No rain and another hot weekend with highs near 90. Though I had picked up another battery for the mower, I never bothered to put it in as there was no need to mow as grass does not grow without water (although weeds do). We are hoping for rain in the coming week.
Fish
Dunn's Fish truck was in town Friday morning at 9:00, so I took the entire day off. Due to the grass problem we have in the pond we felt we had to get some more grass carp. We had ordered 4, which they packed two per bag. I also got 25 catfish, which they split between two more bags. These I dropped into two ice chest with frozen water bottles and headed straight to the pond with out delay. It's really too far to be taking fish, but they seemed to make it. The grass and algae is still bad, so I plan to spray again the next week.
Chipper
I lined up this chipper from Worley's in Berryville. After releasing the fish and unloading, I headed for town to pick it up. I forgot my gas can, so had to stop at Wal-Mart for one and then fill it with gas at their station. This was a 31hp beast, that once started could really chew through limbs and debris.
I got it turned around behind the barn (I'm not any good at backing up a trailer), and situated it heading out and beside the pile of limbs I had accumulated. I blew the chips against the wood pile, which was good because it kept them from scattering everywhere. I had the whole pile chipped by the time Sally showed up (from Harrison) around 5pm. She wanted to see it in action, and I didn't think I had enough chips for the back of the barn, so I went up the hill gathering the smaller cedar trunks I had left scattered. I would drag them down and toss them over the bluff. I also had some more oak limbs I had drug up from the tree in front of the barn I had trimmed a week or two before. Sally helped gather the limbs as I feed them through. We even chipped balls of briars, leaves, and bark. That chipped cedar sure smelled good. I hope the aroma persist for three more weeks.
Saturday morning I moved the chipper over past the spring where I had a huge pile of ice storm limbs. It is such a beast to move, I had decided this was all I was going to do. It started up, I chipped a limb and it died. I could not get restarted. I noticed it was low on gas and on an incline, so I added gas and straightened it up and leveled it by backing it up on some rocks. I still could not get it started, so I went in and called Worley's. They suggested several things including checking the shut-off (it wasn't that), fiddling with the wiring harness because it could be shorting out (why didn't they tell me that when I rented it), and spraying starter fluid into the breather. I didn't have starter fluid, but I did have carburator cleaner. I got it to almost run by spraying the cleaner into the breather, but not too much at once. I then was able to fiddle with the harness and found a position where it would run on its own. Apparently the short is in the line that controls the fuel pump. Once I got it running, it was only about an hour and half and I was done. It was so nice to get this pile cleaned up, and now I want my own chipper even more. I had it back in Berryville by 1pm.
Couch
Sally has been wanting to get rid of this couch for months. So once I had the chipper off the back of the truck we loaded it up. I hauled it into Eureka to the Echo Thrift store. They seemed glad to get it – at least up until my comment about no guarantee that it was brown recluse free. Sally had followed me into town with the intention of doing some shopping. But she was back out the house not too long after me, saying the traffic was backed up so bad she lost her interest.
Nectarines
We kept picking ones as we would pass the tree. Most were still tart and green, but some were juicy and sweet. And after noticing broken limbs (critters climbing out the thin limbs), we decided to go ahead and pick them – at least 200 (we left some). They are small, but tasty just the same.
Briars
I still had briars to cut out, the ones I had sprayed and were partially dead. Some were half way down the bluff, and the others were in the way back behind the barn. Some got chipped, but most ended up in another huge ball that I rolled down the hill and tried to hide.
Spread Chips
Sally helped me spread the chips in the back of the barn Saturday afternoon. They went further than I expected. We didn't get them all spread, as I still had some large cedars in the way (ones to split into rails to outline the area). I also want to bring my blower back out and see if I can now clean up the wood pile, because the chips are in every nook and cranny.
Rails
Sally headed back early Sunday and I staid out to turn the cedar posts into rails. My froe did not work for splitting them, I used a wedge and then my splitting mauls. A few split straight, but most had a twist to them. It came out pretty good, although they are not all that stable (they could easily be knocked over). We'll see if I need to wire them together – Sally thinks not. Its really beginning to look nice. I had 4 large posts left over. I just rolled them to the side, which may not meet with the wedding planner's approval.
Weed Eat
With the cedar posts out of the way, I came through with the weed eater and cut the grass that had grown up around them. I also got the high grass all around the barn, and on the spit that sticks out in front of the house.
Compost Bin
I needed to empty my Lovaeable Loo bucket, so I have been anxious to get the compost bin built. Getting a level spot (moving rocks) was the only hard part. I used these two pallets and parts from the double pallet I had disassembled. I think its fine. Sally's worried about it smelling. I've told her it won't. I hope I'm right.
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