A Midsummer Night's... Sweat

You guys! Things. Have. Been. Crazy!

Nope. That's an Amber Ruffin bit.

What I mean is that things have been HOT. Yes, since I blogged a couple of days ago, it has continued. The heat.

But we can't hibernate in the house forever, so I've been out and about working most of the week so far.

Monday morning at 1:18 AM, I was awakened by... something. James was still awake (he had Monday off) and we met up in the living room. I asked him what that sound was, and he didn't know. As he looked out the front window, I looked out the side. It sounded vaguely like someone was running around on our wooden porch.

James saw a GIANT branch from our chinaberry tree go rolling off of the roof.

First, chinaberries drop limbs ALL of the time. Second, it's been dry, so I'm sure this one is parched as heck. Third, it SNAPPED. And the branch was huge.

I was pleased to find in daylight that our gutters had held, although I'm sure I need to go back and clean them again, even though I just did it maybe a month and a half ago.

Monday afternoon was overcast, and I took advantage of the shade to cut apart the branches to a manageable weight so I could move it off of the masonry. The branch did take out a chunk out of the top of one of the open patio posts, but it's only visible from the house side.

I ended up cutting three more iffy branches from the tree before I was done. Then I was DONE.

Kind of cool how so much of the growth was to one side of the tree. All of the cuts look like this.

Tuesday morning, Mal's friend's mom texted me to see if we wanted to meet them at the lake. Mal hopped in the wagon and we walked down there. It was only 10:30, so hadn't gotten up to 100 yet, but it hit that about the time we were coming home just before noon.

Mal, his friend, and his friend's brother had fun chatting about Minecraft and we moms had fun visiting with a grown-up who doesn't live in our house (hashtag social distancing).

Walking back up the hill from the lake required three water breaks for me. Mal plus the wagon is about 80 pounds, and even though the tires are AWESOME, it's still quite the work-out.

Then yesterday, we stayed in most of the day and Mal and I went on a walk once the sun started to go down. We looked at all of the construction going on around the neighborhood, and really enjoyed places where there are still just trees. We also saw this happy touch that's been on top of a nearby mailbox for months.

When we got home, I watered our poor apple trees (if they don't make it through the winter unscathed, and we pull them up next spring, we'll probably put in wicking beds instead and just plant gardens).

And, no, that's not gravel all over the yard. It's dormant grass. When we had our solar panels put on last year, one of the installers said, "You're going to have to re-sod this." I laughed and told him it was never sodded. It's just what's here naturally, and by October, it's going to need to be mowed again. It stays green all winter and goes back to sleep in June. Keeps our lawn guy (and me) from having to mow in the hottest part of the summer!

Then today, Thursday, I went to pick up a couple of rain barrels that we bought for half price through the Round Rock water district. Woo hoo! I was going to wait until it was evening to install them, but procrastinating is difficult for me.

Today was hot, but dry for a change. We've hit 100 every day for several weeks now, but this morning, we broke the record low for the day! The Austin airport registered 63 degrees, and I happened to be awake early so opened up the house for a couple of hours.

It could have been a worse day to set these puppies up, and I'm glad that I got it finished in time for a nice cool shower before dinner.

Now we just wait for it to rain! In December, maybe?

Here's hoping for a lazy Friday to round out a physically exhausting (in a good way!) week.

Have a good weekend, weird-os!