And Now, Back to the Present

July 30, 2026

On July 26, we started to try to tame jungle Blackberry Homestead had become.

We had an overnight thunderstorm that knocked down an old branch from the oak.

Bruce mowed at the highest setting on the mower deck. There was no speed mowing that Bruce normally enjoys. It was slow going and Bruce had to clear under the mower deck a few times.

While everything was wet with dew, I pulled grass and weeds to clear the walkway to the house. Next I tackled the driveway next to the flower beds.

While clearing the sidewalk, I saw this moth flitting around like a hummingbird.

We ate Progresso Tomato Soup since both of us were exhausted and didn’t want to cook. To make it better, I added fresh basil and fresh tomatoes. It made it taste a lot better.

There are two Common Buckeyes enjoying the lantana flowers.

I moved the bucket of grass out of the way. The 5 gallon buckets are so handy. I use them for so many things.

Here’s the sunset through the curtains covering the living room picture window.

I started soaking black beans for an overnight soak.

On July 27, I woke up sore from all the work I did on the driveway.

I started the day by continuing to pull up grass and other weeds in the driveway. I have no idea why I didn’t take a couple of pictures.

The grass and weeds popped up in the backyard.

I walked around the orchard with Bruce. We saw a wingless wasp, called the red velvet ant or cow killer ant.

On the one of the peppers, I spotted a Silver-spotted Skipper.

We had the ripe watermelon from our garden.

We had a pretty sunset.

On July 28, I continued with pulling grass from the driveway in the relatively cool part of the morning.

While I was pulling grass, Bruce drove the tractor to the grassy knoll. He proceeded to reduce the grassy knoll and use the dirt it fill in low spots.

After the morning started to get hot, I gave up the grass pulling and went inside to cool off.

Later in the morning, I looked around the garden and started thinking about what needed to be done.

The okra flower was beautiful as always. I picked the okra.

Bruce had some prescriptions ready, so we went into town to pick them up. After getting the prescriptions, we did some grocery shopping. On the way home, we stopped at Lowe’s. I picked out a pair of needle nose pliers to use in the kitchen while Bruce searched for a chainsaw chain sharpener. We found it in the garden section, by the chainsaws.

I ran the pliers through the dishwasher to make sure they were clean.

I made Tostadas with the black beans I cooked in my Instant Pot. I used home grown peppers, onions, and herbs in the meat mixture. The salsa vegetables all came from the garden: tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, spicier peppers, onions, and oregano. I put salt in the salsa and let the juice accumulate on the bottom of the bowl. I strained the juice and added it to the meat mixture instead of water. Grated Manchego cheese was used on top of the Tostados.

I also made gumbo to eat on Wednesday

On July 29, before heading off to pull grass out of the driveway, I took a look at our Naked Ladies. They are a present left from the previous owners. 

I pulled weeds from the driveway. I made a lot of progress before it got hot and I went inside.

In the cool of the morning, Bruce chipped branches from Pine Tree 3.

In the afternoon, we took a quick tour of the garden.

The melons are looking great. I found one enormous cucumber that went into the compost bin.

Bruce has mowed every single day since Sunday, July 26.

He ran over a fire ant mound and managed to get a few on him, which led to stings.

Our mail service started again and we got our mail.

Betty, from the blog, Chambers on the Road, was kind enough to send a mystery set in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It looks interesting and a fun read. She included a holographic bookmark of a biting alligator.

I started the clean up of the tomato plants. If a big tomato was rotting on the vine, I tossed it into a 5 gallon bucket. If the tomato was good, it went into the harvest basket. I saved tomatoes that had a small bad spot, as they would work for sauce with the bad spot cut off.

Here is the bowl of tomatoes cut up and ready to be liquified.

We ate the gumbo for supper. We sat outside for a bit, watching the sunset. We have almost no fireflies now. Their season of looking for love is winding down

On July 30, I was determined to finish the weeding of the driveway next to the flower beds

I was happy I made my goal. It really doesn’t look that different from the front since the flower gardens are so full of weeds.

Bruce did some cutting up the branches from Pine Tree 3 so they could fit through the chipper. He chipped the branches and gave up chipping as it got hot.

Bruce just came in after working on mowing the backyard.

And I’ve been writing this long post to get back to the present.