Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #152,452  
   / Good morning!!!! #152,453  
Good Morning!!!! 61F @ 6:45AM. Abundant sunshine. High near 95F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
Another copycat day weather wise.

The Michelin tires on the truck came from Costco, Don. Last time I went in to have them rotated, they refused because the tires were nine years old. Now they're ten years old, but with "only" something like 60K miles on them they still have plenty of tread. But they'll get replaced before it starts raining again.

The District Attorney in our county has warned that he'll prosecute anyone found setting off or even possessing fireworks outside of the cities where they are permitted. Those three towns only sell "safe and sane" fireworks, but the skies will still be full of mortars and rockets and roman candles. I plan to celebrate the 4th by trying out a new rifle or two, and firing up the fire truck to try out a new hose nozzle.

While I was in town yesterday, the Watch Duty app on the phone must have gone off a dozen times with alerts on two new fires near Oroville. I see this morning that forward spread has been stopped on both of them, but they are still less than 50% contained. The Rices Fire didn't grow overnight, either, but fighting all three fires at once has resources spread pretty thin going into the July 4th weekend.

Got a trench dug from the junction box to the side of the driveway yesterday. It was so steep I had to run the bucket across the trench instead of along it, and it looks like a mess. It is a mess, but when I fill it back in the mess will go away. I'm hoping to do better today with a new trench for the StarLink Dishy wire. Hope the old bags of concrete for the pole are still good. They've been in the storage container for a couple years now. I'm tempted to add a down force cylinder to the post hole digger, as that would put me in some shade in the garage by the afternoon. I've had the parts for more than a year, waiting to get a round tuit...

TGIF gang!🍻
 
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   / Good morning!!!! #152,454  
71°F and clear skies this morning, going up to 95° today.

Plans for yesterday evening went in the trash after Wife called me on her way to a training about 5:30pm to tell me that she found a young lady driving her personal vehicle for Amazon deliveries (that's apparently a thing now) had a flat tire about a mile up the road from us. So, I drove up there to change it for her. She had an older Jeep Liberty, and the right front tire had blown. No amount of pressure I put on the lug nuts would move them. I went back to the house to get a cheater bar, and even the extra four feet wouldn't budge them. In fact, I twisted and bent the tool. :oops: Told her there was no way I could get those off. She called her insurance company to get a tow truck, and the tow company that called her said they couldn't get to her and would need to "reschedule." She reminded them that she was "out in a corn field 50 miles from home," :LOL: so rescheduling wasn't an option. I suggested she just try a local company. She picked a different one than I suggested, and they showed up about 20 minutes later. Guy got out his Milwaukee impact driver, and fought to get the first one off before breaking the second one in half, leaving the beveled half under the rim. So, he gave up, too, and just pulled it up on the flatbed and took her into Highland. She is no longer pleased with the company that last rotated her tires.

I did get some work done in the studio when I got back home, but all of a sudden it was 10pm and Mr Sandman was calling.

Got into work this morning, and my computer is acting goofy. Had to re-download Firefox to get it to work. It updated, and was suddenly missing a couple of files. So, had to start over, and lost all my shortcuts and favorites. Took me to the fourth password try to log in here.

Happy Canada Day to our friends in The Great White North. 🇨🇦

Good morning, gents.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #152,455  
We've had several municipalities in the area suggesting that people water their lawns before attempting to use any fireworks. Been very dry here for several weeks, but there is rain in the forecast for all weekend. Hope we actually get some.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #152,456  
"I went back to the house to get a cheater bar, and even the extra four feet wouldn't budge them"

WOW I would have thought you could have just about moved the world with a 4 foot cheater bar. I have broken stuff with a far shorter pipe than that.

Chris
 
   / Good morning!!!! #152,457  
87F and sunny @ 11:45, heading up to a high of around 92F for the day. HI currently 90F, DP 62F ... so it's getting a little "close" out there.

Local news reported last night that the most recent drought monitor report from yesterday is now showing a swath just to the north and east of us as "abnormally dry".

Forecast is for 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms, then 60% chance of scattered thunderstorms this evening and then occasional showers overnight. Sure hope we get some rain.

Got hopper feeder filled first thing yesterday, it sat empty for a day. I may go to filling it every other day, just to reduce the expense. I do have to say though, that I really love listening to bird song all day long when I'm outside. If the Bluejays weren't so damn messy ... (they toss seed on the ground, as they pick through the feeder trying to find what it is they're really after)

Got veggie plants in pots arranged and watered.

Moved WB around to the northwest planting bed after that, then got rest of the garden watered that I didn't get the day before. Also watered the squash/pumpkin plants in the wading pools.

After that went and got the dump cart from in front and brought it around back and The Woman loaded it up with the 3 five gallon buckets of weeds She had pulled. Took those up and tossed them on the compost pile.

Grabbed about 1/2 cart's worth of screened compost while I was up there. Was hot enough and the sun was far enough up in the sky that I didn't attempt to fill the cart all the way.

When I got back down to the house I repotted three tomato plants:

IMG_1809 copy.jpg

... and three pepper plants:

IMG_1807 copy.jpg


IMG_1808 copy.jpg

Largest tomato plant (in a pot) is now 20" tall. Got some plant food that is specific to tomato plants on this last Menards order, so anxious to try that out.

Following that I started watering the northwest planting bed, got all four rhododendrons watered and fertilized - although the two largest ones will need another couple of gallons put on them today - and about 1/4 of the hostas in that bed done. To give an idea of how dry it actually is here, here's the ground at the edge of that bed:

IMG_1811 copy.jpg

Hawthorn trees and plants just sucking the moisture out of the ground. Certainly not as bad as what our members down in Texas have reported in the past, but it ain't good. Thankfully that bed does have mulch on it.

May get back to the watering today if there is some shade.

Woman picked up a package of bacon at the grocery store this week, so I got treated to a couple of BLT's yesterday for breakfast/lunch/dinner (it was only one meal and two sandwiches)

Following dinner I got cleaned up and made trip down to Menards to pick up a small order for a few items, among them a Japanese beetle trap and some replacement bags for it. Will need to relocate the hummingbird feeder from the Shepard's Hook today and take it up to the middle of the front yard and put the trap on it.

Also got a large (16") pot for the banana tree which has (likely) outgrown its current pot. Repotting that is probably a two person job ... so that will have to wait a couple of days.

And some additional 1 and 2 gallon plastic pots that seemed relatively cheap for what they are (they're fairly thick, injection-molded, and seem durable) Some of those will get used today to repot more peppers and tomato plants.

Plus a new hose for the Water Buffalo.

First of new day lilies (which are actually planted in the flower bed) has bloomed.

Hemerocallis "Disco Music":

IMG_1806 copy.jpg

Also more dahlia blooms:

IMG_1812 copy.jpg

Not sure what all I'll get into today, but I suspect I'll be up in the shop in the AC for a good part of it.

Although, the plant order from Burgess is supposed to be delivered - so if that shows up I'll likely try to get those into pots.

Hope everyone has a great TGIF ... (y)
 
   / Good morning!!!! #152,459  
"I went back to the house to get a cheater bar, and even the extra four feet wouldn't budge them"

WOW I would have thought you could have just about moved the world with a 4 foot cheater bar. I have broken stuff with a far shorter pipe than that.

Chris
Yeah, nothing broke for me, just twisted and bent. The tow truck driver had switched to a ratchet and a cheater bar when he broke the lug nut.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #152,460  
70°F and .30 inches rain.

Interesting visit to my ophthalmologist yesterday. Significant improvement with eye chart. Dr says I can get new prescription or not. Interesting in that to me there was significant difference between left vs right, meaning the last line read with right was just a blur with left and tech backed up 4 lines. ??? Anyway Doc said looking good. Told him that I did use a pair of old readers for close but no problem driving without. He told me to grab a pair of 1.75 out front. He did ask when my next DL renewal, Nov, which requires eye exam. So I opted for a prescription and follow up exam in 3 months. Stopped at Walmart and ordered new pair of transition lens for a bit of UV protection.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day
 

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