In Praise of Grey Days

Yesterday was the kind of day that many people

would see as perfect for a "slow day".

It was cloudy and cooler than it's been in quite a while,

all the while it's grey skies threatening rain.

Some might think of it as a lazy day...

in no hurry to go anywhere...

as Moonie demonstrates...
[link to Youtube video, if needed]

For us, however, it was the perfect day to kick into high gear.

After morning chores were finished,

Hubbs worked on his list of outdoor work,

while I worked on mine.

At the top of my list was to weed a few of the garden boxes.

Specifically, the pepper boxes needed to be weeded and mulched.

We have lots of lovely peppers hanging from the plants,

and before long we will have oodles of sweet and hot peppers

to process for winter.

We are big pepper eaters and love them fresh.

Sadly, fresh ones will not last into the wintertime.

So, we will have to freeze or process what we don't consume.

No matter what we are doing,

you can be assured that Griz will be in the middle of things.

He had the best time chasing his tail within 

the wheel of the tractor.

Luckily, those wonderful grey clouds were to stay with us for the day,
so the temperatures would stay cooler.
This made it perfect for a bike ride, and we took a long one.
I managed to get us completely lost in the countryside,
so our bike ride ended up being 28 miles long.

Thank goodness for the GPS on our phones,
or they might have had to send a search party!
Despite darkening skies, we managed to make it home
without getting caught in any rainstorms.



As for rain... we need it desperately.
Our ground is dry, parched, and cracking.



The grass is dead... so dead, that I have been skipping
the grazing muzzles for the horses.
There's not a whole lot of nutrition out in the pastures...
the grass is dry and crunchy.
I am going to have to start feeding hay for the time being,
until we get some rain and the grass starts to grow.



We've arrived at the weekend in the blink of an eye.
We have no plans... and with temperatures predicted to reach 98,
I believe it will be a quiet weekend here on the farm.
I am praying that kind of heat does not last very long
as it is extremely hard on all of the animals.
Except...

the fish!
Amazingly, these huge koi (16 inches) have lived in our pond for
over ten years!
There are five of them left now.

Have a wonderful weekend!
We'll be back Monday with hot tales!

PS... to answer a question from yesterday about how we keep
the birds from eating our blueberries....
We used to net each of our bushes, but that is a huge undertaking,
so we have stopped doing that.
If we are losing any to the birds... well, then,
that's probably a good thing.
Because, as it is... we have a bazillion blueberries!