Sunday, June 1, 2008
This is getting to be too much. By the time I finished my three miles this morning it was starting to rain. In a few minutes it was a downpour, and by the time the storm moved on the rain gauge contained another .67". I'm getting worried about the possibility of another wheat disaster like last year, when a lot of the crop never got harvested because the ground was too muddy. With everything outside sopping wet, I spent the day on long neglected housework.
Monday, June 2, 2008
All I got done this afternoon was about an hour and a half of work on the K&O tractor club website. At one point I wasn't able to edit anything, but that seems to have been solved, so I deleted several outdated items and changed some others to bring them up to date. Next I have to figure out how to post pictures. My own website is easy, but this one is different.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Being
disinclined to take on anything particularly strenuous on a ninety
degree afternoon, today I started cutting up a pile of scrap boards
in the back yard. I need to have it out of the way when I start
digging trenches for new water lines. Working in the shade with
a nice breeze blowing didn't seem hot at all.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Had another go at sawing those boards. I ended with a stack over six feet high, with less than half the pile done. I need to find another place to stack these things where they won't be in the way when I start digging.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I took a break from sawing boards today and did more housework, vacuuming the living room. There never seems to be a shortage of things to do.
Friday, June 6, 2008
The housework continued, with lots of picking up, sorting, sweeping, and dusting. About 5:30 the cable guy came to install a cable modem for higher speed internet. I hate the idea of having to change my email address, but I've had more than enough of dialup. Downloads taking several hours and websites taking several minutes to open have just gotten to be too much.
Saturday, June 7, 2007
I started cutting off little trees in the lawn and dosing the stumps with Tordon, but I soon realized that the fact that there are so many of them means that didn't work last year. I'm going to try some spray-on broadleaf killer.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Having seen an ad for an auction that included a Lincoln welder, I drove over to Oxford this afternoon to take a look. The welder looked OK, but it soon became apparent that they were going to sell at least a couple of hours' worth of other stuff before they got to it. So I came home and got in some needed yard work instead. I pulled weeds and dug up the area in front of the front porch, and planted some flower seeds. With an 80% chance of rain overnight, this was a good time to plant. With that done, I got back to sawing up that pile of scrap boards in the back yard. I made pretty good progress. I should have the pile cleared away sometime this week.
Monday, June 9, 2008
The forecast was right. The rain started around 7 PM and was still falling twelve hours later. When it was all over, the rain gauge had .82" in it. There was also enough wind to bring down several branches, plus about ten feet of the top of one of the trees out by the road. That's one of the trees planted by E.B. Parker's kids back in the 1870's. That part of the tree was hollow, so I imagine some squirrels will miss their home.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The plans of mice and men... Hmmm, that would make a good book title. I was planning to finish cutting up those scrap boards out back, but the branches taken down by the storm need to be converted to firewood. I really wanted to spray brush killer on those little trees coming up in the front lawn, but it was too windy for spraying. That chore can wait for another day or two. It will take at least that long to cut up and haul away those branches out front.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I made good progress on dismantling those downed branches. Tomorrow should see the job done. Then I can get back to that pile of scrap boards out back.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
On the other hand, if you work late it may not happen. I spent an extra hour and a half at work today on a project that needed to be done, so I got home too late to get anything done here. As Scarlet would say, tomorrow is another day.
Friday, June 13, 2008
And
it started out as a wet one, with another .75" soaking. The
rain ended and clearing started by noon, and with a couple of
dry days in the forecast I took care of a little chore that's
been delayed by wind and wet weather for several days. I sprayed.
Little trees have been coming up volunteer all over the front
yard. Last year I cut them off with scissors and dosed the little
stumps with Tordon, but the stumps were too tiny to absorb enough
Tordon to kill them. It was a labor-intensive process, but I thought
it was worthwhile because it seemed to work. But this year all
those little trees came back up in profusion, so today I gave
them a good bath of brush killer. Another little chore today was
installing new wire screen in the front door. Recently a neighbor
dog was on the front porch and saw Miss Kitty inside. He decided
to get better acquainted and tried to come in through the screen,
making quite a mess of it.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Flag Day was another day of yard work. I pulled a lot of weeds, finished cutting up those downed branches, and mowed the lane across the road. That kind of work pretty much takes over at this time of year when everything is growing.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
One more day of weed pulling cleaned out the area I've been working on. There are hollyhocks doing well there, and I aim to plant some other flowers there too.
Monday, June 16, 2008
It seemed we had dodged the rain bullet overnight, then it started after daylight and kept up most of the morning. The afternoon was cloudy and wet, so I stayed in and did a little housework. The day ended with another .55" in the rain gauge.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
It was a beautiful day, dry and not too hot. By the time I got home from grocery shopping and filling up the car, I had just enough time to spray a couple of gallons of brush killer on little trees and weeds infesting the lawn. I covered a lot of what I missed when I sprayed on Friday, but there's still more to do.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Drat! One of the reasons I sprayed yesterday was a forecast that showed only a 20% chance of rain. I didn't want that brush killer washed of the plants before it had time to work. Well, we made it through the night with no rain, but it started a little after five in the morning, and in a couple of hours we got another .67". I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that brush killer had time to work before the rain came. On the way home from work this afternoon I did a little shopping, picking up a dozen petunia plants at half price and sixty packets of flower seeds at 10¢ apiece. I'll plant some of the seeds now and save the rest for next spring.When I got home I weeded east of the house, getting ready for planting both petunias and seeds. I got part done today and will have more to do tomorrow.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
I got home a little before 3:30 this afternoon under cloudy skies and with thunder in the distance. Trying to beat the rain, I got started right away on planting some of those flower seeds. The rain arrived after about twenty minutes, so I went inside. It quit after about a half hour, so I went out and did some more planting. This time I got about a half hour in before the rain started again. By this time I had finished about half the area I wanted to cover, so more awaits tomorrow.
Friday, June 20, 2008
I celebrated the arrival of summer this morning by doing my three miles in under thirty minutes. 29:40 to be exact. After being too much of a cold weather sissy to do much running during the winter, I'm getting back to the kind of condition I was in the last time I broke thirty minutes, last fall. Friday is a short workday, so I was home by 10:30 and spent the day on yard work. I hauled yard trimmings to the dump pile, mowed along the road, mowed down weeds in a neighbor's pasture, and sprayed brush killer on more of the lawn. I found a couple of bolts are missing from the mower, so I'll have to shop for those tomorrow. This evening I heard a good noise outside. It was the combine cutting wheat. What a relief! All the recent rain hade the ground pretty soft, so it was good to have the ground dried out enough for the combine to do its work.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
After doing laundry, I got out the sprayer and spent a couple of hours poisoning dozens of little trees. Other projects of the day included picking up the new firewood off the front lawn, replacing missing mounting bolts for the mower on the Model B, and buying a new seat for the Dixon mower. The seat is a generic one, not Dixon, so it requires making some hardware to adapt it to the Dixon. I got part of that done today, and should be able to finish it up tomorrow. For dinner I went to Beijing Garden. The good news there is that they have gone smoke free without waiting for a law requiring it. I hope that will spread to the remaining local establishements that allow inflicting toxic fumes on innocent bystanders. This evening I went and saw Get Smart. The movie captures the spirit of the original, and has some funny bits. A nice touch is that it's dedicated to Don Adams and Ed Platt. Steve Carel and Alan Arkin do a good job in the Adams and Platt roles.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
This was mowing day, interrupted by some old fashioned farm work. This afternoon a bunch of folks from the Kansas & Oklahoma Steam and Gas Engine Association took out the old binder and harvested wheat. After taking some pictures, I grabbed a pitchfork and helped pitch bundles of wheat onto the wagon. We filled three wagons, which will be enough for the threshing demonstrations at the tractor show in August. With that done, I came home and mowed. Replacing those missing bolts on the mower had the desired result, keeping the belt tight and preventing the mower from bogging down in thick grass.
Monday, June 23, 2008
I took out the Dixon riding mower to cut those areas missed by the big mower. All went well until the mower bogged down and wouldn't restart. I replaced the five year old battery with a new one, but that didn't help. Finally I took the tractor out and towed the mower back to the shop. I'll have to figure out later what the problem is.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
It turned out the problem with the mower is a defunct starter solenoid. I phoned the Dixon dealer in Ponca City and was pleasantly surprised that they have the part in stock. I'll head down that way after work tomorrow. I finished the afternoon with some weeding east of the house.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
I went to Ponca City and bought the solenoid, a trip which took over an hour and a half. That left just enough time when I got back to remove the cat cage from the kitchen. When Miss Kitty was a kitten I set up a cage where she could go to use the sand box or eat without Zeke pestering her. Now that she's big enough to go out through the pet door, she doesn't need the cage anymore.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
I installed the new starter solenoid and did a little mowing.
Friday, June 27, 2008
I started to do some more mowing, but didn't get a lot done. The Dixon needed a new mower belt, and the Woods mower had a flat tire. By the time I got a new belt for the Dixon, got the wheel off the Woods and disassembled it, bought a new wheel bearing for it, and installed the new belt and adjusted the Dixon, that didn't leave a lot of time for mowing. As Scarlet would say, tomorrow is another day.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
And it started out as a rainy one. Another .4" today on top of the .6" yesterday morning adds up to plenty, thank you very much. We could do with a few more dry days now. All that moisture did make the ground plenty soft, so I spent a big chunk of the day doing some much needed weed pulling in the back yard. I concentrated on getting rid of the most annoying varieties before they could go to seed. I finished the day with some mowing. All that work on the mowers this week was time well spent. That new belt on the Dixon makes it mow like new, and the bolt replacement on the Woods did the same for it. This evening I ate at La Fiesta, which opened today. The frijoles and the tamal were excellent, the chili relleno was OK, and the enchilada de queso wasn't very good. Half excellent is pretty good for Kansas.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
It was a great day for yard work, sunny but not hot. I had to reinstall and adjust the belt on the Woods mower after it bogged down in some really tall Johnson grass, then I mowed some areas that have been waiting a long time for me to get to them. With a parking area mowed for it, I put away the trailer that's been sitting attached to the Suburban in the back yard since May 10, and put the Suburban back under its carport. I finished pulling the worst of the weeds and mowed the area. That leaves just one more area where there are some slightly less irritating weeds I want to pull. I finished the afternoon sawing up the last of those scrap boards in the back yard that have been waiting for over three weeks. There are some plywood sheets, some doors, and other items there that will go out behind the old chicken house, and that will leave the back yard mostly clear for digging up the old water pipes and installing new ones.
Monday, June 30. 2008
This afternoon I pulled nails from more scrap lumber and stacked it ready to cut for firewood. This week I hope to finish all the scrap removal behind the house.