It’s now Fummer, the season in between fall and summer. Unusually warm today – temperatures in the high 70s, low 80s. A little too warm. In the words of Alfred E. Newman, what, me complain? I really can’t imagine leading a life with temperatures in the triple digits. I suspect that others can’t either, so they are going to be moving more northward. It will be a mass migration. If this happens, I’ll move even farther north, just to stay one step ahead of the fray.

What might keep people from moving here is (if they think about it) the fact that the food infrastructure is very tenuous. The barges and the semis get cut off and people will be scrambling for food. We are now well off – Pete did catch and process 54 jars of fish, and in the next few days our raspberry bushes will have ripe berries. We also have veggies that are now making an appearance. The carrots, which never surfaced (after I planted them) are a foregone conclusion as are the peaches on the peach tree, which are just tiny nubs.

Pretty soon I’ll be picking saskatoons.

Swampy The Goat was looking scurfy. We gave her a copper bolus and she’s now looking much better and appears to be more lively. The chickens are looking good – and they are getting fruit and vegetable scraps; however, they are not laying eggs. This is not good. In fact, it’s bad. No milk (we have not yet bred the goats) and no eggs – this is a bona fide petting zoo.

The horses would do a better job of pulling their weight if I gave them more weight to pull.

We were given some tiger lily bulbs. I planted them adjacent to the goat enclosure. They have bloomed and are quite beautiful.

We got two loads of hay, 20 bales each time, and will stock up for winter in September, which is just now a month away. The hay is rather stemmy and dark green; I hope that we can get some good grass hay for winter. Hay is now very, very expensive. This is partially why so many horse people are leaving the area.

We have not gotten a lot of rain; just enough to fill the water tanks. But it is still conceivable that we’ll get a fummer draught. Then we’ll go to the creeks and get water.

The dogs enjoy the cool evenings. So do we. Tonight I thought that perhaps I’d forgotten to put the sandwich board sign Bill made me back in the shop. Pete agreed with me to go and get it. We combined our trip with a drive to the Trunk Road Laundromat where we both got Ice Cream cones and stocked the bookcase. I’m going to regret this because the chocolate (!) is going to keep me awake tonight.

I am making tomorrow an easy day and for the most part hanging out here and enjoying the ongoing fummer. Unfortunately, so will the other trail users.

Next: 210. 8/2/23: Wordless, Almost