August 1-7, 2021

Weather | 8/1, 60°, 79° | 8/2, 58°, 77° | 8/3, 56°, 77° | 8/4, 56°, 82° | 8/5, 0.02" rain, 60°, 77° | 8/6, 0.27" rain, 65°, 79° | 8/7, 67°, 87° |

• Sunday, 8/1: Thriving Garden
  
  • Mary picked 2 zucchinis to add to the 3 picked yesterday. She shredded her zucs, adding 6 quarts to the freezer, for a total of 8, so far. She also picked more cucumbers, with plans on making another batch of pickles, soon.
  • The garden is really doing well, especially the various melons (see photos, below).
    
  • We watched a doe running south, through our west windows. It looked like it was spooked. We're hoping it was from getting too close to the fish line fence around the big Bartlett pear tree. It was looking back, to the north, in the direction of that tree.
    
  • I fixed the screen door trim, which was rubbing on the door and holding it from closing correctly, by filling screw holes with wooden match sticks and wood glue, then moving the trim slightly and re-screwing the screws into place. I also replaced the handle on the screen door.
    
  • I measured the SE section of the house roof, using an extension ladder and a 25-foot measuring tape. It took some time, with several slopes and angles to consider. After writing all my measurements on paper, I figured the area on that section of the roof to be almost 600 square feet. Add 15% for waste, per online recommendations, we need 687 square feed of shingles, or almost 21 bundles. I have 18 bundles of architectural shingles, and several more of 3-tab shingles. If I get 3 more architectural bundles, I can do that whole section of the roof in just that type, which I believe would be a good option. Next, I need to assess tar paper needs vs. our inventory.
    
  • Smoke from fires in the west and in Canada filled our air, today. It was hard to tell if it was cloudy, or just smokey. By nighttime, it seemed better. We could see Jupiter and Saturn in the SE sky.

Muskmelons (front), watermelons (2nd), cucs (3rd).

Cucumbers (front), watermelons (upper, right).

Cherokee Rose Watermelon.

Diablo Pumpkin.

New England long pie pumpkin.

Verona watermelon.

One of 4 muskmelon types.

Hot Portugal peppers.

Revolution sweet peppers.

Zucchini (front), pumpkins (background).

• Monday, 8/2: Final Pickle Batch
  
  • We picked cucumbers, then Mary made her final batch of pickles, 6 quarts, for the year. She fed extras to the chickens. Our rooster, Leo, made loud clucks, telling the hens how great the cucumber slices looked. The chicks acted like the cucumber slices were aliens from another planet and didn't touch them.
    
  • I sharpened the mower blade and checked the number of ridge cap shingles...need 100 and I have 125, so I have enough.
    
  • I used the extendable fruit picker and picked a third of a 5-gallon bucket of pears off the top branches of the large Bartlett pear tree. It's neck-breaking work. I removed 2 branches that already broke from the weight of too many pears. There are more pears that I need to remove.
    
  • Mary fish fertilized the peppers, sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, tomatillos, tomatoes, beans, parsnips, and strawberries. I mixed up a batch of spray fertilizer and applied it to acorn squash, zucchini, corn, all of the apple trees, all of the cherry trees, and blueberry plants.
  • Mary saw a doe and a fawn on the lane while getting the mail. The doe stared at Mary for a full two minutes, before deciding Mary was no good, and ran off. Our property is filled with doe and fawn deer this summer.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/3: We Own a Doe Deer Ranch
  
  • As I got the last waterer filled for the chickens during our morning chores, Mary spotted a doe deer south of her as she stood in the chicken yard. It spooked when I arrived with the chicken waterer. Mary says the does are like shy cows. They're everywhere near our house.
    
  • Mary mowed the east yards on either side of the lane in front of our house. The mowed grass completely covers the existing lawn. It looks like a mowed hay field.
    
  • I texted Mom about garden plants. She said her garden looks good only because she meticulously waters it. Her last water bill reflects the garden watering.
    
  • Due to body aches and pains, I stayed inside and balanced 2 months worth in our checkbook.
    
  • Our son is 28 years old today. We called him. Tomorrow is his last day of work for the week, as he's taking the rest of the week off to go on a trip with friends to Kentucky. They're renting an airbnb. He and all of his friends are vaccinated, but Bill says he will wear a mask whenever they're in public. We talked with Bill for an hour.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/4: Roof Repair Check
  
  • I crawled up on the roof to investigate the electrical inlet boot. There is some dried out asphalt sealant where the boot meets roof shingles. I read on the website of the company I bought a product from that's called Liquid Membrane that this item won't seal over anything that is petroleum based. I sent a message asking about 15-year old asphalt, since I doubt I can remove it. I got a voicemail from the company suggesting I try painting it on a couple spots, let it dry for 48 hours, then stick duct tape to it, pull the duct tape off, and see if their product stays in place, or is removed by the duct tape. Their product won't set correctly over top of newly applied asphalt, but it might work on old, dried-up stuff, like we have. After the sun was low in the western sky and not shining directly on that part of the roof, I painted a couple 1-inch sections on the boot.
    
  • Mary and I raked the lawns where she mowed yesterday into over a dozen big piles of grass. We put all of the mulch in the near garden where potato and carrot plants were pulled.
    
  • Mary washed clothes and made flour tortillas.
  • We saw purple leaves on tomato plants, which indicates a lack of phosphorus, probably due to excess moisture. There were also curled leaves on one of the pepper plants. So, Mary applied bone meal to the tomatoes and peppers, since it contains 8% phosphorus. I helped haul water, so she could lightly water them.
    
  • We had a clear night, without smoke from wildfires in Canada and out west. The stars and planets were very bright in the night sky.
  • Morons in Quincy won't be able to squabble about masks in schools, because the Illinois governor mandated masks for all preschool through 12th grade students and daycares, statewide, due to an uptick in COVID cases. The Missouri governor is a complete moron. He pardoned the St. Louis couple who waved guns at people peacefully protesting by their house.
    
    
• Thursday, 8/5: REC Annual Meeting
  
  • I drove to Lewistown and went through the Lewis County Rural Electric Cooperative's (REC) drive-through annual meeting in order to receive a $20 credit on our electric bill. I also dropped off bill payments at the post office and left our REC payment at the co-op.
    
  • Mary handled paying our monthly bills, and put money into various savings accounts.
  • I lined up, through Facebook Messenger texts, an arrangement to pick up another bunch of shingles from someone near Wayland, MO, north of us in Clark County.
  • We saw a doe and a fawn in the curve of the lane, next to Bluegill Pond. The fawn was two-thirds of the size of the doe and losing its spots.
    
    
• Friday, 8/6: More Shingles
  
  • I drove the pickup to Quincy, and stopped at our bank to get cash for buying shingles, to Farm & Home to get chick feed, and Aldi for a few items. Then, I drove about 35 miles north.
  • I picked up 4 1/2 packages of shingles. The couple I bought them from were once in the construction business. They were in Homer, AK, a few days before 9/11. We talked forever. When I got back in the pickup to drive home, there was a text from Mary, asking how things were coming along.
  • I stopped at Fastlane in Taylor, MO, to get gas. It's at $2.95 a gallon, now. This was the first chance I had a measuring the pickup's fuel economy. It gets 21 miles per gallon.
  • While I was gone, Mary cleaned house.
  • We ate nachos and watched the 2009 movie, Invictus.
  • We checked the garden. Plants are growing well (see photos, below).
    
  • In the evening, coyotes were howling near the chicken yard, so we went outside with a flashlight and scared them off. We don't mind wildlife, but a line is drawn if they try to eat our future food.

One of our growing Diablo pumpkins.

A string of black cherry tomatoes.

Several green Rutgers tomatoes.

• Saturday, 8/7: Clean Up Day
  
  • I unloaded shingles from the pickup into the machine shed. I got 92 more architectural shingles, with the color called Varied Heather. I say it's dark brown. The date on the paper packaging was 1/13/00, so they're 21-year old shingles.
    
  • Mary did 3 batches of laundry. I washed my hat. It needed cleaning, badly.
    
  • Mary propped up several more watermelons and musk melons. We have many of them growing in the garden.
    
  • Mary harvested the onions. They didn't do as well, this year. The ground is too wet for root crops.
    
  • She also picked 2 large zucchinis and several large cucumbers. We had cucumber salad in the evening.
  • We're getting about 12 strawberries a day (see photo, below).
    
  • We seeing lots of monarch butterflies.

  

  A daily bowl of fresh strawberries.