Millie's Egg

Berm Beauty

 Berm means "artificial ridge or embankment".

Our berm was created in the middle of our yard when I was working on the house,

before we officially moved it.  There were rocks in a circle around our two large

sweet gum trees in the front.  The problem with that?  Large weeds and small

trees grew inside the perimeter, making it look trashy.  I needed to remove all the rocks,

but where to put them that wasn't a huge distance away?  So I made a berm of rocks

between the two large trees in our front yard.

 It has taken two years (three summers) to fill in the cracks

with dirt and plant perennial succulents (I am not sure this red tipped one is perennial.)

 I saw something similar to the rock berm with succulents at

Powell Gardens near Kansas City, but this is the first time I have

tried something like it.  I am thrilled with the results.

 Last weekend I emptied the 30 gallon pond and put most

of the water on the berm (we haven't had rain in over a month.)

 All of the plants were so appreciative and looked so good today --

that I had to take some pics.

Corn Crazy

People around here are on the edge of their (car)seats --

waiting for a local farmer's sweet corn to be ready.  

The family sells it for one weekend only.

When we went yesterday (day #1) they were sold out at noon.

Some people had waited four hours for corn.

My husband was there at 7 am today,

and picked up 5 dozen ears for me. (They sold out at 8:30 am today).

I shucked, parboiled and cut the corn off of 4 dozen.

They are bagged up and in my freezer now.

SO YUMMY!!!!

Trip To Amish-land

 Here is the main problem about taking trips to Amish country --

you can't take pictures of it.  We ordered this picnic table from an Amish man

about a month ago and went to pick it up today.  

 Sturdy, cedar, 

split seating, sits eight -- just what we wanted and at a good price.

Plus the bonus of visiting with an Amish family with at least 10 kids.

Ready to host families in the old barn site.

The oldest son makes really nice baskets, so we purchased

one of those as well.  CUTE KIDS, I wanted to take pictures so badly!

 Then on to the Amish general store and bakery.

The loaves of bread are only $3 each!!

I should have bought more.

Could It Get Any Worse?

 Could it get any worse?  A person should never actually let those words come out of their mouth, because the answer to that question is always -- yes.  But this week has been a progressive series of things getting worse.  Monday our contractor knocked over our planter by the driveway.  Boohoo.


Also on Monday (and Tuesday) -- a sick chicken. She was in a kennel in our house and had to have electrolytes given to her every couple hours.  Whatever evil was inside her smelled even worse when it came out of her.  (By Wednesday she was doing better.)

Tuesday morning at 2:30 a.m. my husband got up to use the bathroom.

He stepped in an inch of water.  The bathroom that attaches to our upstairs bedroom was pouring out water from the supply line to the toilet.  Maybe a couple hundred gallons.

(We sleep with a fan on, so we didn't hear anything.) Totally saturated the old growth pine floor upstairs, and made it's way downstairs into our dining room which is right below the bedroom.  Every absorbable towel, blanket, bedspread, was used to soak up the water.  And of course the rugs were all soaked.  So Tuesday morning our contractor cut holes in the dining room ceiling and walls to get air in there.  I should have taken a photo of the stack of laundry I did Tuesday.  

Also, the insurance guy came Tuesday to say water mitigation company would be covered by insurance.  And he agreed that the pine floor would have to be refinished because of warpage (again, just had them done when we moved in two years ago.)  By the way, major pain.  You can't use that area for like two weeks.

 Mitigation company came yesterday.

They set up dehumidifiers and fans in dining room,

downstairs hallway, and upstairs.  SO LOUD.

They will be with us until Monday.  Did I say LOUD?

Sorry, can't hear myself think.

 My son is staying with us this summer.  Today (which is Thursday) he found out that the people

he visited last weekend have tested positive for covid.  So he is in quarantine for two weeks, at our house.  I put up this curtain to separate his area from the rest of the house.  He gets the guest room, downstairs bathroom, sun room and deck. (Basically the only places where there isn't loud machinery.)

 We will be sliding food to him from under the curtain.

Could it get worse?  Well, it is going to feel like 100 degrees today,

so the deck is probably not going to be usable for him.  It hasn't rained in weeks,

so I do need to get out and water in this heat.  I need a vacation from bad news.

Waa.  Waa.  Waa. Call the wambulance.