Monday, July 16th

Been a long week since we got the power back but we are extremely relieved and have made much progress in getting things back to normal.  Lots of things to do here everyday that had nothing to do with having no power, but since it rained a lot too, everything outside was very muddy so it was a few days before we could really get much done outside.

My brother-in-law, Butch, has been up and at 'em everyday. He is a true workaholic! He has closed up the holes made by our un-welcome visitors with heavy duty metal screening, closed all the holes in the dining room closet, closed up the cellar window more securely (and now hopefully it won't leak either) and even managed to kill one mouse on it's way across the kitchen floor. We've seen no activity in a few days and every item in every cabinet, drawer, and closet where we saw activity has been washed in Clorox water (Luci and I did that). We hope those visitors are gone - we will see.

Butch also uncovered an old path from the back door to the shed and cleaned it up and made it a nice path again.. There are many old paths here, so I had to stop him, as I think the entire side yard is made up of paths, and that was too much for me.. But this one looks nice!  You can see the white/green hydrangeas on the side of the shed and some our our grapes too. The white hydrangeas are almost gone right now, but maybe we will see more as the sun comes out. Now we also need to get rid of Japanese Beetles who are attacking the grapes, beans, and a few other plants around here.

Just outside the back door are our blue hydrangeas. They are really pretty this year! That's oregano to the right of them.. We also have an old butterfly bush that got damaged by the storms we had; not sure if it will survive but we are trying to save it. See the beautiful butterfly that has come to visit?

The garden is now back in pretty good shape.. Lots of things damaged, blown over, etc. in our storms, but I think we didn't loose anything but some unripe vegies. Spent last couple days in the top garden cleaning it up. The tomatoes look very peculiar - all tied with strips of sheets to various contraptions to get them off the ground, but they are still healthy for the most part. My husband says it looks like Halloween in the tomato garden area. Poo-pah! We will have our soon-to-be first ripe tomato maybe tomorrow or Wednesday. and our first cucumber too which can be picked as soon as we decide what to do with it. 

Well it's been a busy day so think I will end my blog for tonight.

Remember - It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.- Lewis Grizzard