July Foxhole Update

It is still hot and I expect that won't change until October. For the long holiday weekend we did a lot of relaxing and hung a ceiling fan on the back porch, thankful for Father's Day gifts. More than cooling, though that is good, it keeps the bugs off you. Wonderful!

It rains nearly every afternoon. It either pours down like a torrent or we get lots of lightning and thunder and barely a drop. Today we had a quick downpour and had 4 inches in our rain gauge! In case your wondering, no the rain does not cool things down. It only gets more humid.

We had to take the car in for it's 60,000 mile work up, that hurt! But have no fear we are blessed and we know it and take nothing for granted. Despite it all we are happy. Having reached this age, we both can still remember a time in our own lives when we were worse off.

Sam has a dentist appointment this week and we should both be done with that for awhile, yippee.

Work continues to fill most of my time. I enjoy it but these type of projects are alwalys time limited and it seems we are always on a critical path for deliverables.

We have a new bluebird nest in the box out front, this will be our second brood this year. We imagine we'll get at least three sets of baby birds before they stop for the winter.

Sarge turned 3 on the 4th and he still acts like a pup! We spoiled him all day long. The neighbor has gotten more cows and they have been quite noisy in the mornings. It's fun to listen to them. I took the dogs on a walk to see them and neither of them wanted much to do with them. Those cows are awfully big close up.

Crops are already being harvested down here so we recently got some wonderful tomatoes and some sweet plums from a co-worker. I'd love to grow a garden but I would be battling the bugs and pests all the time out here, not to mention all the time it would take.

That's all I have for now, not very exciting but I figure that's a good thing. Y'all stay safe. Hugs from us both.

Dixie Land Update

It's warm, the air is thick and humid. Trees and flowers all fully bloomed and the baby bluebirds have left the nest. Sam cleaned it out in hopes for another brood. We've been getting spotty afternoon thunderstorms, some hits, some misses so we still have to water. We are only allowed to water three days a week.

It's actually warmer here than at our place in Georgia. Doesn't make sense to me. As you can see by our new widget on the sidebar our absolute favorite TV show will soon be in it's fourth season. It's the only show we really watch regularly and it is only on for about 10 weeks. Sam has a couple others that are also short season shows, Psych and the Sarah Conner Chronicles. Television isn't something we watch much of at all. When it is on we tune it to GAC and listen to country, although CMT still has some good stuff on, it's always just background music to whatever else we are doing.

The downside to living in the south is that most of the time it is too darn hot to get out for walks unless it's really early in the morning and sometimes even then it's stifling.

I found a short cut to the mall near work so that has become the lunchtime activity. It is too hot to sit in the car for lunch and this way I can get a little exercise in too. Just window shopping and staying cool. There is no shade in the parking lot at work and the car is super hot at quitting time.

With the price of gas so high we've lessened our weekend trips out to town. I think it has been three weeks since we made the trip. Tomorrow we will go in and stock up at the grocery, yippee! We really enjoy the morning as funny as it sounds, a trip to the local dump and then off to the grocery. Every other trip we treat ourselves to a Starbucks coffee at the Target in town. We're living large. LOL.

The folks across the road from us have been increasing their supply of cows and calves. Cute buggers. We'd like to take the dogs over to see them. They hear them all the time but can't see them through our privacy fence. Scarlett would just love to herd them. I'll get some pictures and post them later this weekend if I remember.

That's it for now. Sarge's birthday is the 4th of July, pronounced 'JOO-lie' down here in Dixie. He will be three years old though he still thinks and acts like a puppy. Hugs to everyone.

A Day at the Lake

This past weekend we were invited to a get together at the local lake around here. Lake Murray. A gentlemen from work and his wife have some lakefront property they are developing and invited the Project staff out for an afternoon of food, music and boat rides.

It's been quite warm here so the breeze from the lake was welcome. We took the first ride down the river in a co-worker's pontoon, very pleasant. We were over dressed for the weather. We wore jeans when we should have worn shorts! We'll have to rethink that next time we go out to the lake. The food was catered in, fried chicken, veggies and folks brought homemade desserts. Sam made brownies. We spent about 3 1/2 hours and then headed for home. It was about a half hour drive but quite hot. Sam was smart enough to wear a hat but I didn't. We got home and immediately took a nap. Old farts.

Sam was quite pleased on Father's Day that all three of his children gave him a call to wish him Happy Father's Day. He of course gave his father a call. I wish we could get up to Chicago again but I don't know how or when.

That's about it. We're staying cool inside and it was in the sixties overnight so the morning on the back porch was pleasant. We should get down to the sixties again this week so that makes for a nice break before hitting the 90's by lunchtime. Hugs to all.

Was I complaining about the cold a while back?

Not now. It is hot, hot hot! On average it's been 100 degrees at quitting time. There is virtually no shade in the parking lot at work so the fact that our car is black is not a good thing. The nights have not gone below 70. That would be fine if there was a breeze at least but that's not happening. We get afternoon storms almost daily, more lightning than rain and still no cooling off. It's like August up north.

The snakes are out, you can view our It's a Dog's Life blog and see an update there from the dogs about that. Spiders, boy howdy have we got spiders. Fortunately they are staying outside. We have black widows out front and all kinds building webs out back.

Plenty of birds visiting and bringing their babies to the feeders. We are going through a box of suet a day. We have baby blue birds in the nest out front. Today we had a baby red-bellied woodpecker visit the backyard suet holder, he was soooo cute. We have baby finches galore, baby downy woodpeckers, nuthatches and I'm sure the cardinals and blue jays must have some nearby though they are harder to spot from the adults.

The baby squirrels are out and about driving Scarlett crazy. She loves to stalk them. She lies in wait but alas can never catch them. Southern living is great but without those hard long freezes the bugs won't die.

We are hoping to take a little trip to the coast soon. We haven't been yet and would like to get down to Charleston and Fort Sumter. It shoud be about a two hour drive. Between the price of gas and the heat we haven't ventured out much. It so nice to just hang out around the house on weekends we really don't mind not going anywhere. Lazy weekends in rural SC, almost as good as Georgia but we still think we like Georgia better.

Check out the dog's blog and catch their update and we'll see you all soon. Hugs!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a month since we wrote on News from the Foxhole. We've been having our teeth worked on and not felt much like writing. What a wonderful way to spend your free time and 'stimulus' check. We may never get grass in this yard, Boy howdy the price of dental work has gone up! We both maxed out our dental benefit in what will amount to two visits for each of us. As much as we hated to we had to get the dental work done but it sure did hurt in more ways than one.

Not much else going on, the birds are eating a suet block per day, feeding their young. We have five bluebird eggs in the nest box out front. It's been quite warm and we've enjoyed cool mornings.

Along with the price of gas we notice chicken went up a dollar since our trip to the grocery just two weeks ago. I expect other things have as well and will continue as the costs to get things to market will rise just based on fuel costs.

Yes, I believe the grass in the backyard will have to wait. We've been very busy at work and we are on a tight timeline so I've been working some every night and weekend at home, another reason I haven't blogged much.

We're both enjoying and bemoaning the election cycle as the chaos continues. The sleep number bed is still wonderful and the dogs still love it. I think they are in it more than we are.

Scarlett has been stalking the squirrels in the hopes that she can herd them all into a corner. Sam bought her a stuffed squirrel toy and put it in the ground feeder. LOL. She stared at it for four minutes trying to see it move. Sarge just moseyed up to it and grabbed it. The chase was on then! Just another reason why I love him, he keeps me laughing. Sam is truly provides my anchor and my balance in this crazy world.

We sent Pa's father's day card out today. Ma and Pa sent us some Polish ham and some of the great sweets they like to send. Yummy! Oh, Pa sent Sam a book that he is reading now on WWII. I'm reading a painfully awful book on Lee's Army, the writer is obviously a yankee and the book is very biased against the South. I don't mind reading both sides but this writer is too anti-south. I prefer just the facts please.

We are anxiously awaiting a friend of ours to get published. An excellent author who is writing a fictional book, an alternative history on the Army of Northern Virginia. We read the first manuscript and fell in love with it and the writer! Sam will go down in history as she has made him a Captain with his real last name in the book!! That's just icing on the cake because the writing is wonderful.

Speaking of cake, Sam baked one today (another reason I love him) and I think I'll go grab a piece. Hugs to all from both of us!

Birding in the Back Yard

Wow. If only my camera would have been charged up. Today we had a flock of Cedar Waxwings visit our yard. As we sat on the back porch all at once about 10 of them came from the trees where we had been watching them down to the bird bath. The bath was encircled by them and more were in the trees. It was a beautiful sight.

We also had an Indigo Bunting as a vistor for a few days.


Of course we have our regulars to the yard, Cardinals, Goldfinch, Downy Woodpeckers, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Titmouse and Chickadees.

The Blue Jays have also taken up somewhere in the yard. We used to see them only occasionally but now we have quite a few and they are staying close to the yard and coming to the feeders.

I'm sure I've left a few out and visitors come and go. Spring and warm Southern temperatures are now getting pretty regular so we hope to see many different birds as they migrate to the North and hope many birds will "summer" here from further South.

Our very favorite so far has been this guy...

Warmer Weather and Longer Days

Hurrah for Springtime. It's no longer dark at dinner time and it's been warm enough to enjoy time out on the back porch some mornings and some evenings. Soon it will be nice enough every morning and evening.

Sarge is back to normal though the vet does not know what was causing his problems. If it flares up again we will have to have x-rays taken of his teeth and jaws.

We nearly got run off the freeway the other day. A woman in an SUV bigger than ours was right beside us and decided to change lanes. This is at about 80 mph. Sam saw it and warned me (I was driving at the time) and I did my best (Thank you Jesus) to not over correct. She never even noticed us. Thankfully the car behind me saw it and slowed down so as I pressed my brakes and moved to the edge the guy behind me didn't hit us. All was well and I of course, being of Irish temperament, sped up, drove up beside her and promptly gave her "what for"!

The driver's down here are truly horrible. All the newcomers to the Project here remark on it no matter what State they are coming here from. You must always drive defensive and expect the worst.

The pollen these past couple of weeks has been very heavy. Everything is covered in green pollen. I'll need to hose off the porches and everything on them this weekend or next. It's good to see all the colorful trees blooming and leaves arriving on the oaks so I guess it's worth the mess it brings. We don't have any colorful plants or trees on our property and Sam and I would both love to plant some. We do have some fragrant white flowers blooming on our plants out front. Our trees are oak and pine but before we can spend any money on trees we really need to plant some grass. First things first.

Life is good and we continue to be blessed. Love, it's a beautiful thing! We hope this finds all readers well and happy in their lives, too.