After being woken up monsoon rain, I was woken up again at 2am by loud chirping. I had to investigate, and found these raccoon prints on the back deck. I’m seriously hoping we don’t have a family under the deck now, and hoping there’s not a reoccurrence tonight!

Another good day’s pickin’. I had to leave tomatoes on the vine as there were so many. And then I noticed, back in the kitchen, that Elliott had bought a pack. Hmmm…

An afternoon spent with British friends at a local winery & brewery was a resounding success, even though gale force winds and torrential rain invaded our party.

28 July 2023

The heavens opened at the Beer Museum. We had monsoon rain most of the evening, but it did bring the temperature down.

We lost a great employee today, and it is also his Birthday. Caleb’s going to study engineering, and will likely go on to have a superb career.

Caught the raccoon in the act of leaving its current home under the back deck. It actually had the decency to look embarrassed as it looked at me before climbing over the gate, but I was laughing too hard to take a photo. I was lucky to get these. I bricked up all the spacing under the deck, to no avail. It’s obviously into weightlifting in its spare time, as it was back under the deck before I checked again at four.

The beauty of a Mexican sunflower, with a couple of tiny raindrops from a very brief shower.