Beating the Heat

Hope you're staying safe and finding ways to beat the heat. The hot weather has me thinking about what we did during the hot summers when I was growing up. The only air conditioner we had in the house was a window unit in my parent's bedroom, and it was only run at night for them to sleep. I can remember days in front of the fan and visiting the few stores in town that had AC for some relief. The favorite was the Factory Outlet, which was the outlet for the local sweater factory. Always a bargain to be had there, but you had to inspect the merchandise carefully to see if you could live with the defect. 

The movie theater was also air conditioned, so a movie was a real treat for several reasons in the summer. They only played B movies and I saw a lot of old Disney and Elvis Presley movies there.  It cost a quarter for kids at that point in time, so all four of us could go for only a dollar. We lived in town, and were able to walk to all of these places. That way we didn't have to depend on our parents for a ride. That gave us more flexibility which we appreciated.

We also went swimming at the city pool. My father would do electrical work for them at the beginning of the season which would earn us a season pass. The pool was a mixed blessing. This was back in the days before sunscreen, so we four, fair-skinned sisters, had more sunburns than we liked. And when we got one, we had to wear a T-shirt over our swimsuits until it healed. I didn't like the T-shirts, but those were the rules. Also, my mother would give us 2 hours from the time we left home until we got back. It was a 15 minute walk each way, so that gave us an hour and a half there. Not nearly as much time as the popular kids got, but was probably smart considering the sun. And, of course, we went no where if our work list wasn't completed.

Back to the here and now. Most, if not all places, I go have AC, including our house. I am very thankful for that. To beat the heat, I've been working in the yard during the early morning and late evening when it's not quite so hot.  Despite the hot weather, there are still things thriving and here are a few of them.

Day lily

Bachelor buttons

Marigold

House wrens just before they fledged. The nest was crowed with 7 in there. The nest wasn't empty for long. As of yesterday, there were 3 more eggs in it.

Dianthus

Day lily

Cloudy sunset

Rising full moon

This and That

Ward built new flower boxes for the porch. He put rails on the bottom so they can't fall off the railing.

 

We're keeping busy here with nothing special--just the daily happenings of every day life. 

Work has been very busy. People are finally allowed back in the library and they are coming in droves. Well, maybe not droves, but enough to keep us hopping. It can be frazzling at times, but it gives me more opportunity to learn new things. And speaking of books, my entire book club is going to meet in person here next month. It's the first time that we've all been together in over a year because we've been meeting virtually. 

Also, we continue to work on plans for a kitchen remodel. It's a very long process. Right now, we're tweaking the final layout and looking at tiles, countertops, etc. We have been shopping on and off for several months for appliances, and hopefully, are going to purchase those during the current 4th of July sale. If you want to coordinate the look of your appliances, you need to buy the same brand. However, no one brand has a great product across the line. One has a very good dishwasher, but the range has problems. Another has a good dishwasher, but the fridge is awkward to use, and so on.  This had made the decision making process more complicated than I like. Oh, well. It may take several months for the appliances to come in, but that's okay, because it will be many months before our cabinets are built. The plan now is to just accumulate stuff in our basement and when most of it is here, the contractor will start work. There's no way to coordinate all of the materials at this point because of the supply problems that still exist due to COVID. Maybe the price of lumber will be down by the time they start construction. 

A sampling of a harvest one day. For the first time, I dried the carrots tops to be used like parsley.

The garden is doing okay. We're done with radishes and peas now and about done with broccoli and cabbage. The weather is getting too warm for them, not to mention the worms that are devouring them. There's only a little lettuce left because it's too hot for it, also.  We got enough cherries from our tree for a pie, but that's all. However, that's more than last year when we didn't get any before a mold infected them. We also have green tomatoes and blossoms on the, peppers, cucumbers and zucchini. The onions are growing slowly and there are a few more beets and carrots to be harvested. Our garden beds are a drop in an bucket compared to what I grew up with, but they keep us entertained with the added benefit of fresh vegetables.

If I ever want to get this posted, I should stop now. So I will. Until next time...

Happy Father's Day

 Ward is a great father, so I thought I would interview him this Father's Day to get his perspective on on the important job of parenting.  I didn't time things very well and waited until he was in the middle of a work project to talk to him. Oops! I very kindly thank him for the time he was able to give me during my interruption.

Tell me about being a father. 

Newborn Wally. This is when the doubts began.

It's spending your life not being sure what you are supposed to do. How much do I help my kids? How much do I protect them? How much do I give them? How much do I let them fail to learn? Even now that Wally and Theo are adults, I still worry about those things.

As you mentioned Wally and Theo are adults now. What do you see when you look at them?
I see responsible, kind people who can hold an intelligent conversation and who know how to handle disappointment. Also, I see good drivers and I am thankful that all of that stressful time of teaching them how to drive seems to have paid off.

Even though you were unsure of what you were doing, you have successfully raised two boys to adulthood. What advice do you have for new dads? 
I'm not sure. I still don't know if I have parenting figured out. But I'll give it a try. Educate yourself, but also use your common sense. Spend time with you kids and let them learn from your examples.

But here's something that Wally said the other day that may be the real key to successful parenting. He said that the best thing we did as parents was to keep trying. We'd try one thing to solve a problem and it wouldn't work. And then we'd try something else and it wouldn't work. We'd try another thing and it wouldn't work either. But finally we'd try something and it would work! He is very grateful the many times we didn't give up when it would have been a lot easier. So for new dads, I'd say, just keep trying.

Thanks. Next time I'll make an appointment and we'll have another conservation about some of the details of raising Wally and Theo.

Cicadas

The cicadas are 1.5"-2" long and have distinctive red eyes.

 I don't know about the rest of the country, but we've been talking about cicadas here in the east for several months now. May saw the emergence of Brood X cicadas that have been biding their time underground for the last 17 years. There are over 3000 species of cicadas around the world, but only 7 of these are periodic cicadas, most emerging after 13 or 17 years underground. They appear for a couple of months in great numbers, mate, lay eggs, and the larvae burrow back underground for a very slow development to the next stage. They have no defense mechanism, so the large numbers assure their continuance. 

Holes where they emerged from the ground. I was at a picnic recently where a 3 year old was entertained by stuffing cicadas and their shells back into the holes. Her younger brother, spent a fair amount of time just walking around and poking his finger in the holes.

And what is it like when they are out and about? First, the sounds that the males make for mating purposes are deafening. The noise can be as loud as 100 decibels, which is equivalent to a low flying plane or a lawn mower starting. The din makes conversations outside difficult and causes ringing in the ears. However, luckily, they usually quiet down at night or on a cool day. They can be everywhere--on the ground, on the fence, up your pants leg, on a tree, down your shirt. The good news is that they don't bite or sting and only do minor damage to trees when the females lay their eggs under the bark of small branches or twigs. However, they have been known to kill a small tree.

The larva emerge from the ground and molt to expose wings.

And while they are all over the area in Mid Atlantic and up the East Coast, they are not ubiquitous. We have not seen any at our house unless you count the wings we find in our yard--presumably carried there by birds. However, a few miles away at Aunt Martha's house, they are out in full force and they have totally surrounded Wally's apartment.

While I don't have cicadas at my house this year, I have shells everywhere from an earlier invasion. It happened before we moved in and I'm not sure when that was. Notice the strong front digging claws.

The cicada invasion is dying down and they should be pretty much gone in a few weeks. Wally commented a couple of days ago, that the noise had died down enough that he could hear birds again. Soon restaurants will stop featuring them on their menus, I guess. By the way, I'm told that you shouldn't eat them if you're allergic to shell fish and they taste like shrimp. I wouldn't know and I don't plan to find out. :)

Thankful Sunday, June 13, 2021

 I am thankful for good service people. 

As you know, we lost a tree during a storm a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, through a recommendation of a neighbor (who also lost a tree at the same time), we hired a local tree service to remove the tree. They were prompt, efficient, and fairly priced. We will definitely use them again. So for a great tree guy to add to my list of service people,  I am thankful.

Here's what the tree work looked like.

The storm took down half of the tree and the rest of it was not long for this world, so we had the whole thing removed.

Tree Guy had his two sons helping him. First they cleaned up the fallen branches and chipped all of the debris with a large chipper.

Next, he cut all of the branches he could reach with a pole saw.

The Helpers cleared the area.

Then Tree Guy harnessed up to climb the tree. He had a chain saw tied to him for cutting the higher branches.

It takes a lot of skill to climb a tree with a chain saw safely.

Tree Guy was almost done with the climbing part of this job.

After watching from a safe distance, the Helpers were at work again.

Tree Guy then cut a notch for the final felling. 

The Helpers helped guide where the tree was going to fall. 

And it fell exactly where Tree Guy had planned. The trunk was 27" across.

Logs that were too heavy to lift (and chip), were loaded into the back of the truck with this handy little Bobcat-like machine (stand behind steer skid loader).

About a week later, Tree Guy came back and ground the stump.

Now, the final clean up is up to us. I wish The Helpers were here to help us move the dirt/sawdust to various low places in the yard. (The pile is much bigger than it appears in the picture.)