The driveway alert went off at six and I was off to the races.  By the time I got to the dining room and looked out NOTHING was wandering around.  I put on the coffee and fed Buddy.  Judith put out a new puzzle and I put in the mandatory twenty pieces.

I hopped on the scale this morning and still holding at 208.  I haven’t been doing my sit ups for the last ten days so I got back into the routine.  Grinding our SIXTY was no easy, Papa.  Next on the agenda was typing and editing on Smarter Than Me and I got to spend a full hour on the project.  I was hoping to spend another hour this afternoon but that didn’t happen.

Judith was up at nine.  We talked over breakfast and she voted for me to start with the aphid spraying.  I clipped another garbage can full of lupine seed pods, filled with aphids, before breaking out my new back pack sprayer that I picked up while in the states.  For all these years I’ve purchased CHEAP sprayers that might, with good luck, last an entire season.  This one holds FOUR gallons and has a pump arm that allows one to pressurize the tank without removing it from your back.  It took well over an hour to spay EIGHT gallons, killing about one aphid for every dollar of our National Debt.  I’m NOT sure what is in insecticidal soap but it seems to be pretty effective on these little green pests.  With the spraying done I headed for the garden.

Even though I watered yesterday the garden was as dry as a bone.  I sure do miss the lake; all I had to do was start the pump and let it run until the gas ran out which took about thirty minutes and did a great job.  Now I can only take over a hundred gallons at a time and that’s not much.  My firehose pump can empty it in just three minutes.  By noon I made one more trip and also water the greenhouses by hand.

Judith made salmon salad sandwiches for lunch.  She mixed the leftover salmon, cooked on the Tool Box Grill, with mayo and diced onion and served it on toast.  KILLER!

Rick arrived at one thirty and fired up both machines.  We talked briefly before he hopped on the Cat and headed to the south end of the lake.  He will do cleanup work today and then take a break for the next week, allowing it to dry out more.  When he returns he’ll put in the main damn and finish by putting in the spillway.  All in all he is ahead of schedule and under budget.

We took a break at five and played our crib game.  I won and tied the month at 2-2. 

Judith started preparing dinner and I made a trip to the garden to get salad greens and pick strawberries.  When I got back I saw a four wheeler in the driveway and as I was trying to figure out what was going on Judith announced that our neighbors had dropped by.  It turns out they were the folks that bought the Steve Wright place which joins our south eastern border.  We had a nice conversation.  They don’t live there, however, are renting the house and running their cattle in the hayfields. 

I had a nice conversation and update with Lou Parrague, the man running Capture during the ESOP transaction.  Things are as good as can be expected and he has made all the right moves to ensure Capture will be around when the smoke clears. 

I had hoped to get to form building in the new garden but that just didn’t happen.  Tomorrow is a town day so that will take its toll.  Judith has a project for me tomorrow so it doesn’t look like I’ll get back to that task until Thursday or Friday.  Such is life!