This summer has been one of the hottest that this old man can remember. I think it’s going to be a sad day when I start to feel the chill in the air in the mornings and at nights. It has been so hot during the day that the nights have been awesome. Never a need for a sweater. In fact, we were sitting around the fire at Point Farms last week and when I checked the weather it was still 29C plus humidity at 11:00PM! Needless to say it was very difficult sleeping in the tent that night. Thankfully the next day was cooler (by about 5C) but windy and no humidity. Much better.
But I’m not complaining. I love this heat. And so does my garden. I’ve never seen peppers so abundant and so early in my garden. And the tomato plants are huge and bearing plentifully. The right amount of heat and rain I guess. It may be tough to duplicate this harvest. Well, except for the beans and peas. The bunnies, oh, the bunnies. My chickenwire fence that seemed to have worked for so many years has failed me. For some reason the rabbits are smaller this year and they can easily fit through the tiny holes in the wire fence without even making the fence shudder. I witnessed it and it is incredibly to behold. So, the tender plants have taken the fall for the rest of the garden.
This vacation consisted of cottaging in Tweed and some camping outdoors. But don’t let the away from home fool you, I ate like a king and had some food prepared like never before. Al and Lisa made some exceptional fajitas and I must remember this: Instead of marinating the chicken/steak with fajita mix, take that mixture and combine with oil. Then add to your fajita as much as you want. And don’t forget the Guacamole! Jay made top restaurant quality filet mignon that I must remember how to make: Heat a skillet to high temperature (he did all of this on an open fire by the way), add butter (lots of butter) and wait until it is sizzling. Add tenderloins that have been rubbed in salt and pepper mixture and cook to your liking. Wow, crusty and salty on the outside, melts like butter on the inside. I was highly impressed.
My golf game was up and down over the holidays. On my birthday I had a 7:00am round that I was eager and ready to go. Too bad I shot the worst front nine in years: 48! I followed up with a 40, but 48 is highly frustrating.
I’ve had my first taste of maintaining a pool this summer. I have a 12ft Intek pool (one of those ‘semi-permanent’ pools) that can accommodate a filter. It takes about 3 feet of water (just below the bylaw requirements for a fence). There is no way I’m filling and dumping each time so I’ve learnt the art of applying chlorine, checking the Ph levels, etc. etc. This is good practice because I have been told in no uncertain terms that we will have a fullsize pool at some point in the near future (within 5 yrs?). So, please, anybody, tell me the plus/minuses between an above and inground pool. Bear in mind that I am beholden to choose one of these options. No pool is not an option so save your breath on the downfalls of a pool in general.
Maintaining the yard is so much more fun now that I have my riding lawn tractor. It is a whopping 18HP, way more than I need. But there are benefits. When I get it into 3rd gear I can fly around the lawn at breakneck speed. I’ve been able to whittle the time down from 1 1/2 hrs with the push mower to about 40 minutes with the tractor plus the trimming. There is more trimming required since there are spots I can’t get to but I’ve been able to use the weed trimmer for all this work and have avoided having to use the lawn mower. But this may change over time as I attempt to figure out the optimal cutting algorithm.
So life goes on. Summer for me is about not making many decisions in my worklife and trying to keep that as static as possible so that I can enjoy my summer life at home. We were recently bought out by a large German company. So far it hasn’t impacted my worklife and I haven’t put any effort into thinking about how my life is going to change in the next couple years because of the acquisition. I’ll tackle this when October comes around. In the meantime, back to summer and my quest for the inaugural keeper league baseball championship!