#148 Here come the thunderheads!

It is going to be 94° today with possible thunderstorms. Yesterday afternoon, the clouds arrived. They kept growing and growing and stacking up towards the west. This morning, there isn't a cloud in the sky.

#147 Okay...the real story

Okay, I'll come clean...when I said Jack kept giving me "excuses" as to why he couldn't start up the rototiller, it really wasn't excuses. He is honestly too busy, (except for today, he's going fishing!) This is how his ONE project is coming along. It's a new entry gate to the drive up to our house. It's going to be pretty snappy and high tech!

#146 To the Barns

This is my horse "barn" or stalls and tack room. Dessie is awaiting her treat.
This is our big "barn" which is really Jack's wood working shop and an apartment we built and lived in while we built our home. These wild poppies were planted about 18 years ago.

This is Buckshot. Our little pond is behind him; enlarge the photo and you can see it behind the telephone pole. The pasture is about 6 acres. Nice size; now if it only had grass growing instead of noxious weeds.

And this is sweet Dessie. Both horses have wonderful ground manners. I can't ride her because her feet cause her a lot of pain.

#145 No Garden This Year

I give up! I've asked Jack so many times to fire up the rototiller so I could get the garden tilled but he has had so many excuses. One day, he got it running and I was all excited, then he wouldn't let me run it. In the 18 years we've lived here, I have only once been "allowed" to use the rototiller.
So this is the state our garden is in. He won't hook up the watering system so I've been watering the strawberries and tayberries by hand before I go to work each day. Why, I don't know because they will be in full swing when we leave for Mexico.

...................................Here are the tayberries........poor things.

..............The clover and weeds do better than the berries.

The rubber snakes are to keep the birds out of the berries. The only thing they consistently scare is ME! Every single time I focus on one of them, I jump and let out a yelp!
Can you tell I'm in a grumpy mood? I just wanted a place to grow my flowers, some lettuce and some tomatoes. I have the "place".....I guess I wanted too much in addition to that...like the water and the tilling. I would even use a shovel to turn it all over, but without water while we are away, there isn't any sense to putting in the labor. (sigh)

'guess I'll have to go visit Amy and help her pull weeds and can beans!

#144 Faked me out...

This geranium leaf faked me out. I thought it had bloomed and I ran and grabbed my camera to document another flower the deer had NOT eaten yet. To my surprise, it was a backlit leaf.
(My camera refused to focus on the front leaf so I took the photo anyway.)

#143 Where have all the subscribers gone?

Less than two years ago, these were full every morning when I passed by. No longer.

#142 The "Village"

Down town Shady Cove, looking north in the first two and south in the last one. Population about 2,500. 3 motels, 3 gas stations, 2 markets (1 like a 7-11, the other with 7-11 prices!), 2 taverns, 2 car washes, 2 laundromats, too many raft rentals to count, 1 movie rental, 2 pizza places, 1 Mexican restaurant, 1 fancy restaurant, 1 Subway inside a gas station, 1 deli inside a fishing shop, 2 unidentifiable food restaurants with varied hours, 1 library open 3 half-days a week, 2 medical clinics, 1 dentist, 1 coffee drive-in, many thrift shops, 3 auto mechanics, 2 gift/floral/flower places, 1 chiropractor, 3 beauty salons, 1 fitness place (tiny), 1 quilt shop, tons of little gift shops and 0 traffic lights and 0 cross walks. I'm missing a ton of tiny businesses, but hey, they change so frequently, it's hard to keep up with all of them.

It's a small town. We moved here with a population of 1,000 so we've seen a lot of changes.