Just another Summer Day in Manitoba

Not the greatest weather right now. This morning a severe and intense weather system moved through southern Manitoba. Many streets in Winnipeg were flooded. Last night a funnel cloud touched down somewhere near the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border around the Virden area. It seems the bad weather including tornadoes is moving further up north.

Yesterday was a great day for the beach. Temperature in the low thirties. We went to Grand Beach in the afternoon and it was boiling hot, even under our umbrellas. The water was exceptionally warm but still refreshing enough. We spent most of the time in the water. There were lots of people, but not nearly as many as on the weekends. Weekends in Grand Beach must be murder with all the sun-seekers there.

I am always amazed how many people are either downright stupid, ignorant, lazy, or have the ‘I-don’t-give-a-crap’ attitude. There are garbage and recycling containers everywhere, but I still found empty plastic drink bottles and cans lying in the sand. It always bugs me when we go shopping and I see empty shopping carts all over the parking lots, some of them ten feet away from the cart-return spots. Are people really that lazy? Sometimes I just can’t believe it.

On the home front things are okay. I’m talking mainly about my garden right now. This morning I picked some lettuce and found many of my larger beets partially eaten by some rodent. I already caught one mole and one mouse and I’ve set 4 traps out. Those little bastards drive me nuts. They always find the largest beets. I pulled them, cut off the eaten parts and we’ll make a beet salad tonight from the parts I saved. They are also munching on my beans. Damn critters! This weekend I’m going to buy some rodent-repellent and hope it actually works.

I harvested one red cherry tomato. They are not doing as well as other years. The plants are spindly. This year I planted only three cherry tomato plants. Usually I have at least 4, sometimes even more. My wife loves them. I’m planting them just for her. I don’t get too many to eat, but that’s okay. I’m happy with the large tomatoes.

As I’m looking out of the window I can see dark clouds in the sky and it seems another storm is coming our way. In fact, it is raining already. Every time we have a storm I worry about hail, but so far we’ve been lucky and I hope it stays that way.