Good morning. It is already a hot one again today and is going to increase exponentially. It is currently 82 degrees and today the heat index is going to be around 100-105. That’s not pleasant is it? Yesterday we had a day like that and all of a sudden the storms came in. After three inches of rain, sometime torrential, the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees. I expect that could happen again today. We really got all of the rain that we need for now but these are heat induced storms that just pop up, rain themselves out and then fuel some more storms. But —- I was planning on watering my garden yesterday and especially the new raised bed that I made. However God took care of it for me and did a much better job of it than I would have done. LOL

Today I must go to the churches and run the bulletins for Sunday a set the pulpit up. It won’t take that long. Since we are not currently singing, I don’t have to run the hymns for the large print bulletins Which saves me time. Actually, I wouldn’t have to do that anyway but it is something I chose to do so the older folks wouldn’t have to hold the hymnals and the print would be easier for them to see. It made it easier for me too at the pulpit. I’ll be glad when we can get back to singing. Of course, when we get our new system at St. Lucas, I think we’ll be able to put the Hymns and the scriptures up on the screen and not use the hymnals at all. But, that is a while off. It is what we did at Zoar Church though and it worked very well. The biggest problem is that it takes a dedicated team to do all of that. It can’t just be Jacob, because Jacob and his family may be gone for a Sunday on vacation or something. But — we’ve got to get past all of this Corona Virus stuff and get everybody back in church first. Sheesh, it’s spreading fast again and I hope we don’t get set back to some earlier phase again, but it could certainly happen and we’d have to close church doors again. Many of my fellow pastors still have not gone back to in-person worship. So, I’m very grateful that we can are back although probably at half attendance. But our Sunday morning live-stream is getting around 85 views, so that is good.

I’ve had a lot of visitors at the Backyard Buffet this morning. I got the feeders filled yesterday as I told you. This morning I’ve had a couple of Blue jays out there all morning and they are making a real racket. But, it seems to hold the blackbirds off so they can make all of the noise they want to.

Okay, time to go. I want to get to the churches and back home before it gets really hot and or the thunderstorms start. I pray you will have a blessed day. Peace.

Hmmm, I wonder, are these what are referred to as “the Dog Days of Summer”? I never knew exactly what that phrase meant. I think it means long, hot and humid, but I don’t know. But, if it is, that is what we have going on. We are in our sixth or maybe seventh day of officially being in a heat wave. Our forecaster said last night that yesterday was our hottest day of the year so far and I think today is to be a twin to it. I think he also said that we have to have maybe six days in a row above ninety for it to be considered a heat wave and that we didn’t have one at all last year until September or October. Whatever, —- all I know is that it is miserable out there. I just came in from filling the bird feeders and I am drenched with sweat. But, all of my guests should be happy now. I filled 15 feeders. And of course the first guy that shows up is a dang blackbird who will share the news and then the whole flock will show up.

I bought a new kind of finch food yesterday. Normally I jus buy Nyger thistle seed but they seem to have gotten of of that for now. I talked to the ladies at Wild Birds Unlimited yesterday and they said they have been hearing that a lot. So she recommended Nyger seed blend that her customers have said is working. I was surprised when she told me she seldom has any finches. I have them year around. My big Red Headed Woodpecker just arrived. He is so very beautiful and he doesn’t take crap from the blackbirds. And the Cardinals have discovered that thhe feeders re full and here they come. This is exactly why I lose two hours of my day every day.

Today, I’m heading to the basement and am going to finish my sermon for the week and possibly get started on next weeks. We’ll see how it goes. I should have worked on it last night and then I could have gone to the churches and run the bulletins today and had that out of the way. But, I was lazy and sat and watched television. That is unusual for me to do. Generally I’ll get started on a show and then I’ll think of something that I could add to my sermon or something else I need to research and I’ll leave my program and do some work. My brain doesn’t shut down very well. It really doesn’t matter though because everything on TV is re-runs now anyway and I’ve already seen them.

My coffee cup is about empty so I guess I better quit sitting here watching birds etc and head on down to my office. Have aa most wonderful day. Your work week should be half over today. Peace.

Good morning! Welcome to an already hot Tuesday morning. I got up at 0630 today because I wanted to finish filling up my raised bed before the sun popped up and made it hot. Unfortunately it was already 83 degrees, but I got it done. I stopped at Lowes yesterday and bought ten 2 cu ft bags of Miracle Gro garden soil. I had planned to maybe get some of the dirt from the church like I told you before, but this way I don’t have to worry about weeds roots and seed in the soil. Besides, I still had gift cards I could use, (and still have a couple) so it was like shopping for free. So far, my raised bed hasn’t cost me anything because I bought everything I needed with gift cards. Thank you very much to my darling daughters.

As you know, I got my truck fixed yesterday. It ended up costing me $890.00 to escape, LOL. I had to have new calipers, rotors and brake pads put on the front. The Calipers were the high dollar item, they always are. But, at least I can have confidence in my braking power now and that annoying rubbing sound is gone. Last fall I had the new water pump put in so now I think I’m good to go for a long time with the truck. I wouldn’t hesitate to start out across the country with it.

Today, I need to finish my sermon for this week. I still have one more point I want to make and that will take me another page and a half maybe. Plus I have the Pastoral prayer to write yet. Either tomorrow or Thursday I’ll go run the bulletins. It depends on what else is going on. I need to check the calendar because it seems I and forgetting something. i know I need to go to Wild Birds for some stuff. I have several things I need from there and it is not going to be a cheap trip. As I look around at the Buffet, I see that I still have some feeders to refill too. There is always something that needs doing isn’t there? The problem is that I seem to wear out quicker than I used to. So, it takes me longer these days to get stuff done. It’s the price of age and I’m fortunate to be in relatively good health.

I have sufficiently cooled off now and my coffee is about gone so I guess I will get myself cleaned up and re-start my day. I hope your day is a pleasant one. Stay safe, stay cool, saty in touch with God. Peace.

Monday, 6th of July. I’m not in the sun porch for sure. I’m at my local auto-mechanic shop have front brake pads and rotors on my Dakota. It had been rubbing a lot when I put the brakes on and I knew I had to get it fixed. So, I have a local mechanic that I use and he is really good and he is reasonable. The family goes to Zoar Church and that is where I met them. He runs his business very much like my son-in-law Gary does his place in North Carolina. His shop is clean and they treat their customers very well, and don’t try to sell you on repairs that aren’t needed. I love my red truck. I don’t drive it near enough to really justify having a truck but it is always there when I need it. For example, today, after I get it fixed I need to go to Lowes and see if I can get some bags of garden dirt to put in my raised bed. Hopefully they will have it on sale. And even though I bought it almost new in 2009, I only have about 50K miles on it.

Julie came over and we celebrated her birthday in style. Yesterday I put steaks on the grill and Ms. Kate fixed corn on the cob, buttered spaghetti, fresh cucumbers, and fresh tomatoes. Then we had her birthday cake. It was a delicious lunch.

I only had one worship service to do yesterday. The air condition ain’t went out in my St. Lucas church so I did the 0900 at St. Paul’s and we live-streamed that service. I had 84 viewers of the service, so that was good. If we can’t get the A/C fixed this week, we’ll do back to back services at St. Paul’s next week. What ever it takes to get the job done.

While I’m out running around, Ms. Kate is home doing laundry and washing the bed linens today. It is already a hot one today so we won’t be doing too much outside work. 91 with high humidity does not make for a good work day for us old dudes. It is supposed to be this way all week.

That is about it. I hope you are staying safe with this Corona Virus stuff. I hate wearing masks but I’m doing it when I’m around people. I for sure don’t want to catch the virus or take it home to Ms. Kate or anyone else. So, I wear my mask. We did do a bit of “elbow bumping” as greetings yesterday.

That’s about it for today. Have a wonderful week. Peace.

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.

Good Thursday Morning! I think this will be short today as I have things to do and places to go. I have a tree full of birds that are not happy because the blackbirds and the squirrels have emptied the feeders. Of course the squirrels are sitting there looking in my windows like it’s all my fault they don’t have food. But, I’m glad to report that the brown thrush is still here. I’m not sure what it eats because they are mostly ground feeders like the robins. But, I need to fill the feeders at some point today. I also need to mow my yard before the weekend gets here. It is 4th of July weekend.

I’m hoping that the ground has dried out enough for me to plant my asparagus. I went out there yesterday and it was really muddy. And I don’t want to “mud them in”. So, I may wait another day.

Also on the agenda is going to C&I Electronics and finally getting rid of the two flat screen televisions that have been in the bed of my truck for two plus months. Then I need to go to the Vineyard Bible Store and pick up some communion sets for the churches and while I’m there, I may run across the street to Wild Birds and pick up some stuff. Finally, this afternoon I need to go to the churches and run the bulletins and the to R’z Restaurant and pick up a birthday cake for Julie. Whew!!! It is definitely a run-around day. Oh, in in between all of that Ms. Kate and I are doing the laundry.

So, I’m gonna go get busy. You stay there in your chair and finish your coffee. Have a blessed day.

Good morning and happy Wednesday to you. It is wonderful to see sunshine this morning. We have had days of rain and may have some today, but right now, the sun is shining and my Backyard Buffet has some nice guests visiting. I’m very thrilled that the Bluebird has been here several times this morning. It is such a brilliant blue that when the sun hits it it almost looks fluorescent. Like most of my birds, its favorite food seems to be the Bark Butter bits. There are still some of those left out there  in the feeders but I will need to fill them before the day is over. I have a new guest at the feeders this morning and I haven’t gotten a good enough look at it to be able to identify it. I think it is a thrush but you don’t normally see them sitting around in trees and this one was. So, the mystery is out there. I’ve only got its long tail and white and brown under-belly for clues so far, and it doesn’t stay around long enough to identify it.

I don’t know how much rain we got officially. The airport is two miles from here and that is where they take the “official” gauge and I think all-in-all they have reported around six and a half to seven inches over a five day period. I know I have poured nine inches out of my rain gauge.

Yesterday I had a refrigerator repairman come out and take a look at my little mini-fridge that I have out here in the sunporch. Unfortunately, it is a lost cause. The compressor is frozen up and to order new parts and fix it would be close to $500.00. It cost me $75.00 to learn that much. So, I went to Wayne’s Appliance to look for a new one. Well, that was a waste of time. The guy there was less than zero help.We have bought appliances from there before and have always been satisfied but this guy just seemed like we were a real bother to him. I told him what we were looking for and that we had seen it and priced it on their website. His answer was that they didn’t have any, that what I was looking for was nearly impossible to get, and even if he ordered one there was no guarantee of when it might ever come in. So —- we went to Best Buy and I saw what I wanted setting there on the shelf and it was $50.00 cheaper. A young friendly salesgirl came up and helped me, took me over to order mine and I got a text last night that it was already being shipped to me and will be in my sunporch on Friday. So, Wayne’s Appliance dude —— I’m sorry you were having a bad day; but mine turned out just fine.

I have a couple of mice in my basement. In the 19 years we have lived here we’ve only had a couple of mice. So, I went to Dollar General last evening and bought some traps and baited them with peanut butter. I haven’t checked them yet this morning, but I hope I got them.

That’s about all or today. That’s my tail of “Mice and Men” for today. I hope your Wednesday is going to be a good one. Peace.