Thursday’s Report.....

The last train to be used to haul iron ore pellets to the ports was this one. It is one very big locomotive.

I did not realize it was so large until I started to walk along it. The front part that is used to make the steam is extraordinarily long. I couldn’t get it all in one photo so I took a photo of the sign that identified it.

If you can click on the photo on the sign you can get an idea of its full scale.

This is the best that I could do it getting the whole train in the shot.  I am sure they had to get a lot of steam going to pull large cars of ore. Again I said earlier they had woven fence wire around it to keep people from crawling around and on the big guy.

You can also click on the photo to be able to read the trains history.  They made a good number of engines this size and I wonder how many are still in existence.

Back home I have this day lily that is still blooming.  I was out this morning and watered everything, while it was thundering.  I think that I felt maybe five drops per six square inches while I was watering things.

I dug up a hosta yesterday that was growing in the rock garden in the front yard.  It was not doing well there as it had grown large and the rocks surrounding it didn’t help offer any soil for it to grow in.  It had crowded itself out and turned very yellow.  The digging of it was difficult as I had to use a hoe to drag away all of the rocks and clear the rocks back to find the sandy soil underneath all of that area.  I dug a yucca plant from the old place and brought it down to replace the hosta. I dumped soil onto its large root to give it some soil to draw from.  I think the rocks and heat won’t bother the yucca. I covered rocks all around it and know that it will look droopy for the rest of the summer.  The old hosta was in bad shape but I did replant it in a couple of different places.

I harvested some lettuce for a salad yesterday and picked some of the tomatoes that are ripening. I gave a batch to the neighbor today of the small ones both yellow and red. I hope I can keep the tomato plants going and I don’t get any rot on them.  The very large tomatoes that I have are just now turning.  It looks like they are going to turn just one tomato at a time.

I am doing small projects today, taking it easy and yet getting some things done.  It is more heavy humidity than the heat that we will be experiencing today.  The State Fair starts today so it will heat up for that. Sometimes we get rainstorms for the fair too.  Thank you for stopping by today.  Yes, we are going to the fair sometime next week. We live about eight miles from the area.