Is it too warm in your neck of the woods for warm tea or coffee?
I have to say that is warming up here but I still enjoy some warm tea in the morning shortly after I wake up. I have not tried any new or exciting teas lately.
Today I am sipping water with lemonade mixed in. I mix the lemonade with water because this lemonade, which we pick up from Aldi, is very sour and acidic for my stomach, but I still like a bit of the flavor of it and it is also a sure way to get me to drink more water.
As I am writing this the sky is darkening up and it definitely feels and looks like we have a storm coming through or at least rain. That may put a damper on our plans for later today.
This week was both a slow and busy week.
It was mainly slow, but we had some events earlier in the week, including two library events that made it a little bit busy.
Both events were related to rescued donkeys and part of the local library’s summer reading program.
The first event was the reading of a book about rescued donkeys, some crafts related to the same topic, as well as a visit by a donkey to the library.
The next day we visited a donkey rescue farm. The Husband was on vacation and was able to go with us. Dark clouds and sprinkles of rain arrived when we drove to the farm but for the most part, the rain held off until after the visit was over.
The farm owners are originally from Maryland. The wife said part of the reason they moved to our area was because of the kindness the local people showed her and her husband when they had a part-time residence in the area.
Now the locals are even more accepting and helpful and also love the donkeys they’ve brought to the area.
After meeting the donkeys, I can see why. They are so friendly. A couple of times I thought they were looking for food, which I didn’t have, but it turned out they simply wanted extra attention. They love to have their heads scratched and seem to love being talked to as well.
I talked along to the one donkey, whose name I think was Tucker, like he was another person. He bumped his nose under my belly if I stopped talking to him or petting him, which reminded me that I am way fatter than I want to be but also that I’m short enough for a mini donkey to be able to stick his little snout under my belly fat.
Little Miss woke up that morning saying she wanted a donkey ride, but I told her I didn’t think they gave donkey rides. Somehow before we left, she convinced the owner to give her a quick ride on the donkey so her day was pretty much made.
She keeps asking to go back to the farm but this was a special event organized by the library so I don’t know that I would feel comfortable just calling up the place and asking if we can randomly drop by their farm because my child is in love with their donkeys. Who knows, maybe she can volunteer her time and help them around the farm.
The view from the pasture of the farm was absolutely amazing and reminded me why I don’t mind living in Northern Pennsylvania, even if we are an hour away from all the bigger towns and stores.
After we visited the farm, we stopped by an old church that I imagine was once also a one-room schoolhouse, but I’m not sure. I found an article online about it so I’ll read that and get back to you about that later this week.
The building was locked but we could see by looking inside that the structure features very old pews that are built into the floor and a woodstove like the ones pictured in the Little House on the Prairie books. I would imagine the stove doesn’t work anymore but the fact that is in such amazing shape was fascinating to me. If they ever have an open house there I am definitely going to go so I can check out the inside of the place.
It also featured an outhouse out back, but I’m guessing that is only for looks since the locks were painted over.
I have no idea if the church is still used regularly or not. Again, I’ll see what the article says.
There is a large, old cemetery on the hill behind the church, but we decided not to explore it since it had started raining. If we make our way out there again, though, I want to go into it since it sits high on a hill and there is probably an amazing view from it.
We had our first dip in my dad’s pool yesterday after weeks of Dad trying to get the thing clean. It was covered all winter but dirt and leaves, etc. fell into it so he had to run the filter, treat it, and run his new little pool-cleaning robot (Stella) too.
Alicia from For His Purpose (https://forhispurpose.blog/) asked yesterday if Stella did her job cleaning my Dad’s pool this past week. Stella is the robot that Dad picked up to clean his pool and he named it Stella to help him remember someone who helps him in physical therapy. I mentioned last week about how we lost Stella the first day Dad set her loose and I stood by the pool yelling “Stella!” ala Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire.
This week we had to rename Stella June Bug because the real Stella was a little creeped out by the robot being named after her. I think she wasn’t really creeped out. She probably thought it was funny but Dad said he didn’t feel right pulling her out of the pool and announcing, “Stella had a bunch of garbage come out of her today.”
So we now have June Bug, a name Little Miss chose for her.
To answer Alicia’s question, yes, June Bug did a very nice job and cleaned up the pool well, which is one big reason why we could go swimming. That and the level of chlorine finally evened out.
Today we are relaxing but might visit the pool later. I’m not sure yet, because of the storms coming in. When I started this post a bit ago, I was sure we would be over there tomorrow to jump in the pool and maybe help around the house, but I’ve since looked at the weather forecast and we might get rained out again. We will still go for some lunch most likely.
We were both rained out and smoked out of visiting the local state park while The Husband was on vacation this past week. Smoke, haze, and bad air quality drifted down from Canada again this week, keeping us inside much of Thursday. Luckily the smoke wasn’t as bad as it was in the first part of June.
I’m guessing we will be back at the pool someday next week since it is supposed to be much hotter than it has been, which is typical for July in our neck of the woods. The forecast says we could have temperatures in the high 80s, which I am not looking forward to.
How is the weather where you are? Is it blistering hot yet or just comfortable?
Did you have a nice week? Do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear (read) about it.
Discover more from Boondock Ramblings
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I forgot how much I miss reading up on all my favorite bloggers. We are so busy lately I have to stay away from the computer as much as possible to actually get work done. I’m happy I was able to write up two months worth of pre-scheduled posts because I knew I would be so crazy busy with selling and moving I wouldn’t have time to do that. We are looking into moving to the south. This is a very stressful event as we have been packing and repairing a home we have lived in for over two decades here in Arizona. Anyway, I love your style of writing so I am glad I stopped by for a quick visit. It is hot here, we all got heat exhaustion the other day because we were out doing errands too late. They measure the temps here in the shade when they report the temps. When the news reports 116 we know in the direct baking sun it is more like 133 degrees because that is what our thermometer says in the sun. It takes your breath away Like opening a hot oven when you bake and it hits you in the face. Homes are burning up a lot here in the city of Phoenix because the homeless/gangs are setting what they call Dumpster fires that spread to homes. So far several homes have burned down around the city. The air is always polluted it seems because we are in a valley where the heat traps the pollution in. I feel for you, I can understand not being able to be out in fresh air and open windows. We are trapped here in Phoenix as we have to close all the windows to keep the air conditioning on as well as keep the pollution out. Most people go up north to the cool pines to escape the heat here in the city. The country is the best place to raise a family too. Love the photos as always, you are so talented. Have a great summer and God bless you all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds awful! With the heat and with people burning houses and other things. What is wrong with people? I had wondered why I couldn’t comment on your posts, but I have been trying to keep up with them and enjoy the posts you shared. I think I missed the post where you said you would be moving. Thanks for stopping by and updating me a bit. I am so behind on commenting on my favorite blogs but hope to sit down this weekend and just read and comment. I really enjoy keeping up with my blogging friends but I’m better at keeping up in the fall and winter when it is colder out and there isn’t as much to do outside. 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, that donkey event looked like a lot of fun, so I’m glad you are getting to enjoy some outings, especially since your hubby is on vacation. That smoke from the wildfires invaded us over here in western PA. The haze was horrible, the air quality considered very unhealthy, and it irritated my throat and made me cough. So for more days than I liked, I had to stay inside. It drove me crazy! Finally it moved out but now we have rain, rain, rain. But I’m thankful still to be able to open windows and doors and breathe fresh air once more (even if we are water-logged).
LikeLike
Is there a temperature where it gets too hot to drink tea? *L* Maybe just less of it.
The weather was quite warm and hazy for a lot of last week. Yesterday (Sunday) was cooler, and today isn’t all that bad. The next couple of days are supposed to be hot, but hopefully still bearable without air conditioning. It’s hard to follow the forecasts here; one of the closest weather stations is at a place which is probably the coolest in the area during the summer (literally on a point out in Lake Michigan) but the next closest is at a regional airport which always seems to be a few degrees hotter. I suppose it depends on which way the wind is blowing! We got a sprinkling of rain yesterday, but certainly could use some more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so behind on responding to comments on blog posts! I hope the weather got a little less hot for you this past week. Tomorrow we are supposed to get so much rain we are under a flash flood watch. We need rain but that much is a bit crazy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Sunday Bookends: Horowitz, overly descriptive mysteries and swimming weather – Boondock Ramblings
This was sweet to read, always makes me feel like I’m right along for your adventures. I love how you guys seem to always have something new to explore like the donkey farm and the little church. I’m curious to know what you find out from the article you found. Also I noticed in one of the donkey pics that one of the women visiting had a shirt on that said pray pray pray❤️
I love donkeys and had originally wanted a couple miniature ones but after looking into it in our area I decided I couldn’t handle $3000 a piece, not sure if people around here are trying to get rich off of them or if that’s the going rate for a miniature donkey…nevertheless I settled for some Nigerian dwarf goats instead, they were much lighter on the pocketbook and haven’t failed to entertain!!
I’m glad June Bug is doing her job!! We tried having a pool the past two summers and it definitely didn’t go “swimmingly”…too hard to keep it clean where I live, everything was so dry and dusty from the drought we had so the water was always gross no matter what! We sold it last year and wouldn’t ya know we’ve had lots of rain this year so it’s not dry and dusty—the pool would probably have been fine now!!
Guess I’ll just enjoy yours vicariously through photos!!
LikeLike
We are finally getting rain here in Central Indiana. There was some pretty fierce wind with it. I love thunderstorms, but these arrived too late to sit outside and watch them. It has been hot and humid which just makes it miserable to be outside for any length of time. And, then, we’ll have a cooler day right in the middle just to mix us up! But, I’ll always take those cooler days.
I love the donkey rescue farm! What an amazing idea though I didn’t know donkeys needed rescuing. Are they pets and their owners just decided they didn’t want them anymore? Gosh, they are so cute. I love that Little Miss cajoled the owners into a ride!
I don’t drink hot tea very much even though I have a gorgeous tea pot my son bought me for Christmas a few years ago. But, I do drink ice water with just a bit of lemonade in it because I can’t take the lemonade full strength either! How odd to know someone else who does that!
Have a wonderful week!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
LikeLike