Coyote decoy, break through covid, power outage

 

lots of sunflowers despite the deer eating a lot of them

dahlia

another one

painted lady on butterfly bush I had seen a search: what does it mean if you see a painted lady butterfly? Answer death.

My new granddog: a 8 week old golden doodle named  Snickerdoodle

his happy owner

pool fun for Maya and her friends

lots of tomatoes of various colors this year

pretty sunrises

from behind the house

the year of pests: I have never had more damage from tomato worms, Japanese beetles, deer, rabbits than this year. I rehomed all the chipmunks which destroyed all my seedlings earlier. A red squirrel has developed a taste for plastic and destroyed some solar lights

I found this guy leaning next to a trashcan one morning on my bike ride. In the dimlight he looked real. I seem to have less deer damage since he has been on patrol

Allie and Hannah

These little black bees have been visiting my flowers. Presumably a kind of carpenter bee even though they are only a quarter of the size as the usual ones

love my eggplants

Such a summer! No traveling due to Covid and a chance that Steve had to be on jury duty for a couple weeks. That was cancelled due to Covid at the last minute (court closed to Covid) but we couldn't plan not knowing that.

Now we are in the usual hotter than hell drought after a very rainy early summer. Huge storms blew in and knocked out power for a huge stretch of Southern Michigan. Presumably we are one of the top areas for power outages due to our many trees. As we are on a well, no water either. Rodents had eaten through a hose of our existing generator so Steve found another  one despite the high demand.  Feeding it for 5 days gasoline and oil, plus the outrageous cost of the generator made more sense to throw out all our food and start over. In our old house, a generator was necessary to keep the sump pump going. We have one here but it never has come close to overflowing due to us living on sand (versus clay)

Shanna has power so we were able to shower. I dredged up pond water to keep the plants alive. Very hot without AC or even a fan.

I am getting less and less tolerant of those who refuse to get vaccines and those in power who forbid mask mandates when the children can't get vaccinated. My grandsons are now both vaccinated. The younger one just turned 12. His mom tried to be proactive and schedule a vaccine in anticipation of him turning 12 but that wasn't allowed. Some people were already getting their boosters when he eventually showed up. Fortunately we live in a bubble (Ann Arbor, top educated city in the US) but we are surrounded by uneducated idiots. Yep some of them are dying but there is collateral damage.

My almost 97 year old mother in law in a nursing home has covid despite having been vaccinated. Her doctor gives her a 50% chance of recovery though I think that is optimistic as of today.

Naomi is going back to school to hopefully become a computer programmer. Our state lets those without a degree and over 25 get free schooling, a pain to set that all up but she's good to go.

When it isn't extremely hot (rare) I have been increasing my running. Yesterday I wish I had my camera. The sun was a huge orange ball, which was all hazy due to the western fire smoke that made its way here, reflecting orange and red on a pond. At first I just saw upside down cranes, I could see their relections better than their actual bodies  It looked cool.

And I saw a meteor last week making it three I have seen in my lifetime.