Middle of the Week.........

When you plant almost a month late then you get your tomatoes late in the season.  They are starting to ripen quickly now which is still great for us.  The larger variety of cherry tomato is a good one as you can slice it in half and put it in a salad without much mess.  They are almost too big to just place in your mouth whole.  The roma variety that I purchase is a fuller shaped tomato and we eat them just like a regular sliced one.  We will probably freeze them whole for later use.  The larger steak tomato is the one in the foreground.  It is a good size and yet not large like the heirloom kind with all the bumps. 

Another orange thing is this butterfly that flitted in for such a short time.  I am frustrated that I can't find the name for it but I will try again another time.  It may be called a "Comma" but there are some things that really don't match up on it to that type. He was in the garden and out again in such a short period of time, never really ever landed on any flowers. 

I had two of these blooming yesterday with no blue or pink ones out. I am still hoping that all the colors will bloom on the same day but fall weather seems to be around and that is when they start to slow down.  I haven't ventured to the corn field to see if the wild morning glories are blooming.  They may be chemical killed by the farmer.

The fish pond, stock tank, is now full to the top with water.  As the rains kept coming it just kept filling.  There was a lot of differences in the last rain in who measured what at their houses but my buckets that sit outside gained 3 or 4 inches of water in one night.  We have actually now had a whole day without rain.  I know some people are begging for rain and I hope they do get it soon.  Out of the 7 fish that I put in here I think there are three that are alive.  I will drain the pond at the end of the season and have to set up an aquarium for them in the house. 

I am declaring this zinnia to be red even though there is a little yellow orange in it.  It grows among the all orange set of zinnias and it is a great looking flower bed.  I had to stake all of them up a day or two ago as the wind and rain had most of them on the ground. It will help to have the soil drying out so they will stand straight on their own without help.

This is another side view of Jack Sparrow as he manages the cage of birds.  He loves to get into your face and talk when the seed trays are being filled. He really does like people and starts up a conversation when ever he feels like it.  He doesn't say pretty bird but he gives us a different call when we say pretty bird.  He will interact to the verbals and has a great time with it.

I accomplished getting the car's exhaust system repaired yesterday.  After calling three different locations I found a muffler shop in Dallas Center, Iowa.  The one that I wanted to use has closed it business and the next two car dealerships that I called said they always take their work to the one in Perry, which is the one that has closed. The shop that I took the car was very good at what they did, they didn't take advantage of an old man, and they repaired just the place that was broken. 

Apparently the connection area right off the motor going back is the place where the Ford always wears or breaks apart and they just cut off the front section of the system and weld in a new piece.  Dallas Center is an interesting small town and the description of it and the people there is another  whole blog in itself.  The repair people were so reserved but were very nice. I don't think they liked talking to strangers in their town.

The bleeding heart did grow the be big and it will certainly bloom next year if it survives our winter.  I am counting on it to survive.

I helped a town worker cut up and remove the larger branch that had fallen in our yard the last time we had a big storm.  I see the professionals are back again in town and they were hitting the alley.  I may have lost a limb or two from my apple tree but all other growth I have along the alley is withing the edge of the alley.  They did come back and take off another section of my big  tree next to the street.  I thought they had sort of not got it all removed the other day and someone else thought so too as they took off another big section this morning.  

Projects for today include finishing the mowing and picking up apples. We will take a grocery store run later today.  I do have a sub job for Friday but that is a few days away from now.  My first for the school year. Thank you for your visit.