insert witty title here

I won't use "random" anymore in post titles. They will all be random from now on, or until fall. Too much to do, too much sunlight.

My buddy visiting wanted to take me and the boys out for lunch and we also went up to the lake. Nick has a "throw all rocks" policy.

Ben becomes reacquainted with walking outside.

Not teenagers anymore

Nick on patrol

This crushes my spirit. And my back. And my fingers, my feet...

I shot my buddy's 12 ga shotgun. Tactical buttstock and 3" magnum shells. Once was enough. This picture is almost 1 week after the shot.

Got OK plates for the cars finally. Very different than CA DMV. 5 employees behind the counter, I was the only customer. They were helpful, attentive and polite. I explained that I was registering cars from out of state. The lady gives me 2 copies of a form. Says all I need to do is sign at the bottom and put down the date that the cars came into the state. Her eyes sorta' bug out at me and she says "If you brought them in more than 30 days ago, you are in the penalty period and there are extra fees". Then, "We can only go by the date that you put on the paper". She stares at me intently. The lady sitting next to her turns her head and gives me a hard look. Finally, the light bulb lights over my head. "Oh", I say, "I brought them in on the first of this month, only 24 days ago". I get 2 satisfied smiles. The lady does my paperwork. The conversations continue. The spirit of Ron Swanson lives here.

OK only has rear plates, so now I can put this on:

I saw this huge fan thing going through town.

Planted 170 onions and a row of carrots today. Room for at least 160 more onions. Maybe tomorrow.

Saw this guy today. Have heard that snakes are on the move now. Talked to a guy today that has killed 2 water moccasins this week.

Bella looks funny when she runs:

Tomato seedling forest

A bunch of other stuff. Sugar peas have gone wild, gonna' put them in the ground soon.

You want the random? You can't handle the random!

I have started 50 tomato seeds

Plus over 200 other seeds. Set up on top of the 2 refrigerators in the kitchen. Always at least 75°, usually over 80° here. I've added another grow light since this pic was taken.

79°, followed by frost and 30° the next night.

Crazy windy a few days ago. Gusts to 40 mph I think.

Nick decided Saturday was Dusty's birthday. I guess it could be. She got a can of fancy cat food.

Some progress made on the logs. I cut one of the monsters. Ridiculous. It was like cutting 3 regular logs. The 20" chainsaw bar would barely go halfway through. I had to roll the log back and forth to finish the cuts. I'm guessing it weighs at least 1000 pounds.

The segments are too heavy to lift. I can lift them to ankle height and waddle around like a duck. It is not useful. I have to split these into 3 or 4 pieces before I can lift them onto the hydraulic splitter.

My friend is in town visiting. Spent several hours hanging out today. It was great catching up. We opened the firing range (not true, the firing range is open 24/7) and made loud noises. His sister is also in town and baked some cookies for us. Ben said they were the best cookies he ever had. Nick and Ben fought over the crumbs I heard. All cookies gone by the time I got back into the house.

Billy was released back into the wild today.

I'm buying chainsaw bar oil by the gallon now. I feel like this means something bad...

This is for you, you know who I mean.

Not pictured:

The Ford truck has finally been repaired after 5 weeks in the shop. Reman tranny installed.

Climbed on the roof and poured a gallon of sulfuric acid into the plumbing vent to try to clear the clog in the NW corner of the house. The roto-rooter guy I called arrived at the house w/o a small snake. He told me his small snake was broken. He suggested acid and drove away. I think this is his sideline; his main deal is fishing guide. The acid didn't work. Back to the phone book.

I got on the barn roof and nailed down sheets of tin that nearly blew off in the high winds.

It seems like there was more, but I'm to tired to remember it all now.

Getting ready

I really want to start planting a garden, but it's still too early and still a lot of prep work to do. This huge grassy area behind the house was a garden back when I was a teenager, but no more.

I had the idea that I would burn all my brush here instead of the random piles I've made all over the property. Should kill the grass and roots.

That would be a huge ass brush pile, so in this area I'm using plastic to kill the grass. Google tells me always use clear, black doesn't work very well. Google also tells me black works much better, clear not as good. Thanks Google. I've found one big roll of black and many rolls of clear, so I guess I'll know which works better in several weeks.

This area has been smothered with leaves since fall.

Garlic is looking good

I decided to make a bed for the onions we will grow. Have 160 sets plus a crapload of seeds started.

Onions prefer well drained, sandy soil. So I will plant them here in this wet, sticky, heavy, red clay.

Water standing in every shovel hole as I turned the dirt.

I turned a 3' x 15' area, added a thick layer of crumbly, half-rotted leaves, and topped off with several mules loads of forest dirt. Maybe the onions won't have wet feet.

Bonus pictures

This tree looks funny to me.

Proof it is too early to plant

Last week

Hail

Nick is upset. He went to feed Rick and Billy (the tree frogs), and found that Rick had passed away. We buried him in the yard.

"Here lies Rick, my frog"