4th of July – Work day. Finished brush-hogging around the fruit trees, grapes, berries, and currants. Evia worked on her strawberries. Day seemed hotter than it was, they say it only hit 85F, but even with a breeze, it was toasty out. Mixed 30 gallons of Roundup to spray the driveway just to discover the spray nozzle was broke. Worked on the broken PVC water pipe in the garden. Discovered that the nylon blades in the weed wacker can shatter 3/4″ PVC. Almost had enough of everything but was one valve short.
5th of July – Shopping day. Called Jeff at Jepson Lumber and ordered supplies for the climbing vine rows I plan on building next week. Picked up rebar, gloves, concrete mix and PVC stuff at Home Depot. Bought cattle feed, a 14′ gate, a salt basin, generic Roundup, a mineral and a regular salt block at the MFA feed store. Stopped at Hy-V for food and filled up the truck (got 18 cents off a gallon!) Almost forgot the spray wand and turned around and went back to Orscheln for that. Switched out the Brush Hog for the Auger and started drilling holes for the new gate posts. Worked until after 9pm – at least its cooler then.
6th of July – Work Day. Built the “bull proof” (as Sonny called it) wooden railing and hung the new 14′ gate. This basically segments off the first third of the cattle pen. The pen was too large come handling time, and this shrinks it down nicely. Also all wooden railing and steel gates in case they get antsy. Started work on the loading area – managed to get two 6×6 steps set, complete with (3) 2′ rebar poles drove through the steps into the ground to hold them. Quit around 2:30 when I found myself stumbling. Just too dang hot (90ish) to be swinging an 8lb sludge hammer. Drank a lot of water, but even so, hit my limit. Came inside, showered, and cooled down. Had Brats and Mac and Cheese for an early dinner, around 4pm. Stayed in until it was cooler at 6pm, and an extra brat, then went out and finished pounding the rebar into the 6×6 wheel stops and leveled the dirt I have moved in the day below.
7th of July, Sunday – light day on purpose. Thick cut bacon and eggs for breakfast. Sprayed 30 gallons of 2-4-D mix (2oz of 46% per gallon) on thistles and a few woody things. Will see how that goes. Ran back into Orschein for a pump sprayer we previously forget to replace (at 10 years of use, it finally stopped allowing me to pump it up), picked up a few other things while we were there (Bag Balm for Evia’s hand, a sprinkler, the pump sprayer, charcoal and fluid, etc.). 40% chance of rain tomorrow, 87% for Tuesday. Thinking of cooking the pork loin we bought on shopping day, then going out and basal spraying thorn trees.