July... 26th?!?!?

One week from today will be the SECOND day of August.

Talk about a fast-forward summer! School here starts in 11 days, so I'm sure there are a lot of big and little happy school folks around here.

Not.

We continue to enjoy summertime temperatures in the low to mid 70s. Low 80s if it's a hot day. Sorry, all you folks with the 100+ temps (really sorry, as we've been there, done that). You should come see us!

Meanwhile, Randy has been using his time wisely during his summer break, which will make full-time football seem like a vacation. Besides replacing the rock work in front of the cabin steps, he finished the steps from the cabin yard as Phase 1 of the trail-from-the-cabin-to-the-pond project. He had a little help from me (little being the key word here) and Kali.

The trail's not finished, but THIS was the biggest 'step' of the project. We think.

As football has been only part-time this summer, the coach went into overdrive with fixing the little spring creek by the pond, continuing to spruce up the new little waterfall/park area,



painting the storeroom, and working on getting the painting finished on the house. As usual, it's considerably more tedious than previously thought, but at least it's stopped looking like the painters skipped town.

Matthew's been home for a week from his summer football coaching duties (courtesy of the head coach's daughter's wedding), and he has entertained us with FOUR movies so far on the TV he bought for his own graduation present. It's like going to the movie theater, but we can look like slobs, start and stop it whenever we want, don't have to deal with sticky floors and grungy seats, and don't have to pay! Well, okay, maybe it's not so much like going to the movie theater, but it's been great fun to actually SEE a movie again! Been a long time.

Katie returns from a packed week with a friend, with whom she visited Boston and New York City. She promises she took lots of pictures!

Randy (there he is again) mowed on the mountain top and came back with a bag of the first harvest of blackberries! Woo-hoo!

Speaking of Randy, he may be taking a nap right now in the recliner.

Now THAT I can join in on....

June, er, July is Bustin' Out All Over!

Here we go again - over a week into another new month, and I still haven't changed my desk calendar. Of course, with everything dumped on top of it, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Our July 4th weekend was greatly enhanced by the weekend visit of both college offspring, Matthew and Katie. We ate at Mom's the evening of the 4th - nothing overly healthy, but with grilled hamburgers and one of Randy's cheesecakes, that apparently didn't matter, either.

Katie, a photography major, humored me as I tried to capture fireworks from our deck, her little balcony, the cabin deck, and a little hill behind the cabin. We could see the fireworks easily from all vantage points, but most of my pictures looked like this:

Every now and then I'd actually be aimed at the fireworks and would luck into something that resembled what we watched:

And sometimes it looked a bit alien:

And like the fireworks, the wildflowers are exploding!

As daisies are one of my very favorites, be thankful there's only one photo of them... at least until I can snag some of the pictures Katie - the real photographer - took.

Meanwhile, the temperatures have been so pleasant lately (LOW/mid 50s at night to mid/upper 70s during the day!), we're wondering what's in store for winter. It's probably best we don't know. Summer ain't over yet, of course, but there are usually only 5 days a year that we'd consider hot. Not H-O-T as in anywhere else in the state or certainly not Texas, our old stomping grounds, but hot to us mountainbilly wimps.

For those of you scheduled to return to Angel Mountain, don't faint if you see that we have finished painting the house! No need to faint just yet, as we haven't finished, but there is finally an expectation of completion before football starts up full-time again. Even the old storeroom (which one wide-eyed - and slightly horrified - cabineer thought was the cabin upon arrival), is getting a makeover from the can!

Shocker, I know.

When we get finished, you can be sure proof will go up... before we move to the next project :)

Supervisors, Supervisees, and Whatever Else Keeps the Mountainbilly Mama from Working

Randy, supervised carefully by Emma, replaced the (broken) rock work in front of the cabin steps with brick pavers.

Emma made sure he did a good job. And it does look spiffy!

Meanwhile, Kali was exhausted after a day of playing in the pond and walking up and down the cabin road, supervising Emma supervising Randy.

In another meanwhile, Supervisor Sami was slightly irritated that the big rocks in the cabin parking area were a tad hard for breaktime... which is just about all the time.

Lots of hummingbirds at the cabin and at the big house. Since our big feeder is right outside the kitchen window, it's a wonder the kitchen ever gets cleaned. Oh, wait, maybe that's why it doesn't get cleaned....

Lots of summer bloomin' around here, too!

And the blackberries, which are ALL OVER, are coming right along!

Off to see what Randy's up to now, seein' as how he's outside while all three supervisors are sacked out (on a rather grungy carpet and a rocker).

It's Raining, It's Pouring, the Forecast is Boring...

I would say I can't believe it's the 18th, but I say that every time I finally make my way back here. Well, not that I can never believe it's the 18th, of course, but that so many days have rushed by since the last update. Where are they going? Is there a fire?

One of the reasons it's hard to keep up is that every day for the past six weeks or so has looked identical to the one before.

Exhibit A, B, C, D....

Flash Flood Watch/Warning. Severe Weather Watch/Warning. Severe Thunderstorm Watch/Warning. Tornado Watch/Warning. Repeat after me.

Yawn.

A few days have been downright entertaining for us mountainbillies surrounded by water and ground that squishes when you look at it.

This is usually a trickle at best

Our little creek is usually, um, little.

And it's usually not brown.

We were thinking of Noah, wondering just how he built that ark, when we had our first potential boarder.

Don't worry - we have a pair!

We did have blue sky for a little while this morning, but it's acting like we need drought relief again (we don't). Much more rain, and the fish will be on land and won't know the difference. Much more rain, and we'll be in the pond and won't know the difference.

I'm sure everyone wants to get in line to make reservations now! That number to call, the one on your screen, is 1-800-499-3555!

And join those for whom there is never a moment of joy quite like the present. No matter what.

Off to find some ark directions, whether Kali needs them or not....