Dick came over later morning and visited for about an hour. He wouldn’t stay for lunch but we sat and had some ice tea. They also saw the smoke from their place yesterday, and called in the fire. Dick is retired from the Forest Service and always interested in how the forests and countryside are doing. They drove over last night to see just where the smoke was coming from and drove up into Irish Canyon. The fire wasn’t there, but over the ridge to the north in East Fork. He stopped and told the dog man there was a fire, and he and Sheral were impressed by his earthy appearance.
Joe tried to rake and it was still too wet from the rain. We all decided we’d rather have the rain for the country than the hay he had down. In the afternoon he tried it again and got some windrows, then started to bale.
Today I used the weed eater again and got a big part of the job finished. Besides it looking so much neater, I like to keep everything in the whole yard trimmed down in case of a fire. If there is no tall dry vegetation the fire may not spread to the buildings, or trimming may help things not to burn. Some of the brush around the place outside the yard is getting pretty big though.
I enjoyed sitting outside in a lawn chair, and watching the antelope come right up to the yard. We sure have a lot of them in our valley this year. It’s nice to see them.
Got flower pots up by the front door now. Turned over the soil in the Oriental poppy bed. They are continually too crowded to even bloom nicely, the tiger lilies too. Also dug some on the new flower bed in front while the ground was soft from the rain. Have tried to get that area filled in with grass all these years, and now am digging it out. It made me think how I’ve dug all over this yard for one thing or another, trying to get things to grow here, moving flower beds from place to place, and the big vegetable garden I had for many years. Started moving some of the rocks I have used as borders from the back to the front. I think I’ll get rid of the rhubarb plants. I seldom use rhubarb. The plants don’t get enough water where they are and it is always a mess there. The horse flies were bad from time to time, but in between they were fine. I got bit several times.
Tonight I fixed a filet mignon, baked potatoes, asparagus and salad.
Sunset After the Rain
