We've had some very different weather today.  There was some sunshine, but also some sudden rain showers popping up throughout most of the day.  I recorded 1.22 in. of rain in my gauge this morning, and I expect we had another half inch or so during the daylight hours today.  We need the rain, so mostly it was welcomed except by those people who are trying to enjoy their vacation time here at Joe's Pond.

We had a busy day today - Dan Brownlow here this morning to install a new grounded outlet in our garage.  The July 4th electrical storm took out our garage door opener - again.  This is the second time since we've been here this has happened, and turns out the outlet wasn't grounded, so lightning had a straight shot into the door opener.  We don't mind opening the door manually, but it will be a different story in a few months when the wind is howling and snow is blowing.  It's pretty nice to be able to have the door open as we're coming up our steep driveway.  If we had to stop at the top and get out to open the garage door, I'm afraid some days we'd be chasing after the car as it slid back down the driveway.  When my parents lived here, they were getting an oil delivery one slippery day and the truck was at the top of the drive and as the guy was getting the hose ready to begin filling the oil tank, the truck began sliding down the driveway - ended up in the snowbank.  Nobody was hurt, but a wrecker had to come to pull it out.  It's pretty steep at the top, and we really like to have the door open so we don't lose momentum and have to start all over again.

This evening we met Fred's cousin, Ora and her friend, Kate, at Juniper's restaurant in East Burke.  We had a very pleasant meal and enjoyed seeing them.  Although the weather was a bit dreary when we arrived there, by the time we left, around 8 o'clock, it was very nice, and we got some nice pictures.  The view from there is lovely - and we had a chance to see the Sheffield Wind Farm.  I put together a short slideshow of the turbines and also the beautiful scenery from Juniper's.