Blooming Alfalfa

I noticed this plant growing in Susan’s orchard the other day and asked her what it was.

It’s alfalfa. When it’s grown as a fodder crop, it gets cut before it ever has a chance to bloom. Susan grows in her orchard and uses it—dried—as mulch in her garden. I think it’s so pretty. I may pick up some seed and broadcast it into the pig pasture this fall.

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DD#1 sent this picture to the family group text last night:

That is a mama bear and two cubs walking along the beach in front of their house in Alaska. She took the photo from the safety of their living room. She grew up in Montana and respects wildlife, unlike people who try to pet the fluffy cows in Yellowstone.

The smoke was so awful last night when I went to bed that I closed all the windows and ran the air scrubber in our bedroom. (I have to leave the windows open or it just gets too hot upstairs.) The husband said it sounded like we were on the deck of an aircraft carrier, but the scrubber did the job. Around midnight, we started getting winds from the east that blew most of the smoke out of the area, so I opened the windows a crack and let in some fresh air.

We’re not burning here, though, and for that I am grateful. I have been watching coverage of that fire just west of Spokane and it is horrific—something like 10,000 acres burned and almost 200 houses completely destroyed. The fire is 0% contained. I-90 is still closed in that area.

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The husband borrowed the stock trailer from our friend, Smokey, and got it into position by the pasture gate yesterday. He moved the pig feed into the trailer. Theoretically, when the pigs get hungry, they will go looking for the food and get used to moving in and out of the trailer. Some years, that plan works better than others. We see what happens today. The pigs will need to spend tonight in the trailer because we have to be ready to leave around 5:30 tomorrow morning. I have three bags of marshmallows on hand to help entice them into the trailer—pigs love marshmallows—and Smokey and some other friends of ours said they would come over and help.

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I am driving the Acura again. I was getting ready to leave for a meeting yesterday morning and the husband happened to hear the BMW running. He didn’t like the sound it was making and thinks a belt is bad. One of our employees was here yesterday working on his truck, so the husband couldn’t get the Diva into the shop too look at it. He may not have time this week, either. I can drive the Acura to Spokane. And I think I am going to have to make a decision soon about replacing my car.