July is here

July is starting off with typical summer weather. Nice mornings, but hot days. We have been getting out very early working and cleaning mainly around the house. We have cut and cleared cedar back to the very large old original cedar trees. I call these red cedar. We have seven very large old cedar trees about 3-5 feet in circumference and 40+ feet tall. These were too large to cut in the 1930's when the mountain was cut for cedar posts by the CCC. Of course when we clear we also have to clean up the debris left in the 1930's as well. We again have a huge burn pile down at the 'gravel pit'. We have also burned some stumps and laid out a new fire pit on the western bluff. We are trying salt on the patio to keep grass from growing between the stones. We've spread fifty pounds and will see if that works. Nothing else has so far.

Tessie seems to be adjusting very well. We take a walk every morning and she now looks forward to them. She has taken the lead a few times and she almost chased a rabbit this morning. We don't always see deer, but this morning one ran/bounded along beside us and got well ahead and then jumped the fence in front of us. They look very graceful and jump so high. I'm still amazed at how well the squirrel baffles have worked. I've moved some bird feeders and will invest in some better quality seed now that we are not losing so much.

We cleaned all the mint from along the house and hopefully have replanted some behind the pavilion. It really took over the area it was originally planted and the new area should be much better for it. I do hope it will take in the new area we prepared for it. I took the excess mint and buried it in a draw on the mountain pasture. That area has good soil and gets run off when it rains. I'll be curious to see if it comes up on its own in that area.

The Mountain Pinks are starting to fade in the heat. Looks like we may have to water the grass some as well. We'll allow it to go dormant by the end of the month if we don't get rain.