Woken by a semi psychotic woodpecker....or so I thought. It was a consistent tap tap tap...nothing out of the ordinary..like the woodpecker pecking the margin board in the massive Tburg house. Only it wasnt. It was Henry et al... Henry the Amish Roofer, his dad, and a posse of boys around 13-15 yrs. old. Pulling off the old, cheap roof, and neatly, as they go, stripping it down (in the rain) and putting paper down with hammers (no nail guns here). R. is going to quiz Henry at the end of the job about his cell phone and how it works within the scema of the rights are wrongs of the Amish people. A friend told us about a guy who has basically, a phone booth, in the middle of his field. Its good...as it is in his field, not his house. More to learn. We love these guys. Paying them is ploughing money back into the local economy, and supporting the people who are buying acreage and keeping it agricultural--as it should be, not developments. Totally low carbon guys. If I were in government, I would appoint about 100 amish guys to figure out the carbon thing. Plus, they have great style, great horses, and the right head set.

Henry and team left as the rain cranked up. We did all sorts of dumb stuff with R. taking the lead on the yucky duty...from the emptying of the old composter to the Mantis (cat vomit fever) and the cleaning of the continual crap by our friends the Seagulls. R. purchased (at Walmart) a wonderful bobblehead owl to scare away the Seagull crapmeisters. Fear the dock, birds!

We were woken by our neighbor teen dude and pals firing fireworks horozontally at our bedroom window. Urg. R. went down and defined our rules. Lesson learned, define early, chastise later. Now we know.

Rainy, downpoury Fourth. Good for the ground and the fields. Not much FUN, but hey, I could work on my dachshund.

more later>>