Good Friday morning to you. I hope your day has started off as sunny and bright as mine has. Again today the sky is cloudless and it is already warm this morning. It is supposed to go up to 90- again today. That's fine by me as I did my yard work yesterday; well some of it anyway. I got the leaves raked up again and the yard mowed, front an back. I suspect that the grass will be going dormant soon and then the only reason to be running the Deere back here will be to mulch up the leaves. Then before you know it, it will be time to put the mowing deck aside and put the snow blade on and wait for winter weather to get here. As you may remember, last year my snow blade never saw a flake of snow. If I do any yardwork today, I may go ahead and cut back the peonies and the rest of the phlox. At the end on the season they get really full of mildew and the blooms are all gone. Even the hummingbird leaves them alone now. The end of September is the time to cut it all back.

Ms. Kate has to go get a perm this morning and then I guess we are going to go do a little shopping for things that we want to take along on our vacation. A week from today is the big roundup and I get more excited about oit every day. I watched the Smithsonian tape of it again last night. It will be fabulous to see in person. Of course, that is just one of the things that we are anxious to see and do while we are gone. I saw that South Dakota has a new monument called The Dignity Sculpture that is close to Rapid City. From the pictures, it look marvelous. I hope we have time to see that. And, I'm hoping the weather is clear enough and the roads are clear enough for us to go see some side roads in and around the Grand Tetons.

I refilled the backyard buffet again yesterday so I have a lot of company this morning. I had one red headed woodpecker just fussing and fussing at me yesterday as I was filling feeders. I guess it was anxious for me to refill the bark butter feeders because as soon as I finished, here it come. The birds are not shy about letting me know what they like and don't like by their actions. They will be waiting for me when I get back from vacation and will fuss because the feeders will all be empty by then. But, as I have said before, sometimes I wait until they completely empty a feeder any way just so the residue in the bottom of the feeders doesn't mold.

It is time for me to get out of my chair and get myself dressed and ready for the day. I need to start gathering up stuff to put in my suitcase. The long pole in the tent of course is to try to figure out what the weather will be like. We could end up packing all wrong.

I would urge to you to continue prayers for all of the folks that are dealing with the aftermath of the natural disasters that have occurred around the country and the world. I would also ask you to join me in prayer for our nation as we again go through a period of social unrest and demonstrations and riots.  Much of the nation's people are having a hard time adjusting to the actions and programs of the president. The last president was a man who instituted all kinds of welfare and feel-good programs and he was in offfice for eight years. This president is a man who says people need to works for a living and has ended many of those programs. It is causing a lot of national strife. Let's pray that we can come together like adults and bring peaceful resolutions to it all.

Have a wonderful weekend. Peace.