My goodness, this year is sort of like a repeat of last year. First lots of rain, then none, then rain every day or two. It sure makes it hard to work in the garden when it’s pouring and the ground is soppy. Ugh. The dratted weeds sure like it though, don’t they?
Yesterday was the day from hell for us. I bought a new-to-us electric golf cart on a local online auction, Do-Bid.com. It was located about an hour north of us. Yesterday went like this: First, Will hooked up our small trailer and we headed out about 10 o’clock. We stopped at the credit union in town to temporarily up our cap on my debit card as it’s set low to prevent fraud. We headed north in the rain. When we got there, Will went in to pay. The card was rejected. His card was rejected. I called the credit union and the girl “fixed” everything. Yep, fine. Then they couldn’t find the battery charger for the cart. (They cost between $370-$600 new!) After a long hunt, they loaded up the cart, minus a charger. Sh#@! We started home in the rain. We got about 20 miles and the trailer tire on the road side fell off! Will pulled off onto a side road, which, luckily, was right there. He walked back and couldn’t find the tire as it had rolled somewhere off into the wilderness.
Meanwhile, I got on my phone and located the nearest place we could buy a new trailer tire/rim. He unhooked the trailer in the ditch, and we drove 30 miles to International Falls, to Menard’s, where he bought the only tire they had, which was narrower than the original. But, hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Back we went. In the pouring rain again. When we got there, the rain had stopped, and he managed to change the tire with some new lug bolts he’d bought. Onward 20 miles. POW! The new tire blew out a sidewall. By then, we were closer to Cook, our hometown. While Will pulled the blown tire off, I called our guy, Gary, at The Tire Shop to see if he had a tire. He did. I explained our emergency and we drove 30 miles to Cook. Fortunately, as we’re customers that always say “Fix it when you can. We’re in no hurry.”, Gary immediately got on it and in ten minutes, a new, sturdier tire, was on the rim. (We’re grateful to live near a small town! In a city, we’d have had to wait our turn.) We drove back in the rain, but I prayed hard, and it quit before we got to the trailer. Long story short, Will put the tire on, and we got home. It was 5:30! What a long day.
Today, it’s just drizzling off and on and poor Will is trying to figure out the situation with the batteries on the golf cart as we knew the batteries weren’t good when we bought it. I hope today is better than yesterday!
— Jackie
Sounds like you went through the mill backwards with that golf cart. I hope Will can fix it. My garden turned bust again this year. It’s the third time. I’m either sick or hurt and can’t get stuff done. This year it’s been because I’m sick and fell into the solid plate of my husband’s motorized wheel chair. Bruised my ribs bad, fortunately nothing broken. But it has put a crimp on me doing stuff. The plants that were out got eaten by the deer that ambled through. My neighbor lost 4 fruit trees to them. I’m going to plant out a few things but need netting over it. I’m going to have to fence in the main garden area. We’ve had our usual thunderstorm roll through with hail that pummeled the plants prior to the deer snacking on them. I swear it’s like I’m not supposed to garden. I’m packing up my seeds that take a long season to grow and I’m putting them in the freezer. I wish I could figure out something cheaper than a fence for the deer. Our old dog couldn’t begin to chase them. At 15, she a bit deaf, has arthritis and is very slow, but still our pup. Have you tried the water sprinkler that is motion activated? I may try that instead of a fence, it a lot cheaper than the fence. I really need to go hunting this year for fresh meat and a bit of balancing the scale with the deer. But not sure I can manage a hunt. I’m told it will take another two to three months to be back to normal at my age. The inactivity is driving me nuts. Hugs Jackie and friends.
Our bump in the road had nothing to do with flat tires (which is yet another reason it has been time to pay for the skid steer to be picked up/delivered home – lots of weight, trailer, revenue hungry LE, wear and tear on truck). We had a nasty t-storm today (thunder and lightening, no strong winds, hail, and/or tornadoes). Cat sitting for neighbor and the one garage door will not open (suspecting opener issue). Call to neighbor got us in – one circuit breaker blown which was reset. Will check the GFI in the outbuilding tomorrow to see if that was the cause of no lights in one area.
Last resort would have had better half remove a screen and boost me through the window.
We had a couple nice days then humidity came back then the rain/t-storm. I am just going to half to suck it up and weed in 30 minutes increments when I can. None of us is alone re: weeds (if your area has been getting rain that is). Mine isn’t as bad as it looks despite better half’s kvetching. I spent time weeding what is still in growing season, not what growing season is over. I’ll get it done, it isn’t going anywhere.
Wow, you’ve sure been through the mill too! Sorry, but nothing keeps deer out but a 6′ fence. I know it’s expensive, but we bought a roll at a time over a long time, then finally, got it up. I’ve tried everything from pee to radios. I think the deer like hard rock! We had a wolf hybrid, 7/8 wolf, 1\8 husky. The deer didn’t care about his pee; they chased him up onto the porch.
Yea, I used to hunt those rutabaga, cabbage flavored venison producers out of revenge.
OOps! For some reason this didn’t go to Cat, it came to Selena! Computers, ugh!
@Jackie lol.. I work in IT and there are times when tech truly has a mind of its own – matter of fact happened today at work. A process that had been running for like 4 months just decided it was going to run. I call gremlins…
I can just see the cat, watching you crawl in through the screen window!! Like what’s that human burglar doing, coming in that way??
Yep, we’ve got lots of rain and the worst weeds we’ve ever had. Coupled, it makes some gardens look pretty awful. Oh well, that’s why I laugh when folks buy “survival” seeds then don’t garden but put them away for when the SHTF and say they’ll just hunt and till up their lawn and feed themselves. Ha ha ha! I hope it’s not a year like this. Or worse.
People don’t realize you should hone skills before you need them. Tilling up the lawn is one thing but it will take a while before the lawn keeps trying to come back. The competition for hunting will be fierce – never mind can you field dress, cut up, and preserve your kill? Sad to say the gene pool will shrink if the SHTF. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing?
It would have been more than one cat watching me and one for sure would have been expressing his displeasure (no matter what time I feed them morning or night, he complains lol).
Oh my goodness, what a day ! Glad that’s over with for ya’ll and hope there are some drier days ahead. Just had to say that is a fantastic picture of Ava and her horse.
Sounds like the drive hubs and I had made from a little town in California to Oklahoma. Four kids in varying stages of chicken pox, one who was an escape artist when it came to his car seat, and a trailer he had fixed that wound up blowing an axle in Barstow! Had to call family to borrow money for trailer rental and sold the one we had to the motel we stayed at, thankfully. That was a rough trip back. Hit snow in Arizona and decided to push on before we had to stay there. (That happened in another city on our way out there three years earlier)! If one thing happens it turns into fifteen things and you just have to keep on going.
Isn’t that just the truth. Boy, it sure feels like a black cloud is hovering over your head, doesn’t it? And stuff like that happens to everyone in life.
Cloud seeding, I tell you. Crazy weather everywhere because they think they can do it better then God and Mother Nature. Next time you’re in I Falls check out a new place called Tools and More. Super priced and quality surplus merch
Sorry but I don’t buy into the cloud seeding conspiracy. I know a lot of people do, but I’m not one of them. I truly believe it’s climate change but I don’t want to argue politics here.
@Jackie – if they could cloud seed, we’d have no droughts, pure and simple.
Beautiful picture of Ava! You sure had a “Jonah Day ” (Anne of Green Gables) 😊
We did. I’m sure everyone else has them too.
Wow, that sounds like some of our days here in SW Wisconsin!! Better days ahead, we hope!!!
Amen Margee! Today the sun is shining and Will’s changing out the old batteries in the new golf cart (my garden cart! I don’t even play golf.)
Wow everything and anything that could go wrong-a nightmare for you. Also, those golf carts can be a huge pain in the keester. One of my son’s bought a used “bargain” and he an I spent too many hours getting that beast to work. He likes it now but I was ready at one time to haul it to the dump. Sometimes bargains are not bargains-I sure hope yours isn’t a headache. The golf cart did give me something else to “play” with last winter. Rain has been a beast here in Southern Wisconsin and yesterday a tornado touched down 9 miles north of us. Fortunately no lives lost only trees some structures and crops in that location. Today making pickles an enjoyable task. Take care. Good luck with the golf cart.
Yep that was really depressing. But today, Will’s changing the batteries, as we knew they were dead when we bought it. Before this, he managed to charge them enough to take me for a spin around our drive. I use the old one a lot every single day, to get around to our gardens, especially those half a mile from the house.
We keep having the rain too but no tornadoes, thank God! There are advantages to living so far north. Very few strong tornadoes.
You are supposed to have extremely hot weather for the next two weeks. Please be careful and stay hydrated. I wish we could get some of that rain here in Idaho! I’m glad you finally got home!
Boy, home never looked so good as that day! Whew! It’s been fairly cool because of the rain we’ve been getting. I sure wish I could send you some of our rain. It’s getting pretty old. We so want to be out in the gardens!!
My husband collects tires, just in case. We were hired to go 3 hrs away to pick up and deliver here a forklift. Assured there’d be no problem, then we had a problem. After a horrible time loading, found out it’s weight was double what our trailer could do. The trip home, 3 hrs, turned into a day and a half: the trailer had 10 flat tires. At one point we unhooked, went home to sleep, and picked up all our tires, and returned to the forklift on trailer. Welded piece on trailer broke. Sunday and in a strange tiny town, everything closed, but scrounged around on Main street and found a guy, barely open, who welded our piece, and off, again, we went! True story. Ten flats!
Holy cow! TEN flats?!! I once had two on the way to town and thought that was a record. What a day that was for you.l
Oh! What a trip! Praise The Lord for small town business! Ava s photo is a blessing for post end. Prays for a bit of dryness your way and moisture here.
I love that photo of Ava and Jonah. I sure wish I could send you some of our rain. Wouldn’t that be nice for both of us?
I guess the saying “When it rains it pours” had double meaning for you! Sorry for your troubles! Send some of that rain to Western Colorado, we have several large fires burning out here!
I sure wish I could send you some rain. Earlier, we also had drought along with several nasty wildfires. Now the rain won’t quit.