Posts from the ‘Pets’ category

July: bah humbug!

Not July fans at the house Summers. The best thing about July is after July is August – birthday month!! And by my birthday mid-August, the heaviest tourist traffic is over, the nights are getting longer and September is just around the corner.

However, not to say we wish the time away – that would be a waste of each gift of a day together. And having something so innocuous to complain about is better than being really angry at other things in the world. Plus, it is a great excuse for us to hunker down inside with fans and A/C going, good books, a movie here and there and refreshing summer nibbles.

Meanwhile, we DO enjoy the cool mornings very much. After cleaning bird poop off the chairs for the third morning in the row and actually seeing the darn robin that is responsible, I told Auggie that he really needed to stand guard. He is supposed to leave birds alone and stick to rodents as prey, but I told him robins are the exception … GO FOR THE ROBIN! I tell you, there is an obnoxious one and it seems like the same one every year.

“We can’t believe you talked about poop … we haven’t even had breakfast yet!!”

Ok, I’ll talk about an Apple, then. Yep, I have an iPhone and I love it. It has only been two weeks and I’m still learning about it, plus it is my backup phone so not used primarily during the day.

As we come up on the Windows 10 anniversary, I have some thoughts for a different post. I still love Windows 10. I still love my Windows 8.1 phone. I’m also thrilled with the iPhone and that it works with my Windows 10 and 8.1 devices and software.

More on this later, but below my first iPhone video. Not great – I hope to spend some time this weekend – I’m taking this afternoon and Tuesday off so a nice looonnngg weekend – to play with the camera, video and editing functions.

Meanwhile, our morning walk on Wednesday (6/29):

Summer begins

Yesterday, Monday, late afternoon the summer solstice occurred.

But earlier, after a week and a half of weather that felt like Fall AND required a shot of heat now and again…it was warm-hottish…at least relatively speaking. It was 77F after a week and a half of 50-60F. It felt hot.

I happened to see Bear and Auggie together in the shade on and near the front porch.

First day of Summer by the calendar and we felt it.

Gah – we are NOT fans of summer.

Here we go.

Summer begins.

Too hot for us

So far we are staying a few degrees less than the forecast high, but today hit 90F about 4:30. That is about 20 degrees higher than normal and higher than Bear, Auggie and I like.

Early morning is the time to be outside and shortly after 5:00 a.m., I had sprinklers going.

Then a morning walk at 6:00 a.m. – sunrise is just after 5:30 a.m. and there is light in the sky at 4:30.

Short nights as we approach the Summer Equinox are part of the problem with hot weather now. Sunset is after 9:30 with light in the sky until nearly 11:00 p.m. There is plenty of time for things to heat up in the daytime and not so much time for cooling overnight. We started this morning at 58F.

So … yes, the behemoth A/C unit. It is to be in the low 70’s and even as cool as the upper 60’s by the weekend but we have another 3 days of 90 or near 90 so it was worth the setup.

Mid-winter I bought an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker: Not my Grandma’s pressure cooker. After using it several times and seeing how things went, I got to thinking that I would really appreciate it when it got hot. With the exception of a little steam as it is coming to pressure and a bit of residual heat when cooking is done, there is not a lot of heat generated into the kitchen. This morning, it was already getting warm when I thought about cooking some pasta for pasta salad. I dithered a bit thinking that the pasta would just be mush in the pressure cooker, but finally gave it a try: 1 part pasta, 2 parts salty water, 7 minutes and quick release. The macaroni was perfect: taste and texture. I had a refreshing pasta salad for lunch!

Afternoon outside time – everyone in the shade – too HOT!

A bit of sun

It rained in the night, but at dawn it was not raining and no puddles … the ground here on this foothill of the Rocky Mountain “back” sieves like a … sieve!

And though we needed all of this rain, I do confess that it was nice to have a break.

Bear is not sad … that is his “don’t keep pointing that darn camera at me” look. But it is natural light, i.e. early morning sunlight in the sunroom!

Sun and lupins and Auggie in the woods – glorious!

Yes, some clouds, but sun is shining on my little house and its front porch.

Some inside sunshine: fresh made Ghee.

The forecast for today was rainy…

but surprise… !!

After the early morning sun, it was cloudy and gray, but mid-afternoon it cleared. I could not resist. Bear and I took a quick trip to the dump and to Bigfork. We didn’t need to, but I wanted to and Bear is always up for a ride in the Jeep.

And it was worth it.

A bit of sun.