Nox Waiting for Pills, Bats Flirting with the Moon

July 28, 2025

On Friday (July 25), I did my daily fight with the squash bugs. I picked off the eggs, sprayed soapy water on the nymphs, and squished any full-grown squash bug.

It was cool enough in the evening to sit outside on the front porch and watch the sunset.

Nox was sitting outside with us. The alarm on Bruce’s phone for Nox’s pills went off. Bruce headed inside and Nox started to follow him. Bruce told Nox to stay. She was a good dog and waited, watching the door for her Bruce to come out.

Bruce came back out and was pleased to see Nox waiting for him so patiently.

She didn’t move until Bruce got outside and gave her the pills. Once Nox took her pills, Bruce gave her the release word, and Nox came back and sat next to me.

We watched the bats. We saw three in the sky at the same time. Sadly, the firefly season is winding down. Only a few fireflies are still trying to find love now.

On Saturday (July 26), we drove to Rural King. They claimed they were having a farmers’ market in the parking lot. It was a joke. There were six stalls set up and none of them sold fruit or veggies. I was so disappointed.

We headed next door to Lowe’s and bought landscape fabric, a metal gutter guard, and some white marble rocks to safeguard the new drainpipe.

We decided to get breakfast out and after looking at Google maps, determined that Two Fat Sisters would be where we ate. It was so disappointing. We went inside and sat down. We waited about 15 minutes before a waitress came over. She asked if we had been helped.Bruce replied,”no”. The waitress said the kitchen was running behind and it would take an hour to get food. We thanked the waitress and left. We decided to try the Jamaican restaurant in Town Creek, east on Alt Hwy 72.

We stopped at the RaceTrac on the way to fuel up using the Open Roads program we joined when we were RVing.

The Jamaican restaurant was closed until July 30th due to a family emergency. We’ll try again later. We decided to try another restaurant in Town Creek, the Ranch House Restaurant. When we walked in, we were hit by a strong smell of cigarette smoke. They had signs pointing to a smoking section and a non-smoking section. Bruce started heading to the table in the back of the non-smoking section. I stopped him and said, “I can’t. I need to get out of here.” Cigarette smoke will trigger a migraine. As we talked about the next place to try, I felt a migraine coming on. I quickly found my migraine medication and took it.

We drove to Leighton, AL, and stopped at F & D’s Soul Food & BBQ. It was a BBQ day. They had smoked pork chop, smoked chicken, and ribs. They had the usual sides. I had the smoked pork chop, potato salad, and turnip greens with corn bread. Bruce had the smoked chicken leg and thigh, BBQ beans, and potato salad. The food was so good. It is great home-style cooking. After our meal, we headed home.

One section of the storefront on the corner of Second and County Line Road had collapsed after a recent storm. The barber shop in the middle was still open for business.

It was hot outside and my garden was looking droopy. While Bruce napped, I watered the garden. Afterwards, I harvested a watermelon, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

I discovered a new pest on my plants. Grasshoppers!

I saw this little guy peeking around the lemongrass leaves at me.

I was pleased to finally know what the flowers were that had been planted in the flower bed by the house.

I was very happy to get back inside out of the heat.

The evening cooled off and we watched the sunset. The moon was a sliver of light with bats flirting with it. The fireflies were few and far between.

After the sunset color faded, we went inside.

Sunday (July 27), we decided to run the chipper. I put on coveralls, eye protection, hearing protection, a hat, and gloves. I didn’t want to get scratched up. I wanted to make sure nothing got in my eye. Bruce got the chipper started and positioned the cart underneath the shoot. I pulled out branches and handed them to Bruce. This process speed up how fast we could process branches. We went through the first pile. It produced two carts of chips, which we placed around the blueberries as mulch.

I became very hot and had to call it quits. If I keep pushing it in the heat, I can collapse. Bruce moved the chipper to the large pile of branches and chipped them until he ran out of gas. He sent a text to me asking where to dump the cart of chips. I had him dump the chips for mulch around the miniature peach and nectarine. Bruce came in and cooled off before heading back out to do some more chipping. He used up the last gas in the gas can and got one more cart of chips. That was enough chipping for Bruce. He put the chipper back into the barn.

I finished the first lion cub in my drawing.

Once I finished the lion cub drawing, I headed outside to work on protecting the drainpipe. Bruce followed me to help.

I stuck the gutter guard into the drainpipe. I placed a layer of the landscape fabric over the opening in the drainpipe. I placed a second layer of landscape fabric down to extend the coverage. Bruce poured the two bags of marble chips over the drainpipe opening area. We need at least three more bags of chips.

I made supper: roast chicken and stuffed Patty Pan squash.

The sunset was pretty.

It was a busy weekend and we got a lot accomplished.