Success with Seeds

We took a trip this spring, and when we returned, temperatures were in the high 90s, so I waited for them to fall back to the low 80s before planting seeds.  I bought Mailbox Mix morning glories, and it wasn't until very recently (possibly late September) that there were any blooms.  It's such fun to look every morning and see what new flower has opened.  I think this is the most it's given me in one day.  There are also pole beans tangled up with this, and I've now harvested enough to make a pot of beans.  This is much better than the time I grew zucchini or turnips--my other attempts as seeds.  The birds, however, are having quite a fruitful time planting seeds in the driveway.  What to try next year?

The Amazing Box

 HH's brother sent his old lathe, which weighed in the box somewhere between 300 and 400 lbs, to Portland for Himself to retrieve from the shipping company, which was in the industrial area about 175 miles away or so.  We had to use the truck to get it because it wouldn't fit in the car.  Everywhere we went people were giving us admiring glances and high fives, not knowing the trouble that lay ahead for us.  The day was hot and the traffic heavy, and we broke down twice on the side of the interstate, the first time on a narrow bridge near a very busy exit onto another interstate, with trucks whizzing by what seemed like inches away.  There was a vapor-lock and fuel refused to get past the carburetor.  What Himself says about it is, "If you have old vehicles you don't know what's wrong with them until you drive them."  He thinks he might need a new fuel pump soon, because maybe it was just getting too old and weak to push through that vapor-lock, and maybe it's time to service the radiator.  He got to check things and see what was working and what wasn't.  Anyway, it was an exciting adventure for us.  We had a picnic in the cab while we let it cool off.

 We made it safely home after a second breakdown, but this time he knew it was just too hot, and he got to check things, and we got home in the very perfect exact nick of time for me to get to the park and play with my band, which was having an extra bonus concert just down the road from our house.  Just one fun thing after another.

Brother of HH likes to do things well, and that is how he made the crate for the lathe.  I never saw a label bolted on before I saw this.  This was the second freeway breakdown without a motorcycle in as many months.  I'm happy and lucky to get to have all this fun and adventure.

Look What I Found

i am amazed that this blog is still here, just sitting around doing nothing for years.  HH and I took a little drive (he likes to say it was 8,000 miles) to see old friends and relatives on the other side of the Mississippi River.  We also saw the Atlantic Ocean from the tip of one side of the Chesapeake Bay.

I got distracted by the Capitol Dome, which we saw on a whirlwind tour of Washington, DC, which they just call Washington on all the road signs, but here is HH with both the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean behind him.

This green photo was taken at a relative's in Ohio.  She has a bottle tree and a glass tree.  The yellow sign just peeking out from the left says to watch out for motorcycles.  We made it to the east coast and back to the west coast, just by taking the little roads through the little towns and farms.