Hazy days of Summer

For years, the field behind our house has been used for soy beans...this year it is wheat. There is a lot of harvesting going on in the area lately and I think the fields look kinda pretty....

....only this has never happened before....

I don't know if the farmer made a mistake or had a new guy operating the machine, lol !!!

My backyard is about 1/4 acre and was covered in straw. I thought to run the lawnmower over it and mulch it up, but I could see right away it wasn't going to work that way. The mower was just chopping it into about 6" pieces and creating more of a carpet of straw!

So I set out to rake it up, which wasn't too hard considering the straw is practically weightless. 

There were many, many piles of straw, but it really didn't take too long. Where is a tribe of goats when you need them? Or a little pig wanting to build a house of straw? (Sorry, that's all I could think of while raking in this heat wave!)

I wonder at the reaction of my neighbour when he arrives home after this time away from home. This is twice in the last month that he'll be coming home from long-haul trucking to see something unusual going on on his property!

I took advantage of the air-conditioning this afternoon to stay in the house and do the next step of the Summer Solstice quilt-along hosted by Happy Quilting, which you can see here. I am making this quilt in baby-quilt size for a new grandbaby in the Fall.

Here is today's step, the half-square triangles...

....and even got a few squared up with my new BlocLoc ruler (pricey, but a great tool!)....

You can see in that picture I have a few snippets to add to my "stash of bits" that I'm saving for a doggy bed, as mentioned in a previous post here.

Puppy update

We have four of the five pups still here. Tomorrow three will go to their new homes. It will be nice to have our lives back to normal soon, but I will miss the overdose of cuteness we've had around here lately! 

I hope you are keeping cool in this heat-wave. We are supposed to break a record today with temperatures in the mid-30's and feeling like the mid-40's. I'll take it....better than Winter, anytime!!!

I'm sure if I care to listen to the News tonight I'll hear of yet another story of a child or pet found in a car in this heat. What are people thinking, really!!!

Have a great day...and a cool beverage!!