Quiet House!

     While Odie always wants to play, he seldom barks. Perhaps he's barked four times while he's been with me. That's an advantage in the OFH. Going from five in the house to one reminds me of what a quiet life I lead. A consultant observing my satisfaction at being alone once said to me "You'd make a good prisoner of war!" Thankfully that's never been my fate. Spending most of 2020 alone here during the worst of COVID, wasn't a problem. A cold car parked on the street was the worst park.

   After Kaia died, I realized how much I rely on a dog for companionship. Odie, belying his eight-year age is always ready to play. All's well with us.

Takk for alt,

Al

Sometimes when he thinks he's been ignored too long he picks up his blanket.

Rare Opportunity!

        A well-planned open house celebration for my brother's significant decade birthday today brought together 40? family members. Many came from a significant distance. Held at the church fellowship hall it gave good opportunity to converse with seldom seen family. My brother is a lifelong pillar of this community so there very many local residents in attendance. My children were keen to connect with their uncle. Hosting four of them in The Little House was fun. The house is small but somehow, we make it work, 

    My children are well connected to their cousins, all of the living, with one exception, were present Two, from the same family have died. Scattered as they are it's seldom they can all be together. 

    Eight accompanied me on a tour to the cemetery. They visited the graves of great grandparents. grandparents, aunt and uncles and also cousins. It's the cemetery where Joanne is buried.

Takk for alt,

Al

My children with their cousins. My son is in the blue shirt in the back and his sister is one his right.

Family Time!

      My brother is the subject of a birthday gathering tomorrow. So, family has been assembling. A niece and her daughter from Milwaukee dropped in this afternoon. L and family came last night so The Little House is bustling with energy. Tonight the family gathered at a local restaurant that had a private room for dinner. There were about 25 persons present. The two who came the farthest came from the Los Angeles area of California. The venue allowed for significant conversation. Tomorrow's gathering is in the form of an open house. There will be a large crowd, so this presented a good opportunity to actually converse with the birthday 'boy'. The Little House is in convenient proximity to the festivities. It's a gift to assemble for such a happy occasion.

      Takk for alt,

       Al

Dog in a manger!

          Cleaning out bird nesting boxes today brought to mind the old fable named in the title of this blog. Over half of the nesting boxes were stuffed with twigs. When the boxes were first posted they were intended for bluebirds. No bluebirds have been seen but they are very popular with tree swallows.

       So why did 'Dog in the manger' come to mind? Wrens had stuffed more than half of the boxes with twigs to prevent other birds from nesting in them. The wrens don't use them, but they prevent other birds access.

    Next year I'll try a different approach. I'll leave the boxes open until there are many swallows present. Hopefully the swallows will claim them before wrens stuff them with twigs. When there are no swallows near a box, I'll open it so see if it's full of twigs. Perhaps removing the twigs will allow swallows their use.

   These boxes have been up a few years. To ensure their stability I added two additional anchor screws. 

Takk for alt,

Al

   

A "dog in a manger" wren filled this box with twigs.

Work!

     Work fascinates me. I happily watch others work. That occupied my morning as a very nice young man repaired my tractor tire. He was a new serviceman to me. There must have been at least a dozen times the previous repairman had come to fix a tractor tire for me. Yes, I'm tire jinxed! 

   So, the bulk of my morning was spent watching him fix the tire. He knows his stuff. Quickly assessing that the tire was tubeless he examined the tire for a leak. The tire was new a year ago, so, unless punctured was likely okay. After filling the tire with air, he sprayed it and the rim with water watching carefully for air bubbles. A tiny bubble emerged where the tire fitted on the rim. Aha, the culprit was slight failure of the tubeless tire to seal on the rim.

   We consulted on two possible repairs. Inserting a $100. tube was one option. The other choice was to treat the area of the leak, which was the option we chose.  After dismounting the tire, he polished the area of the leak and remounted the tire. Removing and replacing a large tractor tire is no simple task and the reason I don't attempt it. 

   With the task complete he was on his way, and I await a bill for service in the mail. 

Takk for alt,

Al

PS Yes, I did enjoy watching him work.

Tire Jinx!

        Friday was a mild summer like day in October with only gentle wind. "Perfect" I thought to spray some thistles. Perennial plants draw up nutrients as winter approaches. This makes them vulnerable to herbicides. There is a sizeable thistle patch in the CRP field that was burned this spring. In late June, I mowed it to keep it from going to seed. Now it's healthy and eagerly anticipating vigorous growth in the spring. Eager to take advantage of its hunt for nutrition I sprayed it. Ever since June I've been procrastinating removing the sprayer from the tractor and now I know why I waited. 

    Spraying complete I removed the sprayer and left the tractor in its spot in the garage. Saturday, when I entered the garage, something didn't look right with the tractor. Closer inspection revealed that one of the large, rear tires was flat. Suspecting a deer antler may have punctured it I did a close inspection but found none. 

   A call to my tire repair shop of choice ended with a repairman scheduled for today. This afternoon he called to say he couldn't make it today but will come at 8:30 tomorrow. This is the tractor which had multiple flat tires two years ago resulting in new tires.

Takk for alt,

Al

Previous tire repair, same tractor.

Old Learning!

        After my first-year college, the summer of 1957, I took a job as a farm hand for a farmer. After all, what else did I know? His farm was a bit distant from my home, so I stayed with his family during the week. Breakfast was at 5:30 and dinner at 9:30 so commuting wasn't practical.

    My Dad's tractors were Farmalls, made by International Harvester. Farmalls had foot clutches and I had spent countless hours using them. My new employer used John Deere tractors which, in those days, had hand clutches. After a few awkward moments I became adept at driving tractors with hand clutches. Adjusting these clutches is relatively simple and I soon learned the technique.

    When I drove my newly purchased John Deere, with a hand clutch, onto the trailer yesterday I quickly recognized that the clutch needed adjustment. Today I adjusted the clutch. There's a certain satisfaction in remembering, and using, a skill learned 69 years ago, one that I may not have used since. 

Takk for alt,

Al

Most of our, almost 200-mile trip yesterday was in fog like this.