So hard to believe it is July 1 already and the year is 1/2 gone.   I'm just now able to pretty reliably put 2020 in the date fields.    Summer solstice came and went and honestly if not for a friend posting on FB I would have missed that too.   We've definitely had some summer weather although it has rained constantly for the past 4 days which is unusual.   We'll take the moisture but I think when the sun comes out the end of the week my long weekend will be MOWING cuz that grass is growing fast.

Speaking of growing fast thought I'd catch you all up on the baby hawks.   We still have 3 which I think is pretty remarkable for those parents.   Rarely do we see all 3 because of the position of the nest but I did my best.   So these first shots were of fuzzy babies back on June 9.   There is a parent off to the left in some of these.

The last photo above is to give you an idea just how far away this nest is.   This was at 400mm (my wildlife lens) and with the camera crop ends up at 600.   Because of how height the tree is, if you go down my drive and shoot up, you really can get close but not see them as well.  So from the house it is.

Now these were from July 1 (yup the sun peeked out just a bit that morning).   The second shot is your "Where's Waldo" shot - there are all 3 babies in it if you can find them.

Crazy how quickly they fledged.   I haven't seen them forced to take off yet but they sure appear to have all their flight feather so probably really soon.  

Meanwhile last weekend's kitchen remodel project was a test run of the epoxy sample kits I got (that is my plan for the counters).   I wanted to see which blue I liked best and get a feel for the product.   I have since decided on which blue (the lighter one) and the technique I like so ordered one more sample kit to do a final board for practice.  I have about 20 feet of counter to do (3 pieces) and I don't want to mess it up!   I also found that my sensitive respiratory system definitely requires I wear a mask when doing this - even with the garage door open.   Has taken me 3 days to get my airways feeling better.   Duly noted!

Mind you I tried to do a "veining" on the dark blue one as well but really didn't like it.   There is also a mist on top of White Diamonds to give it a little more sparkle (done on both).   The technique was to mix in white and make that feathery/cloudy effect and that is what I'm going with in the light blue (hoping I can recreate that)!  Still waiting on the arrival of my base cabinets so for now we are still on pause BUT my leveling system for them has arrived.   We shall see how that all goes.  LOL

The epoxy was scary but really fun.  I definitely will be enlisting some help when I do the big ones just to make sure I have someone that can mix while I pour the first part since  you do have limited working time.   I also will better prep the garage by making a tent situation so dust and crap doesn't fall in them while they set up (I did get some in the light blue and can see those streaks).   May not eliminate it all but less is good.

That's pretty much all I got for July Day 1!