It has been very dry the past week or so, but Jerry's corn across the road looks good. Last year Tom's foster son, John, dropped by for a short visit in May with his daughter, Katya. Tom decided to set up a small corn patch by the house where he and Katya would plant some corn. Then when she came back later in the year, they could pick Katya's corn and eat it. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time John and Katya were here, so the planting didn't take place until later. Neither Katya nor Tom got to eat any of Katya's corn, though -- the raccoons got every ear of it.This year Tom planted some tomatoes in that patch, along with some odds and ends -- peppers, canna lilies and what not. I wonder it the raccoons will get all the benefit again?
There are lots of them around. Jerry claims to have been awakened by them last summer
and went out with his gun in the middle of the night to find over a dozen raiding his corn crib. I haven't seen any adults around, but I have seen two little kits beside the road. They are cute as bugs, even though they are a pest.Found another tick in my bathroom, this one climbing the window. The neighbors say it is a bad year for them for some reason. I don't know why the bathroom is such a place. The cats go in there all the time to get a drink, and maybe they are dropping them off. Tom has been tweezing ticks off of them and today we are reapplying the anti-tick and flea gunk. It is a greasy stinky goo that you rub into the back on their neck where the cat can't lick it off. It drives them crazy, but I don't know if it is the smell or the discomfort of the stickiness.
Right now the Butter Festival is in full swing over in Reedsburg, which claims to be the Butter Capital of America. Tomorrow there is the Run for the Butter (10K or 2 mile options), followed by a parade downtown. Tom and his fellow Democrats will march in it, so I will go and watch. If it is very entertaining, I will report back. There will be a dozen floats with variations on "Butter Living Through High Milk Fat Content", I suppose.
Most likely the Sauk County Living Flag ladies will be in the parade. They are a staple of most of the parades around here. It is made up of seven ladies wearing outfits that go together to make up a flag. They stand next to one another riding on a trailer, singing patriotic songs. It originated in Witwen, a tiny town -- intersection, really -- in the southern part of the county; and although hardly anyone lives there, they have a hugely popular Fourth of July parade. Thousands of people drive from all over the state to line the roadside and watch. The Flag ladies have been a tradition for over fifty years, and apparently being one of them is an honor handed down within the same families from generation to generation. Those outfits have to be hot, and being dragged around for a couple of hours under the sun while singing can't be easy. So here's to the ladies!
Last year I got the impression that anyone who wanted to be in the Butter Festival parade could join. It looked like everyone in Sauk County who had a tractor that didn't have to be in the field that day was in it. The best part, though, was a group of cars that were supposed to be examples of fancy paint jobs. They were basically advertising a particular garage/body shop's work. Naturally, one of them blew its transmission a block before the end of the parade route and had to be pushed off the road by spectators. Not the kind of advertising you want!
Helen is coming in on Sunday. I was hoping she would come earlier so she could watch the parade with me. It's probably going to be a scorcher, and we could have sat in the shade and made snotty remarks. I mean, kind and clever observations.
At least I don't have to march in the hot sun carrying banners.
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