door hinge

Got the cucumbers in - time to start making cucumber salads!

I fixed the push lawn mower.  It needed the carberator cleaned and I put on a new ring and needle etc.  It fired up on the second pull.  I admit to a few fist pumps.

The lawn tractor I pulled the spark plug and fuel filter.  It burns oil so the other spark plug was pretty sad.  The fuel filter was nasty and when I pulled it I sat and stared at the fuel pouring out of the line for 30 seconds waiting for it to stop.  Then my brain rengaged and I plugged it back together.

After a consultation call with my dad (usual price one beer/brownie/or cookie) I was informed the line needed to be plugged with a bolt or something while I went and got a new filter.

Right, ok.

Find something that will fit in the line.
Long story short - Did you know a door hinge plugs snuggly into a Sears Suburban 12 lawn tractor fuel line? 

New parts got - tractor fires up.

A few more fist pumps.

Now I just need to mow the grass ... ha

cucumbers

It has been a  dry week and I have been away.  I am worried that the plants might have been hurt by too little water but I will see if I can get them back.  The cucumbers look ready to come in.  I am excited that I will get SOMETHING out of the garden this first season.

Khain (our old 1998 model mutt)is growing a tumor on his back leg.  I tried to explain to him that he looked fine without it but in the last week it went into overdrive and so I took him to the vet.  She suggests surgery to remove it.  I want my dogs to be healthy and happy but I also don't want to spend 300 dollars on a 15 year old dog.

I guess we will just see what it does from here - if he starts to suffer then we will decide.

Hate to say that.

Lawn mower repair is in my future as well as buiding chicken and rabbit homes.  I want to look into a goat house too and fencing.   It all costs money.  The dog, the houseing, the fixing up our house.  I just need to get done what I can with what I have, putting it off and fretting doesn't help anything.

priorities

When a friend needs help you drop what you are doing.  You drop the gardening.  You drop the lawnmower.  You drop the small animal projects.  You drop cleaning.

If a friend is in distress about their child.  Whether it is a cold or a life-threatening disease, you do what you can for them.

I am not a kid person.  Never have been.  But I will help my friends when they need it.  I don't expect thank yous.  I expect favors in return.  Not because it is a tit-for-tat thing, but because that is what friends do.

So I am going back to St. Louis for the rest of the week to help out.  I will get back to blogging and the farm when I feel my friends and their kids are back in a good place.

My sunflowers have bloomed.  The watermelons and tomatoes are growing.

blooming

The sunflowers are finally starting to open up.  The corn is very very stunted.  To crowded I think.

The watermelons and tomatoes are producing - just waiting for them to ripen.  The grapes that weren't infected by the black rot are ripening.  I tried one but the skin was still tough and it had the taste of a wine grape.

Lawn mowers are breaking down, so trying to shuffle the working one around to St. Louis.  Need to repair the rider in Union and the push one in St. Louis.
Ironically I am beting they both have fuel filter issues.

Pictures

The flowering tree next to the bedroom.

 

Closeup of the petals.

 

Wild Flowers.  I haven't looked up what they are.

 

 

Persimmon Tree.  The fruit will turn tan/orange when ripe.

 

 

More wild flowers.

 

late plantings

Going to try and get some fall plantings of broccoli and peas in the ground this coming week.  I'll have to peruse my seeds I have left over and see what else might like the cooler weather.

We have a persimmon tree!  I can't wait to try them once they get ripe.

I need to get some pictures of the tree that is flowering outside the bedroom windows - it is awesome looking. (edit: tree is called Crape Myrtle 'Pink Velour')

Time to get to work.

Need milk (wtb cow)

Had a good weekend visiting mom and dad at the lake.  Went swimming, caught some fish, and broke a boat.  Not ours of course, the neighbor's.  The hydraulic piston that lifts and lowers the lower unit into the water gave out.  All we saw was an oil slick behind the boat.  We weren't sure what it was leaking.  So Dad and I hitched a ride back to the house and got the truck and his boat trailer (neighbor doesn't have one for his boat) and went back to where we had left them at the marina.

His boat doesn't really fit right on Dad's trailer but it was good enough to get it to the shop.  Of course the two other guys and the neighbor rode in the boat all the way to the shop ... highly illegal but you have to have some fun when you break a boat.

Got home and discovered I had poison ivy.  It has spread to my face and now I my right eye is swollen.  I had planned on getting projects done this week but now I'm not even sure I want to mow the grass ... /itch.

Really it doesn't itch that bad, I just don't want to iritate it.  And I don't want to go out to the store or anything cause of how I look - don't want anyone to freak out over my swollen eye.  So ... here I sit.  Hopefully it will be healed soon.  I need to get milk.