Been dry here too. Just a splash or 2 every now and then but mostly not. The yards got a lot of brown through it, doesn’t need mowed often. It’s possible to sit on the porch mid day and not suffocate.

All that rain is storing in the upper atmosphere, waiting for release in the middle of winter or sooner. I’m figuring lots of snow this winter, for a change, and probably not being able to get up the driveway in Jan and Feb, but we’ll be stocked so it won’t matter.

In the winter the bugs are hibernating and it’s possible to get out, in the woods and not be attacked incessantly.

Bare old growth hard wood trees 80′ tall with snow plastered up one side, and the forest is as quiet as a tomb save the crunch of the snow underfoot. Clouds of steam with each breath and walking too fast makes the lungs hurt in that special way. Slow and easy – walking in deep snow is ten times as hard.

Dressed right, you can sit right down on a down slope, have a smoke, have a sip, have a bite, then stand up easily and continue on. Deathly quiet, the forest is full of life in the winter. Be in it.

Our entire summer weather has been wonky! It didn’t really get warm enough to plant until mid May then it was on again off again 70/80. Finally started hitting high 80’s about two weeks ago with days of wind and rain in between. WTH is going on? That damn Chinese “weather satellite came right over our part of Montana and I keep thinking. . . . .

We have high 80’s low 90’s for about four days coming and then it starts sliding right down through the 70’s. I am like you I think we have a big deep cold winter coming on. Will get out there and clean the chest freezer tomorrow. Have been using up everything stored in there. I usually have it emptied out by next week, but I am going to go at it tomorrow, so I can start stocking up. DH has gotten really good at keeping an inventory–I am a lucky girl! Our local farmer just opened his stand last Monday about two weeks later than normal the weather has been so uneven. I will stick to canned tomatoes this year and just freeze up fruits, veggies and beef. I paid 63$ last week for Peets coffee that came to about 1.55 per oz. Butter is still up to about $5.99 pound for the big name brands, but the Irish butter is even more! Everybody at my lunch table last week is feeling equally twitchy. . . What’s it like in Idaho and elsewhere?