rain

I'm really not happy to see the rain right now. Last I heard, it wasn't supposed to rain today. I got the bricks put in place, a little hurriedly, but I can fix that bit later. I didn't have time to shovel the dirt around, so I still don't know if I have enough. My goal was to get the plants in the ground today. I wish they'd been able to deliver the dirt on thursday like I'd asked. I was hoping to get back out there later today, but the radar shows an all-day rain. The other thing I was hoping to get done today was spread grass seed. I suppose I can still do that in the rain. The forecast for the rest of the week is "T-storms, 60% chance of precipitation."

I see now, that I should have had a couple more yards of dirt. Now that I've taken a closer look at the lawn, I see there's another low spot next to the garden. It would have been nice to fill that in.

pile o'dirt

Doesn't look like much, does it?

work work work, that's all I ever do

Today, since the radar showed rain coming, I got outside as soon as I could, and worked until the rain got too annoying. I got the bricks set in place, and that took over three hours. This was a pain in the ass. I had to dig up some sod, and then put dirt in to place the bricks at the correct height. A couple of times, my slope wasn't right, so I had to take a bunch out and redo them.

Then I went out to get some grass seed. I spread that in the rain. Then I decided that it wasn't raining all that hard, so I shoveled the dirt around to even it out. I just couldn't stand to see it almost done. Then I cleaned up the mess and came in.

I think I'll go and buy a few more bags of soil. I've got a package of peat moss that I'll mix in. And some organic fertilizer made for transplanting. The next time it is dry enough to dig, I'll take some time off work, if necessary, and get the plants in the ground. And mow the lawn. I wish I'd done that on thursday.

Tomorrow, we're going out to my dad and stepmom's. Cyn's attending a bridal shower for my stepsister (she's taking one for the team), while I'm hanging with my dad.

cool summer

It's been a cool summer where we live. I'm not sure how much cooler we are than the rest of the state, but I know much of the country has had a lot of hot days this summer.

There's a Weather Underground station about a mile from us, and it's very often the same as our own thermometers. I checked the high temperatures for every day this summer, and here is a list of every day the temp hit 90° or more.

6-7:  90
6-16: 92
6-18: 94
7-7:  96
7-8:  99
7-10: 93
7-30: 90
7-31: 91
8-1:  90
8-2:  96

Ten of them. I checked a station about twenty miles inland, and a few times it was a couple of degrees warmer, and many times it was several degrees cooler.