Birthdays, Babys, visits and fly paper

  What more could you ask for?  It's my youngest son's birthday today, yesterday was my grand daughter's, and not only that, the youngest son and his wife and two adorable little girls are heading to Tennessee for a visit,  it is a holiday week end so hope they don't get bogged down in traffic. Can hardly wait to spend time with Erin and Sammy.  Looking forward to this next week!!
  We had thunder storms and rain overnight, but the winds and hail missed us. Heard the Knoxville area had hail as big as tennis balls moving in on them last night, that would have devastated the garden. Once again, our enchanted mountain kept us safe.  After all the years I spent in the plains of Nebraska and Illinois, I am soooo happy to live in these mountains, which rise up around us like protective arms and divert most of the bad stuff away from us.
  You must live in a cave if you have not heard about the million pound recall of beef again this week, and all the people sickened from eating it.  Long ago when those recalls became more and more frequent, I quit buying and eating beef.  Once in a long time I get a yen for a roast, but not often.  For the most part I eat vegetables, sometimes chicken.  Do not miss meat and find much less to worry about.  Which makes me think, last Sunday I did a very uncharacteristic thing, I stopped at Mc you know what and got a burger for lunch. Yuck, burger way thin, bun white and thick, lettuce wilted and only a dab of mayo and pickle  to spice it up. A few bites in, it ended up in the trash, so much for occasional craving, that won't happen for a long time again.  It's gotten to the point most canned, boxed, fast food items just taste plain bad. When you get used to starting from scratch with good, mostly organic ingredients, anything else just has no taste, or a tinny taste. Hope the garden is really productive this year, most of what I put up last fall is long gone.
  It's bug season, and I have a recipe for you that is non toxic and will catch flies, lady bugs etc, inside or outside. And easy, in a bowl  put 1/4 cup of corn syrup, 1 T white and 1 T brown sugar, mix well. Cut strips however long you want them from brown paper bags, punch a hole in the top, tie a string, floss etc to hang by and dip in the syrup mixture. Hang over a sink to dry. Then you can put them around your doors, windows or wherever you want to catch buggy critters.
   Been picking strawberries and have a few blueberries on my new bushes. Most of the garden is looking good, beans and squash, chard, herbs all doing well, had to restart peppers and tomatoes so waiting for them to grow enough to replant. Last year we lost most of our squash to mold from all the rain, would be nice if  it's a bit more temperate this year, would like a good crop.
   Hope you are enjoying the warmer weather, so nice to get outside again. Take care, see you next week after my lapful of grand girls go home.  Always hate to see them leave.  Planning a fun week.