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.