We do it up right. Damon ran into four friends- half from school and half from baseball. Wasn't blisteringly hot, wasn't too windy, wasn't too cold when it got dark, and a special shout out to Liam who bravely got into a Dizzy Dog ride with Damon when neither of us parents would. Dada doesn't do circles, ever, and I rode a Dizzy Dog with him the last time we went. No thank you to a repeat performance. Nice of Liam to take one for the team. Yech.

The buckeye tree seems to be under the impression that it's fall, or perhaps Christmas, and while I'd like to discourage that, I did have to grab a quick picture of it looking lovely. Now cut it out.

And yes, karate is still happening for the firstborn. They hosted their first "normal" graduation this weekend since February of 2020, which meant quite a few of the students had never been to one before at the theater. I'm glad it's been such a family, and as such, there's the usual Shenanigans:

How about you? What are you craving before fall? Where do you want to go before the cold settles in? Who do you want to reconnect with and what do you want to eat before places close for the season? 

Also, anyone need tomatoes? Come on over!

 

First summer of baseball

 I've mentioned that this summer was the Damonator's first summer playing baseball. He was in the peewee league and was one of the oldest kids on his team thanks to his June birthday ("will they kick me out when I turn 11? Will I have to switch leagues in the middle of the summer?"), but was also one of the greenest in terms of freshness. 

I can't say enough positive things about how hard the kids worked and how quickly they improved, how encouraging the coaches and parents were, how much fun we had as fans cheering on a bunch of 9-11 year old boys, and how empty summer seems now without practice or games. Our kiddos went 11-2 and won their championship game as well. All of the boys were encouraging to each other and I think that's a testament to the examples set by their parents and the volunteer coaches. I didn't hear anybody being obnoxious in the dugout or in the bleachers or on the field. It was refreshing and unbelievably fun.  

That's our kid on second base. He played shortstop when it was his turn in the field and sometimes played catcher. Unfortunately, my taken-through-the-fence photos are garbage, so I'll spare you.

This was at the championship game:

Such a great experience. He was thrilled that his phys ed teacher came to some of the games, and his gifted teacher coordinated a bunch of his classmates to come to the game played on his birthday. They were there bright and early for the 9 AM game to cheer him on!

Our guys won, so there were victory popsicles, haha!

Go team! Looking forward to next year!

Should've given him Wheaties

 These People never cease to amaze me. We're having breakfast and a certain someone is complaining, loudly, about not being able to finish his waffle because it's soggy, he's full, it's ewwy and bleah and he's not feeling it.

Someone else mentioned, "dude, I've eaten them RAW before."

"No, you haven't."

"Yeah, I actually have. And THEY were soggy because of the syrup and all of the ice melting."

"What else did you do? Oh, the orange juice in your cereal."

"Oh yeah! I did that, too."

Clearly I'm running a five-star restaurant over here...