Thursday, August 16 - Looks like rain!

Last night, we drove over to Bardstown to see "Stephen Foster - The Musical." We had tickets last week but the heat index forced the production inside, so we took rain checks. The production this year wasn't quite as good as it was 2 years ago (pics are from that production), but considering the heat, the actors must have had one awful time dealing. The singing of "My Old Kentucky Home" was just memorable, considering where we now live.
When we got home, we never noticed where the "Bluegrass Cat" (our new nickname for Ramses, named after one of our favorite Kentucky race horses) was hiding...see if you can find him...


Today, we drove down to Liberty (the county seat) again. Barry's voter registration card had apparently been misplaced, so he re-registered. We vote for governor here in November, and it's a hotly contested, highly electric campaign. We also stopped at the Casey County Public Library to drop off 3 cartons of books I had not culled before moving. They use the funds from the book sale to provide the Library with needs not met through county taxation, so it's a good cause. Plus it'll mean I won't have to buy as many bookcases to take care of the books that are left. We had a nice chat with Tom and his wife about living in Casey County -- they said when you move here you need to turn your watch back 50 years -- it's that casual, relaxed, like things seemed to be when we were growing up. The Casey County school have an orange sale -- they sell fresh Florida oranges for $16 a case in November -- cheaper than our going down to FL to get our own -- though it's only a day's drive to St Augustine (one of our favorite cities in the whole US) -- maybe we'll go down there anyway.

We then went over to Southern States co-op to get more topsoil and composted manure. Imagine my little truck carrying 12 bags of 40-lbs-per-bag topsoil over the knobs, when I have to shift into 2nd anyway...

Temps got up to 103 degrees in the SHADE today! We just got in from outside where we had one heck of a wind storm -- I'd guess 40 mph gusts, lightning, thunder, but -- as of yet -- NO RAIN! GRRRRR.

We're really hoping for rain. Beef producers here are selling their cattle because there's not enough food, hay is $55 a roll (usually $15), but for consumers, that means that beef prices are dropping -- had a ribeye steak sandwich at BJ's Bar and Grill in Bardstown last night for $7.95 -- SOOOOOO good.

OK, the wind has died down -- I guess that was a false alarm. Millicent Matilda Grungetta Fred II took quite a hit, but she didn't lose a single leaf. Tough gal, that one. The wind was actually strong enough to move the old humidifier case we're using for a giant plant pot. Oh well, maybe next storm :{

Dinner calls. Must eat. Too many mint juleps on the front porch. AH, Kentucky!