Everett has been weeding and mulching his strawberry patch, and I, after moving more perennials from here to *Golden Grain Farm, have come home to get out of the sun. I left him there to spend an hour with his computer, and met up with this bird as I went out the driveway.

I am a bad girl. I admit it. Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys is overdue at the library and I don't care. I'd rather pay the fine than return it before I'm finished reading. I hope my librarian won't lose sleep. She might.

*Dad, according to the Wadena history book it was naturalist and writer Thornton W. Burgess who originally owned the property, gave it the name, and used it as a summer home. Although there is lots of information about him on the internet, as he was well known in the early 1900s for his children's bedtime stories, the museum and society dedicated to him has no record of him spending any time in Saskatchewan.

Everett's life sucks. We make him work. Last night he threw the last of a pile of firewood into the woodshed at Golden Grain Farm. Tonight he had to do some raking on the lawn, recently cut after getting a bit long in places. Tomorrow he will be weeding "his" strawberry patch and mulching it with the grass clippings.

It is fairly certain he is looking forward to leaving here for the entire month of July. City life will be easy in comparison; a real holiday.

After an appointment in town this morning I went to the lodge to see what Grandma was up to. She already had company, as my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Shirley were there. I don't see much of them but it will be twice this week because Emil wants to have birthday cake and ice cream at their place on Saturday afternoon. He turns 20.

Outside Grandma's room there is a little meeting place where a jigsaw puzzle is always in progress on a table tucked into a corner. These two sisters, one a longtime resident and the other just lately moved in, looked so cute I snapped a photo and tried to sneak away. The flash caught their attention so I didn't make it out of sight. (Anne Danyluk on the right, for you Margo readers.)

We're out of salsa again so I got another batch made today. This should last Scott and me about a month. He eats it on everything; why, I suspect he even mixes it with his milk.

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For the best picture of a tornado I have ever seen, click here.