Yet another couple of days have gone by in a blink of the eye. It has been a really busy couple of days for me all in all, some of it filled with work type projects and some of it just hanging out and having fun. I'm still busy digging holes and planting 6"-8" dia x 8' tall wooden posts in them. To date none of them are growing but by my calculations there are only 4 more that I need to get planted in this round, but of course there will still be plenty of them to do at some later date.... preferably next year sometime. So that is what has been keeping me busy lately.... as well as whacking weeds when ever there are a few spare moments..... and clearing brush for the next round of fence fixing.
    So it was nice on Saturday when we got invited to one of Rima's grandkids birthday party over in a local park. We spent a lot of the morning on Saturday just running around town enjoying the sights. We stopped by the local farmers market where Rima picked up some eggs and veggies while I went straight for the hot out of the oven cinnamon and blueberry rolls. Man those things are good.
    After that it was a quick trip to the market to pick up some ice and drinks for every one and then on to the park. Her grand daughter, Brynn, was turning two so it was fun to just sit back and watch her and some friends wear themselves out on the playground equipment and by just running around. Add in some sugar saturated cupcakes and you soon had super charged kids that all of a sudden, after a bit of crankiness, decided what they needed most in life was a nap. Good call actually because I was getting tired just watching them run around.
     Sunday morning was nice and relaxed, but Rima and I were both up and about by mid morning.  We had a nice breakfast and then headed outside for our primary chore of the day. We spent most of the afternoon sawing up the big pile of wood next to the wood shed. It had to be cut into much smaller pieces to be stacked in the wood shed in order to dry out so they can be used as firewood next fall and winter. Rima did most of the chainsawing as I held each piece that needed to be cut. Seemed like an awful lot of work, and I guess it was, but in the end we only got one and a half of the bays, out of six, in the wood shed filled up. I'm guessing between one and a half to one and three quarters of a cord of wood. Each cord being 4'w x 8'l x 4'h. Quite a bit of good old hardwood, but there are still four and a half bays to fill up yet.  Of course there is still one other good pile of wood stacked up waiting to be cut, and at least two more trees that will come down before I leave, but it might not all get done before I take off.
       Monday was spent in finishing up the gate structure I put into place last week. I needed to actually cut, stretch and nail on the fencing first off and then put 3 more tension wires onto the post to help hold it into position better. Even now, after only a few days of having the gate hung on the post, it had already pulled the post out of plumb a little bit. It's a lot of weight to hang on one post when you think about it. The gate is 12' long and weighs maybe 125 lbs total. So the moment arm on it is somewhere around 750-800 lbs over all. I put one more brace wire directly behind the gate post and then one 45 degrees on either side of it. It will still sag somewhat over time, but this should help hold it up a lot.
    Also got one more post hole dug and post installed. It's been more than a week since our last rain and the ground was dry down more than 16 inches. I makes it even harder to dig the holes, but as I said, not to many more of them to go.
     Yesterday was much easier as I headed into town a little before noon. Lots of errands to run so it took me pretty much the rest of the day. On top of the list was getting my hair cut again. Got that done first thing so I should be good to go for a couple more weeks now. It even seems to look pretty good. I also stopped in at Home Depot and picked up some termite trap stuff to install around the house as well as some wasp and bee spray. They have several types of wood eating bees here in the east, several of them that are bigger than bumble bees back west. They do a great job of helping out with pollination of various plants, and I also noticed that several of them were hauling small caterpillar's back to their nest to leave for their future offspring but the bad thing is that they keep chewing holes in the wooden roof joists out in the barn for their nests. Several of the joists are already so honeycombed with holes that they may be in danger of collapsing if it continues on the way it has been going. So, sorry to say, the bees have to leave before that happens and even then I'll need to come back at some point and 'sister' a couple more joists in next to the ones they have chewed all up. I wonder if paint would discourage them?
    Once the trip to Home Depot was done it was off to Tractor Supply to pick up a new roll of 'cattle' fencing. This is a heavy wire style of fencing, 44 inches high, made in the shape of squares that are larger at the top of the fence, about 8"x8", and go down to about 2"x8" at the bottom. Since the roll comes in 200' lengths it was nearly impossible to pick it up and get it into the back of the truck. So it is going to be quite interesting to see how I am going to actually get it back out of the truck and then get it attached to all those posts I have been putting in.
    So today is looking like it will be a very nice day. On the list of things to do is go and whack some weeds and then figure out some way of getting that roll of fencing out of the back of the truck with out either hurting myself or dropping it in some place where it will be hard to work with.
    Once done with those things it will be time to take off for town and a quick trip to town and some lunch with Rima. Once there though I also need to pick up her lawn mower at the shop where it was getting repaired. This afternoon will include more post hole digging I imagine, and then some brush clearing if I get the chance. Will just have to wait and see how the time goes. But right now it's time to get out there and get something done.




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