A Quiet Week

         Not too much happening around the Luby household this past week.

         "What about the eclipse, Peg? Did you take any pictures?" you ask.

         Well, yes I did. But here's the thing. You can't just take pictures of the sun with your camera unprotected or you risk damaging it. Solar filters can be expensive and for a one-time use, I didn't want to spend the money. Besides, I justified, it'll be broadcast all over the TV anyway. There'll be tons of photos out there.

         A week or so before the eclipse I Googled 'homemade solar filters' and found out I could have sent for a sheet of the solar filter and made one to fit over the end of my camera, which wouldn't have been very much money, but now I'd waited too long.

         On the day of the eclipse, I fit my solar glasses over the end of my camera and took pictures that way. I couldn't use my zoom so I cropped the photos.

         Here in Pennsylvania, we only had 70 some percent coverage and we had clouds. Because of that and what I had to work with, this was the best I got.

  

       Like I said, it was quiet around here. Mike and I worked most days, went shopping one...

         Boy-oh-boy!

         Shopping, around here, is an all day trip. Especially if we need to go to both Lowe's and Home Depot. We left here at eight o'clock in the morning, stopped for breakfast, then went to Walmart and Lowe's in Athens, jumped on the highway and drove to Vestal, New York for Home Depot, Aldi's, gas, and a pizza lunch. On the way home we stopped at the Cabin Country Store.

  

       Betsy, the owner, remembered me — remembered my name even! — from four or five years ago when I sold her a few pieces.

         "Are you interested in buying any suncatchers?" I asked.

         "I can't right now," she told me. "We just put in a bakery and that's got us tapped out. I'd love to though."

         We chatted with Betsy for a while and bought a few cookies. "I never use shortening in my baking," she said as she bagged our cookies. "I use butter, sometimes lard, but never shortening."

         Before we left, Betsy had a thought. "Give me your phone number. Maybe I can buy a few pieces just before Christmastime."

         I am pleased with that. It gives me a reason to go out into my shop and make some pretties.

         That doesn't sound like so much shopping does it?

         Well, it's a 125 mile round trip and it was after four when we drove in our driveway. That's an eight-hour shopping trip. It makes me miss the old days, when we lived in Missouri and we had a Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart all within a five mile radius, as well as plenty of eating places and gas stations.

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         Mike and I had gone to the Robinsons one evening this past week and I noticed they had some pretty pink flowers growing at the edge of the pond.

         "What are they?" I asked Jon Robinson.

         He thought for a moment, "I forget right now. But we can go look at them."

         I never got close enough to the pink ones to take a picture but there were lots of other pretty flowers down there.

         "A cardinal flower!" I exclaimed when I saw the bright red peeking from the tall grasses at the pond's edge.

         Cardinal flowers depend on hummingbirds for pollination because the long necks of the trumpet-shaped flowers are more than most insects can navigate.

         The finely ground roots of this Native American wildflower 

were once traditionally used as aphrodisiacs and love potions, but the plant is toxic if eaten in large quantities.

         "Look at these pods!" I was so excited finding new things to photograph and explore.

         Stephanie Robinson picked one and broke it open. The seeds were flat and all lined up.

         "What is it?" you ask.

         This is the seedpod of the yellow water iris.

          This plant is both harmful and beneficial. In some places it can take over and crowd out the other plants, which makes it invasive, but it is useful in that it can take up heavy metals and clean the water.

         "My mother planted all kinds of flowers," Jon Robinson told me.

         I think this one is a beardtongue.

         This one? I don't know. A yellow coneflower maybe?

         Even plain old pinecones capture my attention.

         Back at our place I see the Wild Cucumber has set its pods.

         They hang all in a row like Christmas tree lights. Once they dry I'll show you what they look like on the inside.

>>>>><<<<< 

         Michael was mowing on Friday. I thought to get a little quiet reading done. I got my Bible, a cup of coffee, a folding lawn chair, Itsy and Ginger, and I'd no sooner gotten set up in the sunshine when the mower stops. I glance down to where Mike had been mowing at the pond and he waves for me to, "Come here." I put the girls on the golf cart and we went to his rescue.

         "Stuck?" I asked.

         "I don't know. It won't go."

         He hooked the tow strap to the mower (the other end is always left hooked to the golf cart) and I pulled. I hadn't gone very far when I hear, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

         I stopped.

         "I think it's broke," Mike said. "Either that or there's something caught up under it, keeping it from going."

         We both got down on the ground. "There's a belt off," I said.

         "I see it too." Mike thought about it for a moment. "Let's go get the ramps and pull the mower up on it."

         We left the mower in the middle of the yard and got the ramps. "You have to do it," I told Mike. No way was I going to. My luck, I wouldn't stop and I'd pull the mower right up and over them!

         Once the back wheels of the mower were on the ramps, and the mower securely tied to the golf cart, Mike got down on the ground and checked it out. "I'm going to need some tools," he says and starts rattling off a list. "...and get that two by four to block the front tires with," he ends.

         "You better come with me and help get all that stuff." I knew I wasn't going to remember everything he wanted and I certainly couldn't carry it all by myself.

         "Yeah, I will."

         He crawls out from under the mower and we head for the garage. "I don't know why a belt being off would have anything to do with the driving gears."

         I was quiet, not having any insights into the situation.

         "Unless the belt drives the hydraulics... that could be it," he adds.

         We gather everything Mike thinks he'll need and walk back out across the yard to where we left the golf cart anchoring the mower up on the ramps. Mike got down on the ground and scooted under the mower. He takes the pulley off and hands me the screw and washers to keep safe, then he figures out how the belt should run and when he tries to put the pulley back on, he can't get it.

         "There isn't enough room under here," he says. He comes back out from underneath it and thinks for a moment. "Let's get the floor jack."

         Back up to the garage we go, get the floor jack and drag it down through the yard.

         "You watch the back wheels and make sure they aren't coming off the ramps," Mike says, then adds a warning. "But don't stand too close in case it comes off there."

         Mike jacked it up while I watched the back like he told me to.

         "They didn't move," I reported when he had the jack the whole way up.

         We stood back.

         "That looks safe," I said sarcastically.

         Mike went around to the side and rocked the mower. It really was pretty solid. "It's not going anywhere," he said.

         Back down on the ground Mike went, scooting up under the mower again. "Where's that pulley?" he asks and I hand it to him.

         "Oh my gosh. I feel like I'm going to be sick," Mike says and in the next instant he comes shooting out from under the mower and he sits up. "I don't know what's wrong. I felt like I was going to throw up."

         "Yeah. That's your better sense keeping you safe. Maybe you shouldn't be under there."

         After a minute or so Mike tried again, but he'd no sooner gotten in position when he came back out. "I can't do it." He had to wait a few minutes for his innards to settle back down and in the meantime, he was thinking, not buying my "keeping you safe" story at all. "I think it's because my head is going downhill." He paused and I could tell he was thinking it out. "There's not room for me to come from the other direction with that jack there...."

         "We could put blocks under the tires and take the jack out," I suggested.

         "What kind of blocks?" he asked.

         "Cement blocks, or we have lots of two by sixes."

         So we unhooked the golf cart and went to get blocks.

         It took some doing but we did get the mower blocked up and with Mike going in from the other direction, he was able to get the belt on the pulley and the pulley put back on. Then we had to reverse the process and take the blocks out.

         Once back on the ground Mike started the mower and I held my breath as he engaged the forward gears.

         And it worked! He was back in the lawn mowing business.

         "You'd do anything to give me something to write about," I joked with Mike as we cleaned up the tools.

         Really and truly guys, it was a quiet week around here. So with that let's call this one done and end it with a sunset picture.

         This was the sunset the night of the eclipse.

         Done!