Up Early And Worked Late

We were up early yesterday morning because we had a lot to get done. Our son Travis helped me put up another deer fence, this time around the garden and Terry’s raised planter beds. We appreciate Travis and his wife Geli very much because whatever we need, they are always here for us.

The fence is seven feet high and made out of a mesh material. It’s the same thing we used around the fruit trees, and so far it’s done a great job of keeping the deer away from them. We used some of the steel fence poles we took out earlier in the week and then attached eight-foot-tall fiberglass poles to them.

Once that job was done, Travis hopped on the Husqvarna riding lawn mower and did the hill next to the garage and out along the drainage ditch in front of the house, getting everything looking good again.

When  Travis was here on Tuesday, we had tried to attach the mid-mount mower to my Kubota tractor, and we could not get the darn PTO shafts to line up. Once Travis was done with the mowing yesterday, we decided to give that another shot. But first, we watched a couple of videos on YouTube about how to do it. They always make things look so easy. It sure wasn’t for us. It took several attempts before Travis finally got the PTO shaft hooked up, but then we couldn’t get the mounting pins to line up on the mower. Everything was off by about an inch and no matter what we adjusted, it didn’t help. We finally gave up in frustration. Brad, the salesman who I bought my tractor and implements from at Tuscaloosa Tractor, told us to come in someday and he will give us a lesson on how to do it. We definitely need it!

As it turned out, we were short just one of the fiberglass poles we needed for the fence project, so after dropping Travis off at home Terry and I drove in to Northport and I picked one up at Tractor Supply. Then we went to Pastor’s Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. Or in this case linner, because it was mid-afternoon and neither one of us had eaten all day.

Back at home, Terry and I set up a second the Orbit 62100 Yard Enforcer motion-activated sprinkler I had ordered from Amazon to help keep deer and other critters away from the garden. I know all of this probably sounds like overkill, but as soon as it gets dark every night, we have anywhere from six to a dozen, and sometimes more, deer hanging out in the back pasture. I don’t mind them being, there I just want to keep them away from the garden and the fruit trees. Since the pasture looks like this during the daytime, who can blame them? It sure is a pretty sight.

We worked in the garden, using her Garden Weasel to break up the hard clay soil and planted some sweet potatoes and curly kale plants before we finally called it a day about 8 p.m., and we were both tired and sweaty.

While the deer have been pretty good about keeping their distance, we are having a lot of problems with another kind of critter, Carpenter bees. They look like oversized bumblebees, and they get their name because they burrow into wood to create a nest. One of them recently decided this old rocking chair on our front porch would be its new home. One day the chair looked fine, and the next day it had this hole in one of the bottom rungs and a neat pile of sawdust underneath. A couple more have been getting into our back deck. We’re going to have to put a stop to that real quick. I think they do as much or more damage than termites would.

Today is your last chance to enter our  Free Drawing for a six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Seriously? They had to put a sign up telling people not to do this? We’re not going to make it as a species, are we?

Thought For The Day – Choices made in anger cannot be undone.