Smoked in!

It’s been a long time since I’ve made an entry here, but today is my birthday, and I’m just kind of relaxing, so I’ll spend some time at the keyboard. I made my 3 score and 10, and according to some that’s all I’m entitled to; but what the heck. I’ve made it this far, I’d hate to quit now! :)
I guess everyone is well aware of the fires in California since the news has been full of it. Most are well south of here, but we have plenty of smoke to deal with. This is the 3rd year in a row that smoke from forest fires has settled here in our little valley, but the flames are a long way away. The closest fire is a few miles from the small town of Happy Camp (again), on the far side of the Wilderness Area from me. A couple more are burning in the Shasta/Trinity National Forest. Don’t know just where our smoke is coming from. Could be from just about any direction, depending on which way the wind is blowing. The really big, and destructive fires, are far south of here.
I had a busy spring with normal chores of cleaning up around the yard and getting a garden established. The garden is to the point of beginning to pay off. Green onions in my salad every evening now, with lettuce, chard, and sugar pod peas coming on fast. Have green tomatoes about the size of golf balls. Judging from the plants, I’m going to be loaded with Yukon Gold potatoes, so I’m at least assured of salads and hashbrowns with onions. With a piece of some kind of meat on the side, I can deal with that. :) My flock of pigeons is well established now, and provides me with a squab dinner about any time I want it. I have 2 dozen baby chicks (Araucana and Cornish) ordered and due to be delivered here next week. I ordered "straight run", so I’ll have roosters to butcher for meat and hens to hold over for eggs and to replenish the flock next spring. Judging from the blackberry vines and elderberry bushes in my backyard, it looks like this is going to be a good year for berries.