The Phoenix has landed! The latest Mars mission has safely landed in the Martian arctic. The job is to stay put and take and analyze soil and, hopefully, ice samples.

Finally put some time in the garden today. We planted more peas, carrots, gladiolas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, zuccini, yellow crookneck..lots of flowers.

After a nice long lunchbreak I went out to keep working, and found myself on the lawn chair soaking up some good sun before putting the push on to plant more in the garden.

The mosquitoes are out in full force. Generally we have a bout of black flies (biting gnats) that strike before the mosquitoes. I have never seen mozzies like this so soon in the season.

The bugs were so bad, when I let the little goats out to mow the lawn, Obi Wan couldn't bear it and ran back to shelter. The others would race to different places trying to drop the cloud of mosquitoes. Some opted to lie down and eat to protect their bellies.

I decided it was a good night to switch over to graining in the morning, as once we had the goats back in the pen for graining, they all hid in the shelters, covered with mosquitoes, and refused to come out.

I was going to spray them with bug spray, but I prefer to do that out in the open, and they wouldn't come out. Plus one of the little guys is scared of me now because the spray frightened him last week.

One of my neighbors called last night asking if I had a white cat, and then if I wanted one? She had one hanging around and she figured someone dumped it along the road. I discovered that she and I both have adopted abandoned cats and we are at our limits!

This morning I saw a big old grey tom in the front yard, which ran like lightning when the little tree went out to greet it. Then on the way home from dinner tonight, I saw a black and white tom running down and then across the woods in the stretch where it is only woods...so that makes at least three cats by my calculations.

I guess folks think dumping cats down some country lane in the summer is an idyllic existence, but the ones that survive into winter turn to frostbitten skin and bones that raid trashcans in desperation...a sad fate for any pet.