Sept. 1-7, 2019

Weather | 9/1, 59°, 78° | 9/2, 60°, 79° | 9/3, 67°, 88° | 9/4, 60°, 78° | 9/5, 54°, 79° | 9/6, 65°, 81° | 9/7, 54°, 78° |

• Sunday (9/1): Checked online every so often related to the Dorian Hurricane blasting the Bahamas. Took all of the peeling paint off the mailbox, using a heat gun and a putty knife, followed by the handheld grinder with a wire brush attachment. It took all day. The original paint failed last winter, when chunks of paint started peeling in subzero temperatures. Painted a layer of Rust-Oleum brown primer on the outside of the mailbox, after wiping it down with alcohol. Mary picked half a grocery bag of green beans and processed them. We now have enough in the freezer. She also did 2 loads of towels. Mary found 1 worm in the tomatoes.
• Monday (9/2): Painted a layer of yellow Rust-Oleum oil-based paint on the mailbox, then set the mailbox out in the sun to dry. Took 2 large wheelbarrow loads of weeds out of the chicken yard and mowed where I've taken out weeds so far. Mary picked and froze tomatillos and hot peppers. She also picked hazel nuts, filling 2 large cardboard boxes.
• Tuesday (9/3): Put a cardboard sign on the plywood that the mailbox sits on that said, "mailbox being painted." Painted red on the mailbox flag and gave the mailbox a 2nd layer of yellow paint, then put it in the sun to dry. Figured what I need to do prior to leaving for Montana and there's too much to do. Drove the Cadillac down to the end of the driveway and waited for the mail carrier, since we have no mailbox there, and read a pages of a book. Only waited 20 minutes. Weedwhacked more weeds in the chicken yard. Took out 3 wheelbarrow loads of weeds. Mary picked a big batch of cucumbers and put up 12 quarts of pickles. With 8 quarts left over from last year, we're good on pickles for another year. I gave left over sliced cucumbers to the hens and Leo, the rooster. While taking the garbage can down the lane, we spotted red on an autumn olive tree next to the lane, so we walked over to it. The berries are ripe and tasty, so it's time to start picking autumn olive berries, which is earlier than usual.
• Wednesday (9/4): I put lettering for our name and address on the newly painted mailbox and put it back up on the post. Mary started picking autumn olives, so I helped her. We got 6 very full quart bags that we froze. In the evening, we husked about 2/3 of the hazelnuts while watching Whose Line is it, Anyway.
• Thursday (9/5): I removed 3 wheelbarrow loads of weeds from the chicken yard to finish that job, then mowed the chicken yard. Then, I tacked up some chicken wire along the east side of the north chicken yard and propped up some wooden oak posts that are half rotten with some long cedar poles. Next, I installed a 2x4 gate holder that fell off of the NE corner of the coop, where the OSB siding is rotting. This time, I screwed it into 2x4 studs. I then sewed hardware cloth into bottom of gate between the south and north sections of the chicken yard, preventing chicks from scooting under that gate. Next, I installed gate latches on the north chick door. Before it got dark, I drilled holes in 11 Gatorade bottles and filled them with mothballs to use under cars and in the engine compartments of vehicles, as a way to deter wire-chewing critters. Mary washed clothes and mowed.
• Friday (9/6): We went to Quincy. Our first stop was to the Quincy Public Library, where I used their free WIFI to download 2 audio books and several podcasts that I'll play on the Cadillac's radio system while driving to and from Circle next week. When I started, a reporter for the Quincy Herald-Whig newspaper interviewed me for a piece they have in the Saturday issue called Five Times Five. Here is a copy of that column.
  
  
  
  After dropping off the Cadillac payment, we went to our bank and got Mary a new debit card,. She never used her card, so it expired. I also got the bank's help in getting my debit card on ePay in my phone. We bought chick feed and groceries. While getting gas at Fastlane, a reporter for WGEM interviewed me about road improvements (whew...I must look like a good person to interview by journalists today). HERE is that video that was on the nightly news. Around 9 pm, Bill arrived.
• Saturday (9/7): I moved the plywood board back to shelter the north chicken entrance from rain, and removed the interior board on the north chick entrance. Then, I opened that door to let the chicks free. Not a single chick went outside today. With Bill's help, one at a time, I jacked up and took all 4 wheels off the Cadillac to check for chewed wires under the car. Good news...there are none. Again, with Bill's help, I soldered a new pigtail into place for the mass airflow sensor connector, put heat shrink over the 5 soldered locations and installed new loom over the new wiring. Started the car and the indication that I need to service traction control and another item quit dinging a bell and coming on every minute...a good thing to have fixed for a 2-day drive to Montana. Mary picked some nice, large green peppers, some hot peppers, several cucumbers, and some more tomatillos. She also mowed. I started a fire and we grilled pork loin while the sun set and the stars appeared. The middle trailer across the gravel road was playing Mexican music outside. It was a nice time for an outdoor fire. I finished reading Inferno, a novel by Dan Brown.