A Rainy Day to Prepare the Stocking Shop.

Hops along the trail

Kewash during the dry yesterday. 

As the title suggests,  it has rained for the last two days.   Yesterday, it rain in the morning, but the remainder of the day was pretty dry.   Dry enough to run at the trail with Cheryl and Check ou the Hops condition.    I'm thinking they are ripe enough to harvest now.  I tasted one and it has the pleasant, bitter, pine taste that we all know and love.   Now all I have to do is wait for a dry day to harvest them.

They are ready for harvest!

But that was not today.   In addition to thunder and lightning,  we got pea-sized hail and a torrential downpour!   We certainly needed the rain.  I'm certain that the Kewash trail is a sloppy mud slide at the moment.  Thankfully, we chose to go to Coralville for our morning bike ride.

Labor Day Cat Mural. 

Of course, the rain continues while we ran/biked along the trail.  The temps were in the low 50's and I about froze my hands off!   I was kind of hoping that we might find a few mushrooms along the trail, but it looks like it may take a day or two for the moisture to kick the mushrooms into gear.   I'm sure they may also want slightly warmer temps... but that is just me.   From the looks of the low lying areas on the Coralville forest,  there will be plenty of puddles to hydrate the land very soon.

If only the Shadow would get out
of the way.

I should also mention that I did another mural on the sidewalk between the rains.   It was such a nice day yesterday, I simply had to be outside for the majority of it.   And what better way to spend you time than by drawing something on a sidewalk.

Maybe If I come back in 10
minutes....

 A few people stopped by and commented on it.   I told them I was going to make it rain, because the mural would be washed away as soon as it did.   Who would have thought how right I would be!

Damaged!   Golf Cart Drive By....

As luck would have it,   the finished product barely lasted 10 minutes before a golf cart roared over it,  leaving  chalk tire treads along the center of its face.   I was slightly disappointed that they could not drive around it.. but that is the risk with placing a mural on a sidewalk.

And the Tucan. 

The rain effects on the butterfly. 

  And it did not matter in the end as the rain has, I'm sure, pretty much washed everything away by now.

New Hummingbird feeder.

As mentioned in  the previous post, I needed a new hummingbird feeder.   I got once yesterday and set it up near the other two.  The Hummers have been crazy for it ever since.   The nice thing about the cooler temps is that the Bees seem to be absent today. 

Hummers on the Tomato Strings.

This leaves the 5 hummingbirds ( possibly more)  to dive and dart at each other while they can feed without any bug interference.  I tried to take their picture, but they will not sit still long enough for me to capture them.

Stocking shop is now open! 

Coralville run in the rain. 

And finally,  We opened up the Etsy Shop today.   We have been holding off on it until now because Cheryl has been focusing on her soaps.  I spent the majority of the morning relisting all of the stockings and I'm guessing we have already sold two!   Cheryl says she will not be distracted from her soap shop by the stockings until November.   So it appears the Stocking season will begin tomorrow.   I can hardly wait.

Wet, cold, and happily miserable. 

Tomorrow!  PIZZA! 

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry ...if it is raining in your area.  We will probably be heading to Muscatine tomorrow..  unless the weather prevents it.   But Wednesday is $1 Pizza day at Kum & Go.   We never want to miss a chance at cheap breakfast pizza....  Priorities and stuff... 

Thanks for stopping in.