The End of Summer

A late summer haze makes for colorful sunrises.

 

Lots of green grass.  Life is good.

"Smoke" rising off the pond.

The strawberry plants we planted this spring should produce a good crop next summer.

The potato plants have dried up, leaving an abundance of beautiful spuds below ground.

After living a summer at ease, the drones (the big-eyed bees) have worn out their welcome. Their hardworking sisters are about to serve them with eviction notices.

 

Hit the road Jack, you can't live here anymore!

But this is my home!

Not any more.  You never did any work around here, just loafed, drank nectar and chased queens.

Soon the bum will be unceremoniously dropped into the grass outside the hive.  He will try to get back in several times and eventually run out of gas.  Soon the grass in front of the hive will be littered with the bodies of dead drones.  They are no longer needed.

The Garden

Our late planting of corn and winter squash actually may produce a harvest.  I had originally planted squash and pumpkins on the lower, wetter end of the garden, but most of the seed rotted in the wet, cold soil, so we replanted higher up.

Our honey crop looks promising.  The top two supers on each hive contain the honey that we will harvest.

It's always fun to watch a river of bees coming and going to hive on a hot day.

The nectar patrol.

The big bees with the big eyes are drones.  The drones do no work and have no stingers.  Their function is to mate with a queen and die.  Drones buzz much louder than the workers so you can identify them in flight and snatch them out of the air with your bare hand.  That always impresses people who are terrified of stinging insects.

Tomatoes and peppers inside the greenhouse. 

The bare ground in the foreground has just been planted with chard, kale and spinach.  Once the tomatoes in the greenhouse succumb to the cold later in the fall, we will move the greenhouse over this bed.  The greens are cold hardy, and can be harvested well into December.

Pumpkins, squash, beens, corn, beets and carrots.  Not shown are the rows of potatoes, strawberries and sweet onion. 

A Walk in the Woods

These all-terrain baby strollers sure beat the kind we had when our kids were small.

It was a warm morning, but cool in the woods.  This path is actually a stretch of single-track that I made for mountain biking.

It has also served me as a deer hunting path.

Littler red riding hood.

Ilkka tagged along.



Cats aren't the best hikers.



Out of the shade into the hot sun.

Soon after this point Ilkka ran out of gas and I had to carry him home.  Carrying a cat on a hot day isn't something you would like to do often.  Once we got home I threw him into the pond to cool off.  His head never went under water and he was back on the shore in seconds.  He spent the next hour licking himself dry.

It was a warm day.

Visiting the Animals

Guess who found the shady spot?



Who is that little girl with the cat?

Let's have a closer look.

Those big wooly animals aren't so scary when I can hang onto grandpa's shirt.

Of course we have to visit with Ragnar and Gunnar too.

Chickens, chickens, chickens...



Marja-Mumun talossa /At Grandma Marja's House

Giving grandpa the "look".

Sam, Mik and Amanda off to the Great Deer Chase 30 mile mountain bike race.  Sam took 4th, Mik 6th.  Amanda worked as a volunteer.

Taking care of baby.

Reading

I think we should go outside.

Once in a Blue Moon

 

The second full moon of July

 

By definition, a Blue Moon

Leave it to a cat to find the most comfortable place in a room.