Ah, the Ups and Downs.

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Browsers down again.

Well, honestly? We have not been doing much for the last few days. I'm getting a little nervous about going down to the garden area for fear of what I might find.... ;-)

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we spent doing outdoor things that spruced the place up visually. You can't have a bang-up Fourth if your place looks a mess. Then we did lots of housework and cooking.

The Fourth was terrific! Great friends, who are really more like family. Lots of fun and games, chatting and eating, swimming and the like.

Sunday I had a surprise day with my oldest sister. She was in town when I was not expecting her until the last minute, so we didn't go to church but spent time visiting, and she helped us clean the dental office. Hooray! Can't beat that, now can you!

I happily took leftover food to town with us so we could 'host' a BBQ lunch for her birthday, and that helped empty the fridge somewhat, and we've been eating way too much.

Today has been rough. Only got 3 hours of sleep last night. Tossing and turning. My only daughter will not have much to do with me. She was at the party, but her rejection is always painful. It's hard to keep up a smiling face when all you want to do is know why things are the way they are and you know you will not be told.

So..... more lemons... I can get good at this!

OK, we had some wonderful homemade lemonade on the Fourth, brought by Leah. It was very tart, made you pucker. And so delicious! Not that overly sweet kind, but the kind that wakes you up and says, "Here I am! A LEMON! Now what are you going to do with me!"

I'm going to drink deeply and enjoy the sugar and friendship that make it all worthwhile. :)

I finally got up and got busy, but I'm really feeling yucky today. Several calls with my lawyer, and a meeting tomorrow.


But on to more farm-like news!

We got our studio cleaned out and organized again. YAY! That's usually a yearly thing, and with only us here, we don't make too much of a mess. The worst things were the ladybugs that had all died from a bug bomb we'd put in there last fall.

Probably a half gallon of carcasses were swept out. Glad they are gone. We should have used a bomb in there years ago, it really cut down on those malevolent ladybug impostors.

Michael is proving to be mechanically inclined. We attempted to repair our air compressor and I was about to give up a couple of times and throw it out, but he would take the tools and - Presto - accomplish what I could not. The young man is a gift to me. LOL

We just now took the motor to town, hoping they could tell us what part we could buy and replace, but the motor is frozen, so sadly, looks like it's junk. Will have to see if anyone has a use for a tank.

Sorry no pics. Would have liked to show how to take apart that compressor motor so someone else can just do it, rather than flail away at it needlessly. ;-)

Heading out to cut sunflowers for a bouquet again!

~Faith

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