Can you hear me now???

Because I've been creating posts in my head for days!

What with State Fair prep, Brian's school's dedication (for the all-new facility just completed), State Fair starting, our church's annual campout followed by a houseguest for a couple nights, work, State Fair continuing, registering Brian for his senior year, competing at State Fair, school starting, more competing at State Fair, all while trying to keep everything watered, there has been no time for posting. Oh, I've taken loads of photos and thought a lot about things I want to share, but editing photos and creating cohesive paragraphs takes Time with a capital T as all of you bloggers well know. And now the photos and thoughts have piled up like a mountain of dirty dishes that I dread facing. But I'm going to roll up my sleeves, turn on the hot water, add a big squirt of dishwashing liquid, and start somewhere. Hopefully you'll enjoy the results more than clean cups. (Don't worry; without someone to dry, it's not all going to happen in one sitting – ha!)

Since last I posted...

The weather has been mostly pleasant. There have been some beautiful sunrises, some clouds, a couple of days (and one night!) that were scorchers, but no moisture – pretty typical summer stuff for us. I've been doing my best to keep the garden watered and picked, which means tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and onions (the snow peas and green beans have died off) – just what I need, with the addition of some Yukon Gold potatoes we were gifted, for this delicious slow-roasted vegetable recipe:

One morning while I was in the garden, a small queue of deer walked past our northern fence line. I managed to get my iPhone out to capture the last one in line:

Warm weather makes some catatonic. One evening last week when I went down to the barn to exercise Lance, Chuckie was sprawled on the hay, sound asleep.

Usually he rouses when humans are around and asks for attention; this time he didn't move until Lance reached out to sniff his foot:

That made him jump and move farther onto the stack of hay,

but he didn't stay awake for long.

Another day the heat drew out this little snake to sunbathe on the driveway. I tried to nudge him out of danger with my toe, but he didn't respond.

But when I walked that way a bit later, he was no longer relaxed!

What brought about this complete transformation? Apparently a certain furry someone had decided to pester him!

"Who, me? I'm just a copycat, curled up here in the driveway!"

As you might guess, I haven't had much time to spin lately. But when I do, I have some special fiber to spin from a blogpal's own Shetland sheep, plus a bar of her adorable homemade soap to enjoy! They were a TdF prize my name was drawn for in a group on Ravelry.

Here are a couple photos from the dedication of the new school facility:

Like all building projects it seems, they were still scrambling to finish up some things when school started this week. But it's a beautiful new facility for this 121-year-old institution; I'm glad Brian gets to enjoy it his senior year.

In neighborhood news, the people next door have been plotting out their building sites, septic lines, and a new well (the existing one proved to be no good). The drilling rig was set up when I got home Thursday night.

Yesterday it growled loudly all day; I hope they were successful.

It's probably going to be a noisy year or so around . . .