CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in August 2018

Yesterday we had a little break from the smoke.  I was up as is usual on garbage/recycling day as we have our stuff collected just after seven in the morning and I am always afraid of missing it and having to keep the stuff for another two weeks. Not so bad for the recycling, but if I miss the garbage then some of it can have been in the bin for up to four weeks.  We used to have weekly collections of both.

Our mountain that had disappeared in the smoke, was visible and there was only a little smoke so I took the opportunity to get some much needed outside work done but not completed. Then off to breakfast at the Women's Centre, then back home.  A little more work outside then I took a siesta. Waking up the smoke was as dense as ever, so I took the opportunity to can some apples then on to starting he peaches.

From the forecast it looks as though I will be canning more peaches today Wednesday.

But I sure enjoyed the break.

Between California and British Columbia we are having a very bad year. I fully expect the price of both veggies and meat will rocket now.

sanderson, the N95 masked are getting hard to find.  So far  have stayed indoors, only taking small forays out when absolutely needed. I make sure I walk fairly slowly so that I do not need to take deep breaths.  I am having a ride this coming day to go shopping.

The outside work is only to water potted plants and the tomatoes.  The lawn can look after itself.  The lawn may be a golden lawn, but is has a profusion of yellow flowers; you know, what we call weeds.  There are little bits of green grass where the water hose has leaked when watering by hose. It is a long time since I walked barefoot in the grass.

Ditto for me. The grass is so dry it hurts to walk barefoot.

sanderson wrote:Ditto for me.  The grass is so dry it hurts to walk barefoot.

Yup, same here!

CapeCoddess wrote:

sanderson wrote:Ditto for me.  The grass is so dry it hurts to walk barefoot.

Yup, same here!

I honestly would like that.  Came home from vacay to a lush, green, June-like lawn.  My neighbor must have felt bad for me and actually mowed my yard!

I was going to mow my "lawn" a couple of days ago, you know, those pretty yellow flowers with broad leaves that smother the grass; they are having a great time.

Unfortunately we had a teeney bit of rain that precluded that effort right then and since then I have been so busy that I have not had time to see to anything in the garden.

Today, no rain forecast so I hope to at least make the lawn look like a lawn just so as it does not look like a sea of yellow.

Yesterday I could actually see my little mountain from my kitchen window and I could distinguish trees and bare mountain patches as well, and we could see little patches of blue sky.   Still lots of smoke around though.  We will see what today brings.

It is nearly five-thirty and it is still dark outside and already beginning to look like fall.  Time to put out the garbage and hope there are no bears around as this is the vulnerable time when the cans are unlocked for collection, and the bears can have a picnic.

Hot and humid here KJ.  Hi today was 31C which felt looked 43C (109F) with the humidity. Thunderstorms on the way. There were some small tornadoes in Ontario yesterday.

Same here...ready for a break from the heat and humidity.  But do not need the rain.

Yesterday  we had a break from the intolerable heat and it almost felt too cool when I left my home to do downtown.  But I did manage to mow all my grass, the main lawn and the roadside lawns and they looked quite good.

Today,  worked on removing the weeds that were growing in the wood chips that I had placed under the cheery tree which had given an abundance of fruit this year as I still have some wood chips remainingg that needed to be placed there. These chips had been on my driveway far too long and needed clearing away.

So I started watering the cleaned up surface, placing my small sprinkler in place ready to place another layer on that spot; I wanted to moisten the old chips first as they were so dry.  I managed three spots, giving the chips a good soak.  Went indoors then fell asleep, to wake up to

HEAVY RAIN 

The first real rain so so long I had forgotten what it felt like.  We did have five minutes a couple of weeks ago that did absolutely nothing.

The water was like a river running down the road and four hours later the road is still glistening in the lamp-light.  If nothing else, all the leaves on the leaves and bushes have had their leaves washed. I can almost feel them breathing again and the dust may have been washed away as well.

I am so delighted that I managed to mow the grass even though I felt tired at the time.  I wonder how long it will take until we see more green instead of brown grass? Sometimes I do get things right.  

I fianally managed to get the peaches canned, now I am thinking maybe another twenty pound flat?  I love canned peaches and already I have given some away as gifts in appreciation of what has been done for me so I really would like to get some more done. For me.

I'm so happy you received some really good rain, enough to clean all of the leaves of the trees and bushes and give everything a good soaking.

sanderson, I am not sure how many mm fell as my wheelbarrow that was standing outside and is plastic and does not leak, did not have more than and inch in the bottom and it collects rain from the shed roof.

I will go out later and check the little rain gauge I have.  But the air sure feels cool and although there is still smoke, I can see my little mountain and the trees on it.

It did not take me a moment to go and check so I discovered we had about an inch of rain. That means the lawn got quite a bit, but it is sad to see all the water running down the road.

I forgot to mention that yesterday when I came in after putting the tools away, a few minutes later a very large brown bear crossed my garden where I had been working.  That morning I had picked up all the fallen apples so I am afraid he got nothing and I am afraid that if my neighbours have not improved in their garbage storage things will get worse.

Hopefully, the bear was just waiting for you to leave the yard??? I simply can not fathom living where a bear could saunter across the yard.

sanderson wrote:Hopefully, the bear was just waiting for you to leave the yard???  I simply can not fathom living where a bear could saunter across the yard.

One gets used to it, just being aware is half the battle.  Make sure if there are cubs around you know where both mother and babies are. So long as they know you are there, they just watch.  We are not good to eat.

I am taking a break now after ferrying nine wagon loads of wood chips from the pile that has been sitting on my driveway for months. Each wagon load I piled on 12 spadefuls, and so that means 108 spadefuls.  Before, I would have opened 22 plastics bags and placed them, one at a time on a wire frame, filled each bag with five spadefuls of chips then carried them two at a time to where they were needed which meant 11 round trips.

Indeed a useful tool for me which boosted my productivity a lot. Only trouble is that this is first time I have really used the wagon and some of the nuts and bolts are now missing. I found two bolts, one nut and one washer so far. I must check it to see if anything else is loose and really look at it so see how it works underneath. The brand is "TerraCart" and was within my price range. The only hard thing was pulling it up the incline from my driveway to the main garden. otherwise I know I could have filled it a bit more and pulled it on the flat. Also. as the wood chips were on the sloping driveway, I had to make sure the wagon was facing across the driveway as there are no brakes on the wagon.