Hot weather...sort of

Well, it's the middle of the hottest part of summer, yet we have not used either an air conditioner, nor a fan at night or even during the day! I'm sitting in our house right now, and it's 29 degrees C outside, but inside it's only 23, and very comfortable. I'm pretty sure that I can thank our lack of windows on the south side of the house. All of our big windows are on the north side. It does affect our heat gain in the winter, however ie, we get almost no heat from the sun at all!

Although it's now more than halfway through the growing season, I came across some blueberry plants at a local supermarket for a bit over $2 each, which is waaaay cheaper than they normally are! So, I crammed as many as I could fit into my car, and I'll be going back for more, if there are any. I got 15 this time, and I just planted them. Eventually, I'd like to have an acre or more of berries, maybe several acres and I'll make a U-pick farm out of it all.

I also got a gas-powered weed whacker for $50, although it didn't have some of the parts (it was a demo model). I found a new spool for it, and it works great! So much more powerful than the electric variety, and I don't have to drag around the stupid cord. I use it to keep the weeds away from my trees and shrubs, and I've also declared war on thistles. I've pulled more than a hundred just around the house. I'm not pretending I can beat them entirely, but I don't want them to go to seed, so I whack the big ones.

I booked a digging machine for me to fill in some big holes, and make some new ones. I didn't book it for a week like I originally thought to, just 24 hours. I figure I can probably sit in the thing for 16 hours straight, and just get it all done in one day. Saves me a bit of money, and if I don't get it all done, I can always rent it for another day later. I'll have to anyway, to backfill the trenches and holes in, once the cistern is in place. For the cistern, I purchased a plaster sprayer for a couple hundred $, but it should save me many, many hours of handtroweling, and slopping the plaster one bit at a time, when this thing just blasts it at the wall in a few seconds.

That's it for now, remember, winter is coming!