Berry Protection

We had a nice cookout lunch over at Andy's for Memorial Day. We had hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill with potato salad, pasta salad and ambrosia. We got to see the new addition to his house. It looks great, he'll get a lot of use out of it.

When we got home I pulled the crank off of the bush hog. Lisa is going to take it over to I-64 Tractor to see if they have something to fit. They have a good size salvage yard and if they don't have one should be able to find it.

The berries are starting to come in so we set up the bird block netting on the blueberries. I also moved the chicken wire cover over to the strawberry bed.

The blueberry bush got taller so we added the t-post tripod to hold up the net.

They're turning blue so it won't be long now.

We've had a few ripe strawberries. The birds have had more than us.

The cherries are getting red.

It will still be a while for the tomatoes.

The tomato plants are doing well.

I also started dismantling the old wood deck. The stringers still look good. The deck is about 12 feet long so 6 - 2x6x12 PT are worth quite a bit considering the current price of lumber. The deck boards are pretty dry and brittle but may come in handy for something. I'm going to have to flip it over and block it up so I can hammer the deck boards off. They're too brittle to pry off, they were breaking up.

Betty was lookin for voles I presume.

It's the old deck that was on the house when we first moved in.

Hog Broke

I went down to mow the big cow pasture today. "Mow" is a little generous. The grass is high so I was bush hogging it. When I was on the second pass the lift screw for the back wheels broke off which made the deck slam to the ground. I had to disconnect the PTO and raise the front as high as it would go with the draw bar. Then I dragged it back to the house through the sheep pasture. I didn't want to take it on the asphalt because it was dragging metal.

Tall fescue is tall.

I needed to get that back in the collar.

It actually broke in front of the collar. I had already backed the front part out most of the way.

Lisa helped me place blocks while I used a post to lever it up. This allowed me to pry the wheels down so I could insert the lift screw back into the collar.

I had to move the stop up to the pivot yoke. 

I didn't get the deck high enough so the blades were too low in the high grass. It broke the sheer bolt. I'll need to jack it up a few more inches and drill another hole in the lift screw and move the stop up.

Hog Blade

I got the new parts for the BBQ grill installed today. It's all cleaned out and everything fit. We had hamburgers for dinner tonight so we could test it out. Good as new. 

Tequila and Cassie are getting along well. I don't think Cassie has noticed that she isn't the youngest anymore. She seems to be having fun with the new kid. Luna doesn't care.

I bought a kit for the Dremel to sharpen the chainsaw. It came with an attachment to sharpen lawnmower blades. I tried it out on the bush hog. The blade may be a little thicker than its intended target but it seemed to work okay. It did take a while and burned up most of the little stone wheel.

The guild fits along the back of the blade to keep hold the angle.

It should cut better.

Stay on Target

We had a big rain storm today so I went out to watch the drain I put in under the sidewalk. It works really well. There isn't any flooding in front on the slab and the water seems to be moving out of the drain pipe fast enough to keep up.

Eventually I'll get some more pipe and send it down the hill farther.

This area would have been under water with the amount of rain that was coming down.

 I got the last two big logs split today. I'll miss those big bastards.

Next to last on the splitter.

Last one.

Ready to make some firewood.

The splitter is right under their nest full of baby barn swallows. They didn't care for me being out there.

They were flying around my head. You can see one in flight in the upper right.

Tequila is adjusting well. She's only 10 months old so still a puppy. She hasn't gotten used to all the farm noises. I tried to take her on a walk down the hill and she freaked out when Fun Bobby and Ivy came over to the fence. She probably would have been okay until Ivy opened her big mouth.

She's more relaxed today.

Tequila

I've been busy at work this week and working late. That and yesterday's rain I haven't got much done around here. Lisa has been out of town since early Tuesday so I've been doing the animal chores. One of which is giving Fun Bobby his bottle. He comes trotting over to the fence when he sees the four wheeler and takes the bottle right through the fence.

We still made time for walks.

Then there is the reason Lisa was out of town. She went to Iowa to pick up Tequila. The breeder in Iowa had planned to show her but she didn't work out for some reason. We think she's beautiful and we're lucky to have her. They've been calling her Tiki in Iowa and she knows it.

They weren't happy about me being out in the yard with a strange dog.

It's Hot

 It was 90 degrees today. I was working inside so it didn't bother me too much. We got notice from work that they are re-opening the office on June 1st. I'll be going in to Lexington two days a week. Probably on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will be nice seeing everyone again but I'll miss being at home with Lisa and the girls. 

Poppy had to go wait in the shade while I filled the sheep water.

I made a gas run after work. 

We're still waiting on the Husqvarna to finish getting repaired. They had a complication. The pully on the bottom of the motor wouldn't come off so they had to cut it off. It's been two weeks and the grass hasn't stopped growing. 

Maple Mites

Our silver maple has gall mites. Each mite builds a red bladder on the leaf. It hen lays eggs in it and dies. The larvae feed on the little bladder until they hatch.(1) We've had them before but they don't appear every year. 

Maple Bladder Gall Mites

I got some more of the big oak logs split today. There are only two left. This last set has had a couple with large knots. It has made them more difficult to split. The splitter wedge got stuck twice. 

Last two

It was hard to split but had interesting grain.

Lisa was pulling weeds and re-planting seeds in the bean planter. A lot of them didn't come up so we'll give the leftover seeds a shot at it.

The cherry tree is packed with fruit. It must be making up for last year when we had almost none. Maybe this is a mast year for cherries.

So many cherries.

The ewes and lambs enjoying a shady spot on a hot day.

We tried smoking pork on the gas grill. It tasted good but it got over cooked. We ate the pork steaks for dinner and the boneless country ribs are going in fried rice. I made a little table out of cage wire to hold the hickory chunks. I had an extra chunk so I just put it on the grate. The flames in the front are because the crossover tubes are rusting out. I have a parts kit on order to replace them and the heat plate tents. The kit comes with new burners so I'll swap those out too. It worked, but the grill was too hot even though the burners were turned all the way down. We'll have to try it again with the new parts.

The pan of water is supposed to help regulate the heat

Cage wire table under the grate.

Opener Vandals

I'm not sure how it happened but something broke off the gate opener sensor and chewed up the wire. It seems deliberate. First, Lisa found the transmitter out in the field and the wire was hanging loose. Second, I went down and saw the wire hanging and the plug was there but it was mangled. Next time I looked at it the plug had been stripped off and the wires were sticking out of the shielding insulation.  Today it was like this:

It looks like it has been snipped off clean.

Regardless I still had to repair it. I had the old sensor from when the transmitter had gone bad. You have to buy the whole kit so I changed out everything last time but kept the old pieces. I installed it low on the post in case it was the cows chewing on it. 

The wood piece under the conduit is just a standoff so we can get to the transmitter cover.

We had some old chain link fence posts with the concrete still on them. They had been leaning against the back fence for years so I broke off the concrete and took it down to the gully to fill in some gaps.

This tree grew up wild in the fence line out front. It looked like more than a weed so we left it there. It's about three years old. I looked up the leaves in foliage identifier app. It came back as a black cherry. That would be nice. The chickens have had cherries that had gone bad, so it's possible.

We haven't noticed it blooming but it is still young.

Clematis

Lisa planted some of the new Lilac plants she got from the Arbor Day people. There are two in pots for Anne and the rest are going where the failed forsythia bushes were. Those forsythias have been out there for ten years and never have done well. We see giant ones in vacant lots covered with bright yellow blooms. They grow wild on roadsides and in the woods. You can see them from the road on hillsides a mile away. The ones in our yard maybe get a dozen small flowers some years. Other times, nothing. They had their chance, they're getting replaced. 

I dug the second and third holes. Lisa will plant them in the morning.

This one got planted today.

These are Anne's

Luna was out there too.

Selfie with poo.

I only did one load then straightened up the compost pile.

I was down there emptying the blue barrel into the burn pile. No need to go back up the hill empty.

Lisa cleaned out around the clematis. This is the one we moved from the backyard next to the electric meter. Since the porch roof covers it we were afraid it would die under there. 

It's doing pretty good in its new place. It even has an early bloom.

The clematis under the porch came up even after I dug it up. It's bigger than the one out front.

Llama face.