In this blistering heat, there isn't much to tell about the garden.  Weeds in some places are being mowed rather than pulled to simply survive to do battle when the heat wave breaks.  Articles all across the internet detail how the heat and drought are ravaging the farms across the country.  The wonderful advantage of living in Washington is that while on the eastern side we might not see an abundance of rain, we do have quite a few rivers.  In Prosser, we operate off the Yakima, in Burbank, the Snake, and farms up and down the state draw off of the might Columbia.  When people talk about alternative energy to coal and gas, I have to shake my head.  Most of my life has been spent on water power from dams.  I have heard about the plight of salmon, but not that of the pollution of "clean coal".  Instead, these rivers that never cease to flow, keep us here in Washington going even while others falter.  I have to count my blessings to be so lucky.  Our garden is thriving, even if a few plants have taken a need to be watered twice a day.  The corn, the crop of the Midwest, here is thrilled to be baking.  It helps differentiate between the plant we want and the weeds around it.  The weather people promise a break, but that hasn't been coming.  When it does, maybe I'll be back out there battling weeds with something other than a lawn mower.  Until then, weeds remain the enemy, but I'll wait to fight another day.

Been a crazy busy couple of days, so other than bemoaning weeds, there is nothing more on the farm or sewing front.  I really need to buckle down and get to designing clothes for Rambo.  Don't ask.  However, I'm running around this week, cleaning stalls here and teaching lessons over there.  When that settles, I can finally sit down with some fabric and my sewing machine. 

Speaking of teaching lessons, and this blog is called Ramblings for a reason, let me just say that "lesson moms" are far worse than hockey or soccer moms.  There is a rule at most horse shows that mothers and coaches cannot coach from the rail.  This rule exists for a reason, but it doesn't stop some mothers from coaching during lessons.  Memorably, last week I met the worst of the worst.  There comes a time in every person's life that they want to say something but cannot pull their jaw from the ground.  That was last week for me.  Please, "lesson moms", if you're going to all the effort to bring your kid to a lesson, let the instructor teach.  If not, then get a horse of your own and save us all a lot of heartache.

Sorry for the detour, readers, but if you have any similar stories, feel free to share. Misery loves company, and I have to prepare for battle with the same "lesson mom" again.  Wish me luck, regardless.

BlytheLea L.E.

Early Morning Sunrise

We at BlytheLea are not morning people.  We simply get up because we have to.  Tragic thing about summer, if you want to get anything done before dying of heat stroke, you have to get up early to do it.  That was teh case this morning.  Up nearly in time to watch the sunrise in order to get the raking done.  Tomorrow will be up at dawn to clean up the mess of today.  Sadly, the window is a small one, but here we are, rewarding our effort with coffee at Starbucks.  Maybe, just maybe, we can make this work!

In other news, our corn is finally sprouting!  Super excited to watch as our corn spirals come in.  As soon as it looks like something other than dirt and sprigs, we'll post an update.  In the meantime, still have the horses to watch out for as the heat rises.  Luckily, the smart ones like to be hosed down.  Okay, so they're all smart, but the two who bear the brunt of this weater tend to be the smartest this time of year!  Well, here's to another day done, and another coming tomorrow.

BlytheLea L.E. & J.R.

We welcome feedback!

Not so Helpful Helpers

Just a quick update here.  The garden is starting to take off.  Our planted from seed melons and squash are quickly gaining on the bought plants, and in a few days, I think, will pass them.  Tani, our oldest of our equine herd, has always loved watermelon.  We plant one for her every year. 

 However, the problem with the garden is our puppy.  Count Nikolas Ilyavich Rostov, Nikki for short, has taken to helping in the garden.  He likes to walk where we're watering, run through our melon patches and our corn spirals (our corn will look like a landing platform for aliens soon).  However, we love him, so we have to accept this and smile.

And here he is!  Okay, that was about all I had to share today.  Thanks for those who visit, feel free to comment. Now we'll be sitting out back waiting for the grass/plants to grow.

BlytheLea L.E. and J.R. (and Nikki)

The Problem With Weeding

The problem with weeding, besides that fact that I hate to do it, is that the process usually ends in injury.  This time, it began with an injury, and now I am miserable and my mom has thrown out her back.  It is a never ending cycle.  I would love to say that with all this misery came result, but after planting all morning, well, it will take awhile to admit results.  However, I will finally have pictures to post and prove that this is working when the corn and peas do pop up, and, thankfully, the weeds are much more controlled.  That means the picture might even look nice, too.

An additional problem with weeding is the prolonged sense of misery.  Yeah, there are proper ways to weed,  I worked for UPS for four years.  I know the ten rules to proper lifting and lowering, but sometimes a stubborn weed or patch of grass just makes you so focused on destroying the invader you forget the mechanics of your own body.  That, however, is not the additional problem.  No, that would be the fact that sitting down to sew will hurt for the rest of the day too.  C'est la vie, and la vie hurts right about now.

Signing off...

BlytheLea L.E.

P.S. Feel free to leave comments, questions, and if you'd like to see what we've accomplished so far, our shop name is  Mumaroo and we are on Etsy and Facebook.