Too hor for Ol' Hook

It's been hellaciously hot. I only when outside to walk them early this morning, and by the end of the journey, they were weary,

I'm going to go to my primary care office tomorrow to have tests run, I will be happy to rule the bad stuff out.

Old Hook is and Kodak will have decided to stay inside.

Field of mushrooms

The temps were brutal today. I'm sure our friend Bob Miller who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, would chuckle reading this because it was 113 degrees.

The rain this that moved through at the end of last week, turned the farm into a field of mushrooms. Most of them only last a matter of hours.

I'm glad I caught this one.

Warning

I went to the doc today. It seems I have an infection. The bloodwork doesn't appear to be a virus. He gave me a shot with a needle as big as a kindergarten pencil. I enjoy those so much. He also called me in a script.

Dropping off the script at the pharmacy, I didn't wait at the drive-through. I told them I'd come back this evening to pick on the antibiotics.

On the way back down, this evening, I slowly rolled through a three-way stop sign. The last moving violation I got was over 25 years ago.

The trooper was a nice guy. He went to his car as he wrote the ticket. Apparently, he found it a little humorous that my last violation was rolling through this very stop sign back when Bill Clinton was in the White House. He let me off with a warning. I could have hugged his neck.

Under the weather

In year's past, summer was my favorite month. I worked and played hard. In the last several years, that philosophy caught up with me.

Yesterday, I did several projects. I thought I'd spread them out and cooled off enough before doing the next project. I was wrong.

Today, I feel as though I've gone through a wringer washing machine. I've hydrated all day, but I still don't feel like running a race.

Below was the start of one of my projects. I scraped off flaking paint. I think it was replacing the mailbox post yesterday evening when the temps were in the mid-90s with high humidity.

Today, I've laid low. Jilda has given me a hard time today and rightfully so.

More butterfly action

I know I've posted a lot of butterfly pictures lately, but I can't help myself. This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail looks like the one that Ol' Hook almost ate a  few weeks ago.

Our niece Samantha comes over each evening and brings Todd (the pup I rescued a few months ago) to let him play with Kodak. They run until they drop from exhaustion in the back yard.

This evening while we were there, this butterfly flitted by and almost landed on the bill of my cap. When the dogs came closer, it flew over to sip nectar from the purple butterfly by the steps. Seeing this baby was a gift.

Tomorrow, my nephew Haven is coming up to install a pump in the well at the barn. I've been meaning to put a well in that pump for 20 years. A few months ago, I bought a pump and a tank.

Hopefully, I'll have water in the honey house tomorrow afternoon.

I hope your weekend has been grand.

Sunflower honeybee

Jilda pointed out in her blog last night that the limoncello sunflowers had bloomed. We have sunflowers that are ten feet tall with blossoms as big as volleyballs, but they are slow to bloom.

This year we got limoncello sunflower seeds from our commercial vendor, and they were the first to bloom. These little scutters are only about 18 inches tall.

When I stepped over to check on the watermelons this afternoon, I saw one of our honeybees wallowing in the limoncello pollen. We planted the smaller sunflowers as borders around our garden areas.

The sun was hot, but I stood for a long while watching this girl work. By the time she lifted off the bloom, she both pollen baskets on her hind legs were packed.

As I turned to walk toward the welcoming shade of the backyard, I had to smile. The sunflowers should bloom until the first frost. To be a viable source of food, I would need acres of sunflowers. We're not there yet, but we planted more flowers than we did last year.

Green thumb

Jilda and I walked over to our niece Samantha's house yesterday evening as the sun was setting. She'd never grown a garden in her life until this year. The virus put her out of work, so rather than sitting around brooding, she planted a garden.

I think she was as surprised as we were that she has a green thumb. Her garden is amazing.

We stood and talked for a while as we swatted at gnats and mosquitos, but before we left to walk back home, I snapped a picture of her patch of flowers. It looks like a painting at the end of her garden.