The Trip to Chicagoland

Today is Wednesday. Late last Friday I got an email from my sister, who lives a bit south of me, telling me she decided to make a whirlwind trip to go see our dad and asked if I wanted to go. She wanted to leave on Sunday and come back Tuesday. I declined. I have had an issue with this sister that is not a resolvable one. Also, traveling in a car might be do-able now but it is hardly heaven. Not to mention, with my current intestinal design requires I do not wander too far from "facilities." My father called early Saturday morning requesting I come. What was I supposed to do?  I went. It was probably a good thing too, I am not sure my sister would have arrived alive.

My sister showed up on Sunday and we headed out with me driving because I am much more familiar with my local roads and highways and, admittedly, they are a trial if one is not familiar with them. She said she could drive when we got to Illinois. I cannot recall exactly where or when she did drive but it was about a half an hour before she said she was getting drowsy so we switched again. She did not do anymore driving. It was a good thing I was driving when the tire threw it's tread on the interstate between Sullivan and St. Clair MO. It was a very scary situation when it happened, 75-80 MPH on a busy/crowded interstate, chunks of rubber and other things flying at the windshield and hitting the bottom of the vehicle, steering wheel trying to pull me into the left lane. At the time I thought the tire had blown, thankfully, for the rim, it was just the tread that blew. I got the rig pulled over to the side, I honestly do not think my sister could have managed this without an accident. (I have been known to be a good driver even if I have hardly gotten into a vehicle in the last couple years and a bit longer doing any driving.) The mud flap had gotten twisted around and was rubbing on the rim causing the sound that made me think we were on the rim; that was a relief and I was able to pull the rig even further off the road so we stood less of a chance of dying from all the high-speed traffic. Aside from the damage to the tire and the mud-flap, the entire lens assembly for the turn signal/running light on the driver side was shattered and just gone, the drivers side of the grill was a bit broken and had pieces of tread in it, the front of the driver's side running board got messed up, and one of the oddest things--somehow the tread had caught the cable for popping the hood open and pulled it out from where it connects to the inside of the where a person pulls it to pop the hood; the plastic puller lever broke and had hit me in the leg when it all happened and I thought something was coming up through the floorboard--it happens and it can kill, but it didn't this time. Now, I can change a tire, done it hundreds of times, not an exaggeration, I really have; they were not all mine. But with my somewhat recent surgery and my seeming refusal to let it heal completely from the last time I did something stupid before I do something stupid again, I was a bit concerned with heaving the large tire around. A couple of guys stopped and were willing to help but then it turned out my sister did not have the crank handle to get the tire lowered from under the vehicle (I hate that design of spare carrier.) But, we discovered her spare was not in fact any good anyway. They didn't want to leave us on the side of the road even thought we did, by now, have a tow truck coming. Very nice guys. We did manage to send them on their way and waited by the side of the road  for about 45 more minutes when the tow guy showed up.

The trip continues with four new tires and a spare tire that is actually a spare tire and not a hunk of bad rubber. The episode set us back about 2 hours.

Oh, I forgot to mention she did not have an atlas, or even a simple map, with her and I did not find out until a half hour after we had left when she asked if I knew how to get there. Crap! I can get us to Chicago but I didn't know how to get to the house (our other sister's house, whom Dad lives with). She said she could get us to the house if we were in the area. I lived up to my half she had to call the sister to when we got to the neighborhood. But, we are not there yet.

We cross the Mississippi and I'll tell you, no matter how much I have driven and been driven and places where I have lived and visited that bridges are an everyday, multiple times daily, occurrence, I hate crossing bridges, and so does my sister. We were both born along the Mississippi; bridge accidents are the worst. At least I knew our tires were good, hoped everyone else's were.

We stop for gas about a half hour into Illinois and I go in the store while she gasses up. They were playing a song from the 80's. So when my sister walks in I say loud enough for the guy behind the counter to hear, "You know, I haven't been to Illinois in years and I thought all sorts of things would have changed, but they haven't even changed the record." I got a good chuckle out of both of them. But then the next few places we stopped were all playing 80's rock too.

This might have been when she took over driving. She was driving kind of slow, especially considering we already were going to be getting to our destination kind of late before the tire issue, let alone after the tire. She was driving within the legal limits, not below the minimum, but not always the posted limit either, and on I-55 most people do 10 to 15 above said upper limit. I took over driving again at the next stop which I asked for to go potty even though it was not a true necessity. By the time we got to Springfield it was obvious that we would not get to the Chicago area until probably 1:00 in the morning and that is way late for my Chicagoland sister's family so we opted for a motel rather than disturb them in the middle of their night. So we drove around in a town both of us knew very well, at a different point in our lives, looking for a motel, totally lost because of the changes. The odd thing is I noticed that Springfield IL had not grown all that much since I last lived there based on the population figure posted on the city sign but it sure did sprawl out. When I finally found an intersection I knew (it would have been easier to find myself if we had gone downtown but the motels there are not anyplace we would want to stay and the hotels there are way out of price range) I decided we needed to stop and ask someone because the last time I had been at that intersection is was corn fields on 3 sides and a large vacant lot on the forth; now it was in the middle of a small city. We got the directions to a inexpensive hotel and a grocery store and settled in for the night.

The next day, we are on the road and it is starting to get hot already even though it is just around 9 am. I switch lanes and as I am signaling the lane change the turn signal stops working. The driver's side only worked in the back since the tire incident but now there was nothing. At the same time my sister is noticing that the AC blower is not working--then we discovered that the GDMF power windows would not go down. I have always hated having power windows--ALWAYS hated them. Why? Because if they do not have electricity going to them they will not work. I have over the years come up with gobs of scenarios that one would need to get their window down and yet there is no power to do that. I like crank windows. I might have mentioned this in a previous blog when I got my last vehicle-it has power windows and good luck finding a non-antique car with a window crank. So anyway, we are in the middle of nowhere with no AC and not able to get the windows down, it is already 90 degrees out and I was stupid enough to wear a black t-shirt that day. The next couple of exits had no services, a nice way of saying the little town that the exit led to had a grain elevator and a couple of residences. A bit later we got to Bloomington and pulled into a parts store. I start to check the fuses and could not get them out, my hands were too wet from being soaked in sweat. I decide I am just going to go in the store and play dumb female. The guy hem-hawed a bit and told me they are not supposed to pull fuses--which seemed strange to me for a place that advertises on the window that it will check electrical systems, and I have seen employees of the same company doing just that for customers elsewhere even though I think technically they mean the battery, alternator, and regulator. He does however give me a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull the fuses. All of the associated fuses to the things that had failed were fine. I pulled a couple relays that might have been the problem and my sister took them in to be tested, they were fine. The only thing the part store guys were helpful on was suggesting a place that did electrical work and gave us directions to find it. We get there and the place is closed, no one there. She starts calling around to find another place to keep me from breaking out her windows out--seriously, people and animals die in closed up cars in that kind of heat. But just as she finds another place the guy shows up. He is a bit slow about getting his test light but when he does he finds the problem almost immediately. It was the fuse for the brake lights according to the fuse legend. The brake lights were working, we checked, the legend on the fuse box was wrong. He replaced that fuse with one of my sisters fuses and everything worked fine. The phone in his office rang, he left us in the driveway with his nice Snap-On test light still on the floorboard for 15 minutes--he sure was trusting. When he came back out he said we were good to go. I commented that he sure was nice to give us his Snap-On test light. "Oh no! I better get that" he said. He didn't charge any money because it only took him 20 seconds to find it and it wasn't even his fuse that fixed it. He also had four rescued cats at his shop. My sister gave him $10 for him and the cats she said. And we were on our way again.

We finally made it to the Chicagoland twn we needed but she could not remember how to get to the house so we pulled into the library and called other sister. I told the one to tell the other to give us directions from the library but instead she gave the streets, she got instructions that made no sense because of a misunderstanding of where on said streets we were; we were to cross over/go past the street we were driving and go a couple more blocks--meaning I had to turn off that street obviously but didn't know which direction--we did find the right street eventually.

We had a short but pleasant visit with Dad and sister and sister's kids but bro-in-law was out of town. I was assigned my neice's bed which is about 8 to 10 inches higher than mine. I was afraid I would forget in the middle of the night and fall out of it when I get up to go to the bathroom. I only had to get up once and I remembered. The next morning however I almost landed on my face because I forgot. We visited with Dad and sister a bit more and left.

The trip home for me was a lot less eventful. About 20-25 minutes before getting to the Mississippi, just as I was thinking of asking her to drive because I feeling a tad dozy, she tells me she is going to kick her seat back and nap. Okay, I would be fine until the other side of St. Louis where we would gas up. Then I missed the 270 by-pass around the city and wound up going through downtown St. Louis. I didn't want to do that. I have done that, there used to be no choice but to do that. Driving around St. Louis is bad enough, driving through if you don't have to is crazy. I have driven in a few big cities, St. Louis has been the worst. I have not driven in NY, NY it is probably similar but I have heard other drivers bemoan St. Louis over other cities. I do not know how my sister slept through it but she did. I had such a burst of adrenaline I was no longer anywhere close to dozy. So, even after stopping I continued to drive since she wanted to get home before dark and by the time I would get dropped off she would barely be making it and she drives slower. Uneventful for me from here on out. But after checking her directions home and pulling out of my driveway she got lost. About an hour and a half later, just about the time she should be getting home, she calls and has no clue where she is and wants me to find her and direct her home. By asking a few questions she didn't understand why I was asking her, she was a bit stressed, I did indeed find where she was and gave her new directions to get home. She called again an hour or so later and thanked me, she had stopped at the store but was in her neighborhood and almost home.

One of my step-daughters called me once to find her once after her GPS got her totally lost. I don't remember what state she was in but I found her and got her back on track. She told me that she called me because she knew if anyone could do it it was me. Gosh. Maps are my friends.

I am exhausted, a little sore, behind in chores, and have had digestive tract upset since Sunday. But I did get to see my dad one last time. He is not dying per se but he will not last much longer. But then the last 5 times I saw him I figured it would be the last time. Especially the last time when I thanked my aunt for bringing him to see me because I figured I wouldn't see him again. She hugged me and told me it wouldn't be the last time, she would bring him back; but then she died a few months later. Didn't expect that. And I should have had this finished hours ago but kept getting interrupted. Oh well, it is done now.

What's Up Now

Well the rains finally stopped. Now we most likely won't see any until October. We got just shy of 12 inches in 9 days and we were the lucky ones; we were always outside of the brunt of the storms. Our usual August total is about 3 inches. The mosquitoes are loving it. The driveway looks horrible but it is drive-able with what we have and makes everyone else have to stop on the other side.

I can barely find my garden with all the weeds that have grown up. It would most likely be a complete loss if we didn't plant in the mineral tubs (about the size of a half a whiskey barrel). Ten or eleven of them actually had water flow in and over them, one of them had half the soil washed out. And we have had water flow into the fenced garden before but never like it did this time. My asparagus should recover but I have some debris to remove from the bed. We have a line of six or seven of the mineral tubs in the garden with an old fence stretched along them to let things grow up it, like last year we did melons in that spot, this year is tomatoes. One of the tubs in the line got hit head on with rushing water and the water pushed the tub a little over a foot, I think the tomato clinging to the fencing stopped it from going further, but it was far enough so that a lot of water washed around it. Any more and it would have just torn free. Those tubs are hard to move when full and more so if they have been in place for a while, and this one had been. Now it has so much sand and rocks and sticks and every other thing that flows in flood water that I am not sure about getting back in place. Unfortunately, the mower was sitting right next to that line of tubs and got buried in sand and other debris; we do not yet know if it is savable. There are flood marks on the garden fence, the driveway side where water would exit, that are 3 feet high. We are slowly getting it all cleaned up.

My silly soap, Days of Our Lives, is on and Ron has a doc appt. we need to leave for right after it is over so I need to get ready during the commercials and put the rest of this off until later.

I'm back.

The roads close by have had lots of damage. They dropped a bunch of boulders down in the spots where they got washed out; not for driving on but to keep folks from falling in the big hole. No telling when our roads will be tended to better as there is a lot of work on the paved roads and they get done first.

I noticed a couple days ago that some of my regular hummingbirds are not around but a couple of my "regular" transients have made an appearance accompanied by some I do not recognize at all. This means their migration has started. It seems early but I have never noted when it seems to start so maybe it is not early. Heck it took me a few years to really recognize most of the regulars so figuring when they are starting to leave isn't that easy. The very first that became recognized was because he had a shorter and stouter build than the others so was easy to spot. He had been coming here for seven years but I did not see him this year. I have seen his offspring, quite a few actually; one looks almost identical but is obviously a younger guy. And we had a female this year that had to be his--she is short and fat comparatively. I hope to see her again next year. I like being on the migratory route south and it is neat to see the ones that go further north stop back by here for a short fattening break before going on further south. The ones that have been here behave different than the ones that have not. It makes sense.

Update on Previous Post

Oh gosh, we spent quite some time on the driveway yesterday. We got it to where if there was an emergency we would be able to get out (it would have been rough but doable); chances are there would be no getting back in but …I hurt today. I should not have done as much as I did but though I hurt, I do not think I hurt myself, it is just unused muscles that hurt mostly.

A neighbor dropped by last night and said he would bring his tractor over today. He was later than we expected but he did show up--with a bale of hay to boot! Now we just need to find the two cows and their calves. They will show up, they know where they live.

The S. Dakota folk did retrieve their tin horns before they got washed away.

I hear that quite a bit of the road next to the big creek is torn up too, with some spots barely wide enough for the standard vehicle. I know I have seen county trucks taking loads of rock down the way today.

Years ago we had a problem with the water in the stream flash flooding the front yard. We put up a flood fence in the bad spot about 10 or 11 years ago and it quit doing that. Yesterday afternoon we realized it had overflowed there and we did have a wash through; that was the very first time since we put that fence in. The fence still helped incredibly though, it kept the rocks and logs out of the front yard. We also found out, this morning, that it took out a good part of the fence along the creek. The cows wouldn't go into rushing water and now they are where ever they are  at the neighbors so it is no big deal. The water in the creek was flowing longer than the water in the stream yesterday, which is uncommon. When I got up this morning we had gotten another 3/4 inch of rain, (it hadn't washed out our driveway work thank goodness) and our stream was flowing but not the creek. While helping distribute driveway fill I noticed that the creek was flowing again yet there had been no more rain. That is really odd. But water does what water does.

Lots of Rain Last Night

My gosh did we get rain last night, well it was actually early this morning but still time to be in bed. We had our driveway wash out badly for the first time in years; there is a chasm about 2 1/2 feet deep and 3 feet wide where the stream bed crosses it. The water is still flowing in the big creek that is usually dry. We needed to get hay today and that is not gonna happen. Our neighbors from South Dakota put in a couple of metal culverts (called tin horns exclusively around here) across that creek to "improve" the drive up to their "south 80" a few months ago. I know Ron told them they won't stay there when the water gets up. And I know that at least one other person told them too, before they put them in. I would not be surprised to find out that numerous people told them they won't be there long. Those folks have been her at least 8 years now and one would think they would have started listening to locals about the way things are. Most of us around here were figuring they would last about a year, until next spring when we usually get high water. Surprisingly, however, the tin horns did not wash out last night; they washed out two nights ago when we had about 2 inches of rain. They were on the next property over. Unfortunately, I do not think they had yet retrieved them when we got hit last night. Those tin horns are probably in the next county now.

These are the same folks that called up the electric company, after they went through replacing poles, to come get the "garbage" off his property. The garbage was the old poles which the power company leaves behind for the farmers as a favor because they can be used for all sorts of things, such as corner posts for fences. The electric company guy asked us if we wanted them. Yep, sure do. Two weeks later, the folks from S. Dakota went out and spent a couple hundred dollars on wood corner posts. Pretty much the same thing they threw the hissy fit about getting the "garbage" off their property. I just don't know about some folks.

A little over a month ago our internet speed was increased. We are finally able to "stream" videos. I didn't really know why it sped up and so I didn't say anything to anybody because I thought it would go away again as it showed up. But it is still here so I feel like we have finally caught up to the end of the 20th century. We do seem to be having more trouble with our phone lines since then. Actually I am surprised we have phone or internet today. We are lucky we have power. It went out in the storm a couple nights ago. I wound up spending a few hours staying up with Tink and a flashlight. Back to the internet speed…Since we can stream videos now I have been watching a lot of documentaries on YouTube. I mean a lot of them. I didn't realize how much I missed them. PBS almost never shows documentaries anymore because there are cable stations devoted to them. There are still so many more I want to watch but I think I am going a bit loopy and need to watch something else for a break. Right before I realized there were real documentaries on YouTube I had watched some old Match Game episodes from the 70's. That was a great game show; I love it. Maybe I'll watch a few more of those.  

Ron went up the hill to open the gate between our property and a neighbors so the cattle can have some graze since we have no hay--with permission of the neighbor, it was said neighbors idea. That is nice. When he comes back down we need to start work on the driveway.

Good and Bad News

The good news: I got a vacuum.

The bad news: All the turkey poults died.

I don't really know why they died, t was after a slightly chilled night but I didn't think that it would be too chilly. The next morning one did not look so good and I thought it might have been on the bottom of the pile and got a bit squished; sometimes they survive that, sometimes they don't. The day rapidly was warming so I knew they were not at all chilled by then. All others were chipper. I go back an hour later to check on the one and it was dead as well as four others with the last one not looking good at all. I am not terribly upset, I didn't want to have to take care of them anyway. But I am sad over it as well as a bit confused.

The vacuum is not the one I wanted but it wasn't the cheapest one either, in the range of second cheapest as there were two or three that were within a few dollars of each other. Got it today and it is not put together yet since very shortly after returning home from town some neighbors came over. When they left I tried calling my dad, it is his birthday, no one answered, and then I had to water a section of garden and another neighbor came by as soon as I started that. It is getting dark and I do not like vacuuming after dark (it can make winter vacuuming a little difficult) so it sits in its box in the living room.

I wasn't sure I would get a vacuum this month, not even a cheap one, because the mortgage inadvertently got paid twice. We were a tad scared there for a few days because we really cannot afford a double payment and would have suffered toward the end of the moth, but it did get refunded pretty quickly.

I hve a toothache. Arg!

It has been hot but not as bad as some parts of the country. We are a little low in rain now.

I was feeling a bit poorly the last few days but better now. I have been feeling much more myself recently, the last few days were nothing compared to the last few years. I have discovered hunger pains again; it is an interesting sensation that I almost failed to recognize. The first one was like, "What the hell is that? Oh, great, a new pain. Why does it feel vaguely familiar? Oh! I know what that is!" I can eat more than one meal the size of a snack a day now. The portions are close to normal and I put something in my stomach at least twice a day. I have more stamina and can actually do things. Not bad.

Fourth of July, the Fifth, and So On

For the 4th we set off our own fireworks in the driveway. It used to be that town set them off on the 4th but when they switched from the golf course/industrial park location to the fairgrounds a few years ago, they set them off on the Friday closest to the 4th. And last year they didn't set them off at all because of the bad dryness; that is understandable but they could have cancelled them earlier in the day instead of waiting until dusk to cancel. Anyway… we had a a nice show for ourselves. Some years a lot of people come over, some years a few, this year was just us; it hasn't been that way in years.

So we went to town for their fireworks the next day. The show was alright, as good or even better than most small towns around here put on, but it was not as good as it usually is. So it was a bit of a disappointment--especially since they should have had last years and some new this year to shoot off. Oh well, still better than a lot of the local shows. Usually my town of address, which is not a town at all, does fireworks during the community picnic but we heard today they are not going to do it this year. We don't know why yet.

 Oh yeah, my Tinker threw up on the way home from town Friday night. We don't know why on that either. She was feeling a bit down Saturday, a little less on Sunday but by today seems back to normal. The reason I bring this up is because she threw up in a cup instead of all over the backseat or her sister or me--which is how I used to find out she was nauseated, she would throw up in my face the first time. And while I am speaking of her, I have absolute proof she is grasping the concept of "tomorrow" and there is a good chance she is understanding the days of the week. Which is not an easy task at this house even for those of us that are not autistic. If she wants to go to town and is told tomorrow, she might still be "irritable" about not going on that day, it is the next morning when she gets up she gets dressed herself. And she is always the first up so we wake with her dressed (and irritated we are not ready to leave yet). If she doesn't know it is a  town day, she does not get herself dressed without being told.

Sunday we had a hatch of turkey poults. I hate doing that to a hen but Ron set the eggs under a gal when he was still taking care of the birds. Turkey babies act different than chicken babies and they talk a foreign language. Nine poults hatched.

At 10:30 this morning all 9 were in the nest with mom still. At ten 'till 1:00 this afternoon mom was dead and there were only 3 poults in the nest. I found 2 more poults running around and knew there was one I couldn't seem to catch. There were 2 other active setting nests that all of the proper eggs were in but the moms-to-be were running around scared. I could figure out what happened. About 20 after 1:00, Ron went out back with me to try to catch that last one out running around. While I was trying to catch one that had already been caught and escaped again, Ron noticed a huge blacksnake in one of the nests that had had 5 eggs in it 15 minutes before but there was only one left now. The way the mom-hen looked makes sense now, she was protecting the babies and he got her head and neck in as far as he could and then disgorged it. We killed the snake; nothing else to do once they find a coop. And this explains the uneven egg days--snake got 'em. I did manage to catch that loose poult a couple hours later. That plus a few other more mundane irritants, like the vacuum biting the dust, was making this out to be a not so great day. And I still had a town trip to do. For some reason, I forgot to take my pain pill before leaving. I usually take it right before changing clothes so  it has time to start working before we hit the road. I carry a few emergency ones in my purse but there was nothing to drink in the car and I can't take pills without fluid, it is hard enough with something to drink. I never could make it as a pill popper--"Hey baby, want some reds?" "Do they come in gummy bear form?" Ha ha ha. So I could get something to drink as soon as we get to town, or sooner if the flag is up at the country store, but I decided not to unless I HAD to. While I did have some pain, if was laughable compared to what that ride felt like before my last surgery. I made the whole trip without my usual mental litany of "take me back home, no never mind just let me out and I'll walk oh no I can't walk that far and it's getting farther just take me home no just let me out…"  About halfway to town I pointed at a spot on my belly and said, "It hurts right there." and I really did start laughing. Ron couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do. So while the day was not going great I did find out I do not have to fear a car ride. And I had feared them, for a few years it was torture.

I need to get a new vacuum. Our fireworks would have been less if it would have busted a few days ago but I don't think we can get one until next month now. I suppose it depends on the one I choose. The one I want I have to wait, one that will do we might be able to skinny through the month. I hated this last one we got when the one I wanted was $20 more than it is now plus shipping cost and the wait time of getting it. Now it is cheaper and at the store. I don't know what to do. I guess the hair build up will make the decision for me.

Fathers Day

Today we went to the semi-local Renaissance Faire; it takes an hour and a half to two hours to get there. It is the first time we have been in a few years. I think it has gotten smaller. I hope that does not mean it will be going away like the old one, that was closer to us, did after a few years. There were not many people there when we got there, about two hours after it opened, but it was pouring rain. After a couple hours more people had shown up and it had stopped raining.

Right after we got there we were in one of the booths that sells costuming. Right before we got there the folks that ran that booth had to poke a hole in the roof because it had been collecting water and starting to bow down in the middle. So water was pouring into the center of the little shop in a stream about the size of a half dollar. My Tinker walks up to it with her mouth open to catch the water. I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her and told her not to do that. She gave me such a look of pure Irish stubbornness, stuck her hand in the water stream and started using it as a cup to drink the water. This kid does NOT drink water, really. I am very glad the water was clean, relatively clean, because she got about five handfuls before we got her to stop (only by leaving that booth). I couldn't help laughing at the look she gave me. The people there were a bit confused at the whole interaction. I saw an opal necklace that really struck my eye. I really don't wear jewelry and didn't want to spend $20 bucks (very reasonable actually) for something I wasn't going to wear so I did not get it. It still calls to me though, odd.

Oh, and they had something this time I had not seen before. I saw him at a distance at first and thought he was the Grim Reaper. But then he was closer and turned toward me and I saw the ridiculous bird mask--A plague doctor! If I were not absurdly interested in history and on top of it being interested in plague and leprosy in history, I would not have a clue to what he was dressed as but if one walked up to him he handed out a little pamphlet telling people about plague doctors. It also gave me the idea to dress up as someone with plague for the fair next time; it could be fun.

We foolishly did not get anything to eat while we were out, except fries for Tink. Both Ron and I were tired and didn't feel like cooking. Morg and he had frozen pizza and I open a can of clam chowder.

Speaking of rain, Springfield got nine inches in a couple hours yesterday, we didn't get any; I sure do not mind not getting nine inches. We did get some today here, about a quarter inch, less than the Ren Faire got. We did get a light and sound show that was awesome. It is nice to be getting rain, this time last year we were in a drought. There has already been more hay cut this year than all of last year. The big sigh of relief of everybody is audible--echoing in the hills. There should be blackberries this year too!