Good morning and Happy 4th of July. What are your plans for today to celebrate this 244th anniversary of this nation becoming independent from English rule? Last night I sat and watched a You Tube video of something that is about as “American” s it gets these days. I was watch the video of protesters, about 300-400 of them that had blocked the road that leads up to Mt. Rushmore. I’m not sure what they were protesting other than that the President of the United States was scheduled to appear there and speak and the annual fireworks were scheduled to happen. Thousands  of tickets for the event had been sold and of course the protestors were only interested in making sure that people couldn’t get in to hear the President because they disagree with him. Obviously their right to protest was more important than anyone else’s rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t know how it ended. It was, from what I saw, “basically peaceful” if you call vile screaming of age old rhetoric peaceful. But —- protesting has become the sport of the year 2020.

Yesterday, I filled the feeders (part of them) for the Backyard Buffet, mowed some yards, got my asparagus planted, put my peat moss and compost on the raised bed an Julies come over to spend the holiday and her birthday with us. Tomorrow is Julie’s birthday although we actually celebrated last night. Ms. Kate fried up some chicken, I shucked a half dozen ears of corn and we had fresh squash. Then we had some of her birthday cake. I bought a “Strawberry Pretzel Salad Cake” from R’z restaurant for her. It is a cake that was created from an idea that Julie had and we passed on to Candace, the owner of the restaurant. It was yummy.

We have mice in our house. I have seen two in my basement and set traps but so far haven’t caught them. The last evening, I turned on the light out here in the sunporch and there was a mouse climbing on the brick wall, almost to the ceiling. It quickly ran down the wall and disappeared somewhere. I had never seen a mouse on a wall before. So, the old addage I’ve always heard is that if you see two you have a t least a dozen. I may call Swat Pest because what I’m doing isn’t working and I don’t want to have mice in this house. I had that problem in our house in Collinsville, IL. And it took a long time to get rid of them.

Time for a coffee refill. I also have to finish filling the bird feeders today. I had a good start but then I injured my hand pretty good working to straighten out the pole that they hang from. The injury is nothing major, but I peeled back a quarter sized layer of skin. The hand is pretty stiff this morning.

Have yourself a blessed day. Give thanks to God that you live in a free country. Peace.