April 14-20, 2019

Weather | 4/14, 34°, 51° | 4/15, 35°, 65° | 4/16, 47°, 78° | 4/17, 59°, 79° | 4/18, 0.69" rain, 42°, 56° | 4/19, 41°, 59° | 4/20, 42°, 69° |

• Sunday (4/14): Had 5 dog training classes at 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, and 4:30. Kind of tired after classes in a row. New dogs at 11:30, a female great dane and a pitbull. The woman who owns the white pitbull in the 4:30 class, Izzy, was tickled when we got her to go down when asked. My 3:30 class, Aggie, the Basset hound, is doing quite well. I left at 6 with Emily closing the store at 7:30...first time in forever that I didn't have to close on Sunday. Mary started sweet potatoes and mowed around the house.
• Monday (4/15): Called Galeton, who we ordered boots from, and complained about cracks in my 2-week old boots. They will refund my money and get me a pair like Mary ordered. Two dog training classes today at work. One dog, Thor, a pitbull, was brought to class by the owner's mother, who is a hyper mess. As a result Thor was a growly beast, when he usually isn't. Dogs reflect from the people they are around. Cupcake, a yellow lab, and my 7 pm class, is progressing nicely. Mary mowed the lane and was stopped by Ansel Marquette and his wife. They said Rich, their son-in-law, told them he was hunting turkey and the neighbor to the west of us was cutting down trees and put up no trespassing signs on Rich's property. Ansel was going to check it out. Ansel's wife said they had to see if Rich was accurate, because she said "he can't tell north from south and is a town boy." I laughed at that comment. She's right.
• Tuesday (4/16): We walked to the NW corner of our property and then walked the west edge of our property. They're taking a ton of trees out of the property west of us, but they never went onto our property. They have a regular logging road trounced down through the property to just beyond the west end of our west field. WE NEED TO PLANT CEDAR TREES SOON. A couple rows of trees will block future house lights. We planted 4 blueberry plants into tubs that we once used in a hoophouse. The tubs were left on the east side of the woodshed and maple tree roots invaded through holes in the bottom of them. It was tough cleaning all of that out of the soil in the tubs. Put the soil on a tarp, mixed in new amendments and put new soil back into tubs. The plants look perfect. The tubs are on an old closet door from the Circle MT house to prevent tree roots from invading, again. Ordered 2 pairs of Lymeez Gators, designed to keep off ticks.
• Wednesday (4/17): Mary had an upset stomach all night and only slept 1.5 hours. We had eggs 2 nights in a row. Mary's stomach can't handle that. Checked online in my bank and got paid as planned by Social Security. I'm officially a happy geezer! Did research online related to appropriate rims for the Cadillac. Moved mixed potting soil off the plastic and split firewood. Saw 3 kestrels flying around Bluegill Pond that we think are nesting in the woods there.
• Friday (4/19): Did more Cadillac rim research, then drove to JC Auto, a junkyard, in Monroe City, MO. They have 4 new rims that aren't chromed that they just got into a new salvage yard they recently purchased south of the Quad Cities. The rims are off of a 2009 Cadillac DTS with 60,000 miles on it. They will have the rims into Monroe City mid-week and give me a call.
• Saturday (4/20): Shane asked me to open and close on Sundays. I can take 2 lunch breaks and it only adds an hour to my existing Sunday times. I told him that we're 28% through the year, but I've earned 47.5% of the $17,430 limit I can earn and still get Social Security payments, and that I will not jeapardize not getting SS. He added up 24 hours a week at my payrate for the rest of the year and the amount came out Okay. The problem is, that figure doesn't account for dog training sales commissions, or bonuses for the store beating last year's sales, which would put me over the top. I bet I won't be working at all in November or December, because Shane isn't paying attention to my situation. At home, Mary staked up the small Bartlett pear, and small Jonathan apple tree and put fencing around them, so animals will stop nipping them to the ground. She also put cattle panels around 2 cherry trees that outgrew smaller tomato cages.