Labor Day

I didn't labor much this Labor Day.  It was still way too hot.  It doesn't look like we're going to get any relief any time soon, either.  They're predicting upper 90s and low 100s until the third week of September. 

Y'all pray for my air conditioner.  Poor thing is getting mighty tired...

I did spend some time cleaning out the shed, but had to come inside to cool off every 15 minutes or so.  Still, I feel like I'm starting to make progress.  I'm starting to find stuff I thought I'd lost, like this project bag I bought years and years ago. 

It was pretty musty from being in storage, but I hung it up in the sunlight for a few hours and it freshened right up.  I also found this Christmas afghan I'd started probably 20 years ago, but set aside. 

I keep saying I'm going to finish it one day, provided I can find the pattern...I'm sure it's around here somewhere.  Or it's probably online...somewhere...

And look at all this yarn! 

OK, some of it is fun fur, but there is some good yarn in there, too.  

So anyway, I got up early this morning and ran in to Walmart to pick up a black plastic garbage can for my new hot compost bin. 

Everything was going swimmingly until I started trying to dig through the red clay so the bin could sit on my natural soil.  I didn't get very far at all.  That ground was hard as a rock.  I could barely scrape the top layer off. 

I think I'll get up early tomorrow and soak the area with the hose to see if that helps.  Oh, and speaking of the garden, I found a whole bunch of old snake caves and aquarium ornaments in one of the boxes I sorted through.  Most of them I'll probably put into the donate box, but I think I might put this log and maybe the barrel behind it into my toad garden. 

I'm definitely going to wait until it's cooler to start on that, though.  Whenever that is.  October, I guess. 

As if all that weren't enough, the internet was down for most of the day.  

Sparklight said it was vandalism, but some of the people in local groups were saying it was dove hunters.  I'm not buying that, though.  I mean, what could dove hunters do that would knock out the internet for most of the town?  

They got it back up around 4:30, but it shows how dependent we've become on the internet.  I mean, thank goodness I still have a DVD player, or else I would have been mighty bored indeed.  As it was, I broke open my Doctor Who DVDs of the Eleventh Doctor and watched those.  Still, I couldn't blog or play my games or anything else.  I couldn't even watch regular TV because it's all streaming nowadays.  

Oh well, that's the world we live in.  Once the internet came back up, I finished watching The Mentalist, and now I have to find a new series to watch.  I've still got a few more seasons of Emergency! to go, as well.  Probably won't be too much of an issue though, since new seasons of the shows I already watch start this month.  

Plus, I still need to finish my course on C.S. Lewis.  Maybe I can get that done this week, too while we're off work.  

I'll be sure and let you know.  

Stir Crazy

You want to hear something weird?  I'm feeling almost as stir crazy right now as I was during the ice storm last winter.  I want to be outside doing things, but it's been so hot that I can't stay out very long.  So, I'm just sitting here in the air conditioning fretting because I can't be doing what I want to be doing.  

By the way, if you're thinking that you don't remember it being this hot when you were a kid, you're kind of right.  Oh, it was still hot when you were a kid, but you didn't notice it as much.  You can handle the temperature extremes a lot better when you're younger.  That's why older folks are the most vulnerable.  

If you can stand a bit of language...quite a bit of language, The Fat Electrician did a video on why air conditioning is the greatest invention of the twentieth century.  It's kind of hard to argue with his logic. 

OK, moving right along.  The plan was to get out early this morning before it got too hot and spread my fire ant granules.  Alas, when I went out to my shed, I discovered that I didn't have any fire ant granules.  I was sure I'd bought another bag, but apparently I didn't.  I still had some Spectracide, so I spread that instead.  I was supposed to water it in, but I decided to just pray for rain, and sure enough a few hours later, my stuff got watered. 

I had to take a video of it.  It's been so long since it's rained, I had almost forgotten what it looks like.  It didn't rain long, though -- only about 15 minutes, but it was enough.  It had the added benefit of cooling things off so that my air conditioning turned off.  

Anyway, not much going on today.  I did sort through a few more storage boxes and as with the others, I threw most of it away.  I don't know why I'm keeping some of this stuff.  I mean, I found an athletic supporter in one of them.  Seriously.  I jock strap.  Why?  I have no idea where it came from or why I have it.  I can only guess it was a freebie that I got back when I was in karate and ordered some stuff from a website.  It was still sealed up in the package, but I tossed it into the garbage anyway.  

I just wish I could get Cody to come up and sort through his stuff.  He keeps saying he wants to before I toss it all, but so far, it's been like pulling teeth to get him to actually do it. I'll bet if I did toss it all, he'd never miss any of it.  

In knitting news, I finished another sailor hat while I was watching football yesterday. 

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Dakota

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8  / 5 mm

Did you see LSU vs. Clemson?  It was wild, I'm telling you.  I fell asleep sometime during the third quarter, because they had a two hour lightning delay and got started late.  It looks like this is going to be a fun season. 

I keep saying I'm going to write a big, long post about how NIL and the transfer portal are ruining college football, but it isn't happening today.  I was watching Navy, and they'd put up a graphic of the service academies showing how many Commanded In Chief trophies each school had won.  The commentator mentioned that those are the only true college football teams left.  All the rest are professional teams.  He's not wrong. 

Kids don't go to school to get an education any more.  They go to whichever school pays them the most, even if he's not a student.  Remember Carson Beck?  When a reporter asked him what it was like in class the week before the national championship, he replied that he'd actually graduated two years before.  Why was he still playing college football, then?  

And there are players getting six and seven years of eligibility -- and I'll bet anything they're not students.  Then there's the talk this year about players who get cut from an NFL team wanting to return to play college ball again.  

College ball had definitely changed and not for the better.  The question is, what can we do about it?  

Maybe I need to get that big, long post written after all. 

Football Is Back!

Football is back baby!  And yes, I had the multi-screen thing going for at least part of the time, and I'll set it back up once I'm done with this post. 

Texas and Navy both won.  LSU is in a lightning delay, and I've got Little Brother on the tablet.  I'll put Mississippi State on the computer once I'm done.  Alas, it is still way too hot to even think about putting out Fall decorations, but I did put my wreath on the front door. 

That's all, though.  I might get them out and put them up during the week.  Or I might not.  I don't know.  Depends on if it gets cool enough for me to be in the mood.  I'm not holding my breath on that one.  It got up to 103° on my thermometer, but I did manage to get the front and side yards mowed before the heat advisory took effect.  I was still drenched in sweat and suffering heat exhaustion, but I got 'er done.  In the morning, I'll go spread my fire ant granules, but other than that, I'm going to sit inside in the air conditioning and complain about the heat.  

You know, my usual.  At least they finally got some air conditioning in the plant.  I guess they had to since they are moving the lines back up to the front.  These young folks coming up aren't going to work in a plant were it's 99° in the summer!

They've put this new water dispenser thing up in the break areas, too.  It's pretty cool.  You can mix and match up to three flavors, plus two additives such as electrolytes and vitamins.  You can choose between hot or cold water, and still or fizzy water.  I'm still figuring it all out.  I tried one flavor called Autumn Sky, but didn't like that one.  The coconut was pretty good.  When we get back, I want to see if they have lime, so I can put the lime in the coconut and then I'll drink it down...

OK, I'll stop now.  

Oh, and I keep forgetting to tell you my Stalker is back to driving a truck these days.  Is it wrong that my first thought when I found out was, "I'll bet he's hit every lot lizard in the country!"  

Now, I'll really stop.  Back to your regularly scheduled blog post. 

I didn't even do anything in the garden today, other than fill up the drip bottles.  Well, I put together my three new raised beds, but I did that inside, in the air conditioning then I toted them outside and put them into place. 

I had these on my list, but hadn't planned on getting them until my wooden planters had rotted beyond usability.  I was going to put my mint into them.  But a week or so ago, Amazon had them on sale for only $35 for the set of three, so I gave in and got some.  I'll probably end up getting some more later on down the line, too.  

This isn't their final location, but it's pretty close to where I'm going to put them.  I still need to level the ground a bit, which I'll try to do in the cool of the morning this week.    

I'm thinking I'm going to move my rosemary into one, and put my lemon balm into one.  If I can find a pineapple sage, I'll put it into the third one.  I used to have a pineapple sage, but at the time, I didn't realize it was a perennial.  After the first frost killed it back, I pulled it up and put it into the compost like a dummy.  And I haven't found one since.  

I'd gotten the first one at Walmart, and have looked every year, both there and at Lowe's.  No dice.  Oh well, maybe one will show up.  I've still got that broad leaf sage, but I might pull it out.  It smells like feet to me.  I don't see how people want to eat that stuff.  

And finally, I made it up to the Farmer's Market on the square this morning, but left without buying anything.  I was hoping to get some muscadines, but those people weren't even there today.  That's the chance you take when you wait until the last market of the season, I guess.  I really wanted the seeds so I could start my own vines.  I've read that muscadine seeds are very difficult to get to germinate, but I'm taking that as a challenge.  

Hmmm, off to google where to buy them...

Laters.

I'm Free!

I'm free!  I'm free!  At least until September 14, that is.  The rest of the plant will be free as of 2:00 PM today, but thanks to judicious scheduling of my vacation time, I have today off, too.  And as usual, at least one of my coworkers said, "You're so lucky to have these three day weekends!"  And also as usual, I replied, "It's not luck.  I saved my vacation days, and you too can save your vacation days to have three day weekends."  

"Oh, I don't want to do that!" this particular coworker replied.  

By the way, they already started re-arranging stuff at work, and we can't find anything.  "I feel like when they re-arrange Walmart!"  I told my coworker.  They're still determined to put the sub brazers back on the lines, though.  I think they have meetings up front to decide on the absolute dumbest way to do things.  Seriously, every time they have these big announcements telling us they're going to change stuff and it's going to be so much better, all that ends up happening is that my job becomes much harder.  

And they can't figure out why their turnover rate is so high....

Enough of that.  I don't have to think about work for a while, so let's move on to something more pleasant, like my garden.  

It's so much nicer to be able to get up and work outside in the cool of the morning, even though the humidity still makes it miserable.  It has been so hot and dry here lately that I gave all the beds a real good watering.  I probably overwatered some of the beds, but they'll dry out quickly enough. 

While that was going on, I built up the tomato cages on my second batch of plants.  

This will probably be as high as I need to make them, though I can add another tier to the cages if I have to.  All of my plants are struggling in this heat, so much so, I'm considering going ahead and pulling these old tomatoes out and composting them. 

Especially this one.  It's got some sort of fungus or mold growing right at the base.  

I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be there.  I've sprayed it with Neem oil, but it keeps coming back.  

By the way, I was watching a video by The Millennial Gardener about making a hot compost bin out of a black plastic garbage can, and I think I'm going to do one for myself.  What with that, and the composting bag I have, I can make myself a two bay hot compost system, then when the bag finally tears up for good, I'll replace it with another garbage can.   

There isn't much else going on in the garden right now.  It's just too hot.  I gave my lemon balm a good haircut, but didn't save any to dry.  

I've already got so much of it, I didn't feel like I needed any more.  I've been thinking about moving my lemon balm away from the house, so it will have more room to grow.  I'd never expected it to get so big, because it had always stayed small when it was in the planter. 

I may put my cayenne peppers into those beds alongside the house, because they are doing very well there -- even better than the ones in the 4' x 4' bed.  In fact, I'm still getting a good harvest from them.

I might try to overwinter these plants -- the ones in the beds beside the house -- and let the others go to that great compost bin in the sky.  

I've been thinking about planting a fall garden, but don't really know what to plant.  The extension office posted this on their Facebook page earlier this week.  

The things I like most on that list are the onions, but I've already got so many in the freezer, I'm not going to plant any this year.  Garlic isn't on the list yet, but I expect it'll come later.  Even so, I have a bunch of it in the freezer, too.  I like baby spinach, but I don't think I could eat it fast enough to make it worth planting.  I don't know...with it just being me by myself, it's hard to plant for just one.  I'm seriously thinking about making another batch or two of pepper jelly, because I still have so many banana peppers in the freezer.  At least I can give the jelly as gifts.  Heh, my sister has already laid claim to a jar.  

Speaking of my sister, she finally got the headstone for our mother installed.  She sent me these photos this morning. 

She told me not to worry about the weeds, because they'll all be covered with snow soon.  It's already getting down into the low 40s up there.  They plan on doing something in the spring, when the snow melts.  I'm sure she'll send me photos when they are done. 

But I digress...

The extension also posted this list, but pretty much all I'm going to do on this is to put down some Weed 'n Feed in my front yard.  

I bought some last week, and I'm probably going to mow the front and side yards sometime this weekend, then put down my fire ant treatment first.  Then, in a week or two, I'll put down the Weed 'n Feed.  

OK, OK, I know I'm boring you with all of my garden talk, so I'll just say that the last thing I did before retreating into the air conditioning was to plant a couple of my packets of Bluebonnet seeds.  I've got several plants coming up from the ones I planted last year -- either the seeds still in the ground or from the ones cast by the plants that grew.  

Still, I put a few seeds in the bare spots, just to fill in some.  I've got three packets left in the freezer, and I'm thinking about making that bed wider.    It's only about 10" wide right now, and I have a couple more pieces of that edging, so I can extend it a bit.  I'm definitely going to wait until it's cooler to do that.  

Unless I can fit it in early one morning this week.  I've got so much on my to do list, but unlike my friend Marcy, I am not good at multitasking.  My main project for the week is to finish cleaning out that shed so I can call the clean-up man to come haul my junk off.  But I also kind of want to call a handyman and electrician.  However, I don't feel I can make those calls until I've got the first project done.  I mean, what if they all show up at once?  Then I'd be wayyyy overwhelmed. 

Speaking of my friend, I channeled her a bit this morning.  Not on the multitasking, but with the coffee creamer. 

Since she doesn't like pumpkin spice, she associates Hazelnut with Fall.  And yes, I did think of you when I was buying it in the store.  

I know you all know I love my pumpkin spice, but I think this is taking things just a bit too far. 

That fresh pine, on the other hand, kind of appeals.  I think that's because we associate pine scent with cleaning because of certain products that have been around far longer than we have.   I might get some of it next time I go into the Mart of Wal. 

And finally, I'm ready for some cooler weather!  

 I'm getting mighty tired of these 100° + heat indexes!  Bring on the sweater weather!

Copy Cats

The copy cats have started already.  Or should I say in this case, the copy kittens have started. 

If you've been on social media at all here lately, no doubt you've heard about the construction crew that rescued the kitten from the heavy equipment, then made her the official company mascot.  If you are smart and are avoiding social media, you can watch her story here: 

It's a wonderful story, isn't it?

This morning, one of my kind hearted but too trusting friends posted this to her Facebook page. 

It is a pretty obvious copy kitten of Sue's story.  Still, it fooled my well meaning but somewhat naive friend.  I spent all day thinking about this, and figured it was time to post a brief lesson in how to tell a fake story from a real one.  Now, keep in mind, this is not comprehensive -- just a few tips to help you not be scammed. 

OK, ready?  

1.  In the story of Sue, there is actual video -- of the kitten trapped in the excavator, of the man opening the bottom, of the kitten falling out.  

In the meme, despite the claim, there is no video linked, and no amount of searching led me to this story. In fact, when I did try to find the video, it took me to videos of Sue.  

2.  In Sue's story, there are names.  The name of the company, the name of the town it's located in, the names of the brothers who own the construction company, even what they named the kitten.  All of this is verifiable information. 

In the UPS story, there are no names -- not of the driver, the cat, or the town he delivers in.   Just a generic delivery driver.

3.  The photos of Sue are genuine.  The photos and video of the men who rescued and adopted her are genuine.  The story has been posted to multiple legitimate news sites. 

The photo of the UPS driver and his kitten are clearly AI.  It even says it's AI on the Facebook post.  If it were a legit story, there would be legit photos and the video that was mentioned in the meme would be out there...somewhere.  

4.  Sue the kitten tugs at your heartstrings in an authentic way.  It's such a heartwarming story. 

That one line in the meme, the one that claims his coworkers posted the video to mock him, is meant to tug at your emotions in a slimy, deceptive way.  That is the end game here -- to manipulate you into sharing in order to boost their page stats.  

There you go, four simple tricks to help you spot a fake story.  As I said before, this is not a comprehensive lesson, but it should be enough to help keep you from falling for a scam.  

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Did you know that there are actually three first days of Fall?  It's true.  Let me explain. 

The one most people know about is Astronomical Fall, which is based on the Autumnal Equinox.  This year, that day is September 22.  

There is another one that isn't as well known as it is mostly observed in the weather geek community.  That is Meteorological Fall, which starts on September 1.  Also known as today. 

But there is another one that almost nobody knows about:  Traditional Fall.  What is traditional Fall?  Well, since Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer, then logically the day after that would be the traditional first day of fall.  See what I did there?  

Fall lovers rejoice!  We get to celebrate three times a year, so let me be the...dozenth or so to say: 

Happy first day of Fall!  

Even though it's still 100° out there...

(Not my photo.  I copped it from the internet.)

More Stuff

Today is the last day of August, and it's still hot.  That means tomorrow is the first day of meteorological Fall and guess what?  It's still going to be hot.  Upper 90s with heat indices in the triple digits. 

I know you're tired of hearing it, but you know something?  I'm tired of living it.  I'm ready for cooler temps, hot drinks, and cozy nights snuggled under a blanket.  I think my neighbors are ready for that, too, because they put out Halloween decorations already.   I've got some general Fall decorations I'll start putting out soon, but I'll wait until October to put out my one little Halloween thing. 

Anyway....not much has been going on here, at least nothing worth writing about.  I cast on a new sailor hat over the weekend while watching Clue.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Dakota

Pattern: Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

I was going to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I didn't.  Can you believe I've never seen that one?  I went with a couple of friends to see it back when I was in the Navy, but there were a bunch of kids that looked like they were between 12 and 15 years old absolutely running wild in the theater -- shooting each other with water guns and squirt bottles, throwing food and stuff, all while yelling and shrieking at top volume.  No parents in sight, just the kids. 

My friends said they'd settle down once the movie started, but they didn't.  If anything, they got worse.  About 20 minutes into the movie, I got up and left.  I couldn't hear the dialogue, I had no idea what was going on in the film, and there was no point in sitting there in all that chaos.  

In the years that have followed, I've often said I was going to rent it, but I never got around to it.  Maybe next week while the plant is shut down.  I don't even want to talk about that mess.  I talked to Cuz this morning and he said they are going to put the brazers back on the line, despite every one of us telling them what a bad idea that is. 

That's the main problem out there.  Too many people would rather be right than successful.  If certain ones up in the office would set aside their giant egos and do what's best for production for once, things might not be falling apart so badly.  

I'll tell you one thing, though.  The first time one of those assembly line group leaders moves me to the line, then starts screaming obscenities in my face because the line ran out of headers...Let's just say, I'm not going to put up with that 💩 any more. 

I'm already looking through my finances and trying to figure out how I can afford to go ahead and retire. That's the problem, though.  I might be able to scrape by, but I don't want to do that.  I want to enjoy my life.  My dad retired at 62, but his house was paid off, plus his job gave them an employee pension.  I've only got social security and whatever I've managed to save in my 401K.

On a similar note, the plant is in a full blown panic because employees are dropping like flies out there.  Quitting, I mean.  By the dozens.  I guess that's what you get when you tell your employees that if they don't like it there, then just go work somewhere else.  That's exactly what they're going to do. 

Enough about that....I've also been working on this sock yarn hat a bit in between sailor hats. 

Yarn:  Forbidden Fiber Co. Fortitude Sock

Colorway:  Starfall

Pattern:  Sockhead

Needles:  US 2.5 / 3 mm

By the way, I forgot to tell you the other day I found some more computer paper in that box I was cleaning out.   The one with the fish on it has never even been opened. 

And I had to pull this book out of the donation stack when I opened it up and found 

this:  

Funny part is, I don't remember a summer reading club at all.  Not at the church library.  We always did the one at the public library, but I don't remember this one. 

I also didn't remember this Bible until I saw it in the box.  

It was presented to me by the women's missionary union when I graduated high school.  

On a completely unrelated note, I've somehow ended up with a house full of mosquitoes.  I made a home made trap with apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, and a few drops of dish soap.  I caught this many in my half bath in the first night.  

And almost as many again the second.  Alas, the one I put in the the kitchen didn't catch any, even though they're thick in there.  I'll make fresh traps and put them out tonight, to see what I come up with. 

I saw a much nicer insect in the garden Sunday morning. 

I couldn't help but think of Dolly, and how she loved butterflies. 

Busy Saturday

It's amazing how much more energy you have when you get to sleep normal human being hours.  I woke up raring to go this morning, just not to the farmer's market.  I don't know why I always feel obligated to go up there every Saturday.  Maybe I'd go more if they stayed open longer.  Maybe not.

First thing I did was to go piddle in my garden a bit.  Well, the first thing I did was to make some coffee, but that goes without saying.  After that, I went and piddled in the garden.  That's just about the only thing I miss about working second shift -- being able to work in the yard in the cool of the morning.  By the way, it was 63 when I got up today, but it warmed up pretty quickly.  Still, it made the coffee taste extra good, being that chilly.  

The plan was to cut and dry some more lemon balm and tarragon, but I had to grind and bottle what I'd already cut first.  When all the dust had settled, I ended up with two jars of lemon balm and nearly a full bottle of tarragon. 

I also bottled up what spearmint I had dried, which will be all for this year because I let it go to flower, then weedeated it all down anyway.  Eh, it'll be back in spring, and for what it's worth, spearmint is my least favorite of the mints.  

I used my fancy new herb jars, but I'm not too happy with the pre-printed labels they came with.  I didn't really expect one for lemon balm, but I was kind of surprised that tarragon wasn't included. I thought it was a pretty popular herb.  I mean, they had labels for stuff I've never even heard of.  What the heck is achiote?  Anyway, they did include some blank labels, but most of the pre-printed ones will likely get tossed.   I'll probably just design my own and print them myself.  

Oh, and there was a label for cayenne, which is a good thing because I cut and strung some more this morning.  

I checked the ones I already had drying and they seem to be doing much better.  No mold as far as I can see.  

For those of you interested, I also recorded a new garden journal, which you can watch on my YouTube channel here:  Garden Vlog.

I also spent a little time cleaning out my shed before it got too hot.  I tossed a bit of stuff into the pile to be hauled off, then I brought a storage container into the house to sort through it.  As I figured, the majority of what was in it went either into the garbage or into the donation box.  There were even a few books that I'm going to take down to the Little Free Library on the square.  

This book is not one of them.  

I'd bought it for Cody when he was little, but when I asked, he didn't even remember the book.  I'd first put it into the donation stack, but then pulled it back out and put it onto my book shelf.  It's got some really cool stuff in it, and if you have a little boy in your life, I highly recommend that you get him one of these.  

I never even put this book into the donation stack.  

It was mine when I was little, but I highly doubt it would fly in today's climate.  Oh, it's not a bad book.  It talks all about how the Native Americans knew how to live off the land, make birchbark canoes, and hunt for their food.  Stuff like that.  But it says Indians and that's verboten these days.  

Other than a few old photos, the last thing I kept from that box was my 50 state quarter collection.

I knew I had one somewhere.  They were a thing, back in the day.  

Purpose

The day Dolly died, I woke up that morning when the alarm went off way too early, and I promise you this is true.  My first thought was, "I woke up this morning!  I have a purpose!"  But then, if you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I figured out my purpose long ago.  

Lots of folks think that if they're not called to preach or be a missionary, God has no use for them, or if we don't have a global stage like Dolly did, we won't have an impact.  That is so far from true.  For most of us, it's the small, simple acts of kindness in His name -- like a warm hat to wear -- that shines His light in this world.  

So let your light so shine, no matter how small you think it is.  Somebody somewhere is going to see it. 

Speaking of light, were you able to see the eclipse last night?  This was my view for most of the time. 

I'd go out and would be able to see a little of it, then the clouds would move in.  I'd check every 15 minutes or so, and despite the cloud cover, I was able to see a good bit of it.  Fortunately, there was a break in the clouds during peak totality, so I was able to see that.  I didn't wait to see the moon uncover, though.  I'd still gotten up at 4:30 that morning, and I was tuckered, so I took a quick shower and went to bed. 

This morning, amazingly enough, the cat let me sleep until 6:00 AM.  After a leisurely cup of coffee, the plan was to start cleaning up this mess in my shed.  

I've tried to clean it up before, but would take one look, then get overwhelmed and walk right back out.  This time is different, though, since I don't have to figure out what to do with all the junk in there.  I'll just pile it up and once I'm ready, I'll call the clean up man to come get it all.  I made a good start, then had to take a break when it got too hot.  I'll probably be able to get more done once it cools off a bit -- like mid-September.  For now, I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have to get it all done in one day.  

The other thing I did before it got too hot was to pick up all of these twigs and branches that the recent winds had knocked down. 

I put them here to dry, so I can use them to start fires once winter gets here -- or when they lift the burn ban and I can sit out by the fire pit.  By the way, we actually got a bit of rain this week.  Not much -- just enough to raise our monthly total to 1".  We're still in drought conditions, and my water bill is reflecting it.  From watering my garden, that is.  Oh well, it will all be worth it when I'm enjoying a nice bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a cold winter day.  

Speaking of, I splurged a bit yesterday and bought some of the fancy soup from the deli section at Walmart, only it's so hot right now, I don't want to eat it.  

On a similar note, The Millennial Gardener says that the end of August is a good time to remove your shade cloth from your gardens, so I did that yesterday evening.   

I noticed that these tomato plants seemed a bit more leggy than the ones I'd planted in the spring, so maybe I shouldn't have put the shade cloth on them in the first place.  They got so leggy, I had to add an additional stake to the two smallest ones, because they were flopping over.  I'll give them a few more days until they get big enough that the cage will support them, then remove those stakes.  Or maybe I won't.  They're not hurting anything, so might as well leave them. 

Next year, I don't think I'll plant tomatoes in succession, because knowing me, I'll still have tomato soup in the freezer from this year.  I do want to plant one round and maybe look into making homemade salsa.  I'll have to research recipes over the winter.  I also want to look into planting a Fall garden, so I'm going to research that, too.  

On a brighter note, my zinnias are blooming again, and the pollinators are very happy about that.  

Not to mention, they look much healthier than they did before.  Next year, I'll know better than to plant so many in the same bed. 

By the way, they say the best way to make sure you don't have tomato hornworms is to look for them at night with a black light.  Apparently, they glow in the dark.  I'd bought a black light years ago, but I have no idea where it is.  I found the battery holder thingy, but not the light itself.  Eh, they're not that expensive, so I ordered another one.  

It would seem I have indeed gotten all of the hornworms off my tomatoes.  I checked while I was waiting for the eclipse to start.  

Since I was ordering anyway, I tossed in this collection of Autumn themed washi tape that I'd been eyeing for quite some time now. 

I'm not sure why, because I only have one pen pal left -- the one from Australia.  Everyone else has stopped writing, but what with a stamp costing nearly $1 now, I can't say's I blame them.  Or else, I'm just boring. 

Here's a fun fact, the black light I'd bought years ago was so I could send letters to one of my pen pals in invisible ink.  But that's neither here nor there. 

The only thing I didn't like about that washi tape was the box it came in. 

The only way to find the tape you want is to dump all of the rolls out of the box.  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I repurposed this little lunch box I got when I helped Cody and Brennan clean out their house.  They were going to throw it away, but I figured I would be able to make use of it somehow.  Now it is the happy home to my washi tape. 

And look, it's even got cute little handles to carry it around with.  

In work news, they've started taking down the wall between the front and the back of the plant.  They actually started yesterday while we were all there, and I wondered how safe it was for them to be pulling all of that fiberglass insulation down with a plant full of employees.  

Oh, and do you want to see a visual definition of the word irony?  Look at this:

This is just a small section of a much larger pile of junk that was in the break area...right next to the "Report Unsafe Conditions" code...

I guess that's about it for today.  If you'll excuse me, I need to go write a letter to my Australian pen pal so I can use my new washi tape.

Laters...