It is already hot today, but there is a stiff wind blowing. The heat index is supposed to reach 100 - 105 by afternoon. There is a heat advisory in effect until evening which means stay out of it unless you have to be out in it. We are also once again told to expect the possibility for a severe storm. So, welcome to a Thursday summer morning in southern Indiana.

I went out first thing this morning and I filled the bark butter feeders. I just ran out of time yesterday to get it done. But, there are very few birds out there this morning. I suspect they may be siting up in leaf protected shade due to the heat. I heard a Pilated woodpecker in the area first thing this morning which is why I hurried up and filled those feeders. But it hasn't come around. So far all I have seen is a couple of cardinals and three or four finches, and one downy woodpecker who seemed quite satisfied that I had filled his favorite feeder. He landed on it as I was walking away from it. Of course the starlings will be here before you know it. They are a bunch of greedy gobblers on the bark butter.

Ms. Kate's nephew, Kevin, came by last evening and we went over the trip he has planned to go on with his girlfriend. They are leaving sometime today and they are terribly disorganized about it all. But, we laid out a route for them that will take them to the Badlands, the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons and back down and to Oklahoma City and then home. We've done that route several times and will travel vicariously with them.

I'm supposed to get my John Deere back today from the dealer. I need to get out there in the garage and make some storage room some place for the new snow blade and its attachments before they get here. In the last couple of years we have just used the garage as a catch all for boxes of inherited stuff from relatives that passed away. The place is a disorganized mess and I keep putting it off hoping a garage cleaning fairy might come along and feel sorry for me and make it all disappear. But it appears I'm left to do it myself. Poop! We keep saying "we're going to have to go through all of that", but never do. Many of the boxes contain loose pictures from the family. They are poor quality at best and frankly, no body really wants them but it seems a shame to throw one's family history away. So they sit in boxes through another generation when really nobody cares and they get tossed in a dumpster.  Ms. Kate is a scrap booker and has created lots of beautiful albums of our trips and family, and my entire military career. But in this digital photography age, even that hobby has died out to a great extent and people just store their picture "on the cloud". I'm glad we won't know what is going to happen to all of Ms. Kate's beautiful hours and days of work. But --- I have no doubt that some day --- they too will become of no value to anybody.

Ms. Kate just fixed my breakfast for me so I'm dropping off and going to enjoy that before I get busy. Have a great day. Stay in a cool place if possible, and thank God for a beautiful day.  Peace.