It is so friggin' hot and dry:  7% humidity outside and 90º on my thermometer in the shade.  I've been making sure the birds have water but it's a task to keep everything else watered.   The city of Boulder has a policy this year of penalizing over-watering, but you don't have any way to know when you're about to go over the limit.  I'm usually under the limit,  but it's hard to tell.

We spent some time at the Boulder creek yesterday and soaked in the sounds and negative ions from the burbling water.   It took my mind off my crunchy grass at home.

This picture from wikimedia.org really does it justice.  

The Dog Days of Summer.  This is the 15th day of 90º plus temps.

A great way to start the day is going out to add water to the bird feeder and seeing a spotted fawn darting out from behind a gooseberry bush 8 feet away. The mom is munching on my garden with her two little ones. The deer have been busy reproducing this year! Here's a photo of another baby that visited us a few months ago.

A neighbor down the street, is an artist and a gardener. For years I've walked by her Christmas tree farm and we bought some honey from her hives which was pretty tasty. Last year she gave away a bunch of plants from her garden and I got a rose bush and some sort of vine that are doing well in my yard. This year, she is giving away trees! I picked up a Russian Hawthorne and an Acer Maple. What a lovely person to have around.

This sign of summer was new to me, though I imagine it's been there for years. When the sunset shines on my washing machine, it must be pretty high in the sky. It's in a northwest room of my house. Next year I'll track the progress - maybe this will be my personal Stonehenge.

Did I mention Honey and Sweetie moved out? It's the second exodus from the nest so it is just what it is. I'm in the midst of spreading out after a year of squeezing 4 adults into a house that was probably meant for 2 adults/2 kids. Now there is space where there was none before. I can change things and rearrange without getting four opinions first. I miss them but we all like each other so we still see each other.

The worst of the grass pollen has passed so I can get back out into the yard again to move things around and weed and water. This time of year has got to be my fav.

Summer is in full swing (now that June 20th has come and gone) and that means chores galore.  We did start painting the house last week but as is our usual custom, the next phase still hasn't been scheduled.  It does look better if you don't focus on the splotches on the unpainted trim.  Besides the house, no huge home improvement projects this year unless I decide to paint the downstairs area.

We packed 5000sf worth of houses this week and even with the stifling heat, it went well.  Suddenly we are the less expensive option, maybe because we haven't raised prices with the gas hike.   Still making money, though.

The garden has exploded with color  and I'm looking at sweet peas, yarrow, chocolate flower and Mexican Sage and roses, butterfly flower, those little purple bell-shaped flowers and the honeysuckle.  And  potentilla.  And one day lily that the deer missed.

Defining some terminology with Sugar the other day.

We started painting the house for real yesterday.
















Hansel helped from a distance.

It's been dry here during the last week but we got some great views of other people's storms. The Colorado Front Range gets more thunderstorms than all other states except for Florida and that makes for some great cloud and lightening shows. From this vantage point of slightly higher up the mountains, you can see far across the plains.

I've been busy getting the condo ready to rent again. Today, an ad went onto Craigslist and we've already gotten 3 calls even with a $75 increase! It's a landlord's market here with a low, low vacancy rate so we're going to make up for the last year or so.

Meanwhile, lots of visitors in the yard. Honey caught the fawns in the yard yesterday and today. The bird bath on the fence rail is about waist high so you can see he's really little.



And the squirrel is at it again. This one looks like he's mooning me as he dives down through the top of the feeder. The hinge door on the top was a no-brainer for this little fella. I was waiting for him to get stuck upside down.

The subject of disasters is developing into my summer reading project.
I found this capitvating map of real time disasters that are occurring around the world. As I write this, 9 volcanoes are erupting along the ring of fire and a biological hazard is in progress in Florida.
Fascinating, but not fascinating enough to make come up on a Google news search.

Most of my gardening musings are at my other blog but I am so proud of this little rose that I'm posting it on the blog that people actually visit. This sweet thing is a rugosa rose, one of a bunch of ditch roses that I nudged into my side of the fence and nurtured over the last 20 years. This one is in an area where my dear Yard Man, Sugar, can't accidentally mow or step on and it's blooming verily this year. First rose of the season in my garden. Who knew they were scented?

The Boulder Rural Fire Department outdid itself with their open house on Saturday.  Flight for Life stopped by after dropping a patient off and let the kids come on board to see all the equipment. 

  The Boulder Emergency Squad was there showing off the Jaws of Life.  Right when I walked up, they popped out both windshield into pieces and had the 'victim' out in a matter of minutes.

Code 3 Associates impressed me most of all that day, though all these heroes palpably inspire me.  I've never heard of Code 3 before, a disaster response team for animal rescue.  They're equipped with a huge rig to house the team and treat the injured animals.  They travel to disaster nationwide and don't charge for their services.  

On top of all the inspiration, the day was just a lot of fun.

I have to mention that this is 6/7/8 today.

I started Tai Chi again after a several year hiatus, same teacher but different setting. There's a different significance for me this time, since I'm looking at this practice to keep me physically strong in my old age. The spiritual lessons are a little bonus as well as the insights into Chinese Medicine. That's all I have to say about that for now.

Sugar is off learning about back yard beekeeping. Who knew that he had an interest in the area? He really responded to the solitary bee project, knocking together 6 houses for the street fence. I envision a lot of loner bees, coming and going without noticing the neighbor bees, probably with little bee Ipods to help them tune out the rest of the world. We'll just leave them be, so to speak.


photo from http://en.wikibooks.org/

We have our final CERT exercise tomorrow which should be fun and educational but I a little bummed because I found out that there isn't much to do as a CERT trainee after this except to be prepared. I had in mind that there would be some call-up opportunities like this guy gets but there just isn't any sort of program like that developed around here. The most I can look forward to is giving out information at some fairs and possibly helping in a call center during a blizzard. Maybe that's good, that emergency responders don't need any help around here.

Meanwhile, there's a new webcam in Boulder: Boulder Creek cam so if the big one comes this year, we should be able to watch it.

Time to say goodbye.  

Sugar joined his brother  to bury his mom today next to her husband in a little grassy cemetery in the wilds of the Upper Midwest.  His mom has been with us in a box on a bedroom shelf for the last 15 years, cared for and thought of, but it was time to put her ashes in the ground.  I had visions of taking her to the wide-open ND plains and opening the box during a windy day but the brother needed a memorial, a place for future generations to come to when the genealogical urge strikes.  I think she would have liked that,  her sons coming together for her sake.  Wonderful lady.

I was at the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder office yesterday and decided to be an election judge, not really on a whim but somewhat on a whim.   I asked about the duties, mumbling something about doing the job with integrity, wondering if that was the sort of thing they were looking for.  The woman said, "We don't have integrity anymore."

Huh?

I laughed and asked (in disbelief), "You don't have integrity?"

No, she insisted.  We used to have integrity but we don't now.  Then she burst out laughing when she realized what I was asking.  They don't use a program called "Integrity" in the office.  Who knows what the name of the new program is:  Dishonor?  Dishonesty?  No, I doubt it but it was a good laugh.

I think this is the election of a lifetime and a good one to launch the civic duty phase of my life.

If you're looking for a reason to drive to Boulder, this is the time to come to Long's Garden.  When I first moved to Boulder, it was Wintertime, all brown and dry so when Spring came along I was delighted to see this colorful expanse up the street on Broadway.   There are so many yards and gardens with irises in the area and this is the reason why.  I have a couple of dozen and I'm not sure where I got them, except they were all thinnings from other people.

While you're here, go a little further north to Harlequin's Gardens if you're interested in native plants.   This business seemed to start off as a labor of love in the 90's and and developed from a scruffy little operation open on the weekends to a well thought-of establishment open most of the week.  If you go, drive to the end of the dirt road for some great views of the Front Range north of Boulder.

image from http://longsgardens.com

I love the south-facing passive solar aspect of our house. It's kept winter heating bills very low for all these year but we do suffer a few weeks of 90-100º heat every summer. The solution has been to keep the window shades down but it makes for a darkened cave-like atmosphere inside.

This year we've had an unusual number of birds flying into the windows so we were spurred to action to find some solution to both problems. The Plow and Hearth catalog introduced us to Coolaroo shades - problem solved! Luckily, we found them cheaper at McGuckin Hardware (sorry P & H) and installed them in a couple of hours or less. I love the product.

Sweetie had an unfortunate encounter with an elk late one night in Southern Colorado recently and our Subaru is now suffering. It's been at Abra in Boulder for almost a week and after they dismantled it, we heard it would take about 6K to repair it. State Farm now decides if it's worth the money.

I liked the Outback well enough, but it was the most expensive car I've ever had. We got a good price through AAA but the upkeep was ridiculous. I'm considering returning to my Honda roots when we get another one.

Luckily, Enterprise on Valmont in Boulder is giving us a great deal on a rental. We discovered the 'body shop discount' after calling Hertz - long story short, we just decided to keep the Enterprise compact.

Summer is arriving this week with temps in the high 80's. The Boulder Creek Festival is this weekend starting with a concert at Twenty-Ninth Street (Nina Storey) and they'll have Saturday concerts all summer. 29th Street events have a different feel than Pearl Street Mall events but the parking seems to be a LOT better.

Another reason I love going to Costco is the ride. If you get off the highway and take the back roads, you see this countryside. Beautiful, especially if you're a cow person.
Going through Marshall, I saw a women unloading her llama from the back of her mini-van. Only in Boulder? Maybe not but pretty cool.

Sweetie is officially a learned scholar and finished with school.

Ok, the trip was fine, the beach was great but I'm glad to be home. The free (via Amtrak rewards) ride to Chicago was easy and a little boring, but we did go over the Mississippi River as it was cresting at historic levels. Looking down I could see the distance from the train wheels to the water was a little close for comfort. One benefit of traveling in a sleeper is the "1st Class" waiting area at the Chicago station. Wi-Fi, Snacks, Movies and (the best thing) Clean Bathrooms. The rest of the trip South was nighttime rain and wooded acreage.

I had a great conversation with the treasurer of the National Association of Railroad Passengers on the way up from Jackson. I told him I was a member but not that I had let the membership lapse. Then I pumped him all I could for news about the future of train travel. One good thing that came out of that conversation: when I got home, I read the latest newsletter and found that the bus service portion of the Amtrak trip to LA was restored to Raton. Hopefully, my letters of complaint encouraged the reversion. 4 hours on the bus to Raton, a ratty abandoned depot, is much more attractive than 8 hours on the bus to Albuquerque with their new Greyhound/Amtrak station.

Most of my Amtrak trips have meant getting up at 4am to catch a 6am bus, then traveling for 4 hours for the connection.  This time, though, I'll be boarding at 8pm.  What a luxury.  Bye, bye - back in a couple of weeks.

There's a lot of artwork at DIA, including a whole area of Native American art.
This 'floating baby' one caught my eye.

I went to DIA last night to pick up Sugar and saw "Notre Denver" again.  I love this gargoyle that protects the Frontier baggage area.   Hopefully, it'll help Frontier get through this bankruptcy and back to normal. Last night, I got it that he's in a Samsonite suitcase - there used to be a Samsonite factory not too far from DIA.    Great public art. 

I went to the new REI prototype store.  Eco-prototype.  I'm not sure about the details but I read that it's remarkable somehow (in a lot of ways).  Frankly, I preferred the feel of the other store better but I respect the change.  These solar light fixtures fascinated.  They are under openings in the ceiling so they are skylights but there is a stick of light hanging down inside, probably for night time.  The covering fabric reminded me of Denver International Airport tents.

Last week we got a letter from the Boulder Planning Department telling us that our outside light fixtures are not kosher since they don't have covers on them.   They are about 21 years late in letting us know but what the hay?  I had my suspicions about the letter since it was stuck in our box with no stamp and it wasn't on city letterhead, but so what.   I do wonder if someone from the city drives around after sunset to see which citizens are using light bulbs illegally.

The next day, a neighbor stopped by while I was outside pulling weeds and introduced himself as the HOA president from across the street (their HOA, not mine).  He said that we would be getting a certified letter in the mail to remind us that They own the strip of land next to the street and We don't.  Yes, we know that - we have been mowing the strip since for 21 years for the privilege of having our mailbox there.  He said it was a friendly way of making sure that we know that We don't own it but They do. Please, take it! I'm tired of mowing it!

That adverse possession case has gotten people spooked around here. Paying property taxes and having a deed to the property isn't enough these days.