Because half the country seems to be on fire right now, we have been having pretty smoke filled skies.  Last night we watched the moonrise from the deck and it was as orange as I’ve ever seen it.  While it does make breathing a little uncomfortable at times, the pictures are spectacular.  This is from the deck at about 6 am this past week:

One of Colorado’s big crops is sunflowers.  There are fields and fields of them around us.  In the past week they have all reached their peak and there is yellow all around us!  Next weekend we will be harvesting in earnest as well.  The garden seems to be doing well despite our inattention this year because of so many distractions.  Zina has already picked all the kidney beans and the wheat is in the winnowing stages.  The potatoes look to not be disappointing.  Getting them up and stored is always a big job.  Hopefully my fingers will be healed up enough after cutting them up working on the greenhouse.  Potatoes involve a lot of hand digging despite the tractor’s best efforts.