It has cooled. We’ve had some rain. It is suddenly very pleasant outside.
Late afternoon on Thursday…
All of us outside.
Exploring.
Chasing bugs, butterflies and grasshoppers.
Airborne!
Happy Day.
Tales of the chimney
The first winter I was in this house, I had a chimney fire. It was not much fun, but the good news is that Doug Heil, of Heil Brothers was the person I called. He was at my home the next day and replaced my damaged chimney, inspected everything including my wood supply and that was the start of a most excellent business-friendship.
We speak once a year when he comes to clean and inspect all.
Since that first visit, it has been a quick clean, “all is well” and then I hear about his family and I share my stuff and it is what life in a smallish town is made of!
We missed last year as I did not use the woodstove the winter that Bear had his surgeries. I had phoned the office last July to say why I didn’t need a clean, but instead of Doug’s wife Sandy, I spoke to an employee so did not get a chance to catch up with either of them.
It had been in the back of my mind to call earlier this year. I closed the damper and doors on the woodstove…early May…thinking not only the bats of past years, but the yellow jackets of the recent year.
Then, last week, on the way to the dump…there is the Heil Bros truck parked by the side of the road. I pulled over. It was Doug. We chatted, etc. and the upshot is that he was here on Friday to clean the Chimney.
The cleaning was fairly non-eventful.
Doug did note that there were a number of Yellow Jackets (DEAD!) in my stove.
We discussed the bane of the yellow jacket thing and I told him about my traps this year. I also told him there was a nest on the house and that I’d had a ladder set for the last week, but kept putting off dispatching the nest.
He said: “Oh, I’ll spray it, I do it all the time”. He sprayed it and did not get stung and the nest fell to the ground.
I was SO relieved! I absolutely HATE dealing with the nests. I told him about my nest spraying “outfit”.
I just wanted to hug the man.
He said that my spray was the best he’d used. It is a foam spray from the local hardware and my personal favorite as it goes a good 20 feet with a significant amount of foam which seems to render anything in its path…DEAD!
I told him where I got it and then gave him one of the 3 cans I had in my arsenal as a THANK YOU!
As we were “settling-up”, Doug said that I should start a fire in the stove. The recent driving rains had soaked the chimney, the stovepipe and the stove. He said a fire would dry things out vs some rust happening.
So…a fire…in late June…with the windows open and me in shorts.
Bear stayed away from the heat.
Tales of the Chimney: Summer 2014.
First weekend of Summer
I had big plans for the weekend.
After a very rainy week – and actually the last few weekends have been rainy – and with Wild Thing in shape to de-Winterize, load, etc… my weekend plans included getting her situated for at least some short outings, mowing the lawn, blowing pine needles off the roof of house and garage and some general yard pick up.
The plans went awry.
Between a medication, summer light and nighttime wildlife (skunk!) causing serious sleep disruption…my get up and go, got up and went. I had some energy first thing but by late morning…pfft…out of gas.
I’m not a “just push through it” kind of person as well as I know when I try to do things when I’m not 100%, I often end up hurting the equipment or me and/or botching the job, so I came inside, made a batch of herbal iced tea and wiled away the weekend streaming tv, reading and puttering just a little in the kitchen when I felt like it.
Actually, it felt pretty good to have a low, slow, quiet weekend.
Bear and Auggie enjoyed cool mornings… walk and a treat…
I don’t think the treat was shared.
To the left (north) of the front porch is the cat hidey-nap spot that was a favorite with Bob…
And now with Auggie.
I can find him there most afternoons.
Bear prefers the cool house and his gecko.
Chutney was on my cooking list. I added strawberries to the small amount of rhubarb I had for a strawberry-rhubarb chutney.
Dump all in a pan and cook down to desired consistency.
The house smelled wonderful…
And a beautiful jar of chutney was the result.
I love a little on a spicy, sausage pizza. Also good on grilled salmon or chicken. Or coconut-curry rice. Good stuff!
I did get Wild Thing de-Winterized and a tank of chlorinated water is in her. I’ll drain, rinse and refill during the week as there is time. The grass…well, it has been long before…all will get done. Just not this first weekend of Summer
Tidbits
All of these photos are from Sunday.
We had some sun breaks.
…cool sun breaks.
My favorite kind!
Auggie on the hunt.
Serious business.
Grasshopper??? or whatever the things are that are around now…
But today, Monday, Auggie got a bird…a baby bird. And he brought it into the house. It was still alive.
The house rules regarding hunting are:
Eat what you kill, i.e. no trophy hunting
Anything brought into the house must be COMPLETELY dead.
Auggie and I had words.
It remains to be seen how effective those words were.
There has been some ongoing discussion.
Back to Sunday.
Pretty.
Lupins!!
Tidbits.
Sunday.
Pretty Days
The lilacs are blooming…
Very pretty and fragrant…
The yard is green, the sky is blue and the sun has been shining quite a lot, especially for early June.
The yellow jackets are tolerable – we can sit outside most evenings and not be bothered.
Auggie has discovered the fun of hiding and playing in the tall grass at the edge of the yard by Beardog Hill.
Pretty Days.