Is this hot weather or what? It's been too hot to blog! Not really, but I've been very busy with other things and have only tired to keep up with notices of events going on in the area. This morning I had a comment from Jack LaGue regarding those life preservers the Heberts fished out of the water a few days ago:

I think the life preservers that were found about July 15th may belong to Bill Hodgeman. I know that they recently lost a package of life preservers. I mentioned the blog post to him today and he went down to retrieve them and someone had recently claimed them. Not sure if that party thought they were abandoned or if we actually had two missing packages of life preservers floating around. In any event, if someone has them, contact Bill at 563 2370 or me at 476 4505.

I know some folks are very comfortable in this kind of weather, but it certainly isn't my preference. Our house stays pretty cool, normally, in hot weather - as long as I get the shades down on the sunny sides and keep the windows closed. We have ceiling fans throughout, and they pretty much do the job. But we were away Thursday and I completely forgot I'd left the window here in my office open and the blind was up. By the time I came in here to work at about 2 o'clock, the sun was beating on this side of the house and heat was billowing out into the rest of the house from this little room like it had a mega blower behind it. I was thinking how great it would be if it worked that well in the winter. Actually, the sun does warm this room for a short time on winter afternoons, but because of the hill out back and the sun being so low that time of the year, it doesn't last long enough to have much of an effect. We're always on the lookout for alternative energy sources - I am fascinated when I read or hear about area homes that are completely "off the grid."

I'm getting ready to experiment with thermal window quilts. The velcro I'll need came in the mail yesterday and I've done some preliminary work. I'm going to begin with one for my office. That way if I mess up something nobody else has to know.

Fred recently got a new weed whacker to mow the wet area up back near his wood piles. He was looking for a sickle or a scythe, but those are a little hard to find. He found a double-sided rig that is supposed to work like a scythe except you can cut on the back stroke as well as the forward one. I haven't tried it yet, but Fred says it works pretty well. I remember watching my father and a couple other men cutting a piece on the farm that was too wet for machinery to be used. I think there were three, or maybe four men and the first started cutting a swath and as soon as he had advanced a few feet, the second started his swath, and each one after that so they were all advancing across the field in unison, cutting a wide area all at once. It was fun to watch. I have tried using a scythe, and know it's important to have not only rhythm, but coordination between your swing and your steps. Years ago when that was the only way farmers had to cut their hay, it must have taken some stamina to swing a scythe all day.

My dad used to like using a scythe, and kept the wet area near our spring clipped, and other areas we couldn't mow otherwise. I used to like watching him sharpen the blade with a whetstone. That takes coordination, too. Came with lots of practice, like anything else, I guess. Sometimes he'd mow into a wasp nest, but the stings didn't bother him too much. He always said his skin was too tough.

Fred had an interesting experience a couple days ago. He was working in the garage and heard a "thunk" near the recycling cans. It was hot and he thought it was perhaps the cans expanding - but when he looked, there was a garter snake on top of one of the garbage cans. It was fairly small and slithered off the can before he could get to him, so we think we may have a family of snakes living in our wood pile. The snake must have been exploring in the rafters overhead and slipped off. We have miscellaneous pieces of siding and wood stored overhead - plus on the other side all my boxes of saved "stuff" like dishes, Christmas decorations, cartons, etc. The wood is piled very close to the loose boards of the overhead storage area so it would be no problem for the snake to make his way up there. Woody loves to sleep up there, so now we're suspecting he knows about the snake(s) and is perhaps "hunting" more than sleeping. I have never known him to bother a snake, but I'm sure he'd be interested if he saw one moving in the wood pile. After all, that's HIS wood pile. He took refuge there when he first came to our house, and that's how he got his name - "Woodpile."

Woody was treated to a rather long wheelbarrow ride in the driveway the other day. Fred was working with the wheelbarrow, and of course Woody hopped in, as he always does as soon as he sees one of us using it. It doesn't matter if it's got wood in it, dirt, plants, or is empty. He piles right in and sometimes we have to dump him out in order to go on with our work.

Our boathouse is nearing completion. All it needs now is siding, a door, electricity and a phone connection. Bob and Theresa will be there this week, and maybe Bob will work on it some. He likes to keep busy. He and Jamie finished the roof last week. It's looking good, and it's really nice inside. It's exactly like the old one only all new. And the windows are a little larger, and they open!