May 17, 2026 Sunday
Hello Hollister and Ellalie!
Today is the first really hot day is about 4 weeks. I've finally turned on the air-conditioning this season. I've enjoyed having the windows open and running the big whole-house fan in the evenings to cool the house before I go to bed.
All my vegetable plants are in their containers finally: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, kale, spinach, and lettuce. I've already eaten several servings of kale, spinach, and lettuce in salads -- all have been very good. I planted radishes for the second time this season in one of the small kiddie pools the two of you used to play and splash in. The pool works great as a big planter.
As I type this letter, I'm drinking cold chocolate mint tea from my garden. All the mints are growing great this year. I think I'll make strawberry mint tea next.
Hollister -- I use to tell you a story about when I was caught in the rain while mowing my yard one time many years ago. You had me retell you that story over and over! So here is the story again so Ellalie will know it. I came home from work one afternoon and wanted to mow the grass in my yard. I got out the mower, put on my noise-cancelling headphones, and cranked up the mower. I was about half-way through mowing the front yard when the wind picked up very suddenly and the sun was covered up by clouds. It got dark, but I just thought it was a cloud before I heard a big crack of thunder. I looked up and the rain came down heavy and hard. I cut off the mower when I reached the driveway and pushed it as fast as I could down the driveway and into the barn. I closed the barn and locked the door shut before coming in the house to dry off. I was soaked only after 5 minutes because the rain was so heavy. It rained and stormed the rest of the day. I wasn't able to get back into the barn for about 2 days because of work and other things to do. When I finally opened the barn to pull out the mower and clean the wet grass from underneath around the cutting blades, the smell of fermenting grass was overwhelming! It smelled really bad. LOL! It took me 45 minutes to clean all the stuck grass from the undercarriage and from around the blade. Before cleaning, I did unplug the spark plug, pulled the crank until seized, and then flipped the mower on its side with the air-filter pointing up. I'll show both of you how to do this one day. Anyway, that's my story again about getting caught in the rain. I'll tell you why I'm repeating this story.
I was mowing my grass earlier this week when the wind and clouds did the same thing! Luckily, I was able to finish mowing the grass while more clouds rolled in, but then eventually blew on past a couple of hours later. This was a day I really wished for rain!! Tennessee and many other states are now experiencing a long period of no rain known as a drought. This makes it very hard to grow food crops for farmers and makes the environment ripe for fires. This is also a time referred to as "no burn" so people won't burn debris or crops. It's very easy for fires to spread when everything is this dry and the winds are blowing.
I hope you both enjoyed Field Day at school. Whether you won any ribbons or not, I hope both of you had a good time with your classmates. I'm sorry I wasn't allowed to attend this year. I'll be there next year without a doubt.
I'm including a few photos I've taken recently. I'll only write about the Baby Crow. This big Baby Crow (gender unknown) showed up in the backyard recently. When I first noticed Baby, it was sitting on one of the big water bowls. It was making cawing calls and the Momma Crow would answer back. Not sure what they were saying to each other. That same day in the afternoon, I was outside and heard it calling out, but no replies were being made. When Baby saw me, it started coming toward me and even hopped up on the railroad tie I was sitting on. Still no Momma calling for Baby. I was a little worried Opey might try to attack Baby, so I kept Opey away. I found a youtube video of a Momma Crow and a Baby Crow calling to each other. I decided to play it really loud. After about 10 minutes, Momma Crow showed up and started cawing to Baby. Baby got excited and started answering. Baby Crow finally flew off into the woods to meet with Momma.
I'm going to finish up now. I miss both of you terribly!!! I can't wait until the three of us can be together again and to catch up with what's been going on for you two. We have lots of fun things to do. I'm up for a play soon. The theatre we have been to many times, has moved to a new location. I haven't been there -- waiting until the two of you can go with me.
I love you and think of you daily. I see your faces on my digital photo player and it's so fun to see both of you there. I love you kiddos.
I love you,
Nonaw Marie 🩷💜💙XOXOXO
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