NOTE: There is one (1) photo with caption in this post, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.
MONDAY 29 thru TUESDAY 30 July 2024 — Heat, rain, mosquitoes, and a busy week (BdW guests)
Monday 29 July … An anniversary, more BdW guests, and more rain
Our good friends Paul and Nancy were married on this date in 1989. We didn’t know them back then, but having eventually made their acquaintance (through RVillage), we wish we had. Linda sent them best wishes for a Happy 35th wedding anniversary.
Our current BdW guests, Ted & Peg H., pulled out around 10:30 AM this morning, but not before taking the time to sit and chat with us a bit. Other than a certain “pay it forward” spirit, we like being Boondockers Welcome (BdW) hosts because we get to meet fellow RVers traveling to/through our home area; we get to hear their stories, and share some of ours. We also get BdW guest privileges in exchange for being hosts, but we have made very limited use of the program as guests since we joined. We are also Harvest Host guest members, but have only used the program a few times. We like both programs, but have found that host sites (that can accommodate us) are often not on our travel routes.
Four hours later, Dan & Marsha T. arrived in their Class A MH with a car in tow using a tow dolly. I met them in the street and directed them into our guest RV site. They were a repeat visitor, last here in 2020 at the beginning of the CoVID-19 pandemic. They were only here for one night, but took the time to chat with us, which we appreciated and enjoyed. We have not had a lot of repeat visitors, nor do we expect very many, but we have been hosting long enough that we are seeing a few of them. We appreciate that folks liked their stays here, for whatever reason, enough to want to come back.
We have been watching the recap of the summer Olympics every night on NBC since the opening ceremony. We have watched most of the Summer and Winter Olympics coverage since we were adolescents. (According to Wikipedia, world-wide TV coverage began in 1956.) It’s been a nice change from all of the shows we have been streaming.
Rain was in the forecast for this evening and overnight into tomorrow. It started raining around 9 PM and was very heavy for quite a while. I’m sure we got at least 2” of rain, but never saw an official measurement for our exact area.
Tuesday 30 July …
Given the rain last night, there was no way Keith would be able to mow our property today. We exchanged text messages, leaving open the possibility of him stopping by and checking the situation. In case he decided to try mowing, I picked up some small branches that had come down in the storm and rearranged a few large branches that were over-hanging the firepit. By early afternoon, however, he waived off on today and eventually texted that he would be here tomorrow. The rain had pushed his schedule for the entire week back by one day.
While picking up sticks, I noticed that most of our resident Wild Turkeys (2 adults and eight jakes, as I think they are now too old and too big to be poults) were roosting in one of the Blue Spruce trees near our north property line, just NW of our firepit. These recently pruned trees are now much more open in their lower portions, and cleared underneath, making it easier (possible?) for the Turkeys to fly up to these branches. Or perhaps they have been doing this for a while now but we just could not see them. Either way, we know that Wild Turkeys roost in trees at night (and on fences, roofs, and anything else they can get to, including the railing of our deck, our grill, and the roof of our house), but this was the first time we had seen this flock of two adults and eight young actually in a tree.
In-between other events, I worked on blog posts, and finally uploaded a few. With as busy as we have been, I am doing well if I can even make notes about our activities and get those written up in at least a draft form in a timely manner. And I have apologized repeatedly for constructing posts my memory long after the fact. Selecting and processing photos, deciding where they go in posts, and then writing captions, all take additional time. The actual uploading/publishing in WordPress is the least time-consuming part of the process, but it can’t happen until everything else is done, checked, and checked again. This is not a complaint—if I didn’t want to do this I would stop—just a statement of fact.
BdW guests, Dan & Marsha T. left mid-late morning after a nice chat, and arriving BdW guest PeachyTravel (Rick & Vivian, and family) messaged me with an ETA for mid-afternoon. They needed to stop and dump, which took extra time, and encountered heavy traffic enroute to us, which pushed their arrival to 3:30 PM. They were schedule to stay four (4) nights, so needed to top up their fresh water tank. I had them stop in front of the house (where the water spigot is located) and take care of that before proceeding into our guest site.
Given the hot, humid weather we have been experiencing we worked inside. I worked at my desk, finalizing and uploading several blog posts, and Linda worked at her desk on bakery-related accounting tasks.
A view of the workshop (in the barn) looking east from near the entry door in the SW corner. One of the two Rockler Rock-Steady Corner Stands is in the SE corner of the shop, with 56” x 20” by 32” Work Stands attached as wings. Another Work Stand (same size) will be attached to the one along the wall on the right (once I have all of the needed components).
Sometime during the day, UPS delivered the one remaining Rock-Steady Leg Set that I needed to assemble the last (for now) Work Stand. It had been mis-routed from the 27 July delivery, but was eventually located and made its way here. Rockler customer support was VERY helpful in resolving this, which I really appreciated. I am certain that their C-S is based in the USA. While talking to them, I also let them know about the bag of missing bolts (qty 32). They forwarded that to their technical support team, and few days later they arrived.
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