Garden Goodies and the Rodeo

Here is what I got out of the veggie patch today, minus dad's share and some beans for an elderly neighbor. Not too bad for how small the garden really is! I think the peas are about done, I might get one more picking out of them. The heat has just cooked the poor plants, and since there are watering restrictions in effect right now there is nothing I can do for them. My peppers are looking good, though I did have one rot right on the plant. It was only about the size of a golf ball, so I am not sure why it rotted. There are tons of acorn squash all over the place, and the tomatoes are producing like crazy. I think it has cooled quite a bit today from the weekend temps, but it was still miserably hot out there in the garden. Dad came and helped with the picking. I guess he was worried about me out there turning all sorts of pretty colors. DD played in the pool while we were working. Lucky kid. We did have an unpleasant surprise when we went to open the pool for DD. The cover does not fit right, and evidently a squirrel really wanted a drink out of that pool badly. It got in and couldn't get out, so we found it's poor little body floating. DD didn't see it, thank goodness, so dad and I just cleaned the pool and checked all the chemical and ph levels. She was a little mad that we insisted on doing all this before she could play, but how icky is that? That pool got probably the most thorough cleaning of it's existence before she was allowed in. Yes, dad and I figured out a temporary fix for the cover so this will not happen again. We also stooped so low as to actually leave water dishes placed in high critter activity areas around the yard. I never thought I would be leaving h2o for squirrels! However, I never want to see another sight like I did this a.m. Poor little thing.

On the lighter side, my town had it's annual rodeo last weekend. I did not attend the rodeo or (my favorite) the outhouse races this year due to my work schedule. I did manage to get DD to Kids Day, though. There were games with prizes, a kiddie parade, pony rides, a band playing kids songs, a corn feed (YUM), pie social, and the Minnesota ZooMobile was there. DD got to pet a 3 banded armadillo. It was a great time, but the temps were over 100 deg the whole time and there was no shade anywhere. I don't know how folks who live further south handle heat like that all summer long! The whole thing was only about 3/4 of a mile away from my apt, so we walked there and back. STUPID!!! We got so hot. Cool showers for everyone when we got home. I am so glad we went, though. Hubby didn't want me to take DD due to heat and my health, but I know I would have felt guilty if I hadn't taken her. Growing up in the same town I live in now, I have such good memories of Rodeo Days from my own childhood. It was a lot smaller then. Pretty much just the rodeo, corn feed, and a small group of craft tents. I remember entering a turtle every year in the turtle races (mine always wanted to go the wrong way, but my bro won 2 times). Then there was the year I dressed up in a crazy-hot lion costume complete with fur for the kiddie parade. Both sets of my grandparents would come up for it, and we would all go eat ourselves sick at the corn feed. My favorite year was the year that one of the bulls at the rodeo broke down the fence and chased my childhood nemesis around the entire rodeo grounds. We lived close enough to the rodeo grounds that every night I could stay up late and watch the fireworks from the backyard or up on the roof of our 2-story farmhouse. I want those kind of memories for my little one. So I brave crazy-heat to make sure she gets it. Ahh, the joys of motherhood. My only regret is that I forgot my camera, so I will have no photos of the great time we had. I do scrapbook, so I will just have to write down how much fun we had and preserve the memory that way.