6.7

6.7 inches of rain this week! (170 mm.) I just added up the readings from the past seven days of the rain gauge. I don't want to build an ark, not quite yet.

I need to move perennials from my old house to this one in October. While everything is solid mud is not a good time for that.

worrisome weeds

I've been reading an interesting book, Weeds of Kentucky and adjacent states, and finding names for things that I've called "that stuff" for years. Unfortunately I took the names back to the library with the book.

What surprised me was how many common plants, that I've seen growing by the side of the road and along fences, are labeled "poisonous to cattle/horses/sheep" (not many things seem to hurt hogs) besides the few I knew about, like jimson-weed. Boneset, one of my favorites, and plentiful around here, is supposed to be the cause of Abraham Lincoln's mother's death, from drinking too much milk from cows that had been eating it (and apparently without getting sick enough to be noticed themselves.) I wonder if that happens with goats? since I don't plan on drinking any cow's milk.

Probably I need some pasture advice from the county agent, and probably the advice will be too expensive and troublesome to follow, even for four to five acres. We'll see.

laundry

I got the clothesline up a mere six months after we moved in, and in the last few weeks the weather has been dry enough that I can use it. I'm so pleased with my ingenuity. I can step out the laundry room door and hang clothes out without getting my feet wet/muddy/frozen. This is on the east side of the house, so the clothes are in shade most of the day (even so I don't hang my colored socks outside.) There's always plenty of wind around here, though, so if I'm home all day I can dry two loads.

So far, I haven't dropped any clothes, only pins. It's pretty scary looking down sixteen feet, even though the railing is quite sturdy.

gleaning

I enjoy filling my vases with flowers Nature has provided for me without my taking any trouble--especially since this summer I haven't been able to take any trouble--and yesterday I found three different ones at once.

The black-eyed Susans are so bright and cheerful as I feel fall in the air although the leaves haven't turned yellow to match them, yet. The white yarrow has been growing like mad all summer. The blue--my favorite color as a child--is known to me as wild ageratum, but it's not ageratum, it's the blue variety of boneset, the white form of which is all over the place. Boneset is special to me as that was a name (old, disused) for the place my father grew up.

Thistle Appreciation Day again

I never could get all five butterflies framed at once, but they really appreciated those thistles.