Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

Designer called counter fabricator, who said "huh. musta' lost that order, 'cause we usually get estimates out in 2-3 days". Whatever. Anyway, quote came in on Saturday, and I stopped by (I was in town for groceries anyway) and ordered the cabinet. Delivery in 4-ish weeks.

We were supposed to at least have scheduled the new floor by now, but that's not happened. If I don't hear from her by the middle of the week, I'll call and see if she knows where my floor is (somewhere between northern Ontario and here, I'm sure, but I'd like a little more precision).

In other project news, I have the bits (blouse, jacket, skirt, overskirt) cut out, and now all I have to do is sew them together.

The counting of the froggies is 12, and I saw some toadlings up by the house -- they're about 3/4" long. I have eaten some tomatoes out of the garden. The milkweed is setting seeds now -- it looks like we're going to have a good crop of milkweed fluff this year.

The wasps have moved in on the hummingbird feeders, so I've had to take them down -- I'll put them back up again in mid-September. I need to plant more late summer flowers for the hummers.

The froggie count is now eight. I think there are more, but I have only actually seen eight at one time. There are three different species (mink, leopard, pickerel) in the pond, and some toads and tree frogs live in the yard. Today I was out doing the frog count, and a chipmunk popped out from under the ornamental grass next to the rill and stared at me. Yesterday, a squirrel meandered past me on his way to the birdseed on the ground (the jays and sparrows throw seed off the feeder platform as they eat).

I played Esme for the first time since she came back from the shop, and the first time in nearly a month -- there are some new pads and they're a little leaky. That was a bit disconcerting.

I pulled a lot of blanket flower out of the east garden today. It rather takes over, and I was tired of it being the dominant flower in the bed. There's still some out there, and it will be back next year anyway. Next up, I need to thin the sea holly. ick (it's got pokey leaves *and* flowers, especially once they've dried out a bit). The milkweed in the NE garden got pounded by the hail last week, and many of the stems are falling over. I may go out and put the peony rings on them, just to keep the leaves & seedpods off the ground.

DB has band rehearsals T-W-R this week in the afternoons. Of course, it's supposed to be hot. OTOH, we need to move SR up to campus this week, and it's supposed to be even hotter in MP than it is here. OTOOH, she's doesn't have Band Camp this week, and by the time DB and the high school band step off in the fair parade on Saturday it's supposed to be much cooler (and fair parade uniform is T-shirt and shorts anyway).

J's been laying new concrete (see?). He's nearly done with the floor, but then he has to move everything back in. I'll help some, but a lot of the stuff is things that I don't know where they go, or are too big/bulky for me to handle.