Gonna be a scorcher

6/16/08 Monday
It’s gong to be another scorcher today. The temperature this morning was eighty degrees at 7:00. Yesterday the weather guy predicted 106 degrees and this morning that was dropped to 103. There is not a big difference to me when it gets that hot. This is hard on the plants and hard on the hoses as well. I’ve had several blowouts. Was up till 11:30 last night getting water on the melon plants. I think they will be our best money maker. We are starting to see more of those big nasty grasshoppers in the garden. They are destructive pests chewing right through stems and leaving bare stalks behind.

I hope to get the tiller running better but don’t have a lot of confidence in that. I just don’t know much about it and being unable to go online to look up information adds to that frustration. Janie gave us an advance on our pay so we can write a check when the satellite dish is installed. I got a call from the Agristar (the company that makes satellite internet available to agricultural entities) rep Friday. He gave me a number to the company that is to install the system and gave us a free month’s service because it has taken so long. When I called the number the guy who answered didn’t even recognize the name “Agristar” and knew nothing about it. Not the most comfortable start of a relationship. The internet is such a valuable and even vital tool I hope they can get it together. There is so much I need to learn as I go through each day, such as the identities of the latest bugs that are swarming around the plants and what they do.

I’m getting out early before this heat gets up there. Cherie is making a couple of gallons of the green tea that I will probably drink before the day is up. John and Cindy from our Sunday school class said they would like to come out this week and help us work on stuff. Cherie said that Jen and Wally might come out too. We could sure use the help. When John asked when a good time would be I told him either early or late when the temperatures aren’t too bad.
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Here's our new kittens. Today is landfill day as the garbage can is full. Monday’s are usually the day I go unless the garbage builds up before that. So I started the truck to let it warm up. I’m careful about that as I’m gonna baby this truck to get as many miles out of it as I can. Then I grabbed my tools in case I need them to take something apart at the landfill that interests me, and my gloves. I talked to Cherie a bit, loaded up the dogs cause they love to ride with me and investigate at the landfill, and headed out. I drove nice and slow to conserve gas, coasting up to the stop signs and accelerating at a gentle pace. The gas gauge is almost on E so that motivates me to conserve. Getting to the landfill I pull up to where I need to unload, put it in park, and get out. Going to the back of the truck I opened the doors and saw that I had forgotten to load the garbage. I’m not happy. It’s another slap to remind me I have this problem they call a disability. You’d think I’d get used to it and accept it but I don’t think so. I don’t want to accept it and won’t ever be used to it. I don’t like it and will always try to beat it.

So I came back home and Cherie wondered why I was angry till I explained what had happened. I loaded the garbage and headed back out, not at all happy about the gas I wasted. On the way back I stopped at a place I’ve been checking out every time I go by. It’s a nice little homestead that has horses and an area to ride them with barrels set up. I’ve been thinking about asking them what they do with the horse manure so decided this would be a good time. That way I get a little more out of the gas I used.

It was an older gentleman who answered the door. His name is Omert? Homer? Olmert? Or something like that. I didn’t want to ask him how to spell it as I thought it would be rude or something so just tried to listen when he repeated it for me. Still don’t know for sure. I explained what I had in mind and we talked a bit about it. During the summer there isn’t much as the sun quickly dries it out and the wind blows it away. During the winter it’s a different matter because the horses are in their stalls. He’s a real friendly guy and is more than happy to give it to us. What he’s been doing up till now is just spreading the horse crap out by the road during the winter so this will be good for both of us. We talked about truck farming, horses, goats (they have a few) and the Islamic religion. I plan on visiting some more and will bring Cherie to meet his wife. I know she will love to see the horses.

One of the things Olmert said was that he had moved here in 1962 so was still considered a stranger in these parts. What a sad commentary that is.