Welcome October!
Fall cleanup is in full swing now. I have leaves and branches down all over my yard. I’ve already done two days of rounds of raking. Yesterday, I picked up enough fallen branches and twigs to have a bonfire, which I’m not allowed to do here. So there will be enough kindling to get me through the winter for sure.
And that was just the front yard near the driveway! Side yards and back have even more! Fun, fun, fun! (Good exercise though!)
My son introduced me to this website....
Curmudge inn Alaska
https://www.youtube.com/@curmudgeinnak
These folks live off the grid in Alaska and share how they prepare for the winter and more. I just started watching the video on how they lay in supplies for the winter. Makes my Sam’s club runs pale in comparison.
Wow, I’m early for a change! Looking forward to my fall tomato crop. Took me by surprise to see so many. There are some Abe Lincolns, and I think a couple of Early Girls. Even if they don’t get any real size on them, I’ll still enjoy the heck out of them. :-)
October means the 18 day countdown for our annual pilgrimage to Pensacola Beach has started. There are two Blue Angels practice flights on the schedule for our time there. With any good luck the weather will have calmed down a bit by then.
Dang, how can it be October already?! And will the Opo survive long enough to give us a 3’ long fruit? (One, on the plant less damaged by the squirrels, is close to 15” long now. But, the cooler weather and recovery from the damage from the squirrels and the windy night from Helene will slow it down...)
Squirrel #3 (or more) has apparently taken the hint and vamoosed. No sight or signs of it around, the last couple days. But the larger trap (set on the ground near the garden) caught a big opossum last night. I’ll give it shade, water and a day more for the digestive tract to clear out, then it gets dispatched and boiled to become a treat for the chickens.
I’d cleaned up and lubed that bigger trap - dang, it’s as “hair trigger” now as the smaller ones I’d done such to. :-)
Got the “yard flood” pump fixed: sure ‘nuff, it was a small pebble jamming the impeller against the outer case again. I then dropped the pump into a 5 gallon Menards bucket (just barely fits). I’d drilled ~300 7/64” holes into the bucket, in a ring ~ 2” from the bottom, to create a “strainer”. That took a couple minutes. /s
Did a trial run: Looks like I need about 1000 - 1500 more such holes for the flow “in” to keep up with the pump. To heck with that. I’ll go on Amazon and see if I can find some 3/32” (or maybe 2mm) mesh stainless steel screen to cover much larger rectangular holes I’ll make in the bucket.)
This pump is overkill for most situations. It empties that bucket in literally about a second, maybe 1-1/2 seconds, and that’s with some water coming in through those 300 holes! I wonder if it’s possible to slow it down and control it a bit for less than “cloudburst” conditions...? Pollard, do you know?
I was out at ~4 am replacing a carbon-traced spark plug in wifey’s car this morning, and what shows up, but a gorgeous golden retriever. A bit muddy, decidedly wet and cold, but a great, great dog: Wonderful “personality, and pretty well trained too. No problem bringing it “in”, give it some (cat!) food and scraps from last night, some water, warm up a bit... It made for a great surprise for my wife: “Hey, hon, hon... wake up and look at this.” with the dog sitting patiently on the floor, with its head about 2 feet from my wife’s when she rolls over... Wifey took it quite well — I didn’t have to peel her off the ceiling! (Actually, she really liked the dog too.)
Doggy has a phone number on its collar, so I texted that, and the owner came by and picked it up around 8 am. She had 2 more in the car with her! I’d love to have such a good dog — maybe I should text her again and offer to take one if they get more than they can handle. But, I imagine they can get REALLY good money for these if trained for hunting...
Now... How to safely transfer that ‘possum out of the working trap into the one with the defunct trip mechanism, so I can set the “good” trap back out again this evening. Hmmm...
For those into prepping and such, I was @ Menards yesterday to return some un-needed plumbing parts and pick up a couple others. They have on sale, 3 (pack) for $10, some nifty little LED headlamps with a built in Li-Polymer rechargeable battery. The main beam is not focusable, but is quite bright for such a small headlamp. I guess I’d call it a medium beam - it’s certainly not a “flood” pattern. Better yet, the red flashing function turns out to be true “SOS”.
A slight disadvantage is that the charge port is USB-C, but, that does allow for a charge time (100%) of only 2.5 hours claimed, from a USB-C source, I would guess. Also, a short “A” to “C” charge cable is provided. Run time is anywhere from 3 hours to 12 hours depending on function selected. (SOS is rated at 8 hours.) Should make for handy spares or backup, if nothing else.
The brand is “LitezAll” — obviously not top quality stuff; it’s cheapo Chinese, but, I’ve had “decent” luck with their headlamps, given the prices. They have a US support phone number, too.
I think my last opportunity to help my wife’s gardening effort will be to dig up the okra stalks.
We had the first frost last night
Have any of you used fiberglass rope as ROPE, not as gasketing for a furnace door or what-not. I’m trying to come up with “rope” of ~1/4” diameter that can handle temperatures to 500 deg. or so. Would fiberglass rope hold up to flexing and pulling over a period of time? 150 lbs. break strength would probably be sufficient.
I finally got done processing tomatoes. Reds for maninara and puree, yellows for juice, and cherries split and dried. Saved and cleaned a bunch of seed as well. Today’s garden chore was blowing a a foot of snow out of the driveways. They say it is supposed to get near zero this weekend.