63F and supposedly "Fair" @ 10:00, heading up to around 71F for the day's high. That's a little below normal ... but I'll sure take it. WU says periods of smoke and haze are possible throughout the day.
Put out 15 mealworms in the feeder first thing yesterday, also checked Nest Box No. 3 for eggs ... none yet.
After that I pulled out the Stihl HT101 pole saw, located the shoulder harness and the new primer bulb which was up in the shop in a paper bag with my new tie rod end boots for the Kubota and got the broken primer bulb replaced on the saw.
Pole saw fired right up and I was able to start trimming away the lower branches on the Japanese yew at the southeast corner of the house to expose one of the entrances to the ground hog burrow. It's under the cut branches in the picture below, goes right under the trunk:
Pole saw threw the chain and I didn't have the scrench plus it was getting warm in the sun so I just walked away for the time being.
Got a little more glyphosate spraying done on the east side of the frog pond.
Also did some watering of the irises, peonies, daffodils, and tulip bulbs with the watering wand after I connected up the short hose. Need to finish that up today.
Watered all the stuff in pots, was great with the hose and watering wand - took less than 5 minutes to hit everything ... easy peasy ...
After that I connected the long and short hoses together and started watering the east side of the garden area. Top inch or so is really dry and it would make little puffs of dust when the water drops hit the dirt. Wanted to moisten it a little before I started tilling so I wasn't making a cloud of dust.
Got leak in FF hydraulic coupler stopped by taking it off, wiping it down, and putting it back together.
Then I started hauling down screened compost to raise the bed level a little further over on the east side where it slopes to the east:
Need to spread that out with the box blade before I put the tiller on.
Also hauled down some for the new area (northwest corner) that I didn't get prepped last year:
Got that area watered as well, cracks show how dry it is.
As of the 23:00 news last night we're now at a 0.56" deficit for the year on rainfall. No rain in the last 17 days ... but good chances for some rainfall through the weekend.
All told was about 20 bucketloads, made a pretty good dent in the screened pile ... but there's still plenty left:
Cattle were having a good afternoon while I was doing that, chewing their cuds:
Ran down to Subway and got another BLT - this time with double bacon - for dinner.
Neighbor stopped down with some clothes she had picked up for The Woman as I was about to head out.
After dinner I fixed the chain on the pole saw and did a little more trimming. Gathered up the cut branches and hauled them to the back brush pile for the rabbits:
It was breezy and starting to get cool at that point and I was in shorts and a t-shirt so I called it a day and came around front and closed things up and came on inside.
Got the 5" exhaust adapter ordered off Amazon for melting holes in the weed barrier. That's due to be delivered today.
Time to get a move on ...
Hope everyone is having a good Wednesday ...
