Hi, everyone!
I haven’t been doing any traveling recently, but I have friends who are. Look at all the postcards I got! Moose-san sent me a postcard from South Dakota, and Will-san sent me two postcards from England and one from France!
One of the maple trees at Sodus needed to be taken down! It was hollow inside and dying on top. Grandpa was afraid it might fall down on the house! We didn’t know what day the tree people were coming to take it down, so Grandpa set up the Sodus webcam to watch for them. We were in Fairport the day they came, but I got to watch the pieces of the tree come down on the internet! Then I watched the crane on the truck pick up and load all the pieces!
When we got out to Sodus a few days later, all that was left of the tree was some sawdust! I helped Grandpa put grass seed on the bare ground where the tree had been, so it can be part of the lawn again. Grandpa used the baby barrier from the loft to tamp down the soil and the seeds without leaving footprints!
The tree people also took down an oak tree by the stairs to the boathouse that blocked the view of the bay. Grandpa had them leave the pieces of that tree, because he had an idea of how to use it! I helped him saw up the pieces and move them, and now we have a new barrier for the parking area! There was some extra wood, and Grandpa cut that up and stacked it. He says it will be just right for Uncle David to split and use for campfires next summer!
The weed harvester was working in our part of the bay, and then we had a northeast wind. That made all the weeds that the harvester didn’t collect blow onto our shore! The boathouse was so clogged with weeds that Grandma couldn’t get her kayak out! Grandma and Grandpa had to get the weeds out of the water and make big piles on the shore so they didn’t float back into the boathouse again! It took all morning! I think those piles would be food for a year for Moose-san!
Most of the days have still been very hot and dry, but every once in a while we get a day that makes me think summer is over. When the air is cooler than the water in the morning, there is mist on the bay! We have had a few rainstorms, too. One of them happened right when we were taking the silver Passat to Harlan-san after he bought it. Grandpa was taking the license plates off just when the heaviest rain started! License plates have to be turned in when a car is sold.
Last Friday was Grandma and Grandpa’s wedding anniversary! Grandpa brought home roses for Grandma and they went out for a fancy dinner. They brought home some chocolates from dinner for me!
On Saturday, we all went to the Fairport Farmer’s Market. Grandma said if we could find some skinny eggplants we could make ratatouille. We had to look all over the market, but we found some!
After we got home from the market, I helped Grandma make a sour cream peach pie. The local peaches are almost gone now, so I think this will be the last one of the season!
Sunday was another day that felt more like early fall than summer! After church, Grandma and Grandpa and I came back out to Sodus. Look at how nicely the grass has sprouted where I helped plant it last week!
We brought out all the vegetables to make ratatouille, and that’s what we did on Sunday afternoon. Grandpa does the slicing, because it’s easy to get cut on the mandolin slicer. Nobody got cut this time! Grandma and I put the vegetable slices in the pans to make a pretty pattern. After the pans were baked, I helped Grandma wrap them up to put in the freezer. Sometime this winter, we’ll have a special harvest treat to share with dinner guests!
Love,
Lion-san
It looks like you had lots of activity at Sodus taking trees down, reseeding the lawn, putting the logs in the parking area and making ratatouille. Moose-san thinks that will be enough weeds for a year, but he wasn’t sure. Shopping at the farmer’s market is fun.