We have been locked into three digit temperatures, or nearly so, and everything is “crackly” under your feet as you walk. Our once beautiful green lawn is brown and I’m having to water bushes that have other years been able to survive the heat spells. I’m finding it difficult to do anything outside, no matter how I plan my early and late chores.

The cardinals were always Rocky’s favorite bird but we have such an array of songbirds that it’s hard to decide which I like the most. I try to keep fresh water in the three bird baths we have which means several times a day they must be filled. They are so grateful and I enjoy watching them drink once I come back inside.

Our three outside cats, Callie, Chevy and Lovey head for the timber in the back of our property and hang out until it cools down a little in the evening. Last night it didn’t cool down much at all…….it’s just miserable to be out anytime. Napoleon has a regular routine and comes around grazing here and there. When it gets hotter he disappears until about an hour before dark……then he comes for his goodies and enjoys being on top of the van as he grooms his feathers. He has lost all of his tail plumage and no longer has all those feathers to drag around. I’m sure it makes flying up into his nightly roosting place much easier.

I was surprised as Becky and I drove to church Sunday that quite a few trees in the open timber are dying. Huge oaks that have taken years of weather changes are adorned with dead leaves and stand apart from the others. It’s such a shame to lose them when you consider how many years it takes for them to grow that large.

We continue to pray for Ellen and Curtis, along with the Minnesota bridge tragedy and the miners in Utah. I also pray for the people who have worked so hard to rescue victims. They have been working non-stop faced with unbelievable odds. Any time you work in a river or dig in a mountain it requires the best that men have to give. Still they work on……. trying to save or retrieve all they can.

I am never more proud of America than when we are faced with the impossible. The organizations snap into gear, volunteers arrive on every level and perfect strangers risk their lives to save others. America has a lot of heart and I pray she stays that way. I am always encouraged about the common man. Undaunted he will live and die for freedom…….yours, mine and anyone else’s.

I am proud to be an American and America needs our prayers.

Until tomorrow, I am,
Essentially Esther