It tried to rain a bit early this morning. The drops sounded rather large but thankfully there weren't many of them. When I finally did get out of bed, the sun was shining and the blue jay was sitting on the ground below the bird feeder eating all the seeds that the little birds drop. They are very messy little creatures!!
Today I think I will pickle some beets. I have been thinking of this for a few days now so probably should stop thinking and start doing!!
I got a call from staffing and now have lots of shifts booked for September and October so am quite pleased about that. That should give our "Arizona play money" a bit of a boost!!
I got the beets done. I only did 4 quarts up today so will do more tomorrow. I promised to do some up for Gary so will get those out of the way tomorrow as well. I really should do some for my sister Jan. Her family loves them. I only have room here in the bus for a few jars so I have to give the rest away. Shirley, from across the street, has been picking some also and there are still several left in the rows. Oh, I am sure they will not go to waste - borscht is always an option!!
When I was done with the beets, I headed back into the garden to do some much needed cleaning. The tomatoes resembled a small hedge so I was pruning those like a mad woman. Now Dave had lots of garden refuse for his deer!! Shirley had planted some cabbage and cauliflower this spring and the cabbage butterflies had a feast on them so I pulled those up and added them to "Dave's" pile.
When Shirley got home from work, we loaded up Gary's little quad trailer with the garden stuff and we climbed onto the quads and head to Dave's deer bait areas in the forest. We only had two "bars" indicating our low fuel but were assured that we had plenty (we will re-think that one later!!).
Down the road we go and off into the forest. What an awesome little ride. The evening was lovely and the peaceful quiet of the forest was more than welcome. What an incredible back yard we have. No wonder there are so many happy fat deer around here.
Last week, when Dave and Shirley were here delivering garden refuse, they saw a huge black bear on the trail and they suspected that he too was chowing down on the garden bounty which, is not really what is wanted. Hey, bears have to eat too!! Dave said he probably weighed in at around 450 pounds so he certainly was a good size. Tonight, however, we did not see any bears and although Dave saw 4 deer, we, being at the back of the line, did not see any. The first quad usually scares everything off the trail so by the time the last quad comes by, the woodland creatures are long gone!!
We delivered to two sites then decided to stop for a refreshment at Bear Lake (appropriate name considering the amount of bear scat we see on the trail!!). Dave says he has seen otters in this lake and osprey flying over which almost certainly says there are fish in this lake. Apparently it was once stocked with trout and supposedly netted out however, there are definite boat launch tracks near the edge of the water and I suspect they were not camera buffs hoping for that one special shot!! I bet who ever it was had fishing rods!! I think we will have to bring Dave's little boat down here and cast a few lines.
We headed back towards home after the lake, stopping to pick up the occasional log for the campfire. I even took a turn as the driver and I must admit, I loved it. John thought that I had rearranged several of his vertebrae, but I think he was only being a baby!! Once back at the grid, we stopped for a final refreshment, wondered about the gas situation and then headed towards home. We almost made it!! Although the quad said we still had one bar left - it obviously lied!! It was now dark and John and I were sitting in the ditch with no gas!! Lesson learned - fill the damn gas tank before we leave for the trails. Shirley had been running in front of us and once she no longer saw our lights, turned around and came to our rescue. She carried a gallon of gas in her quad and once we poured that gallon into our tank, we were ready to go again. Thanks Shirley!! It is VERY dark and quiet out there when one is all by themselves --- I kept wanting to say "did you hear that?"
We made it home safe and sound with yet another adventure behind us.
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