August 18-19, 2012

Sally, having a client and a class, staid back in town so this was a solo trip.

Coon Guard

Something, every week, was cleaning out the bird feeder I put out back. The perch was always torn out, the feeder empty, and the tilt door was out of adjustment (suppose to close so that heavy feeders can't get at the food). So with a little hardware to attach to the pole, I suspended this old deer feeder bucket to the post. It already had a hole in the bottom and had just been laying in the garage for years. The only problem I had was skinning up my knuckles getting the rusty nuts off that held the timer, motor, and spinner on the bottom. I'm hoping this works.

Rain

I was disappointed to find only 3 drops in the rain gauge. In town we had had two nice rains totaling almost 2 inches, but the farm was not so fortunate. The rain barrel wouldn't even put out anything. So Saturday I spent hours watering the garden, watering the trees and flower bed out front, and ran the soaker hoses on the apples and pears. I also watered the garden Sunday. And then in the afternoon just as I was about to water out front, a thunderstorm blew in and we received at least three quarters of an inch in about 45 minutes. Nice, I was so thankful.

Garden

The sweet potatoes have not died, there are green beans but they are tiny, there were only a few small tomatoes, and we are now down to one bell pepper. On the bright side there are more jalapenos and basil than we can eat, and I took home a nice cutting of chard. Other than the bermuda, the weeds aren't too bad. I wanted to tackle another section of bermuda, but then it rained.

Rain Barrel

I had one more unfinished barrel in town, so I brought it out and made it. That went fairly quick, but then I decided to build a wood stand for it versus standing it on rocks. (It is really hard finding enough flat rocks to stack high enough.) This construction project turned out to be more difficult and time consuming than I anticipated, but I believe it will work well. I really like the additional height I got with it.

Snake

I found this guy curled up under the first rain barrel poking his head out. He looked very strange, almost like he had hair on his head and neck. I looked through my Arkansas snake book but couldn't identify him. In the end, he was very shy and slunk back into the old chicken coop area in the back of the garage.

Swing

Later Friday I decided to walk the upper fields with my loppers, since I hadn't been up there in months. I was pleased to find only a few sumacs growing, but did lop 400 to 500 cedars, pines, elms and other undesirables. I came down by the swing across from the spring. It has been suspended from this high white oak limb via a rope that the McDaniel's put up, which make it over 9 years old. I new it needed to be replaced and now is the time. When I sat down to relax it snapped. I believe I will use chain and perhaps screw some bolts into the limb. (Unless someone advises against this.) The problem is I need about a 20' ladder.