America 250

Happy 250th America!  

I didn't do much of anything special for the holiday, other than my usual stuff.  One of my coworkers had asked if I was going to fire up the grill, but I said no.  It's a lot of work firing up a grill for just me.  Even when I used to grill, I'd grill a bunch of meat all at once -- like and entire 12 pack of chicken thighs-- then freeze it.  I thought about it, but decided I just didn't want to.  Instead, I got some of my pulled pork out of the freezer and ate that. 

Pretty much all I did was to watch A Capitol Fourth on YouTube, because I missed it last night.  I had thought it would be on today, so I watched Project Hail Mary on Prime instead.  Last night, that is.  If you haven't seen that one, I highly recommend it.  It was so good, and seeing Ryan Reynolds as a geek was priceless. 

Today I watched the musical 1776 and The Patriot, as is my custom.  I had tried to find some sort of celebration on TV, but nothing jumped out at me.  I watched the ABC coverage for a bit, then turned it over to C-Span, but gave up on those and put my movie in.   Other than that, it's been a quiet day so far.  

My town has never done anything for Independence Day -- at least not since I've lived here.  They do the big fireworks show in June for Thunder On Water, so they don't have any on the 4th.  I'm sure once it gets dark, there will be some on TV.  Of course, you know me.  What I really want to watch is a nice historical documentary.  I'm sure I can find one somewhere. 

In the meantime, I went out early this morning and got that garden bed finished.   First step was to get the last of the red clay out.  I did my best, but there are still traces of it left in the bed. 

After a break to cool off -- it wasn't that hot, only 77°, but the humidity was 92% so I was drenched in sweat anyway-- I moved the two piles of compost into the bottom of the bed. 

All of the gardening channels say that's how to deal with clay soil, by adding compost.  The benefit of this is that my piles were already chock full of earthworms, most of which I managed to move into the bed with said compost. 

Another break to cool off, and I filled the rest of the bed with garden soil.  It took four bags, but I think it's full enough to start planting.  

I know it will settle some with the next rain and all, so I'll top it up after the growing season is over.  And of course, I'll re-start my compost pile...probably tomorrow.  The last thing I did before settling down in front of the TV was to finally record that garden vlog I've been promising you for so long.  

I won't embed it here, because a certain social media site doesn't seem to like it when I post my own videos.  You can watch it by clicking on the link below.   Fair warning, it's raw video, not edited in any way.  And yes, I know I have an accent.  One day at work this week, I managed to make "hat" into a two syllable word.  Even I heard that...

Garden Vlog 2026

And finally, before you go, let's take a moment of silence to remember those who were lost in the devastating floods in Texas last year. 

And join me in praying that they find the one little girl who is still missing so her family can finally lay their baby to rest.