Day Sixty Six...

Okay, we are back to cows and other things of interest around the farm. I got up at about 5AM this morning, and it was 66 degrees outside. So much for sweat pants and jackets for the duration. I will see them again next fall most likely. It is still windy, really windy again, and it has been cloudy all day. I went out this morning and put up a solar clothes dryer in the yard. It is not as tall as I expected it would be, but it will be great for hanging clothes out to dry. PLUS, we have the added advantage that it plays tunes when the wind blows. The wind causes the tubes and lines to whistle, and that is not unpleasant at all. I also did a little bit of weeding in the flower beds this morning, and I am admitting defeat on that one. I put in a call to the guy the previous owners used to do gardening work, and he is supposed to be here on Tuesday morning to give us a bid for getting the beds cleaned up and ready for the season. I am not at all interested in working every weekend to keep the beds free from weeds and stuff. I think if we have someone come in and do it twice a year, that should work out really well.

Later this morning, we went into Georgetown and stopped at Home Depot and Target and then a quick stop at HEB. At Home Depot, we got an extra garage door opener for the truck, a key pad for the garage to put on the door outside the garage, and some wood to make a raised garden for vegetables (a sheet of plywood and 2 x 8's for the edges. We already have some sawhorses for it to sit on, and Jody is going to have some spinach and stuff like that growing. We are still eating asparagus from out by the garage, and we also filled two pots with strawberries, so maybe we will have some fresh fruit. We also have at least one peach tree blooming out be the road, so maybe we will have some fresh peaches, too. Jody also thinks there are two plum trees blooming out in the back, so we shall see what develops (or what produces).

It has looked like rain all day, and there are forecasts from all the stations for rain, maybe tomorrow and through next week. The chances are not really all that high, but we will take anything we can get. We are officially in a severe drought, and so anytime now we should get about 40 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. This are gets about the same annual rain fall is Seattle, we just get all our rain in one or two days a year.

We are going to dinner tonight at Soup 'r Salad, where we went a couple weeks ago. I am going to try my best not to fill up totally on salad. The have what also looks like a pretty decent baked potato bar, and some decent soups and pizza. This particular store is much nicer that the ones on Austin, so we are going to try it again. We also found a Catfish Cabin in Georgetown, and I think we will try that one day soon.

We went out to take a look at the cattle this afternoon, and the calf was sleeping, and of course I had to go make sure he was breathing. I am just an old nervous person, but he is breathing, and all is well with that. It was much easier moving the cattle to the other pasture yesterday, and they were happy to be on the other side. Hopefully we will get some rain, and that will help with the grass and grazing for the cattle. Also, I suspect we will have two more calfs (should that be calves?) before the end of the summer. I will keep you in the loop on those developments.

We are having friends over for lunch tomorrow, so that means I have to vacuum before they get here. I was intending to vacuum anyway, since it is really too long between the times the housekeeper gets here. We now have one shedding dog and two cats, at least one of which sheds up a storm.

When I get up from here, I am going to start setting the clocks forward. Don't forget, daylight savings time starts at 2AM on Sunday morning. Set those clocks forward before you go to bed tonight, and change the batteries in your smoke detectors.

That can be your good deed for the day. Give your neighbor a call, and see if they need some help changing the batteries in their smoke detectors. It could be the best thing you have done today!