Yeah, we kinda went right past the predicted 28-29C/82-84F this afternoon.
I actually took a nap for a couple of hours – while writing my previous blog post, I fell asleep at my keyboard several times! Woke up just in time for the hottest part of the day. 🫤
I got a daughter to assist me with doing the evening outside cat feeding, supervising the kittens as they ate in the old kitchen (once again, Havarti was nowhere to be seen), passing me the other cat soup bowls through the window, and helping me trade out the frozen water bottles from this morning for new ones, and putting the thawed out ones back in the freezer for tomorrow. Tomorrow is supposed to be at least a few degrees cooler, but we shall see.
Grommet was taking advantage of a relatively cool spot in the sun room, after filling his belly. The sun room was about 35-40C/95-104F, according to the wall thermometer!
I managed to get some decent progress done outside. One rather nasty job that I finally got around to doing was raking up the dirt floor in the garage, around my mother’s car. The cats had been using it as litter all winter, so it was really… unfortunate. It’s all cleaned up now! Finally.
We also finally got the second clothes line up using the kit I’d bought awhile back. My daughters have been washing their bedding today, so that’ll come in handy. We still have space for one more line, but there is no rush on that.
I just realized; I forgot the step ladder that I had to use to attach the pulley at the far end.
Despite the rain we got, I found that the beds in the old kitchen garden were remarkably dry, so I got those watered. We didn’t get enough rain to refill the rain barrel, but there was enough to water the old kitchen garden, at least. I’ll water the rest of the garden beds and trees in the morning.
One of the ornamental crab apple trees has gotten overgrown again and branches have been getting in the way of access to things, so I finally broke out the extended pole pruning saw and cut some of it away. We’ve worked out how much of that tree we need to take down, which will be a rather substantial section of it. We’ll do that in the fall or spring, though. For now, we’ll just take down some of the branches, first. The cut pieces went onto the branch pile near the fire pit, so we’ll have some nice apple wood to use during cookouts. Whenever we manage to actually have one. With the fire bans, it certainly isn’t going to be for a while!
Then I worked on the elm tree outside the kitchen window. The one we need to get rid of completely. We’ve cut that thing back a few times, but it has since regrown to the point that when I pull up to the house with the truck, it’s hard to open and close the doors without catching branches. Even when mowing the lawn, I was starting to have to duck under them, which is saying something, considering I’m on the short side!
What I’d really love to do is take down the big branch that’s overhanging the roof, but we have no safe way to do that. My brother was saying he could do it. Alternatively, we’d have to hire someone to safely take it down, and that is a lot more expensive now, then when we had a company come in to clear the power lines for us.
Still, I was able to get quite a few branches cleared away for now, and we’ll no longer be hitting them when we drive in with the truck. I could have kept on going, but even with taking it easy and staying in the shade as much as possible, the heat was getting to me.
Meanwhile, my brother and SIL have been busy with their own stuff, including moving some of the parked vehicles and equipment to mow under them, so the tall grass won’t start rusting things out. Then my SIL kept on going with the big mower, doing the rest of the outer yard. I think she even went into some of the rougher areas that hadn’t been done yet. The big mower can handle the terrain better. I’d already mowed around the planted trees, with paths in between, so that made it easier for her, too.
I think I’ll pop on over to see how they’re doing, while it’s still light out. I do enjoy being able to just casually see them like this! They are just the best. 💕😊
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad I subscribed.😇
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