June 28, 2015
Re: Letter 30 of 3
Dear Riley:
Two deaths and two funerals within a week and I get sick the day after the last memorial service! I wouldn’t be surprised if the added stress was a major contributing factor. It had a pretty good hold on me for a few days I think it’s on the run now, but it moved into my bronchioles so I’ve lost my voice and have a pretty horrible cough. I felt so poorly that I missed a day and a half of work mostly just sleeping.
Things with work are busy. The double cone dryer we bought is now hung from an engineered structure. (I don’t think we had this before you left.) It’s a 4,000 lb piece of equipment, so moving it, flipping it, and lifting it into position was no small engineering feat. Tomorrow an electrician is supposed to wire it up. We have a few parts on order with a long lead time, but we’re making good progress.
It’s really good to have Parker there and we’re putting him through the numerous trials to manhood. He’s currently at level 11 out of about 80. We have to laugh though. He’s going a little wild on the scaring thing. We tried to gently explain that sometimes we go for a very long time without scaring anyone and that’s ok. Sometimes less IS more. I finally demonstrated that it’s really a mind game and you can have a pretty good laugh without scaring anyone by setting an expectation that never materializes. We left Gus upstairs at the end of work but slightly opened all the doors which were normally closed, mostly closed doors which were usually open. Turned out all the lights on the way to the door, then sat in the front office and waited. Gus figured something was up, so his spider senses were on high alert. Once he had verified from the office window that our vehicle was still parked in front, he took a long time to get to the front office so as not to be caught off guard. Every corner, every hallway, and every doorway was suspect. We laughed and laughed over how much tension was built just by setting the expectation, and then doing nothing.
Well, summer is officially here and we’re breaking the 100 mark. Thank goodness for air conditioning. I’ve planted a lot of things throughout the garden, but only filled and planted one garden box. It’s doing remarkably well, so I’m working to fill the other three completed garden boxes. This involved a load of topsoil and composted horse manure to combine with peat moss, rock dust, and vermiculite. It’s still early enough to get some late season crops planted and I’m looking forward to a bountiful harvest. Speaking of gardening, the earwigs have been particularly troublesome this year largely in part to the heavy rains late in spring. I discovered a new favorite weapon against earwigs. I have long heard that diatomaceous earth is deadly to numerous crawling insects, but didn’t know how much they hate it. I didn’t want to spray any insecticide on my lettuce so finally got some diatomaceous earth and sprinkled it between the leaves. They came boiling out of the plants and were running all over the garden. The following day I couldn’t find a single earwig in my lettuce, or any in the near vicinity. Great trick! I also feel ahead of the game against mites in my apples and the peach tree borer in the apricot tree. Bees are still a challenge. I had no idea it was so hard to establish a stable colony. They do it all the time in nature without any help from us. Now it seems near impossible to get a viable egg laying queen. I’ll keep working on it.
We’ve been enjoying Cambry. She still has jetlag and I think it will be some time before she’s interested in traveling outside of the country. It was quite an adventure getting her home in spite of the protests and inability to get back to London. As it worked out, she got a nonstop flight out of Paris and the extra costs associated with the disruption will be reimbursed through our credit card which has trip disruption insurance. She simply LOVES being home.
Well, we love you and pray for your success and safety. Can’t wait for you letter and we loved your last one. Stay the course, work every day to the very end, and blessings will flow to you. I’m picking the picture this week, and think you’ll like it. Take care!
Love,
Dad
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