Empty pool

This morning I stopped by the pool to see if it still had water. It was empty, and looked a bit strange with the rope divider hanging in the air. You can also see a broken pipe that was discussed a few times this summer when I was at the pool.

The empty pool--another sign of the end of summer.

The giant pumpkin

I ended up with a pumpkin vine in my garden that I did not want there.
Last year I threw the seeds from the squash we ate into the garden, and I also threw some pumpkin innards out there. This spring I had a lot of volunteer squash coming up, and I transplanted them to various places that I thought would be appropriate for plants that grow vines that can be ten or twelve feet long. Among the plants I transplanted was a pumpkin vine, though I did not know that until it flowered and set a fruit.
There is still a bit a green on this one, but there were quite a number of totally orange pumpkins at the last farmers' market. Summer is coming to an end and soon fall will be here.

The acorn squash have not done as well this summer as they did last summer. Most of them have been hit by vine borers. Maybe I should switch to butternut--they are supposed to be resistant to vine borers.

Double rainbow

I saw this fantastic photograph on the Facebook page of one of my (few) Facebook friends. I asked if I could post it here and she said that I could.
It was taken at Benton Central High School using a cellphone (iPhone?) camera. Jenn said that if she had had her digital camera, she would have gotten a better picture, maybe one with the complete arc. She had her five-year-old son with her, and he wanted her to go find the end of the rainbow because it looked like it was very close. She probably did not convince him that trying to find the end of the rainbow is not possible. Most of us have to chase a few rainbows before we learn that we cannot catch them. Life experience is the most convincing teacher of all.

(Maybe for some of the farmers in Benton County the pot of gold really is at the end of this rainbow.)

Speaking of Facebook, I am now spending minutes a week on it. It used to be that I was spending minutes a semester on it.

It's a duplex

I recently wandered into the Sunset Ridge subdivision to see how the new building under construction was progressing, and was surprised to see it was a duplex. I should not have been surprised. The foundation was very large, probably too large to be a one-family house.
Meanwhile the building trades class from the high school is making progress on their house. Last week they were building the forms for concrete.
And on Tuesday they had concrete poured.
I am pretty sure this one will only be a single family house.

weeds

After looking at the flowers at the high school wet-land area, I decided to take some pictures of some of the weeds I have seen a lot of, especially in my garden. I do not have velvet leaf in my current garden, but it used to be a serious weed for me, The leaves are very soft, but the plant grows big and I do not know of any use for it. It is not a native American plant but was introduced from India.
Common ragweed has very pretty leaves. It also is a cause of hayfever. It thrives in disturbed soil, so it is not common in mature prairies.
Giant ragweed grows taller than I am. If there is a lot of it, it will crowd out everything else. This batch is growing just north of the railroad tracks on Matheson St. Both it and common ragweed have flowers that are hard to recognize as flowers.
Lambs quarters is still a problem weed for me. However, it is supposed to be edible, so maybe I should just eat it and not try to eliminate it.