I took a picture of the little test tube gauge....were it not for surface tension, I think it might have overflowed. Ann and Matt's gauge is bigger....all the better to record an extra half inch, my dear!
I am grateful. Though a drive through the country later Sunday afternoon showed lots of road damage south of town and even some leaned over corn, this rain was still a plus on the ledger. Lee thinks the soybeans at the greenhouse grew six inches. And that may be; I have to think they were all curled up conserving moisture by reducing surface area these last few days. Now the countryside, the gardens, the sweet corn and the people can exhale and relax.
Well, not quite everybody. Ryan noticed that the big greenhouse was flat as a pancake. Then he noticed the electric pole holding the transformer was black! REA came out to replace the transformer and we got the power turned back on down there but I bet we find some damaged goods in our infrastructure at Deadman's Hollow. Betcha that's not the only line crew out at work today....
Tracy posted some very pretty daylily pictures today, giving you all the credit, Mama, for her love of gardening and daylilies in particular. Ben's daylilies are almost done down in K.C., but I still have some clumps of later ones with generous stems of big fat buds. The coneflowers are also going strong and the first hibiscus blooms have appeared. I have, unfortunately, seen a few Japanese beetles for the first time this summer. I picked and squished them off the canna they were hatching on (?) but haven't seen a widespread outbreak. Something voracious really chewed up a couple of sunflowers but I know this will not cause Blake any grief. Also looks like I have a couple of casualties among the vine crops. While the airplane came over Deadman's Hollow to clean up the caterpillar and beetle problems there, the garden at Spruce will just suffer through without spray. There are just so many butterflies and assorted bees that I hate to discourage...
It was a busy weekend with some of the best entertainment that small towns can offer. We started off early Saturday morning down in Osborn, Mo, a small town just a mile south of highway 36 between St. Joseph and Cameron, the jumping off spot for this year's Farm Bureau Tractor Cruise. Last year there were 89 tractors, but the numbers were down somewhat Saturday...due to the hideously hot weather, I'm sure. The tractors were umbrella-ed and the drivers well-hatted. One gentleman on his IH tractor was decked out in a IH pith helmet, reminding me of Grandpa Renken in his gardening gear. Fortunately, everyone ate lunch at Lathrop in their clean and cool cafeteria. And they got to eat ice cream at the Shatto Dairy for a cool down before the last leg. In the past, Lee and I have been responsible for taking pictures of the drivers and their tractors, but someone else was deputized this year, so we took our time driving the byways of Clinton county, enjoying the farmsteads and scenery. Blake has always been second in line driving one of Vern Hart's John Deeres. Last year something on the tractor broke, but he completed the ride without incident or accident this time around. Ben and Levi drove up to watch the sendoff, and I took a really cute picture of Levi and his grandpa. He is smiling big, but Blake reports he wasn't real confident about his seat in the open air, unlike when he rides in the combine! Maybe he thought he was going to have to drive the whole way!
And on Friday evening, we enjoyed a theater outing in Rock Port to watch Lizzie and Abbie and Josh (and Aaron in a "cameo"appearance as the king) in "Frozen Jr.", the culmination of the week long kid's theater camp. They sang and they danced with great energy and smiling faces. The kids' enthusiasm would have melted hearts of stone, but the audience of moms, dads, family and friends was primed to be entertained, cheering for the songs and laughing with the jokes. It was impressive and surely rewarding and encouraging for the adults who worked with the kids all week. They have a leg up on future thespians! Not only that, but Lee reports the weekend gave a healthy boost to the Liberty Theater coffers. The renovations are very nice...so many improvements from the very first time we played over there in the Sound of Music!
The last of the summer hibiscus will be delivered this week...we will have cheated the weather gods and sold almost all of them without hail or major breakage or plague. We canned a batch of bread and butter pickles this afternoon...it was a real pleasure to have the windows open and have all that steam escape. Blake is of the opinion that no sandwich is really complete without pickles; this was a start on filling the shelves in the basement. Abbie has picked a generous bowl of cherry tomatoes leading to a recipe search for luncheon dishes that will use them up! Tomorrow's choice: Spinach tortellini salad. With tortellinis and cherry tomatoes, what could go wrong.
Ryan and Matt went down to the sweet corn patch to pick late this afternoon. The kids sold sweet corn in Torrey Pines' parking lot last year and made some nice money. The corn is a couple of weeks later this year, but the ears Ryan brought up to the house look nice....nicer than they would have without our weekend rain! We are hoping this bodes well for the field corn of the same vintage.
And I guess that's about it for this week's news. Weather and kids and flowers and Farm Bureau...a pretty normal mix, right? We miss you a lot and love you more,
Julie
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