Over the last few weeks we have been visited by crop dusters spraying the fields surrounding our acreage. They, of course, fly very low when spraying and it is a little disconcerting to look out the living room window and see a plane roaring past the house at 100 mph just above the corn field across the road. When spraying the other fields that surround our acreage they looked like they would crash into our house until at the last second they pulled just above the tree line and over our property, then do it again and again. I really came to admire the skill of those pilots. Recently I spied some noxious looking weeds growing in the area where our fire ring is located. They were about two feet tall with greenish yellow buds growing close to the main stem. Since we had a fire going at the time I used the pruning shears to cut them down then toss them in the flames. Immediately my hand and arm began to itch so I hurried up to the house and washed off with soap and water for several minutes. That took care of most of it but now, a couple of weeks later, I still have a lingering rash on my arm. I have committed what those weeds looked like to memory in case of future encounters. So far this year our problems have included a leaking roof, our oven quit working, the overhead door on the machine shed broke in the open position (we can’t close it because the tracks are bent) and now either our well keeps running dry or there is a problem with the pump. It was determined the roof was leaking around the chimney, which was patched for free but came with a quote to take the chimney off. We are still deciding whether to fix the old stove or buy a new one. A new overhead door was ordered the first of June and we are still waiting for it to arrive. The door company says the supply chains with their vendors are backlogged. I have to keep knocking down bird nests inside and chasing critters out. We can get just enough water to flush the toilet and fill a few jugs before it turns off again. The well man should be out again next week. All of us have problems but out in here in the country they can take on a little different flavor than we were used to in the city.

Late spring and early summer a heat wave came through and now it is cooler but rainy. It has been good for the grass, weeds and garden (not to mention the corn fields that surround us) but has put a stop to burning the fallen brush and branches we accumulated over the winter. One thing that has not stopped around the place is birds mating, eggs hatching and chicks squeaking for food. This is our fourth summer out here and there are more birds than during the previous three. The majority are robins, followed by finches, swallows, a couple of mourning doves, thrashers and a humming bird I recently spotted visiting the hollyhocks. Not on our acreage but in the ditches along our road we see (and hear) beautiful pheasants strutting and calling. Dragonflies of many sizes and colors zip around, then hover and cavort with with each other, and are gone again. Come sundown the fireflies slowly begin to light up and seem to vanish and reappear at different places. The corn is now so high (over seven feet tall) that you can only see a few dozen fireflies at a time against the green walls surrounding us, but when on a higher position (such as the back porch) you can look out over the fields and see thousands of greenish-yellow lights blinking in the summer darkness.