July 1st through 21st 2008

July 1st Tuesday: Temp: 76 high/57 low: Worked on July 1st in the evening. Now it is cool out, we had to run the ceramic heater. I got a dehydrator for food and I am trying it out with the blueberries we got. It makes a bit of noise, although not as much as the AC does, but it does generate a bit of heat. So we decided to do it outside rather than in the camper.

We had it going during the night and the next morning we had dried berries. They were really dried out, probably should have just done it for 12 hours rather than 16 hours. But you live and you learn, right?

I have some pictures of the garden from the first. It is really interesting to see the changes (at least to me) from the first to the 15th, when I last took a couple of pictures. Now remember, this is my first year gardening, so I think I'm not doing too bad a job! The metal frame in the front box is for a trellis. Sasha helped me make this for the tomato plants.

July 2nd Wednesday: Temp 83 hi/61 low.  Tried out some of the berries, most were really dried out, which is fine. Also, I changed around some of the storage containers so that we now have no plastic bag containers. I got rid of the pasta boxes and we now have everything in storage containers. I did that because I am worried about ants. We seem to get them at the drop of a hat, so the less that is lying about, the better. I worked today, but before I went to work, I played in the garden, getting the tomato plants to go up the trellis a bit more, plus I am getting good pickings of basil, chives, and the flowers of nasturtium. I am starting to see flowers for some of the other plants, like the zucchini and squash, and tomatoes. I will have pictures up in a couple of days so you can see what the garden is looking like now.

July 3rd Thursday: Temp 89 hi/562 low - my one day off this week. I used the time to go to the post office in Dumfries, go to the library there as well, and went to Aldi's. Whenever I go to Aldi's, it really is for "Provisions" to get stuff that we will use later, not right now. 

Got a bunch of books, including a book club book that I had reserved: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. See the right column. Plus a couple of environmental books including the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Book - a fun read especially in the back. I would recommend going to your library to get the book. I'm reading a couple of different books at the same time, The Short History, Three Cups of Tea, and The Hot Topic.

July 4th Friday: Temp 79 hi/68 low - Happy Independence Day!  Unfortunately, the day turned out to be quite rainy. I do not think they did the fire works around town today because of the rain. I worked a slightly strange shift - from 10 am to 6 pm, part of the time was busy, part of the time not so busy because of the rain.   Just found out they did do the fireworks as it was not raining when it was time to do them, but it was very foggy out.

I needed to get out, I think because of a few things, including the weather. And since we really could not cook up anything on the grill because of the rain, we went out to Applebee's restaurant. Had me a nice steak, Sasha had Oriental Chicken Salad, and we had appetizers and dessert.

July 5th Saturday: Temp 83 hi/68 low drizzle and rain - early day for me for work.

July 6th Sunday: Temp 81 hi/65 low, drizzle, rain, and fog - BUT we still went for a hike up to Mill Mountain and Wolk Gap area. It was only a 1.6 mile round trip hike but it really showed us how out of shape we had gotten. The elevation change was approximately 600 feet, which is not much, but we were slow, it took about 30 minutes to go 0.8 miles and 600 feet change in elevation.

We should have been able to do that a lot faster. We took a look around (a video coming soon, just have to get it on YouTube first!) could not see anything but fog, and then started to head down. I heard rain on the leaves above us, and so we really tried to get down fast. We got down in about 15 minutes. I had not brought a change in clothes (Sasha brought a different shirt, so my shirt was a bit wet.

We then took the long way back going in a round about way back to the campground. There were two wineries that I wanted to check out, but it seems as though both of them have bellied up. Could not even find one of them, and the other was closed. Of course there were signs saying wineries, but obviously the state has not yet taken the signs down.

Did see some Llama farm and also some geese, and a deer near Deer Meadow Winery.

This is the picture of the deer - he looks so cute, I think he was by himself. I have zoomed in with this picture, so it is not a clickable one. But it is a little bit easier to see.

We then got a pizza to take back to the camper, before I headed back to work at 2 pm. Got to work a little before 2 pm, always good to get there a few minutes before, so that I can find out any news about people coming in, or things of that nature.

July 7th Monday: hi 87/low 66 with some rain: But that did not stop me from putting up the trellis (a soft but durable string so that the tomato plants go up rather than spread out. I hope that we do get a bunch of tomatoes, that would be great, but I only got two plants. I was not sure if it would work. So I spent a bit of time in the garden and have pictures to prove it!

Also wanted to show here----> this box has a zucchini plant plus four cucumber plants that are growing up the trellis. But look at the weeds behind it! I will be attacking those tomorrow.

July 8th Tuesday: hi 90/low 65: Before I left to go to Sasha's sister's place, I attacked the weeds in the pictures. I will have three days off, and so watered the plants and will be gone for three full days - I am sure they will be fine.

July 9th Wednesday: In Winchester: hi 86/low 72 (hardly any change between day and night) But we were in Fairfax, visiting Sasha's sister and her kids (two of the three) Kristina and Ally, and Ally's friend Lauren. Lots of fun, really enjoyed playing with the kids, we were in the pool and played lots of Wii! We had a great dinner of grilled meats and nice salad.

July 10th Thursday: In Winchester: hi 83/low 64 more of the same, enjoyed being with family and playing. The kids did a lip sync talent show, I will have the videos (they are quite big, will take a bit of bandwidth to get them up on YouTube) soon. (Pic is the kiddies in the car on the way to lip syncing show.)

July 11th Friday: In Winchester: hi 87/low 59: Because of a slight scheduling snafu, I got the day off. Did not realize it until about 11:30 am when I got the call from work. Seems I was supposed to work at 8 am not 1 pm like it was on the schedule. Anyway, I was headed to the post office in Dumfries and when I found out I did not have to work, I got the mail and headed over to Jo Jo's - an ice cream place to get some shakes for Yvonne and the kiddies.

Then I headed back to Yvonne's for the rest of the day. We did the pool thing and even got Yvonne in there for a while, then had an awesome lunch by the pool.  After lunch we went back in the pool for a while, then played on the Wii for a couple of rounds before heading up to the club so that Kristina could get her swim team practice in at 5 pm. Yvonne and I played beach volleyball with some of the older kids and adults at the club (OMG! I am totally out of shape when I comes to playing that game, and to think I did that in college (for a couple of seasons anyway!))

July 12th Saturday: hi 91/low 64 and humid in the evening. Worked that morning and after I got off, had lunch, took a snooze and then worked a little in the garden. I had not seen the garden since Tuesday and drum roll please:
I had a Zucchini which I plucked (will have a picture soon - before we eat it! OOPS - we ate it before I could get a picture so will have a picture of the second one!), several squashes are forming now, a cucumber is about 3 inches, the basil and chives are looking great, the tomatoes have flowers, the peppers have flowers, but I have pulled up the radishes, they did not get a root, just the leaves came up. Oh, and the arugula is doing great. The carrots are sprouting the leaves right now, so hopefully the carrots will form.

I also, when I came into the garden, saw a bunny rabbit. Don't know how he got in, but I as I was throwing some of the leaves over to the side, they must have hit him, because he ran away. I guess I am going to have to rip out some more of the overgrowth so that these types of creatures have no cover and hopefully do not come in.

July 13th Sunday: hi 91/low possible showers later. I have to work today, but we went to the pool first, got about 20 laps in (one way 25 m) of breaststroke and freestyle. It was nice, not too hot yet. It is supposed to Thundershower later today, hopefully will happen after I do the garden. I plan to go to the garden after work, get some arugula for dinner. Well, it did rain, did not get the salad, had pizza for dinner instead.

July 14th Monday: hi 84/low 64: Checked out the garden and picked the first SQUASH of the season - gave it to one of the managers as we only grill on the weekends, and Sasha does not like Squash or Zucchini if it is not grilled. Cucs are OK to him raw but not the squashes. Strange but true. She said it was very tasty and perfect!

July 15th Tuesday: hi 87/low 59: Was very cool in the evening, had the windows open and very nearly froze (just kidding, but it got COLD!) Worked in the garden and pulled out even more weeds - did not know dirt could get so tightly packed into my fingernails. I do not think it will be able to come out. Even with a brush the dirt is really packed in there. I know, I know, I could wear gloves but what is the point? The hands will get hot and sweaty, and I do not feel like I am part of nature, but just slightly removed. Now if there are prickly things in there, well, that is a different story, but there were not, just weeds and rocks.

Someone else had put down the tarp to get rid of the weeds. Only trouble is that the water is pooling on the tarp. We might have to take it up, drain the water and put it down again. Don't know. Saw my first tomato in the garden. He is looking a little small right now, but I am just so happy to see him, I don't care. Also saw a pepper flower - so hopefully the peppers will be coming in soon. They seem to take a while more than the other plants. I am not a patient person it seems, I want them to come in now, so that I know I did an OK job. Patience is a virtue, but waiting can be tough!

July 16th Wednesday: hi 90/low 60: The website said only 87, but I know I saw 90 on the gauge, so that's what I am putting down. Went to a new bank (Wachovia) to open up a couple more CDs, got pretty good rates (4%) for a 6 month CD. Sasha got a little worried after reading some posts about Wachovia, but the biggest thing we have to worry about is if the rates go down from here. Wachovia is a big bank with lots of problems like other big banks and we really do not have to worry, its not like we have over $100K in that bank. I do not think we would have over $100K in any bank if we could help it. It would be nice to have lots and lots of money of course, but just as you diversify your stocks/portfolio money, so too do you diversify the different banks you belong to.

We have now six banks that we belong to, I am going to close out one of them, it is not necessary. I brought some money into a local bank, trying to get a great deal on a CD, but then they changed the CD rate (and did not change it on their website!) and I still opened the account. They have not had great rates for a while, and they only accrue interest every quarter. So out the money will go with them, and into Wachovia it goes. Besides, Wachovia is all over, and the closest one to us is very close.

Also: HAPPY Birthday to Johnny Batal, I know he is still at camp for a few days but he turned 15 today so Happy Birthday. He was the ring bearer at our wedding 11 years ago - such the cutie!

July 17th Thursday: Hi 91/low 65: It is going to be a hot day, my one day off this week and I have not done anything that I was supposed to do. Did not go picking as the blues are gone, it is now blackberry season, but not really, not quite yet. It is sort of peaches season, but again, not quite yet. So I work on the website and get this page fixed - for some reason was WAY too long. Plus I will have a new page. We are getting questions from the emails on how and why we are doing this, and so Sasha and I have answered them. Those will be located on the Question & Answers page.

July 18th Friday: Hi 93/Low 70: I know it is going to be a hot day when we had to run the AC the night before. I just don't know how hot it is going to be. I put in the pictures for this month, please check them out, I have a few for the garden and a bunch from our hike. I am going to the bank(s) now to close one account and put the money in another account. We opened a Wachovia account on Wednesday, as it is closer and easier to get to. Plus, they have some good rates on CDs. Of course those rates are ending today, who knows if they will be as good on Monday. But at least I got them. Yikes! today is supposed to be 92 and TOMORROW is supposed to be 95. I guess I better water the garden this morning.

Sasha told me that he is going to be working this weekend, so he will probably be staying at his parents house for the next couple of nights. He has a big project that he is working on, and is due on Monday. So he will not be around for the weekend.

I think that is was hotter than what was the official report. It sure seemed hotter.

July 19th Saturday: hi 92/low 68 - definitely was hotter - probably more like 95 degrees out. Once I got off of work, I went to the camper and stayed in the AC. I was planning to go picking - but with this hot weather, it just is not a good idea. Hopefully my plants are not dying in this heat. Sasha did come home this evening but it looks like he won't be home for the next couple of nights boo hoo. 

July 20th Sunday: hi 96/low 69 - a hot day for sure! I went peach picking today, wanted to go blackberry picking but no blackberries yet, I guess that is more of an August event. So I did the peach picking. But picking peaches is pretty quick - I only got 4 lbs worth, because they are still hard. So I have a few on the counter - some in a brown paper bag and some just on the counter. I am experimenting which will ripen first.

When I went out to peach pick, I also headed over to West Virginia, just across the state line to Inwood. Beforehand, I went to the welcome center, picked up a WV map and asked about their sales tax. It seems WV has sales tax on food too, at 3% and their restaurant tax is 6%. Still, it is better restaurant tax than some places in Northern Virginia, where sales tax can run about 10%. Why oh Why do the counties make the tax so high - do people not pay attention to their food bills/take out bills and the counties are trying to get more revenue? Anyway, I got some tomatoes, onions and a taste of fudge, really good from www.rosascandies.com.

One other thing I have noticed, I guess people just pay and don't ask for receipts. Every store that I went to today, I had to ask for a receipt. With some, they had a devil of a time trying to get the receipt - what is up with that? Do people not ask for receipts at farmer's markets? I would think that the farmer's markets especially would have receipts with their name on it - a little more brand recognition would go a long way.

Anyway, Sasha stayed over his parent's house this evening so he could get an early start tomorrow.

July 21st Monday: Hot and strange weather: Got up to about 95 for a high (officially 92 but definitely more than that!) low 68 and thundershowers after 10 pm. And I know we had rain in the late evening last night.  We had a power outage in the morning, all of a sudden the AC stopped working. I was like, oh, lovely, it is going to be hot out there, and no electricity. Kind of reminded me of the book we read in June. One of my co-workers came over and showed me where to turn off the power on the box outside. He stated that when it does turn back on there might be a surge.

It seems like the grid (of which we are on) was not upped in power when they added extra businesses to the grid. So some business (not ours) was pulling more power than they should have and it blew the transformer. So I unplugged everything that was connected and waited until I did not hear any generators going.

It seems that some people have generators here at the campground, and need electricity at all times. Thankfully, we do not. Although I was a little worried because the refrigerator switched to propane, and we are low on propane. but not too low, as within about an hour and a half, things turned back on.

Check out the Last week in July - Sasha's Birthday, Luray Caverns, and lots of pictures!