Sunday, August 2
Today would have been Mother's 91st birthday. I am so thankful that we were able to have such a joyous celebration last summer for her 90th, with all her children, grandchildren, their spouses and all 12 great-grandchildren.
 |
| Everybody! |
 |
| Claire, John, Owen, Amanda, Evangeline, Sandling, John Wallace, Erica, Solace, Allison, Leo, Missing Orion. |
 |
| Field of Queen Anne's Lace |
 |
| This ugly patch of weeds will be beautiful soon - purple ironweek, pink Joe-Pye and goldenrod. |
 |
| Sunday morning baptism, complete with singing. A joyful occasion! |
After our walk, I picked peas and beans and watched the Sunday morning news shows while I shelled and snapped. One pint of purple hull peas and two pints of green beans went in the freezer.
 |
| Purple Hull Peas |
 |
| Many goldfinches feeding on the sunflower seeds |
 |
 |
| I love sitting in my garden chair under the pear trees and watching the birds and butterflies at work. There were quite a few goldfinches on this tall sunflower. |
Numbers:
TN case count is 109,627, with 1443 added since yesterday, 1043 deaths and 4756 have been hospitalized.
0-10 - 5,218; 11-20 - 12,507
US case count is 4,649,669 with 154,744 deaths
Monday, August 3
I spend most of the day at home, catching up on such mundane tasks as vacuuming and laundry. In the morning, I spent some time at my desk and I worked on masks in the afternoon.
At 6 pm I showed up at the Loudon County Election Commission office for orientation as member of one of the counting panels for absentee ballots. The primary is Thursday. Already about 1800 absentee ballots have been received and the number of early votes casts is about 21% of eligible voters. Both those are records. According the the election officer, Susan, about 16% of Loudon Countians are eligible by age to vote absentee (over 60). Tennessee is one of those states that have set criteria for receiving a ballot and voting by mail. An exception has been made for the primary because of Covid-19, but the TN Supreme Court has ruled that the exception will not apply to the November general election. Republicans are in charge and the Republican establishment does not favor extending the mail-in vote. I was interested in and impressed with the layers of security measures in place to insure that every ballot is accounted for and counted if eligible.
Tuesday, August 4
This morning I went to the Good Samaritan Center for the first time since January. The occasion was a meeting with MAB, Cindy & Raquel to brainstorm ideas for a grant addressing racial inequity. We came up with an idea for hiring a liaison with the Hispanic community to facilitate communication, delivery of services and building trust.
After lunch, I put up 4 pints of tomatoes as whole tomato sauce. It was lots of work for not a lot of product. The sauce is good, though. I processed the four pints in a water-bath.
My window view Tuesday morning - friendly deer and elusive hummingbirds:
 |
| Photographing through a window screen is not the best, but if you look closely you may be able to see the hummingbird on the feeder. |
Numbers:
TN: case count 112,441, +1805 since yesterday; 1,117 death, +25; 1.5+ million tests
LoCo: case count 682; 291 active; new case rate above 32/100,000
Wednesday, August 5
 |
| Dewy August morn And a spider web adorned, Glistening in the sun. |
Company is always a good motivator to spruce up the place, so Bill cleaned up the deck and even spot painted the bench while I ran the vacuum. Marie C brought fried rice for lunch and Bill decided to join us for food and conversation.
Later in the afternoon, I started a new batch of sourdough. It was a wet dough and I left it to proof overnight in the refrigerator. In between bread-making steps, I finished 10 masks for Claire to take to college. She leaves for MTSU on Aug 22.
Loudon County reported 4 new Covid cases, but 4 fewer active one. Pray this is the start of a trend and not a reporting variation.
Thursday, August 6
I got up a little early to heat the oven and cast-iron dutch oven to 475 for baking the bread. It takes at least 1/2 hour for it all to come up to that high temperature. The bread bakes 15 minutes covered in the dutch oven, the temperature is reduced to 425 for another 30-40 minutes of baking uncovered. I could tell when the dough went in the pot that it would stick, and it did. I thought I would never get it out. Other than sticking, it turned out good. I had to re-season the pot, though.
I made a quick harvest trip to the garden and reaped a bucket of tomatoes and a nice mess each of purple hull peas and green beans. No time today to process them so the tomatoes were spread on the table to finish ripening and the beans and peas went in the refrigerator to be dealt with later.
I had to be in Loudon by noon for the vote counting. On the way, I bought a face shield at Greenleaf Industries in Lenoir City. I had read about this company that converted some of their fabrication process to making shields at the beginning of this pandemic. When I arrived at the Election Commission office I found that they were supplying us with a paper surgical mask, a face shield and a pair of gloves. Now I have 2 shields. Of course, I had several of my cloth masks on hand and that is what I used. I met up with Bonnie and Walter who were also representing the Democrats. (There must be an equal number of R & D in each panel.) We were there until the polls closed at 8 pm and we counted more than 1800 ballots.
 |
| After 8 hours of "safely" counting ballots, we are on our way home. |
Friday, August 7
Lenoir City and Loudon students officially start school today. I know that teacher are anxious about safety. Most kids just want to see their friends and most parents just want their students out of the house and in school. Amanda started her online classes today, also.
Amanda had a great golf match at Gettysvue yesterday which we didn't see. She shot a 41! She said her putting was better after a lesson with her private coach. Claire is enjoying her new kitten, Luna. She was allowed to keep one of the six that they fostered this summer.
Friday brings the usual video recording, a visit with Bonnie which included Tammie & Brian B, and grocery shopping. Food City has some wild-caught sock-eye salmon on sale so I bought a piece for supper. I baked it, seasoned with cumin and served it topped with fajita-style peppers, tomatoes & onions.
Numbers:
TN Dept of Health: 118,782 cases, + 2432; 1206 deaths, +20; 0-10 5,670 cases; 11-20 13,698 cases;
LoCo: 718 cases, 285 active with 19 new yesterday.
Saturday, August 8
We started the day with a piece of banana bread from yesterday's baking, and a walk up Brock way before the heat set in.
 |
| We never tire of the view. |
 |
| Interesting patch of lichen on the road-bank. |
For brunch, I made a salmon fajita frittata from last night's leftovers. It turned out great, served with a side of cantaloupe, a slice of sourdough bread and a piece of bacon.
After being MIA since Thursday, Kali cat is officially gone. Country female cats just don't come back. I cleaned up her stuff and took the supplies to the Matzeks. With 3 cats, they can surely use it. We then went on to Food City to get more of the salmon while it is on sale. They don't have the wild-caught very often.
 |
| Luna in his/her favorite hat |
Being Saturday, I posted the TUMC worship service online then settled down with the green beans, purple hull peas and an episode (or 2) of "Anne with an E" - the Green Gables story made into a Netflix series. Bill won't watch it anymore because it "irritates his eyes!" We had peas and green beans for supper to go with new potatoes and pork chops, plus two pints of peas for the freezer.
Numbers:
TN Dept of Health: 120,585 cases, +1803; 1215 deaths, +9; 1,683,722 tests, 9.8% pos
0-10 5,777; 11-20 13,922; 17% of all cases are 20 & under; 16% of all cases are 61 & over
LoCo: 725 case count; 282 active; 8352 tests; 9.5% pos; 14-day avg rate of new cases/100,000 - 29.33
