The Bat Is Back with a Friend! Bruce Gets the Chipper Running!

July 13, 2025

On July 4 (Friday), we had a busy day around the homestead. Bruce cut many branches from pine number two and I spent a lot of time moving them. Pine number two was the largest and tallest pine that fell, plus it had two full-sized trunks. This was a good use of the cool morning.

As the day heated up, the sweat bees swarmed us. Ugh! Thank goodness they don’t bite or sting.

I took a few gardening and yard shots.

I discovered ants had been using the rhubarb stems as tunnels. I had never seen this before!

They carried dirt and used it to seal the holes they made in the stems. They were killing my baby rhubarb plant! I needed to think of a way to kill the ants that wouldn’t damage the plant.

Bruce decided it was time to burn the burn pile. It was hot and muggy outside. After being out in the sun for a bit, I realized we didn’t have to be out in the sun. We have a pop up tent canopy we’ve had for years. We put it up and had instant shade. We brought out our camp chairs and relaxed with cold water.

While we watched the fire, one of us would go inside and bring out cold water to drink while the other watched the fire. At various times, we would leave the shade to toss more branches onto the burn pile. We managed to burn most of the downed branches before we decided it was time to put out the fire. Later, I was surprised I didn’t have any pictures of the bonfire. I was certain I had taken one. The fire lasted well into the late afternoon before Bruce put it out with water.

Part way through the bonfire, Bruce left me in charge of it. He did some more chainsawing. He came back after a while and enjoyed sitting in the shade.

We had planned to go see fireworks, but Bruce wasn’t feeling up to it. He was exhausted from the day’s work.

We could hear fireworks around and manage to see a few from the back pasture.

The sunset was beautiful and we got some reflected color in the east.

We could hear fireworks late into the night. With Nox being so deaf, fireworks no longer bother her.

July 5 (Saturday), my gardens were looking droopy in the heat. I dragged the hose out to the gardens to water them. I first watered the buckets and pots on the patio. I watered the trough herb garden.

I pulled the hose over to raised beds and started watering them. While watering, a Hackberry Emperor butterfly landed on me. They like salt from sweat. I had doused myself with water from the hose to cool off.

On July 6 (Sunday), I caught up on housework while Bruce mowed. In the late afternoon, Bruce removed the belts from the chipper to see if he could start the chipper engine without the drum turning. It started right up! That put to rest our concerns the engine wasn’t working. Bruce put the belts back on chipper and was able to get it started. We cheered!

Bruce shouted over the noise, asking me to get a small branch and a large branch to see how it would chip.

The chipper chewed through the branches with no hesitation.

It makes nice chips!

It started raining, so Bruce turned off the chipper and pulled it back into the barn. (Of course, it had to rain after I watered everything.)

The rainstorm lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, then cleared off.

This provided a few clouds to make for a lovely sunset.

While we watched the sunset, we saw the bat and then we saw a second bat. It had brought a friend!

I wasn’t able to get good pictures of the bats and I didn’t get one of both bats.

The sunset was beautiful and the fireflies put on a show while they looked for love.

It was a great weekend!