What is a squash bug, you ask?

I hate squash bugs.

Evil squashbugs

Oh yes, just as my zucchini started to yield, I started finding squash-bug eggs on some of the leaves of the plants, and I even found a couple of the bugs themselves.  I tear off the part of the leaves with eggs on it and attempt to kill the adult bugs (usually I fail at that because they're so fast, and they blend in with the dirt).  Then I spray with Malathion.  Last year I won the war; who knows what will happen this year.  
I cleaned and filled the hummingbird feeders this morning.  In this hot weather, it seems like they go bad very quickly.  Then I dumped the water out of Jody's water tub because it was starting to turn green.  I use a brush and bleach and scrub the sides and bottom of the tub because if you don't, the green is back the next day.  She seemed very glad to taste some cool, fresh water, and stood there a long time taking sip after sip.  
Cliff is already changing his sleeping pattern.  Last night he went to bed right after I did, and when I got out of bed at 5 A.M., he said, "You may as well make enough coffee for both of us."  
I like having our sleep cycles the same.  For one thing, if I ever get back to walking with Cliff, we'll get it done before the heat of the day.  Since my knee swelled up so much last week, I'm afraid to push the walking again.  While Cliff and Iris walk, I do my therapy exercises and put in ten minutes on the exercise bike.  That will have to do, for now.

From the land of milk, squash bugs, and blight

I caught these two having a relaxing rest yesterday. Last night I separated them so I could milk this morning.

I got this much milk (it's a gallon jar) out of two teats. I'm not wishing for the cow to be a high producer, by the way. Cliff and I barely use a gallon of milk in a week. I only got this cow because I have missed Jerseys ever since I sold my last one, years ago. I milked two teats and let the calf have the two on the other side. Bonnie still prefers not to go to the stanchion to be milked, even though there's feed there. She stands stock-still, right out in the open, with me on one side and the calf on the other, mooing softly at her baby and occasionally turning her head and licking my bare leg. If you'd like to know what it feels like to have a cow lick you, just get a piece of coarse sandpaper and rub it back and forth on your leg. Ouch.

Bad news on the gardening front. These are squash-bug eggs on the underside of a butternut squash leaf. I bought something other than Sevin yesterday, and I'll try it; but I'm fairly certain it's too late to save my vines. Once the bugs have killed all the squash vines, they'll move on to the cucumbers and melons.

Oh, and my blight-resistant tomatoes have blight. I will still get tomatoes, but eventually the plants will succumb to this fungal disease and stop bearing.

Life goes on.