Great weather for a road trip

Sunny days and cooler nights.  Crickets.  Hummingbirds.  Ah, late summer.  I am looking forward to peaches and fresh tomatoes.

Tomorrow I am heading to Helper Arts and Music Festival  Another opportunity to stay with friends, eat good food, spin all weekend (both at the festival and at their house) and shop a little.  The people watching is supreme too and we will get to talk to the characters who live around Helper.  Always entertaining.  It looks like this year is a Zumba Festival on Saturday morning at 8:30.  I think we will be eating biscuits and gravy at Marshas around then, so might have to Zumba to work that off.  heehee

I did another grueling day in the front yard putting the recycled redwood under the fence for weed control and to make it easier to mow next to it.  But, it's done, at least all the 4 foot pieces.  I have two more pieces to do on the other side of the front yard and then the short pieces on the front step-down panels.  Next job out there is to empty that black soil bag.  That will be that for the front yard for this year.  whew!

Back yard is another thing.  I am going to be taking the railroad ties from my veggie garden.  It's just not producing anymore and will just have a flat garden, maybe that will help.  I have added tons of manure, compost, fertilizer, etc.  Nothing has helped very much.  I think the drip system leached a lot of minerals from the soil.  I can see an iron problem in other areas of the drip system areas.  So, now I water with sprinklers or soaker hoses and things are starting to look better.  Odd problem.  I will remove all the drop system stuff as I feel like doing it.

The first thing to do back there is clean up the area for the future covered patio and get the footings dug and poured.  I will be adding the post holders into the concrete, so have to do some research on how to do this.  The cover will be free standing.  I don't want to attach it to the carport slab (now enclosed as a garage) because any more weight on that will keep pulling it away from the house, that's not a good idea.

Lots to do next summer I hope.  I have my fingers crossed to get a job this summer/fall and maybe the universe will agree.

J