March 24-30, 2024

Weather | 3/24, cloudy, 34°, 55° | 3/25, p. cloudy, 34°, 59° | 3/26, sunny, 34°, 60° | 3/27, 0.59" rain, 41°, 55° | 3/28, 0.01" rain, 53°, 77° | 3/29, mostly cloudy, 58°, 73° | 3/30, 0.13" rain, 37°, 60° |

• Monday, 3/24: The First Blossoms in the Woods
  • I opened the curtains in the bedroom right while Mary was letting Plato outside when I saw seven deer north of the far garden. I opened the window and told Mary about them when they ran off. We think they were all bucks. They were big deer.
  • We walked Plato around the west field and down the Bobcat Trail, where we saw those same seven deer. We noticed the white blossoms of Chickasaw plum trees in a couple places in the woods. Big bunches of the white flowers are on the west berm of Frog Pond (see video and photos, below). Several honey bees were frequenting the blossoms.
  • I worked on the pickup's driver's side rear brakes. Steps I did today included: 1) cleaning,  greasing, and replacing parts in the emergency brake actuator mechanism; 2) removing a wheel stud to gain access to the front of the emergency brake hold down piece; 3) drilling and tapping new bolt threads for the bolt that secures the emergency brake shoes; 4) installing a new wheel stud where I removed the old one; 5) removing the brake hose from the old caliper, bolting its bracket to the axle housing, and attaching it to the metal brake line; 6) cleaning oil off the new brake rotor with brake cleaning fluid and installing it. Tiny bits of rain started falling, so I cleaned up tools and installed both tires as rain protection. It was around 7 p.m.
  • On our final walk of the night with Plato, coyotes were howling from several locations around us.
  Turn on the sound to hear bees visiting these Chickasaw Plum blossoms.
  Frogs in Frog Pond join the chorus as background melody.
   

Chickasaw Plum blossoms.

These are the first blossoms in the woods.

• Tuesday, 3/25: Ladybug Manor!
  • Besides finishing dusting books in the house, Mary vacuumed Asian ladybugs throughout the day. WILL THEY EVER STOP!!! British name their houses. Our house should be called Ladybug Manor.
  • Mary spotted a red-shouldered hawk sitting atop a cedar tree south of the house this morning.
    
  • Winds were relatively calm, so I sprayed all of the apple and pear trees with copper and horticultural oil spray. Copper sprayed with the oil is supposed to help deter fire blight. The oil also kills overwintering bug larvae buried in bark cracks. I noticed that the horticultural oil spray concentrate contains 98.8 percent mineral oil. A tiny bottle was $20. Next time I'll just buy mineral oil.
  • Around 1:30 p.m., Mary heard snow geese flying overhead, but couldn't locate them in the sky. They're still going through.
  • Prior to bedtime and while walking the puppy, Mary and I noticed a slight red and green tinge in the northern sky, or bit of aurora borealis.

• Wednesday, 3/26: All Brake Parts Installed
  • Mary and I walked Plato to Bass Pond. As we approached, a great blue heron lifted off of Dove Pond, which is right next to Bass Pond. While standing on the bank of Bass Pond, we saw many bass swimming around. Most were small, or about six to 10 inches long. This is good. It shows that bass are reproducing themselves in Bass Pond.
  • We noticed honey bees in the forsythia bushes and the branches coming off the weeping willow stump.
  • I finished installing new parts on the pickup's rear brakes. The only thing left is to bleed the brakes. Steps I did today included: 1) checking if the right rear rotor turned and it didn't; 2) removed rotor, emergency brake shoe and actuator parts; 3) since parts won't completely close together like they should, I ground three milometers off the end of a tiny cylinder inside the actuator and reassembled actuator parts, plus the e-brake shoe; 4) reinstalled the rotor and tested for turning...it's perfect; 5) installed caliper bracket, brake shoes, caliper, and brake hose to caliper while torquing all bolts to appropriate specifications; 6) removed left rear brake caliper and installed a middle anti-rattle clip that I forgot to include when I did that brake. I cleaned up and reinstalled tires with rain predicted overnight to help protect the new brake parts from moisture. I'll need to recruit Mary to help me bleed the brakes in the future.
  • With the pickup out of service for awhile, what is amazing is that we have not shopped for anything for over two months...our last major shopping day was on 1/24/25. We're only out of cat litter and Splenda brown sugar. It shows we've done a good job at keeping stocked up. We try to do that in case snow plugs our gravel road for an extended period, which wasn't a problem this winter.
    
  • Mary said she went through the surprising event of vacuuming bugs.
  • She also broke old branches down to sizable kindling pieces and collected new downed branches throughout our yards to dry inside the machine shed.

• Thursday, 3/27: Rain Delay
  • When I first woke up, I saw a barred owl in the top of the Empire apple tree.
  • Thunderstorms rolled through and rain fell between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., so Mary and I enjoyed a quiet day indoors.
  • I reviewed some brake bleeding ideas online. Experts say brake fluid should be changed every two years. Nobody does that! Supposedly, the brake fluid I currently have should be tossed out, because it's more than a year old. I'm not doing that, either.
  • The forsythia bushes are amazingly bright, especially the two we planted about 10 years ago next to the Kieffer pear tree (see photo, below).
   

  

  Forsythia blossoms in west yard. Kieffer pear trunk
  in background. Lilac bush in right foreground.
  

• Friday, 3/28: Brakes Done...Almost
  • Today was the worst inside-the-house Asian ladybug invasion, ever. At times, there were easily a couple hundred bugs inside each window. We'd vacuum them all off, come back 10 minutes later, and we were back where we started with another couple hundred bugs crawling everywhere. I started vacuuming and Mary resumed the chore. She had to give the shop vac a rest, occasionally, because it was getting too hot. Mary isn't feeling well, due to day after day of inhaling bug dust.
  • I watched a Missouri Department of Conservation Webex about hummingbirds. They spent most of their time discussing feeders, which we don't do. We have tons of hummingbirds here in the summer. They flock to all of the Russian comfrey blossoms. Mary planted it in 2010.
  • I bled the pickup brakes. First, I made a brake bleeding collector from a cleaned plastic bottle and a piece of clear plastic hose. The hose comes from my winemaking materials. I drilled a hole in the lid of the bottle slightly smaller than the hose diameter and a second smaller hole to release air so the hose wouldn't pop out as the bottle fills with fluid. The hose goes through the hole in the lid and to the bottom of the bottle. A little bit of new brake fluid goes into the bottle. The other end of the hose goes on the brake bleeder nipple. The bottle sits above the brakes, but below the level of the master cylinder. After the brake bleeder valve is opened, brake fluid flows through the clear plastic hose, allowing you to see if air is in the fluid. More importantly, air in the brake fluid in the hose rises and any fluid going back into the brake caliper contains no air. This simple gizmo is sold by auto parts stores for about $20. I made it for free. Okay, we once bought a bottle of peanuts to make chocolate covered peanut candy and I once bought the hose to help bottle wine. Other than that, it was free.
  • I first sucked old brake fluid out of the brake fluid reservoir, then gravity bled the rear brakes. Then I had Mary pump the brake pedal as I bled all four brake calipers. At one point, we had all four tires off and the pickup on blocks. It was then that Mary said it was a true hillbilly pickup. "There it sits, no tires at all, just on blocks," she said.
  • While everything was open with all tires off, I greased the pickup's front end and rotated the tires. I topped off the brake fluid reservoir, torqued all lug nuts, and put all of my tools and blocks away. I finished at 8:45 p.m. 
  • The only item left to do is to condition the new ceramic brake pads. I need to take the vehicle to 30 mph and brake to 5 mph, 30 times, to put ceramic brake residue on the new rotors. The manufacturer writes that this is important to the proper working order of ceramic brake pads.
  • While I picked up blocks to put them away, a corn snake crawled from under the pickup and right by me. Corn snakes are rather pretty. At that point I was wearing a hat light and I could see hundreds of spiders' eyes in the lawn.
  • The Bartlett pear trees are starting to open blossoms and the Kieffer pear tree is white with blossom buds. A few honey bees were in the small Bartlett pear tree, despite a strong south wind.
    

• Saturday, 3/29: Great Brakes!
  • The Asian ladybugs are still nuts, so vacuuming them continued, but not for Mary. Continuous bug dust from the vacuum makes her feel ill. I was the only bug sucker today.
  • I drove the pickup up and down our gravel road to condition the ceramic brake pads. I kept a tally sheet to get in 30 times of getting to 30 mph and braking to at least 5 mph. I'm sure neighbors thought I was nuts with all the driving and stopping I did. I don't care. The brakes work very nicely, now. I still get idiot lights telling me that the anti-lock brake system (ABS) isn't working and the brake booster is faulty. That's minor. The ABS light is on because any little bit of rust on the front puts it out of kilter and I have plenty of power in my right leg to stomp on the brakes without a brake booster. I didn't tear into the brake booster. It's immaterial when brake pads are falling out from under the vehicle.
  • I changed oil and the oil filter on the pickup. After checking fluid levels, I added a little antifreeze. All brake line connections were completely dry...perfect!
  • Violets are starting to bloom. All pear trees are white with blossoms and filled with native bees.
  • We heard an eastern towhee, so they're back for the summer. We still have juncos. They know it is too cold up north.
    

• Sunday, 3/30: Catch Up Day, No Mustard
  • With the pickup brakes completed, I cleaned up the mess of boxes in the freezer room from various auto brake parts shipments and gave three bigger boxes to Mary. She filled those boxes with books to donate to the Salvation Army in Quincy.
  • I got the partial brake dust shield part packaged up to send back to RockAuto.
    
  • I looked up lawn mower and chainsaw parts to purchase.
  • I cleaned up the back of the pickup so we can load in coolers for a shopping trip to Quincy, IL, tomorrow.
  • Mary finished a shopping list and I added some items to that list.