July 7-13, 2019

Weather | 7/7, 70°, 83° | 7/8, 67°, 83° | 7/9, 0.05" rain, 69°, 87° | 7/10, 74°, 89° | 7/11, 66°, 89° | 7/12, 69°, 90° | 7/13, 67°, 89° |

• Sunday (7/7): In the morning light, saw that the raccoon I killed last night chewed some of the wood off the east side of the coop, ripped part of the plastic on the middle south window, and undid the 2 hooks holding the chicken door shut and went into the coop through the chicken door. Raccoons are smart. I'll have to device a better shutting mechanism for the chicken doors. Had 6 dog training classes with 2 clients not showing at work. Mary got half of the near garden planted and put new mulch around the new plants. 
• Monday (7/8): I bought another piece of acrylic to replace the newly cracked window glass in the chicken coop, along with 3 window sash locks, to prevent raccoons from prying chicken coop windows open from the outside. I also bought a new battery for the Buick, which isn't starting, now. Had 3 dog training classes at work. Mary planted the rest of the near garden. We aren't planting the far garden, because not enough days of summer for crops like corn. Farmers are in the same boat...a lot of fields didn't get planted, due to all of the rain this spring and early summer.
• Tuesday (7/9): I installed sash locks on the south windows in the coop that didn't already have any. Then, I reglazed the middle window of the coop that got all dug out by the raccoon crawling over the glazing Saturday night. We watched They Shall Not Grow Old, a WWI documentary by Peter Jackson, where he took black and white footage and fixed it so it was at normal and colorized it. The movie is amazing.
• Wednesday (7/10): Sharpened the blade and changed oil on Mary's mower and changed air filters on both mowers. I added hardware cloth on the outside of middle south window of the coop, removed broken glass of the top half of the 2nd from the east window in the coop, cleaned out old, hard glazing, cut an acrylic piece to fit that window, installed the acrylic, put in points, and glazed that window. I also replaced the battery in the Buick. According to my auto fixing records, the old battery is 7 years old. Mary watered garden several times to keep newly transplanted plants in good shape. All but 2 tomatillos and 2 sweet potatoes are looking good. She mowed the lane and vacuumed spiders. While getting the mail, Mary saw a huge buck. The undeveloped antlers measured 2 feet between the tines. She said he was grey/brown...an old guy, but looked very healthy. Mary checked blackberries...they're turning red and will be black within a week. She also picked more blueberries.
• Thursday (7/11): Saw new toenail marks in my new glaze job on the window I worked on yesterday, plus more chewings of boards on the SE corner of the chicken coop this morning. DAMN!!! We are sure seeing an onslaught of raccoons at the coop this year. I worked...had 2 dog training classes. Mary washed clothes, baked bread, watered garden. Mary killed a small raccoon that got into the coop in the middle of the day.
• Friday (7/12): There was a barred owl in the weeping willow tree that got chased away by 1 robin and 4 sparrows this morning. I replaced broken glass with acrylic in the 2nd from the west window of the coop and glazed both pains of that window. Mary made torillas and venison fajitas. After dark, I spotted a small raccoon outside the coop door. It crawled under the coop when I walked into the chicken yard and then disappeared.
• Saturday (7/13): I replaced broken glass with acrylic and glazed both pains of the east window in the coop. Mary washed bedding and rugs, cleaned bedroom walls and floor, and watered the garden.