Lots of raindrops.

The rain has been falling since yesterday. Can't remember the last time we had two solid days of rain, let alone just one. The corn stalks are higher than ever with all of this rain, and there seems to be no end in sight for the height of the tomato plants. And wonder of wonders, we're finally picking tomatoes. The night-time raccoons have been feasting on the zucchini, so my plans of making zucchini pie with our own vegetables went up in smoke. I was going to just pull out those zucchini plants, but maybe the raccoons are more interested in those than the tomato plants because they haven't bothered the tomatoes, so I think I'll just leave the zucchini right where they are.

The green beans are slow in coming. I have picked nine beans so far-- not exactly a feast. I'm saving them in the fridge, covered in cold water, hoping to get more by the end of the week so I can cook them up. We have just about given up on the strawberries..... we picked 27 of those, but they ripened one at a time, one a day here and there. Not worth the trouble, when we can buy sweeter and larger strawberries at the store.

With all the rain today, complete with thunder and lightning, the cats are in the house. Both Gatsby and Mickey are sleeping (hiding) under the sofa in the TV room, and Sweet Pea is sleeping on his favorite chair in there. I was reading in the TV room this morning, or trying to-- Sweet Pea jumped on my lap and wasn't content to just be there while I read. He wanted my undivided attention, so he kept moving his little cat-self higher and higher up till he was spread out across my book. What's more fun? Reading that book or petting me under my chin?

The chickens don't much like the rain either. Audrey and Mammy are hiding under the cottage, and Scarlett and Prissy are in nesting boxes in the coop. Once again, Scarlett has taken to sitting in her favorite nesting box, and Prissy is in the one right next to her. At least five or six times a day, I have to go in there and take both of them out of the boxes. I found two long oven-mitts in the thrift shop one day, and I keep them just for the coop-- I can pick up the chickens and my arms are safe from pecking all the way up to my elbows. Scarlett and Prissy don't even fight me anymore.... I think they're getting used to the attention now. I don't feed them when they're in the boxes, like I was doing the first time Scarlett went "broody" and sat in that box for 37 days. Now I just lift them out, toss them out into the grass so they have to spread their wings and fly into a soft landing, and I tell them "Go out and play!" So they do.... but within the hour, they're both back in the nesting boxes. Broody hens. I thought this stage was over with.

While they're in this broody stage, neither Scarlett nor Prissy will be laying eggs. Audrey hasn't laid an egg since the weather turned very hot, so Mammy is the only hen now giving us an egg every day. Before the broodiness started, I had nearly three dozen eggs in the fridge, so it's not like I'm going to run out of fresh eggs. But just the thought of those two hens sitting in those boxes thinking they're going to be hatching the imaginary eggs they think they're sitting on.....! As if I can't find better things to do than scoop out chickens from those nesting boxes. And you have to make sure to hold their wings down when you're taking them out of the boxes so you don't hurt them. Another day on the ranch. Another day in the coop.

The spiders have been busy constructing their webs all over the yards lately. When I walk to the coop in the morning, I carry a long tree-branch in my right hand and I flick that around the bushes and under the rose arbors. If I don't, more than likely I will be walking right into a web that an industrious spider built during the night. I must look like Don Quixote out there in the mornings, flailing my stick/sword through the air as I search for windmills. Thankfully, neighbors are too far away to see me or I know I'd have a lot of explaining to do. "What is that city girl doing out there now?"

Huge spiders here, by the way. Can't stand them, but I don't call my husband to come and kill them for me anymore. Same thing with the scorpions..... I especially don't like to see those, and the ones we've been seeing are dead ones (thanks to the pest-control company and their every-three-months spraying). Last year, when we kept finding scorpions in the house, I never got into bed without first looking at all the ceilings on the second floor, looking in all the bathrooms, and checking underneath our bed. Plus, I kept a flashlight on my night-table and I would wake up periodically during the night and shine that light all over the bedroom ceiling. I'm happy to say I don't do any of that, plus I can kill a scorpion myself now, without calling out both the Marines and my husband. What a difference a year makes.