Good Morning!!!! 47F @ 4:30AM. Sunny to partly cloudy. High 69F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Another beautiful day yesterday, temps in the low 70s, a light breeze so the sun feels good on your skin. Today the temps will drop another 10 degrees as a low pressure system passes through. It's another dry one, though, so still no rain. But speaking of rain, a few minutes after I hit the sack last night, I thought I heard something on the porch roof. Looking out on the back patio, sure enough I could see rain drops. It lasted all of a minute, and not enough to even wet the concrete. Nothing showed up in the rain gauge, though.
Nice flower pics, Ron. Not surprised you can't get close with your long lens, and even that 200mm zoom doesn't seem like it would be good for macro work. Do you like making photos of tiny things? Might be time to go shopping for a dedicated macro lens. Back when I was shooting film, I even had a set of extension tubes for really close up shots. That ant would take up the whole frame.
That tip about the safety interlock on the tractor did the trick yesterday, and ten minutes later the backhow was mounted and working. I can't thank Jennifer Bond enough for passing along that little gem. I was starting to work through all the ignition cut off mechanisms, and there are more than a few. I eventually found a sentence referring to the starter cut off in the Kubota book on the backhoe, but it was in the REMOVAL section, which I hadn't read since I took the hoe off last year.
Burned two more tanks of gas, and two reels of string, on the trimmer yesterday, and got as far down the hill as I'll be able to go in some parts. It's just too steep to walk on, and at maybe 150' from the house, it's probably all the defensible space needed. Maybe today I can get the rest of it done in another couple tanks. That's about all I'm good for in one session. Still really pleased with how well the trimmer is working. The bump head is still paying out line, it's easy to fill, and so far at least, no problems with the engine.
it stays that way.
I had a tank of water in the sprayer already, and decided to use it yesterday to spray weeds. Added RM43 and hit the area around the mail box and both sides of the driveway. That was 30 gallons worth, and still hadn't gone hunting for poison oak on the rest of the ground. One more tank got most of it, and there's still a little left I'll put on the newly cleared area today. Then I can put the sprayer away so I can use the side-by-side for a mini dump truck today.
After I got the backhoe on yesterday, I noticed that the sheet metal floor on it was being held up by something, and it turned out to be one of the brackets holding the top'n'tilt spools. I pretty much expected as much, but the only way to find out was to mount the hoe. So yesterday I pulled the bracket off and trimmed the offending piece, only to learn that a gusset on the underside of the floor was also hitting. Pulled the floor off and trimmed that, along with another small section, and now everything fits. With a few spritzes of Kubota orange paint, that's the end of that job.
By then it was time for dinner, so no digging yesterday. Think I'll start today giving the tractor and backhoe some grease, then get the weed wacker saddled up for another walk. Should be digging by after lunch.
Hang in there, gang, Friday's comin'!
