Yay, guess what day today is? I'll give you a hint, President Obama shares this date with me.

As you may recall from a previous blog, I had to replace my central air conditioner in June. Everything available now is much more energy efficient than the systems of decades ago. None the less, I opted for a higher efficiency system than the minimum required. Everyone says I will save on my electric bill, but will I really? Well, the numbers for July are in. This July has been about the hottest I can recall in quite some time. We have had more 90 and 100 degree (f) days this July than all of last summer. There is no doubt that if I still had my old system my energy usage would be significantly higher than it was last July.

So did my new system save me anything? Yup. My usage for this July is exactly 1/3 less than it was in July 2011. A savings of more than 600 kilowatt hours. All without making any sacrifices with the thermostat.

I ran across this on a food site. Really cute!




Here's a link if you want to know how to make them.

[url]http://taste-of-japan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/hot-dogs.html[/url]

Zippo is available for a tad over $15,000. Even for solid gold I think it's a bit pricey. Sure, it has a lifetime guarantee but so does their $10 lighter. However, if you all wanted to chip in and get it for my birthday I'd feel real special.

a hot Spring and Summer. In Spring my a/c was giving me it's usually temperamental behavior only more so. I knew it was going to be a hot Summer because this past winter was warm and there have been some rumors about global climate change. So I called my a/c repair service and the guy came out and did some work on it, got it working great and took some cash from me. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. It was a Thursday night and I noticed the temps climbing. I checked the a/c and found it wasn't working right and I knew the day of reckoning had arrived.

My old heating and a/c system is about 30 years old and I've been told before to get it replaced off season so I don't have to deal with it in the middle of heating or cooling season. The thing is, it was working and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of replacing it. But fate played it's hand and a service call confirmed the a/c was deader than a door nail. But the guy who runs the place, the one who gives out prices for a new system told me they were too busy to come out and give me prices for about 2 weeks.

It's too hot to wait that long so I called another place; that was Friday afternoon. A service guy soon arrived and checked the a/c and confirmed it was dead. He showed me different systems and gave me prices. OK, I said, how soon can you have it installed? I'll have the a/c working for you tomorrow, he said. You're going to do an istallation on a Saturday, I thought, that's too good to be true. I figure he'll make the deal, take a deposit and maybe I'll see them next week.

Saturday morning arrived and there he was at my door. He starts disconnecting the old system and one by one additional ppl arrive, all doing something else. By Saturday afternoon it was blowing cold air. Real cold air.

I now have an energy efficient system that is handling this heat wave with ease (knock on wood). I'm a little bit poorer too, lol.

There's nothing to see here, I was just testing something. Move along please.

It's been a warmer than usually winter. I only had the snow thrower out twice. Last week Summer time temps rolled in. I'm minimally dressed. I noticed the shrubs and the peach tree were budding last week. I woke up today and opened the window and was greeted with greenery everywhere. The lilacs are all green now. The leaves are still on the small side but they'll be full very shortly. It's time to start thinking about yard work.

The weather is warming up (not that it was that cold this winter) and the lilacs are budding. It's time to do 3 things I do every Spring. One of them is get the lawn mower ready. It's a little early for that so it can wait a little while. I don't think we're going to get any more snow and even if we do, it will melt in a day or two. So it's time to burn off the remaining fuel in the snow thrower. It's also time to clean up the yard. Over the winter various things blow into it plus now is the best time for cutting out unwanted saplings and other things of that nature. Like I said, I do this every Spring. But this Spring I was rewarded. I found a nice crisp $5 bill. Nobody's name is on it except for Mr. Lincoln's, so I guess it's mine.

Sitting here feeling smug I am pondering what to do with my new found fortune. What can a person buy with a $5 bill these days? A Happy Meal? No, I'm really not happy to get one of those. A 6 pack of beer? That has possibilities but my beer larder is fully stocked, I really don't need any more. A Chinese lunch? One of the local Chinese restaurants has a lunch special for a mere $4.95, you get an eggroll, an entree, fried rice, a can of soda and a fortune cookie. Maybe that's the ticket, plus I'll have the princely sum of 5 cents left over.

I bake most of my bread. Recently I've been making a oat wheat bread. It includes whole wheat, rolled oats and flax seed meal. I love this bread, it tastes great.

Here it is formed into a loaf, not raised yet.



Raised and ready for the oven.



Fresh out of the oven.

The snow has started. It's a wet heavy snow. They are forecasting about 8 inches in my area. Not too much is on the ground yet, but it's going to snow until tomorrow morning, so I'm sure I'll get my share.

a view from the back yard



Ready to do battle