Summer Hibernation!

 Summer Hibernation!

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to sleep through this heat! If one room of the house could be kept cool to cold enough, maybe we should try that approach. For sure, the electric company is going to be raking in the dollars by the thousands this summer—whether or not they can keep the transformers working. Energy Ogre let me know this week that they had chosen a new company to handle my electric needs. Still kinda dread finding out how much this month is costing. If possible, this is worse than getting multiple medical bills because the medical bills can be paid off a little at a time. Not so with the utility bills. And this is just June!

 

Maybe we should all be praying for rain and for an early fall season. If the farmers can’t grow anything right now in the heat, it is not likely to change anytime soon. Thought about calling Barbara Mathews and asking what her husband is growing this year. Probably wheat for cattle would be the easiest right now, but without rain—well, you know what extreme heat does to grass, and wheat is just a type of grass. If you think the old woman is exaggerating, you should see the temperature gauge on my front door—106 here at 4:20 p.m. Kinda hot, dear hearts.

 

With the work being done over at Jerry’s house, the plumbers have started painting stripes of yellow and blue for the gas and water lines along our road. Right now, a man is parked in the middle of South Kemp and walking along the intersection of Fenoglio with a yellow probe. Not sure if he is trying to find the gas lines or what, but would hate to think that they will have to dig that area up again to connect to the gas lines. This entire hill is mostly just clay and humongous rocks. When the company putting in the sewer lines years ago was trying to dig out the rocks, the big dump truck was lifted up on one side with the weight of one of the rocks. Not sure how they ever got that thing hauled off.

 

My dogs just had their evening meal. A few months ago, Market Street had some beef called carne something on sale. It was not as cheap as chicken, but it was two pounds for nearly seven dollars. Cooked in the slow cooker with a bunch of carrots and finished off with a cup of rice, it made a meal for all three of us. It would have been somewhat better with lots of onion in it, but dogs are not supposed to have onions. Go figure.

 

Got five eggs today. It is just too danged hot for the hens. Kinda understand how they feel about sitting still in a nest of hay right now. Sprayed water under the deck again this morning so that they would have a cooler place to lie down during the heat of the day. Yours truly has taken one real shower and one dip under the faucet just to keep cool. Will wait until later this evening to check for more eggs. At least the doves are not as active around the feed bins right now. Maybe they have found a cooler place to do their eating.

 

Got a message from another sister today—Cindy Jones. She has bad knees and will get injections to be able to keep moving. She also is staying inside to try to keep from roasting. Will have to make some peach tea so she can have a good drink if she gets to come by the house. Love this tea, but it takes four bags to make a good pot for mixing up a half gallon.

Sharon Dickerson said that her husband Jimmy was growing peppers and tomatoes down there in Garland. They have gutters and collect rain water so the plants do well. They also have a “pet” rabbit that comes and visits their back yard. Hope it does not eat peppers or tomatoes! Last year Roger Thonton had some of the sweetest little yellow tomatoes growing in his back yard. They were almost like eating candy and about that size. Not sure if he has felt well enough to do that kind of thing this year. Hope he and Susan are not having to mow his parents’ place now. Have not seen them or met with the rest of the classmates this year. Now that I can sit still and walk better, it may be possible to enjoy a visit at Pioneer with them. He had bypass surgery after a heart attack plus complications with fluids; Barbara has had part of her intestines removed and feels frustrated to not be doing what she wants to do; and you know that the old woman had some major back surgery in February. We can all be thankful that God has given man the abilities to take care of our faulty parts.

 

Barbara said that Mike had taken three trailers of livestock to sell off because of the lack of water on their place. Cows and steers could bring a decent price if the prices in the store were any true indication of what the ranchers would get, but you know how that works. The rancher is pretty much at the mercy of the market. She said he put up 600 bales of hay last year and the cows went through every bale! So, it is never easy to feed livestock whether it is hens or heifers!

 

Sitting here thinking about the entire situation of back orders and lack of materials needed for building and working on orders of steel or wood products for houses, commercial buildings, and that sort of thing. It feels as if we have managed to shoot ourselves in the foot by not producing what we need right here in our own country. My daddy used to gripe about companies that bought Mexican steel because it was not as good as American steel made with something called the Bessimer process. Mexican steel had air bubbles in it that would blow out when welded or cut. Not sure if we even make steel in this country any longer. But the same thing applied to leather made in Mexico as opposed to that made in the states. It was not processed in the same manner. Oh well. At my age, and in the way things are put together today, the cars are made of plastic and the shoes are made with plastic, so there’s that. Even cloth is not the same today as it was years ago. That, however, may be a good thing. Remember having to iron? Not any longer! Wash and wear. And one good thing that has come from the tendency to avoid plastics is the little sheets that we can put in our washers instead of having a bottle of detergent that is just water and chemicals inside a plastic bottle that won’t be recycled. Things change. And sometimes it is a good thing.

 

Let us pray for those in the Ukraine and in the Sudan where folks are dying and being killed in ethnic violence. The inhumanity of man to man or beast is sad, at the very least. A day will come that things will be changed dramatically. May God bring that day swiftly!

 

Rest well, my friends, and know: you are loved.