June 23-29, 2019

Weather | 6/23,  0.06" rain, 64°, 75° | 6/24, 65°, 77° | 6/25, 61°, 85° | 6/26, 63°, 83° | 6/27, 67°, 89° | 6/28, 0.39" rain, 73°, 89° | 6/29, 67°, 90° |

• Sunday (6/23): Karen's birthday. She and Mom are returning home after a memorial service in Colorado for Aunt Lois. Text from Katie...she's working long hours. While driving to work, there was a semi-tanker that was upside down in the eastbound ditch of Highway 6. It plowed quite a furrow into the mud. Later, I learned that the driver went to the hospital with minor injuries. Trained 5 of my 6 dog training classes. One didn't show because of baseball/softball games involving kids. Mary picked handful of raspberries, started sweet potato slips (very late), made autumn olive crisp, and finished a cross-stitch ornament.
• Monday (6/24): Three dogs didn't show, so I only taught 1 class involving 2 dogs. Seems like most people aren't dedicated to keeping up with dog training. Mary baked 4 loaves of bread. She discovered that the bottom right shelf in the sunroom had mold starting to grow on books. It's from a leak in the roof that I need to fix.
• Tuesday (6/25): First, we worked on mold issues. Mary took a mild bleach solution and cleaned mold from the books, leaving them partially open outside in the sun on the porch. I took a stronger bleach solution to the ceiling and the book shelf in the sunroom. We have more mold issues in the house, but that starts working on the mold eradication process. I installed the last 3 top wires on the electrical fence in the near garden. With 13 wires going around that garden, it's starting to look like a penitentiary fence. But, if it keeps out the damn bunnies, who cares what it looks like. While getting electric fence insulators off old abandoned fences, I discovered more raspberries that Mary picked. We also discovered a place just beyond where we mow where deer are bedding down among a thicket of small persimmon trees. By the tiny hoof prints, it must be a fawn, which is probably why I spotted deer ears for a couple seconds just beyond that area while eating breakfast this morning. Mary mowed the lane.
• Wednesday (6/26): I tied baling twine around the top of the near garden fence. Got Mary to help steady the ladders and moved the caps over the tops of the center holes in the tops of the 2 grain bins, then wired them into place and put a new tarp strap over the cap of the first bin. Winter winds blew these caps to the side, allowing rain to enter. When I had to park the Cadillac at the end of the lane in the winter months, a squirrel chewed an inch of a wiring harnness connected to a plug-in to the side of the air filter. Using a new heat gun and some newer heat shrink connectors, I fixed 5 of the 6 wires that got chewed. Then, I used my engine code reader, cleared engine error codes, and the check engine and the traction control lights went out and stayed off, so I fixed that problem. Mary made tortillas and we had fajitas for our main meal.
• Thursday (6/27): Had 3 of my 4 dog training classes...1 didn't show up. Bill Fawcett, at work, said he's quitting Petco to work as a cook at a former employer of his. He will be getting more pay and regular daytime hours without needing to work weekends. His biggest complaint about Petco is other employees who don't do their jobs. I agree. I could tell that the Cadillac ran better with yesterday's fix. Apparently, the severed wires hindered air flow to the car's engine. Mary washed sheets, cleaned weeds off 1 of the compost piles, and cut hay. Katie sent 2 videos on Messenger. One was her being interviewed about what's she's doing. She sounded great...a really good ambassador for the Air National Guard.
• Saturday (6/29): Drove to Quincy and watched Toy Story 4 at the movie theater. It was good. Bought some items before going home.
  

June 16-22, 2019

Weather | 6/16,  0.58" rain, 65°, 82° | 6/17, 62°, 76° | 6/18, 63°, 79° | 6/19, 1.81" rain, 63°, 68° | 6/20, 61°, 77° | 6/21, 0.77" rain, 64°, 69° | 6/22, 0.78" rain, 64°, 82° | 

• Sunday (6/16): Two cancellations on dog training, so I had 4 of my 6 Sunday classes. One woman with a white husky called Alaska has missed more classes than she's attended. Mary made Mississippi Mud, a chocolate dessert. Bill called. Still looking for new work. Katie called and talked to Mary.
• Monday (6/17): Trained 3 dog training classes at work. Three dogs were spastic...must be the full moon! Rufus, a great dane/golden mix, pooped on the floor, like he always does. I'm renaming him Roofus Poopus. He never does it inside the house at home. Munson, a little shit dog, now thinks all cues presented to him means it's time to run around in circles and play...don't know the answer to training that little ass. I'm getting tired of training jackass excuses for dogs. Mary mowed and washed clothes.  
• Tuesday (6/18):I redid several of the donuts holding electric wire on the fence in the near garden, adjusted corner wires tighter and closer to the ground, pulled all of the wires tight, reinstalled connections between hot and ground wires, and turned on the fencer. Everything works like it should, so now we can zap little bunny butts. I still need to add some wires at deer-nose level. Mary mowed more of the lawn. Got texts from Katie with photos of her flying into her destination.
• Wednesday (6/19): It was a very rainy day. I figured out our current money situation. Gave Mary a haircut.
• Thursday (6/20): Had 2 people cancel on dog training classes, so trained 2 dogs in 2 of my 4 classes. Closed the store with Brandon, who transferred to us from a Cedar Rapids, Iowa Petco store. He's an absolute dud, which means I work harder. Mary picked some raspberries and did cleaning, since it's a swamp outside.
• Friday (6/21): First day of summer and it's cloudy and rainy. We were really lazy. Watched The Monuments Men movie.
• Saturday (6/22): Rained overnight. A big chunk of the lawn is ankle-deep in water. Still haven't planted a garden, due to too much rain. Several of our small cherry trees have yellow leaves...they're not cypress trees and can't grow in a swamp. Went shopping in Quincy. Bought items for leaky roof. When we opened a new bag of chicken food, it was all moldy inside...someone at Farm & Home left it out in the rain...wonder where the rain came from...it only rains every damn day! We watched The Mummy, a silly adventure movie. Lightning was striking when we went to bed.

June 9-15, 2019

Weather | 6/9,  64°, 86° | 6/10, 54°, 75° | 6/11, 53°, 79° | 6/12, 0.62" rain, 59°, 69° | 6/13, 50°, 69° | 6/14, 0.01" rain, 53°, 73° | 6/15, 0.97" rain, 63°, 83° | 

• Sunday (6/9): I created a poster and index cards for the 2nd class of AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) for work. Did my marathon of Sunday dog training at work...2 dogs didn't show. Had to pump up left front tire when I went to work, but when I went home, it was fine...who knows what's going on? At home, Mary made 4 loaves of bread. She talked to Katie. She's excited about future trip north.
• Monday (6/10): Had 3 dog training classes at work...1 class where both dogs didn't show (it's the good ole' summertime) and another where only Dad brought dog (Munson), who just wanted to play, so Dad went home early. He's the head basketball coach at Quincy University. I wonder if he does that at basketball games...not very patient. Back home, Mary picked cherries, cut scapes off garlic, and put ashes and compost around young cherry trees, since they look pale green from too much rain. She also noticed that birds are going after unripe, white mulberry fruits, instead of the pie cherries, confirming what we've read, that having mulberry trees near cherry trees saves the cherry crop. While walking dogs at night, looked at Jupiter through binoculars, since it's close to earth. We could see one of Jupiter's moons.
• Tuesday (6/11): Big animal day...1 wild turkey, 3 deer, and a mink. We're also seeing evidence of deer munching on exposed leaves in our yard. Mary harvested all but 1 variety of garlic. We tied them up and hung the harvested garlic in the machine shed. I weed whacked under the fence in the near garden...tough going, because I continuously was nailed with mud in the face. I also lowered all of the existing wires of the fence closer together and near the ground, in an attempt to keep those dastardly rabbits at bay. In the evening, we watched a documentary movie called Apollo 11. It contains real footage of the entire trip. It's very good.
• Wednesday (6/12): Rainy day. I updated and balanced the checkbook. Mary fixed flounder, a product of China...it wasn't too good...shrunk to half its size when cooked. Listened to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and the St. Louis Blues won 4-1, beating the Boston Bruins. It was a first time for the Blues to win the Stanley Cup. Bill said fireworks were going off all over St. Louis after the win...he said it sounded like the Gaza Strip outside.
• Thursday (6/13): Trained a new dog at 4pm at work, a lab mix, which will be an easy dog to train. Mary picked the last of the cherries. A lot of cherries didn't develop, due to improper pollination...cold and wet when they were blooming.
• Friday (6/14): Worked 8am to 1pm, and then did some grocery shopping after work. Mary harvested the last of the garlic and watched a fledgling rose-breasted grosbeak in the mulberry bush outside the sunroom window. We hung the last of the garlic in the Machine Shed, when I got home.
• Saturday (6/15): Stormed at 4am and rained until afternoon. I created note cards for Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Class 3 and created a CGC Class 3 poster board. Talked to Katie. She's leaving for her trip early tomorrow morning. Another friend is staying at her place to handle her pets while she's gone.

June 2-8, 2019

Weather | 6/2,  62°, 79° | 6/3, 60°, 75° | 6/4, 67°, 83° | 6/5, 1.65" rain, 67°, 85° | 6/6, 65°, 83° | 6/7, 67°, 84° | 6/8, 66°, 83° |

• Sunday (6/2):Worked with my 6 dog training classes, but 2 dogs didn't show, so a total of 4 classes. Mary mowed with a snapping turtle following her around the yard.
• Monday (6/3): Had 3 dog training classes with 4 dogs and 2 no-shows at work. Mary found the same snapping turtle trying to crawl under the table saw in the woodshed. She moved it with a shovel to the edge of the lawn...it weighed about 20-25 pounds. She mowed more and cut scapes off garlic plants.
• Tuesday (6/4): Installed strong corners in the NE and SE of the near garden fence. Now that garden has 4 stout corners that I can string tight electric wires from. Mary finished the mowing so that all tall grass that we usually mow is beaten back.
• Wednesday (6/5): Shopped in Quincy. Checked at AT&T, asking why our service isn't as good as it once was...got no answers. Went to U.S. Cellular, who our neighbors tell us has better coverage, and took their service. We were able to use our existing 2 iPhones, plus we got a router that works off their towers to give us 20 gigs per month of internet. We decided to keep my phone number for my phone and use the old landline number (573-497-2324) for Mary's phone. We were at the U.S. Cellular office for 3 hours, because of hassles getting info from AT&T to port those 2 phone numbers to U.S. Cellular service. While we were there, it rained hard and we could see on radar that a huge thunderstorm went through at home with the coop doors and windows all open, Mary's garden plants outside, and all electrical items on in the house. Going home, Highway 156 was closed due to flooding, so we had to go through Lewistown to get home. Got home after dark. Everything was fine, even though the dogs mugged us with love. Tickled that we have 1-3 bars of LTE service everywhere in the house with our phones. With AT&T, we had to smash our face against a west-facing window to be on the phone. Now, we can get rid of the wireless handset and other AT&T crappy equipment. The U.S. Cellular router works wonderful to give us internet service...a vast improvement.
• Thursday (6/6): Had to cancel 2 dog training classes, due to being shorthanded at work. Trained a 10-week husky puppy for her 1st class. The freight truck was 2 hours late, like it always is, so I had to listen to employees bitching, like they always do. Purchase orders weren't released for the entire week, so I did that. Animals & fish had to be ordered...I did that. 1001 people wanted fish...did that. Shane, who couldn't make it because he was short-staffed at Arnold (St. Louis suburb), asked me to really do a good job of facing (getting cans and bags ship-shape and all facing in the same direction and pulled forward on the shelf), because Rob, his boss, wants photos of the store. So, Emily and I left 40 minutes late, while facing. I'm tired of Petco. At home, Mary picked cherries, including our first sweet cherries. they're small, tasty, and tart.
• Friday (6/7): Worked 3-9:30. Saw Shane for the first time in 9 days. He's really taken a hands-off approach to the Quincy store and concentrating more on the other store he's managing in Arnold. I got all of the dog training handouts printed out for next week. Mary picked cherries and garlic scapes.
• Saturday (6/8): The left front tire has dropped 10 psi everey 8 hours, since Thursday night, so I drove to Quincy to get it fixed, since Sam's Club members can do this for free. They only found air leaks around the rim, so they cleaned the rim's seal, used sealant, and installed a new valve stem. I also bought a few items at Aldi and stopped by U.S. Cellular to get some questions answered on our new service and to pay off the new router, so that's not on a payment plan on our cell bill forever.