HoCo

Homecoming came a few weeks early this year. I'm not sure why, but I'd guess the football schedule was a factor. 

And apparently, Homecoming has now been reduced to HoCo, in high school circles. I still laugh a little when I hear that.

This is our youngest daughter's senior year, so I'm sure I'll be posting a few sentimental "last" events. In addition, to this being our last homecoming, Daughter was also chosen for the homecoming court.

At this point I should mention how we are appreciating the advantages of a small rural school. Academics may not be at the top of the list, but certainly the ability to participate in most of the activities is up there. As several locals have put it, a small school develops a more rounded and balanced student. 

I thought I would get a jump on the mum situation when I saw a rack of pre-made mums at an arts and crafts store several weeks before. (If you've never heard about this Texas phenomenom, here's our first attempt.) Apparently, seniors aren't limited to school colors. Many choose white, black, gold or silver as their main color. Daughter had decided this year she wanted a white and silver one, so when I saw one that fit the criteria, I decided we should buy it and avoid the stress of making one.

But after being chosen for the court, Daughter decided the mum needed embellishing. For some reason, we waited until the day before to work on it and had to make a last minute trip to the local mum supplier. Surprisingly a little sign and framing store is turned into a mum store for a couple months out of the year. Daughter worked several hours creating just the right look and seemed happy with the finished product. She wore it all day at school, pinned to her shirt.

Before the football game that Friday night, the eight (four boys, four girls) homecoming nominees were escorted by their parents across the football field where they lined up in front of the bleachers. The queen and king were announced and crowned. Daughter didn't win, but she was happy and felt it was an honor to be chosen for the court and to be involved in the activities.

The following morning all the town came out to watch the parade as it wound it's way from the high school to downtown. The King and Queen, along with the rest of the court in pairs were driven along in convertible cars, jeeps, or trucks. Daughter and her friend rode on a roof and waved to the crowds and threw candy to the children.

Here's the basic pre-made mum selling for about $40. Luckily I had a 40% off coupon.

A local sign and framing store becomes a mum store for a few weeks.

They had all types of mum supplies in all the local school colors.

Here's the embellished mum on the way to school.

Puppy

We have a new puppy! 

She came to us from a teacher at the high school who had a litter and was giving them away. The parents are a Border Collie and a Great Pyrenees. So we're anxious to see what she'll be like when she's full grown.

We haven't really decided upon a name, so for now we're calling her Puppy.

She moves around so quickly, it's hard to get a good photo. Others in the family have better photos that I'll try to post later. 
 

Egg Sizes

After several weeks of protest, the chickens are beginning to lay more eggs. For awhile during the summer we were only getting 2-4 eggs per day. That's a very disappointing result when there are 20 laying hens out there. The decline in eggs was most likely caused by the summer heat and the upset to the flock when the younger ones were added. Adding new roosters probably contributed as well. I think they are settled down now because they are producing 10-12 eggs a day. That's still not as many as we should be getting.

There is a wide range of sizes from the different birds. I'm never sure which bird lays which egg except that the two different breeds lay different colors. A few weeks ago we got a tiny little green egg.

Drying Herbs

The herbs were getting overgrown and needing to be pruned. I decided to air dry them.

After washing them and removing the stems, I spread them on baking sheets and put them on the dining room table and forgot about them. After a couple of weeks, I transferred them to old jam jars and labelled them.

This time I dried: basil, chives, dill, oregano, peppermint, rosemary and spearmint.

Lots of Cantaloupes

The one cantaloupe plant produced about 20 melons in the space of a couple weeks. At one point there were about 12 in the fridge. We had trouble eating all of them and gave a few away. They weren't as sweet as I would have liked, but they were fairly juicy. Then just as the last ones were ripe, the plant completely shriveled up and died.

Foggy Morning

I'm not sure what atmospheric condition will cause fog, but we had a foggy morning the other day. I associate fog with winter, so it caught me off guard.

Weather Stats

Guv'nor came up with some weather stats for the last couple of months. Here's what he has to say:

• We had a completely dry July. It rained on the last day of June (after two weeks of dry) and then only in mid August.
• Temperatures for July and August were about 2 F lower than normal.
• Our (probable) high point for 2015 was 104.4 F in August. We’re now trending lower for the rest of the year.
• Considering the dry conditions in the two hottest months of the year, trees, plants and grasses are all doing quite well. They are probably tapping into the ground water at depth from the heavy rain that fell in May. 

I've added a couple of photos of the day it actually did rain. The temperatures dipped quite low that day. And then a few photos of the pretty little flower called Rain Lily that popped up the next day.