Here,
Let me try to attach the corn pictures again.
Let me try to attach the corn pictures again.
Vegetable gardens
The corn is growing well. The first block planted is now a lot taller than I am. It is a lot taller than I can reach. We are not growing it for ourselves, however. We are having a banner raccoon year, and they are having a record best time in the corn. There aren’t even ears of corn yet, and they come marauding every night and tear down stalks and rip it up.
There doesn’t seem to be any legal way to protect the corn from the raccoons without trapping and relocating them. That is an expensive and temporary solution.
The good news is that they don’t seem to fancy any of the other vegetables growing. They get the corn, we get everything else.
S
There doesn’t seem to be any legal way to protect the corn from the raccoons without trapping and relocating them. That is an expensive and temporary solution.
The good news is that they don’t seem to fancy any of the other vegetables growing. They get the corn, we get everything else.
S
Hooky
We had a fine hooky day on Wednesday. We’re having our great ninety-degree, blue sky summer weather. Took the day off, loaded the van, and drove to Lake Union, outside of Longmont. We spent the morning paddling the circumference of the lake. Away from the swim beach, we got to glide along the bushes and reeds and listen to the birds. Even got to listen to the fish. They splash when they jump, of course. But the carp also swirl and gulp back in the reeds, while the coots cluck and groan and complain. When it started getting pretty sweaty, we returned to the shore and had a picnic lunch in the shade.
We drove home, swapped our stuff from the van to the motorhome, and drove up into the high country. At Lilly Lake, just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, we rigged up for flyfishing, launched the float tubes, and were in the water by 4:30 and fished until dark. It rained on us a little, and was about fifty degrees by the time we came in, so it was pretty nice to have a warm house and hot soup waiting for us. Caught lots of little trout, and one big one each.
We were a little late getting home to bed, but it was a great surprise day off.
S
We drove home, swapped our stuff from the van to the motorhome, and drove up into the high country. At Lilly Lake, just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, we rigged up for flyfishing, launched the float tubes, and were in the water by 4:30 and fished until dark. It rained on us a little, and was about fifty degrees by the time we came in, so it was pretty nice to have a warm house and hot soup waiting for us. Caught lots of little trout, and one big one each.
We were a little late getting home to bed, but it was a great surprise day off.
S
Florida
We’re back.
A week in Florida. A good conference. A nice resort. A couple days in a b&b on the east coast just above Titusville. Lots of herons and egrets and ibis and spoonbills. A glossy ibis, and a Florida scrub jay. No shuttle launch: it got postponed. A day at seaworld. A swim with the dolphins. Lots of critters observed in the wild: alligators, dolphins, manatees, osprey. Found the bathing suit optional beach. Was within one mile of a tornado that touched down outside the Kennedy Space Center during an afternoon thunderstorm. Cashed in some miles and flew first class. Wonderfully uneventful flights both ways. Picked up Annie from the dogsitter this morning. Becky still has the cat.
Glad to be home: they yard and house need lots of attention.
A week in Florida. A good conference. A nice resort. A couple days in a b&b on the east coast just above Titusville. Lots of herons and egrets and ibis and spoonbills. A glossy ibis, and a Florida scrub jay. No shuttle launch: it got postponed. A day at seaworld. A swim with the dolphins. Lots of critters observed in the wild: alligators, dolphins, manatees, osprey. Found the bathing suit optional beach. Was within one mile of a tornado that touched down outside the Kennedy Space Center during an afternoon thunderstorm. Cashed in some miles and flew first class. Wonderfully uneventful flights both ways. Picked up Annie from the dogsitter this morning. Becky still has the cat.
Glad to be home: they yard and house need lots of attention.
Six days
without racquetball ended well. We were home by three o’clock and playing racquetball by four.
Judy and I met up in Reno. She had an uneventful drive up to San Jose where she met up with Mike and Katie and Jack, and Jacob and Yousun. A quick visit and a bassinette later she was on the road to Reno.
My drive west in the motorhome was uneventful as well, until I was almost through Utah. I had a little wind trouble crossing the salt flats. The wind was driving straight south while I was driving straight west. I needed just a little shift in the angle of impact, but the road didn’t twitch for fifty miles. Neither did the wind.
I ended up driving on the shoulder between fifteen and twenty miles an hour, sometimes in whiteout conditions from the salt flat being blown across the road, while the awning mechanism tried to shudder and bend and flap itself off.
All the awning mechanism was intact, and locked tightly into place, but the top part which is held in by the spring mechanism in the roller wanted to unroll. After struggling along in the wind for an hour or so, all the mechanism was still there, but the fabric holding it all together was thoroughly shredded. Later that evening, parked for the night in Wendover Nevada, I figured out that a couple strips of duct tape wrapped around the top of the arms would secure the awning closed for the rest of the trip. In fact, if I had thought of it then, I probably could have taped the mechanism shut right during the windstorm and saved the awning fabric. In fact, I might tape it up before the next trip as a preemptive strike.
The weather was no problem the rest of the trip.
In Reno, Judy and I did finally meet up after almost a month apart. Within twenty minutes our reunion turned into a trip to the all-night emergency veterinary clinic to get the foxtail removed that Annie had snuffed up her nose. It was not visible, but the uncontrollable sneezing fit, the blood running from the nostril, and the contorted face were enough to convince us she needed attention. We had to leave her overnight while they put her all the way out to retrieve the deadly burr. The recovery was complete the next morning when we picked her up.
Five days, two thousand miles, all on interstate 80. Overnights in Laramie, Wendover, Reno, Wendover, and Rawlins. Gorgeous drive this time of year. Everybody home for a week. Off this weekend for a motorhome camp trip to Bonnie reservoir out on the Kansas border. Then off the Saturday after that to a conference in Orlando for a week. There is a shuttle launch while we’re there, so we’ll stay an extra day. Then another extra day for a swim with the dolphins, then home.
Well, that’s the news from Louisville.
Judy and I met up in Reno. She had an uneventful drive up to San Jose where she met up with Mike and Katie and Jack, and Jacob and Yousun. A quick visit and a bassinette later she was on the road to Reno.
My drive west in the motorhome was uneventful as well, until I was almost through Utah. I had a little wind trouble crossing the salt flats. The wind was driving straight south while I was driving straight west. I needed just a little shift in the angle of impact, but the road didn’t twitch for fifty miles. Neither did the wind.
I ended up driving on the shoulder between fifteen and twenty miles an hour, sometimes in whiteout conditions from the salt flat being blown across the road, while the awning mechanism tried to shudder and bend and flap itself off.
All the awning mechanism was intact, and locked tightly into place, but the top part which is held in by the spring mechanism in the roller wanted to unroll. After struggling along in the wind for an hour or so, all the mechanism was still there, but the fabric holding it all together was thoroughly shredded. Later that evening, parked for the night in Wendover Nevada, I figured out that a couple strips of duct tape wrapped around the top of the arms would secure the awning closed for the rest of the trip. In fact, if I had thought of it then, I probably could have taped the mechanism shut right during the windstorm and saved the awning fabric. In fact, I might tape it up before the next trip as a preemptive strike.
The weather was no problem the rest of the trip.
In Reno, Judy and I did finally meet up after almost a month apart. Within twenty minutes our reunion turned into a trip to the all-night emergency veterinary clinic to get the foxtail removed that Annie had snuffed up her nose. It was not visible, but the uncontrollable sneezing fit, the blood running from the nostril, and the contorted face were enough to convince us she needed attention. We had to leave her overnight while they put her all the way out to retrieve the deadly burr. The recovery was complete the next morning when we picked her up.
Five days, two thousand miles, all on interstate 80. Overnights in Laramie, Wendover, Reno, Wendover, and Rawlins. Gorgeous drive this time of year. Everybody home for a week. Off this weekend for a motorhome camp trip to Bonnie reservoir out on the Kansas border. Then off the Saturday after that to a conference in Orlando for a week. There is a shuttle launch while we’re there, so we’ll stay an extra day. Then another extra day for a swim with the dolphins, then home.
Well, that’s the news from Louisville.