Sorry about my lack of posts....this weather has really gotten to me.  I feel like it is winter being cooped up.  And to add insult to injury, the central air in our home broke down on Wednesday at high noon!  Wow - did it get hot inside!!  Luckily, I had vaguely remembered signing up for a home buyer's protection plan when we bought the house 3 years ago.  Turns out we did - for an extra 60 months.  Woo hoo!  We only had to pay the deductible ($100) and the guy came at 6PM and was able to fix it then and there.  YAY!!  So, by then it was 91F INSIDE....took 2 hours of continuous running to bring it back down to 74F, where we usually keep it.

The chickens are handling the heat quite well, I must say.  Although it probably helps to put big ice chunks in their waterer :-)  Still no eggs yet....

We have been able to harvest a little bit from the vegetable garden - 5 cucumbers, about a dozen tomatoes (Romas and cherry) and some tiny carrots - and we have a couple of yellow squashes that should be ready today or tomorrow.  OH!  And I threw some cantaloupe seeds into the compost bin and guess what they did?  They sprouted :-)  So we have beautiful cantaloupe plants growing in the compost bin LOL!  I am going to leave them there and see what they do.  There are even a few flowers on them already. 

I am trying hard to keep my head above water, so to speak.  Trying to look at the good instead of obsessing about the bad....it's hard to do!  Anyway, we are supposed to be in a streak of rain for the next week - anywhere from a 30% chance each day, to 60% (over the weekend - go figure!  Ooops - sorry...try to be UPbeat....).  Temps should be in the upper 80s to lower 90s, so we will get a little relief.  At this point, I will take it!!

I know a lot of us are in this same boat right now - which is pretty amazing given we are scattered around the country.  I hope this is not trending to be the norm - if it is, that is all the more reason to learn self-sufficiency, even on a small scale.  I am determined to learn how for me and my husband.  And any other family or friends who may need it.  We have always had an "open door" policy for those we love.  No matter what happens, they always have a place to go.  If we don't have room, we will make room.

Ok, now that I am rambling, I will wrap this up with a shot of some of our "bounty":

Stay cool!