69F and clear @ 00:00, heading down to around 64F for the overnight low.
Pickup at Menard's went pretty well. Drove around back to the order pick up area and they got me loaded fairly quickly.
Then around front for the umbrellas since I was going to use a rebate check to partially pay for those. Remembered to head in through the Garden Center and grab some yellow wax beans while I was at it.
Asked a young lady where the section number I was looking for was and mentioned that I was looking for umbrellas. She took me over there and said
"That's everything we have ..."
Of course, after looking over the display, they didn't have any of the ones that were on sale. So I tracked her back down and asked if maybe they had anymore in overstock somewhere since the app showed they had 6 of the ones I was looking for ?
She offered to "check the mezzanine" and headed off up the stairs with a young associate who was hanging around in tow.
She came back with the 2 red umbrellas I was looking for and the young associate restocked the display with the other 4 that they apparently found.
Went up front and paid and then collected my birthday present (coffee mug) at Customer Service and got the van loaded up and headed out.
Took me a bit to locate it but I finally found the Dunkin' and grabbed a large iced coffee with Butter Pecan and then got on the freeway for home.
Once I got back I got everything unloaded, and got the bird food put away in their respective containers.
Loaded up some tools in the dump cart after that and headed around back to see what I could get in the ground.
Weather was kind of deceptive this morning ... first it was sunny, then as I was about to head to Menards it clouded up, then by the time I got home and unloaded it was sunny again (of course)
That didn't last for long though and it clouded back up. Even got a few sprinkles while I was working. But it never developed into a real rain shower.
Got 4 winter squash planted on the west side of the arched trellis: 1 Hubbard Blue, 2 Hubbard Golden, and 1 Guatemalan Blue:
Also planted 3 more Sunny Boy tomatoes which were large enough to go in the ground. All those have had their lower leaves pruned but I still need to finish pruning the indeterminate tomatoes on the straight trellis.
And got the cukes and the 4 winter squash at the arched trellis all mulched with straw and caged as well.
And weeded the area for the next cattle panel to go up.
Collected up the old aluminum umbrella stand/base before I came up for dinner. Will need to load that with sand tomorrow.
After dinner I unboxed one of the umbrellas ... not much to assemble ... just stick the lower pole onto the upper section. Seems decent for the price ($45), will have to see how it holds up.
Hope everyone had a decent day.
