I thoroughly qualify as an authentic “red-neck” now.

My neck is so burned.

It’s red, and super-tan.  Really it’s more like a brown paper grocery bag………..and just as crispy too.

I have to roll up my tee shirt sleeves to avoid the sleeve-tan-line and subsequent glaring white shoulders.

 

I could wear a hat.

I should wear a hat.

 

 

I can barely remember to wear my work gloves.  And that’s only because Patrice keeps them stashed in the recesses of her bib pockets……………..they are so wet & nasty these days……………they could qualify as good composting for growing mushrooms.

A thunder-boomer swept through quickly a couple of hours ago.  My wheelbarrow of tools and the dairy goats and I ran for the barn’s breezeway to keep safe and dry until the storm sped over us.

Then back out into the glaring/steaming sunshine to keep augmenting my red-neck tan.

Yesterday my older daughter and I herniated ourselves lifting a telephone pole post upright so that it would slip into the massive hole that I had previously dug for it.

It was one of those (many) times where you just don’t know if you can do it.

But you’re committed and in the middle of the entire process……………..and if you quit you’re going to drop it on yourself or your child………………so you just keep quivering and shaking and pushing and flexing muscles that had disintegrated two decades ago.

…………………but this morning………………..I felt those ancient, prehistoric muscles.

 

And I’m back at it again today………………August in Florida…………..gotta love it!

 

Here’s a good question?………………………………

With all of this aerobic, sun-seared, chore-activity………………………..just why aren’t I continuing to loose weight!!!!!!?         Huh!?!       Why not?

Come on, Dr. Atkins!……………………I’m being good!

I’m simmering daily on medium-broil while doing chores out in the Florida sun!

I’m holding at forty pounds lost………..I’m shooting for another twenty.

Yesterday, I swear there was at least a Shakespearean “pound of flesh” that I sweated out in the stupid-fence-gate-post-hole!!!

I’m getting the newly positioned pastures ready for the arrival of the Clydesdale mares from Mary Constance’s.

They will be completing their botulism vaccine series and then they can safely come home.

I cleaned out the two big water troughs.

They had been neglected since April.

I discovered that we still have happy, healthy goldfish in each of the tanks.

 

Each tank hold about 170 gallons of water.  The goldfish got big!  They are almost filet-able.

We keep fish in all of our water tanks to keep the mosquito population down.

 

They also keep the tanks clean of algae.  It’s a win-win situation.  The fish get big, the tanks stay clean, and the mosquito larvae is kept to a minimum.

 

Poppy needs to stay at Mary Constance’s for a little while, until she gets all three botulism inoculations.

But Claire and Chantilly get their third booster tomorrow.

I’m boostering all of the horses for the West Nile virus too.

It seems like every bug and germ thrives heartily during Florida summers.