Oh God, it's Hot!

Egg Frying Hot

It got up to 98 degrees here today and it is supposed to be above 100 all weekend.  This heat is brutal with the high coastal humidity that we have.  I was worried about the chickens.  I sprayed down their sand with water and then hung a high volume fan above them.  They made it through the day but they looked stressed by sundown.  They dig down into the sand, sit in the hole, spread their wings out and pant when they get real hot. 

Pacific on the Atlantic

I took this shot down by the beach last night.  It is one of those 'beach junk' stores and I loved the colors of both the lit store and the sunset lit sky.  This is the shot straight out of the camera with no enhancement.  We have been having some spectacular sunsets lately.

Forest Fire

This was a shot I took on my one hour drive home from work this morning.  It looks like fog but it is not.  It is dense smoke from a 21,000 acre forest fire in the Croatan National Forest which is just down the road.  It has been burning for about 10 days now and has been drifting smoke over our area on and off depending on the winds.

Hot!

Oh my God it was hot today.  I showed 93 degrees in the shade on the back porch with high humidity and light winds.  This is the time of year here that I don't like and which kicks off hurricane season.  I took this picture this evening after sunset just before dark.  It was actually later than I wanted.  I had driven by this creek about 10 minutes earlier and it was much better with a brilliant sky but after racing home, getting my camera, then racing back the light had completely faded.  Of course it had to be one of the few times that I didn't have my camera with me.  The magnificent light on clouds at sunset frequently lasts only minutes.

Paul's Produce

Paul's Produce is just a few miles down the road.  This is where I go for some of the best corn around.  Unfortunately, I was just a little bit late to catch them open today.

Garage Time

I finished with the concrete coating and now I am getting ready to tackle the garage.  Today I worked on replacing water damaged lower panels in the garage door.  I hope to get the whole garage door painted tomorrow.  Next I will be repairing/replacing the lower areas of the siding all the way around the garage which were also water damaged during last years hurricane and will follow that up with a fresh coat of paint. 

Dinner

I just picked these veggies for my dinner.  There are yellow beans, onions, cherry tomatoes, sage, purple bell pepper, banana pepper, anaheim pepper and jalapeno peppers (I love peppers).  I will cut these up along with a little chicken breast then saute in a skillet and serve it all over rice.  I have a LOT more veggies coming in right now from just 8 Earth Boxes than we can all eat so the freezer is filling up.  It is amazing how many vegetables you can get off of just one plant.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

My dad on my bike a few years ago.  He's 81 now and still going strong.

Painting Concrete

Today's chore was to paint the concrete in the back of the house.  It was looking pretty bad and the rough texture of the concrete was a magnet for dirt and the growth of mildew.  It required power washing about twice a year to get all the gunk off of it.  It should be much easier to maintain now.  I painted this concrete 12 years ago but it pretty much wore off after about 8 years.

Lady Helen

This area of coastal North Carolina used to have a huge, vibrant fishing community.  It is now just a ghost of its former self with just a few boats left, many of which are poorly maintained and barely hanging on.  I have been here for 15 years and have seen many of the changes.  Most of the boats are gone.  All the small bayside villages have processing plants, ice plants, boat yards and supply shops that are all closed now.   It's sad and it is the same situation that has played out across this country in one industry after another.  This picture was taken today just after sunset as it was getting dark.

Paint Prep

I spent all day power washing the concrete outdoors.  It was slow going as I had to get in close to remove all the mildew growing on the surface.   I will be applying concrete paint to all of this concrete in the back of the house, around the garage, in the next few days when all threat of rain has passed.  My next project is to repaint the garage and chicken coop.

At Anchor

Just a quiet evening at anchor near Oriental, NC.

More Veggies

This is the average daily harvest right now, not including an onion and some herbs.  Here are some squash, green and yellow beans, banana peppers, a jalapeno pepper and some cherry tomatoes.  I get a bell pepper also every few days but it is not quite hot enough to get the peppers and tomatoes cranking yet.  I am also growing habanero, anaheim and chili peppers as I am a real pepper fan.

Oh my God!  I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over a week.  I just started a new hospital job and orientation has been a bear.  I am off of orientation now and have started working my regular schedule (which is not full time as I want to have time to enjoy life a little).  The pic attached is the 2002 Pontiac Grand Am which we found for my stepdaughter this week for the princely sum of $2,500.  This car replaces the car that she wrecked and totalled almost 2 weeks ago. 

Out With the Old, In With the New

I felt like a kid in a candy store today.  I replaced my 15 year old Murray mower with a John Deere D130 mower with a 20hp V-twin engine.  After mowing I felt like I had moved from an economy car up to a luxury sedan.  The first thing I did was to disable the seat safety cut-off switch which cuts off the mower if you get up off the seat.  I then disabled the RIO switch which requires you to step on the brake and push a button before you can mow in reverse.  For web searchers on the subject just check out the pictures below (I don't recommend you do this for safety reasons, I'm just documenting what I did).  To disable the seat switch which is on the bottom of the seat I just cut the three wires leading to the plug.  You can't use jumpers to do the trick, just cut all three wires and it's good to go.  As for the RIO switch I just lifted up the engine cover, reached underneath and pushed the RIO switch out of the dash before making a small wire jumper to permanently connect the two pins at the switch.  After that I just popped the switch back into the dash.  After this I removed all the stupid safety warning stickers placed all over the mower such as the one on the blade deck which stated 'Warning, do not place hands under the deck while the blade is engaged or severe injury will result'.  Oh really?  I didn't realize that!!!  Fear of liability and warning crap all over everything drives me absolutely crazy.  I guess we are just a country of morons that don't have any common sense.  Anybody that reaches under a mower deck with the blades engaged deserves to loose their fingers.