August 18, 2008 

  tinking hot yesterday. (No idea where that term comes from actually and I rarely use it, but it was very  fitting.) Evidently four people in the local area in the last 2 days have been taken to the hospital from heart attacks due to the heat. I hope everyone comes out of the experience alive.

It started raining last night about 9:30pm and it is a severe contrast from yesterday to today. The cool breeze which came with the rain was refreshing, but now the skies are grey and everything is damp. I do not know why we cannot get a happy medium with the weather this year. I was not feeling well from the heat last night as I had been out in it all day, so I took a bubble bath with one of the products sent to me from LUSH. I do not think I have had a bubble bath since I was little... and had a yellow rubber duckie!! I have been looking at this 'bubble bar' with suspicion the last few days as I was not sure what to do with it. I finally used it as soap, but it just was 'not quite right'. Then I noted it was melting so I put it in the water. Pretty soon there were bubbles to make Lana Turner envious.. or someone like that anyway.

I think I am down to my last few bars of soap I make. I usually make 52-100 bars for my home use every 18-24 months. The kind pictured is my oatmeal & honey. I do not think I have bought soap since 1998, although a few people have given me soap that they have created.

I have a Dark Brahma hen sitting on a nest now for the last two days. I thought the hens were over the broody phase for the summer, but evidently not. I will let her pull off this clutch, but no more until next year. I noted that they need more oyster shell.

I have been eating new potatoes and turnips out of my garden the last few nights. A couple friends were here for coffee yesterday morning and I ran out of cow milk last night. I ran up to 'Crystal' with a pint jar and got just enough to put into their coffee. The friends freaked out a little bit at first, but it was a mental thing.. and they drank their mugs of java.

These two are city people and had a kick out of going into the pig pen with the hogs. I was telling them advice on how to get close to the pigs, to slow down their movements and let the hogs come to them.. but they failed to listen so I just stayed on the outside of the pen leaning on the rails laughing at the show. They were not chasing them, but I was waiting for one human or the other to get run over by a herd of swine. One of them did catch a pig.. the squealing must have been heard for half the province and then some.