I Give In...

     I kinda thought by mid-September we'd get a little break in the heat.

I was wrong!

     I've been a trooper this summer, getting caught up on loads of backbreaking yard work.  Hydration is key but there comes a point where I feel like I should just pour the water over my head since it will instantly come out as sweat anyway.  As you can see in the above photo, I've decided to "pave" the middle section of my backyard.  The mulch was nice until I introduced chickens and after that, I realized I needed a different approach.

     I know that many a farmer and gardener has cursed a preponderance of rocks on their land but in Florida, all rocks must be begged, bought, or burgled ("filched" might be a better word but I wanted to stick to the "b" theme).  My burgled rocks have come from areas where old pavement and sidewalks is being torn up.  Hopefully no one missed a few chunks of broken concrete.

     I steadied my nerves and cut back my "Miss Joachim" orchid from Singapore.  All the new starts have been claimed but since Miss Joachim gets bigger every year,  I'm expecting 6 new babies next summer.

A quick product review: Windex Wipes

Does this look streak-free to you?!  'Nuff said.

But allow me to balance the bad with the good:

     I bought this treadmill in Missouri from Montgomery Wards sometime in the late '90's, early '00's and here it is in Florida, a testament to the fight against built in obsolescence.  I expect a call from the Smithsonian any day now.  I would also like to proudly point out my equally old Sony headphones.  The foam ear pads melted off in my sweat a decade ago and I had the rather clever idea of using newborn baby socks as a replacement.  It's clever, dammit!  Stop calling me cheap!

Since I'm being haunted by the weird "Serenity Now" logo, 

I figured I should stick close to home...

The chicks are growing up.

     I admit, this is a TBT-style baby picture taken about 3 weeks ago.  They look like teenagers now but unlike human teenagers, I can't get them to leave the (hen)house.  I've been propping the door to the run open so the older hens can get back to foraging and the babies haven't yet figured out that they are allowed to roam too.  I suppose it's for the best.  Kind of like a those teens that drag their feet when it's time to get a driver's license:  they'll do it when they're ready.

Orchids love misery.

A couple of my happy flowers.

I'm still accomplishing a lot at my work desk.

The heat of the sun forces me inside by about 8 AM so I use that time to create for my SolOpsArt Etsy store and watch Netflix episodes of "House, MD" on my laptop.

     After puzzling over it for months like a string theory problem, I finally came up with a beautiful way to display Peace River fossilized deer antler on a necklace.  This necklace has unakite beads which is a mineral first discovered in North Carolina not that long ago.  Deposits have since been found around the world but I'll always lovingly think of it as home grown.