- Sunday, 8/30: When you hear a wild canine howl, it puts a sense of apprehension in your soul. It shouldn't. Coyotes and wolves are just communicating. Yet, a howl, when let go close by, definitely brings your senses to attention. We experienced it when we stepped out for the dogs' last walk. Coyotes first howled off to the distant north. Then a group howled that was closer. Finally, howling came from right in our north yard. Amber, our vizsla/pitbull cross, let out with an angry "muff." We never saw the coyotes, but I kept my flashlight on as we walked away from them to the south on our gravel lane. As we walked, Mary and I discussed how we're seeing fewer bunnies since spring. No doubt, coyotes are visiting Melvin's Restaurant occasionally for rabbit dinner.
In other news:- Mary dug up the potatoes. We got about 20 pounds of mostly small spuds. Dry weather, close planting, and a late planting reduced their growth potential. Mary said despite all of that, getting any potato is nice this year.
- I finished stringing electric wires on the NE corner of the far garden fence. Then I cut 2 pieces of steel angle iron from an old bed frame for horizontal bracing, cut 1/4-inch rebar into four foot-long pieces for wire tightening rods, ground notches into 3 steel posts, and started putting up the SE corner.
- Mary baked 4 loaves of bread.
- We watered gardens. Mary's count was 10 worm eggs, and 8 worms. While watering, we smelled a skunk on the east breezes.
- Katie texted that snow was in the forecast tomorrow for her job site at Nuiqsut, AK.
- Bill said he's arriving here Friday for Labor Day weekend.
- The Ironweed flowers are blooming and quite striking. Below are photos of it, and a picture of an ironweed blossom with a monarch butterfly on it.
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| Purple ironweed blossoms. |
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| A monarch butterfly on ironweed. |
- Monday, 8/31: Our young chickens are 7 weeks old, today (see video below). That means they're halfway to butchering age for the cockerels. They are growing nicely. That's a fun feature about chickens...they grow quickly. At this stage, we can distinguish pullets from cockerels. We bought 3 Rhode Island Red pullets, but we received 2 additional Rhodie pullets, plus a barred rock pullet and a buff Orpington pullet, for a grand total of 7 more egg-laying birds to add to our current flock of 4 hens. Our rooster, Leo, will be busy. Obviously, sexing newly-hatched chicks is not an exact science.
In other news:- The day started with heavy mist, which gave us some much-needed moisture.
- I made waffles for our main meal.
- I installed the SE corner posts for the far garden electric fence. After tamping gravel in around the posts, I discovered I missed grinding a notch into one post, so I strung all of my extension cords, a heavy cord from the house, and a trouble light, from the house to the handheld grinder at that corner of the garden. It was 375 feet of cords, which is too far for 14-guage electrical extensions. I only used the grinder for a few seconds, then disconnected the evidence of my redneck fix to my stupidity.
- Mary packaged up donations to the Salvation Army thrift store, and made a shopping list, since we have to go shopping for chick food tomorrow.
- We watered both gardens and Mary found her normal passel of worm eggs and worms.
- Tuesday, 9/1: Shopping is a mixed blessing for us. We're able to get away from the house, even if it's only 35 miles away. After avoiding burr-up-the-butt drivers, viewing shoppers using facemasks as chin straps, and listening to all of the city noise, we feel relieved to be home where all we hear is the wind and birds and crickets singing.
In other news:- We woke to a thunderstorm, that gave us a good, healthy rain. Today was the first time we haven't watered the garden in several weeks.
- We shopped in Quincy.
- Mary killed a bunch of worm eggs and worms. She says some sungold tomatoes are ripe.
- We watched a movie.
- Wednesday, 9/2: Today we did:
- Mary mowed the west yard.
- I hung the electric fence wires on the SE corner of the far garden. I had to let out wire from connections at the gate, because each corner post is a little further outside of where it once was located. I also took apart the last corner, the SW of the garden. Posts are severely rusted, so I'll replace them.
- Mary did her daily worm egg and worm search.
- I did online research on ladder roof hooks for repairing the chimney...a job I'm not looking forward to at all!
- Mom texted that a grass fire and extremely high winds forced residents of Jordan, Montana (west of her in Circle) to evacuate. The fire was headed to Cohagen, which was also evacuated. I checked a 10:30 pm update on Montana Public Radio that indicated all who were evacuated returned to their homes.
- Thursday, 9/3: Events:
- Mary mowed a bunch more of the lawns.
- I put up the SW corner posts of the far garden electric fence, using newer steel posts and newly-cut angle iron from an old bed frame. Then, I strung 7 of the 10 wires, again, letting out each of the wires to fit a corner put in the ground wider than it was originally installed. I need to finish soon, because one of the corn silks is turning brown and once the sweet corn ears fill, raccoons will be tempted to rip and shred.
- My old employer, Mid-Rivers Telephone Co-op, reported they have burned up facilities near Jordan, MT, and in Musselshell County (Roundup). BLM reported the Jordan fire involved 30,000 acres. They also report a 40,000-acre fire in Rosebud County, 20 miles north of Ashland, MT. A lot of grassland burned up, which is hard for ranchers.
- Karen, and her husband, Lynn, have recently shown nice pictures on Facebook of them camping in Utah and Colorado.
- We got back to garden watering. I picked a handful of sungold cherry tomatoes. Mary found fewer worm eggs than worms, which means we're getting to the end of horn worm season.
- Friday, 9/4: It's Waffle Friday:
- I made waffles for breakfast, of course.
- Mary washed sheets, cleaned house, froze blueberries and a watermelon, and turned over mowed grass that we'll save for composting.
- I finished stringing electric wires in the far garden, then straightened and pounded in all but 2 posts between the corners and got electric wire plastic connectors in appropriate places on each post. I still need to splice out rusty wires and other fix ups.
- Mary watered gardens and picked fewer eggs and worms.
- I drilled holes in old Gatorade bottles and put mothballs in them to keep toothy varmints from chewing on car wiring in Bill's car.
- Bill showed up around 9 pm, so we ate nachos and watched 2 movies.
- Saturday, 9/5: Rap music, Black actors playing our nation's founding fathers, and lots of dancing is what we watched after dark when Bill streamed his phone to our TV so we could watch the play, Hamilton. It comes at you fast and furious. We all liked it. I can understand why it was so popular on Broadway. It's a show well worth viewing.
Other happenings:- We finished the far garden electric fence. I say "we," because Bill helped me. We replaced rusty sections of wiring. Then, Bill replaced bare hot jump wires around a post near the gate handles with new jump wires covered with 1/4-inch plastic tubing (see below). It's too bad I didn't do a before and after photo, because what he replaced was hideous. I tightened all 10 wires and connected hot and ground wires from the near to the far gardens. Our corn is now raccoon-proof.
Far Garden electric jump wires that Bill installed. - Mary picked some of the hazelnuts...several still remain on the bushes. She also collected dried grass, watered all gardens, and killed worm eggs and worms.
- Katie texted Mary. She said the ptarmigan are starting to turn white. Her favorite character in Hamilton is King George III.
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