More New Fence

The fence installers left me two pickets from the back fence that they removed in the corner and replaced with new, plus 8 new pickets.  This gave me an idea to build a small section of fence behind the compost bin.  I discussed with neighbor Jane first and asked if I could zip-tie the section to her fence and she was real nice about it.  So, this morning I went and got 2 more fence pickets and 3 cedar 1x3's and this afternoon I put it together and installed it with my wife's help.

If you look close in the picture below you can see a hammock a couple yards over, and it's by a fire pit.  They often have fires when I do and is within sight, so a small section of fence will block that view from our firepit.

And every other direction is our house and the sides of 3 garages with just one open space that by chance had that neighbor standing there when I took the picture below.

I'm satisfied.  This is about as private as we want right now.  In an hour or so I'm going to go out and have the first fire of the year.  Then about an hour after that I'm going to watch a live Megadeth concert from Buenos Aires, Argentina, as I sit by the fire.  It's been a beautiful day out and should be a nice evening.  Cheers, everyone.

New Fence II

Our new cedar fence was installed yesterday with few issues.  In fact, they were done by noon, a couple hours before the daylight very noticeably dimmed due to the partial eclipse we had here. We like the new fence a lot, it looks real good and the back yard feels so much more private now.

I set up three cameras to capture the installation.  Trailcam One just captures pink pictures and video now so was unused.  Trailcam Two was on the side steps pointing down the lot line and was set to take one picture when triggered.  Trailcam Three was strapped to the back steps and was set to take a time lapse with pictures 15 seconds apart.  (Side note: Trailcam Three was bought just a few days ago, the same camera as Trailcam One since I couldn't find another with a forward facing screen and time lapse.  Let's hope Three lasts longer than One did.)  I also put an old Galaxy phone of mine on the back fence to take video of the whole morning.  The crew leader also set up his phone by the back steps to take his own time lapse, and I took pictures with my phone, so that makes 5 cameras covering the action that morning.

When we had the back fence installed late in 2020 I learned that it was good to be there when it happens.  They had plenty of questions and I was there to answer them to get the fence put in the way I wanted.  Again, it was very good that I was here.  One big issue - they weren't told to have the good side facing in (Madison is one of the few cities that lets you do that, otherwise you are required to install the good side facing the neighbors).  So if I had not been here our fence would have been installed backwards.  Tree roots and the back corner were also a bit of an issue, but easily overcome.

Below are the time lapse video from Trailcam Three and a sped up video from the Galaxy.  I couldn't figure out a way to make a video of reasonable length with the over 600 pictures Trailcam Two took, except manually which would take far too long to be worth it.

We got the wood stacked again after work today, so now I just have to have a fire for the first time this year!  Hard to believe, but having a fire will be easier, more comfortable and private now, I think.

If that's not enough, I'll put some pictures of the process that I took with my phone after the break.

Final Fence Prep

The last thing to do before having the fence installed was to move the firewood, and we dumped it to the ground this afternoon.

We put down a tarp with cardboard on top of it to try and prevent any of it tearing up the soft sod, and we just pushed it over.  It fell neater than I expected, so it was just a matter of moving the rack and bringing up the ends of the tarp where we could and covering the whole thing with other tarps, using some logs to hold it all in place.  Then just a quick rake of the lot line and we appear to be ready for the fence installation (tomorrow, as noted in the comments of the last post).  The rain should be mostly over for today, but we may get a little more overnight then a better day tomorrow for the installation, though I expect it to still be pretty muddy.

Now, my back has been an issue for the last few weeks, and this prep for the new fence hasn't helped any.  I don't have much time off at my new job but I'd like to be here when the fence is installed, so I think I will call in tomorrow for my back so I can be here to oversee and answer any questions they may have - and I do remember they had several questions when they did the back fence a few years ago.  It may be stretching the truth just a little bit to call in, but it's not a complete lie and I will feel much better being here to supervise everything.

Google calendar just now reminded me that tomorrow is my 15th blogday, too.  I'm hoping for a smooth fence installation and a better back for my blogday, please!

Fence Delay

It started snowing by 2:00 this afternoon, a heavy, wet, accumulating snow.  It's due to snow through tomorrow and into Thursday morning, per the forecast.

I called the fence place this afternoon to see if they still planned on putting in the fence tomorrow.  I told them I wanted to be there for it and didn't want to take a day off work unnecessarily, so I wanted to know today.  My ultimate response was that they normally look at the weather in the morning before making that decision, but understanding that I wanted to be there and the probability that it would be put off anyway, they rescheduled the installation for Thursday.  Temperatures will hover around or just above freezing so I don't expect too much snow on the ground, but it will certainly be muddy.  And might make the firewood dump more difficult, now tomorrow or maybe early on Thursday.

The drive home from work this afternoon was a bit tricky and slow as the roads were covered and slippery while traffic was ramping up to rush hour.  But work has been going well and I'm becoming more comfortable with my role and responsibilities.  Not unpleasant at all, but still feels just very different for me.

Yesterday And Today II - More Fence Prep

Preparation of the property line for the new fence had stalled since the last post, very much due to weather and my back.  Yesterday I got the call, they want to install it on Wednesday and I thought we'd be ready so Wednesday it is.  As previously planned, new neighbor removed his fence and took most of the dirt away yesterday.

And when I got home this afternoon I grabbed a bucket for a few plants and roots and the garden rake.  I shaped the area as I thought would best bring the yards together, bringing a pile of extra dirt to the middle.  New neighbor came out and took that pile away.  He also took away the timbers that held back the dirt for another project of his.  He was making this easy on me.  We did some more spreading and evening and were both satisfied with the result.

I'm going to call it ready for the new fence, except for the firewood.  That will happen Tuesday evening.

Yesterday And Today

Yesterday I completed getting the bulk of the plant matter out of the strip of the stump area by the fence, 4 five-gallon buckets full.  My back is definitely tight and sore, but I've had it lots worse.  I asked the new neighbors if they needed any free dirt, and they said yes so hopefully they can take most if not all of it for us.  Below is what it looked like when I got done yesterday.

And here it is this afternoon, after several inches of wet snow from about midnight until noon today.

Tomorrow should melt most of the snow that is left, but our weather looks to be pretty wet until the middle of next week.  While this does hamper the preparation for the fence installation, besides agreeing to take away at least some of the dirt the new neighbor also let me know of plans to remove their fence soon, as well.  Hopefully things fall into place in the next week or two, but again, I won't let the fence be installed until we're ready.  I do look forward to that first fire after having the new fence installed and everything else - mostly the firewood - back in order.

But, March will be March, after all.  I forgot to say it last post, but Happy Spring Equinox, everyone.

Baking and Fence

I made two rounds of baguettes last weekend, pizza dough, and an odd recipe for cool ranch corn bread.  The first round of baguettes were marred by the gold non-stick surface of the baking pan coming off onto the bottom of 2 of the 3 baguettes.  I've used this tray since the middle of last year with no issues, so not sure why it happened now.  I contacted the seller and they apologized and refunded my money, but now I have to get a new baguette baking tray and they all have a non-stick coating.  We were able to cut off the affected parts of the bottom of the baguettes and ate the tops.  The next day I made more and used the same tray, but with parchment paper.  Pizza dough is pretty easy, no matter the recipe, and went straight into the freezer for future dinners.

The cool ranch corn bread is another recipe from the vlogger that I got the peanut butter bread recipe.  Quick and simple, but nothing to really jump up and down about.  He said it tasted like a cool ranch Dorito, and I thought corn tortilla versus corn bread with that seasoning might work.  I'm glad I tried it but I won't make it again.

Last Wednesday I signed the papers and put down a deposit for the fence to be put in on the East side of the back yard.  At the time, he said they were scheduling about a month out, but on Friday I got a phone message saying our fence would be installed the next Thursday.  I don't think so.  We have a lot of work to do on the fence line before that can happen, and it won't be done by then.

On Sunday morning I took the chain saw to the lilac bush, which is now half the size, if not less.  The firewood I plan on dumping to the ground the day before the fence will get installed, then afterward put the rack where it will go and restack the wood.  Seems easier than moving and restacking the wood twice.  And we're going to have to dig up about 3 feet of the stump area all along the fence line to get a gradual decline to the neighbor's yard, to where the ground level should be if it had not been built up around the tree that was there.  Only then the fence can go in.

It's going to take a lot of work, but it will get done.  I got a start on it this afternoon only to find out the city drop off site is still on winter hours until April, which means they're open only during my work hours.  We can put the plant matter into the compost bin if needed, and hopefully we will find neighbors that need the dirt or else it will sit in the garage until I can get rid of it.  Another problem is the weather.  We'll be cold for the rest of the month with some snow expected.  I'm hoping to work on it a little at a time to save my back.

The fence company knows I don't want it installed this week, and we discussed the first week of April.  I probably won't get an exact date until it gets closer, but I will not let them install it until I'm satisfied we are ready.

All That, And Cheese Pennies

As the days grow longer and the temperatures are warmer I'm reminded of how I haven't really walked the neighborhood since starting my new job.  Winter temperatures and very active work days seemingly justified the break, but my wife has suggested we start walking again when it gets a bit warmer and I think we should, too.  We can enjoy watching the neighborhood wake up from winter and grow into summer, until it's too hot to walk outside, maybe.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but since commuting every day I'd been saving dashcam videos of egregious traffic violations/stupidity/arrogance.  I soon stopped bothering as it's become so common in these times that I see at least one and often several egregious things every day.  Running red lights, not stopping at stop signs, cutting people off in traffic with not even a blinker, stupid speeds, tailgating, or you name it.  This just seems to be the new normal.  Look both ways, folks.

I've not yet had a fire this spring, but I'm sure it will happen in the next few weeks.  There have been crocus coming up in the lawn for at least a week now.  (I always want to type 'krokus' because of the band!) The new neighbors really opened up the other side of their back yard for access to trim the black walnut trees, which look real good now.  It's been 3.5 years since we had the back fence replaced and we've considered putting a matching fence on that side ever since, and now's the time.  There will be much more on that coming soon.

Yesterday I perused King Arthur's website for a quick and easy recipe for something I could make with what was in the house and I came across this recipe for Cheese Pennies.  Today, I decided to make them as a distraction from the Badger game, which they were not favored and did lose.  It was interesting getting the dough to come together, but with a bit of water it got there.  Everything was pretty easy and was done in a short amount of time.  They taste like one of the name brand cheesy cracker snacks but have a home made texture.  I got 69 crackers and the recipe says about 80, so I may have sliced some a bit thick.  Overall, a fun experiment and a tasty, cheesy snack.  Good to try but not sure if I'll ever make it again.

And finally, before I forget to post these, I came across a recent PBS video of a show about Madison.  I found it interesting and noticed they did one about Dodgeville last year.  They're almost a half hour long, so only for the interested.  Links to the Madison and Dodgeville PBS videos are under those words.

I'm looking forward to spring, a big fence project, and more backyard privacy.  Among other things, of course.

Solstice Firepit

 Happy Winter Solstice, 2023.  Finally the days will begin to get longer, though winter has barely begun for us.  We've had a taste of snow and really cold, but mostly have been a bit warmer than normal (above freezing) and that is expected through the holidays.  There is plenty of rain in the forecast that would otherwise be snow, too.

I've not had that many fires this year, but I do like to have a fire on the winter solstice when I can.  This year, today was fully cloudy and damp but a few degrees above freezing so I made myself get out there for likely the last time until Spring.  We're in for a mild winter, they say, but we'll see.

Happy Solstice, everyone.

Sunflower Seeds And #1 Neighborly

It was apparent by the mess outside the back door this morning that the sunflower had indeed gone to seed and those seeds had been discovered.  Squirrels had been getting at it this morning, while the cats watched diligently and silently from inside the porch and bedroom window, just feet away.  If I was going to harvest any seeds to plant next year the time seemed to be now.

Thankfully only a small part of the seeds had been pilfered so far, so I was able to get a good amount rubbed off into a small box.  They do seem a bit moist yet so I'll have to let them dry out before storing them until spring.  My mind starts to wander thinking about different places to plant them in spring, but no sense thinking about that as it is still about 7 months away yet before they'll be planted.

And while I'm thinking of it, I mowed the whole lawn today.  Only notable for the few times I've had to mow this year.  I believe it's only been: May, once; June, 1/2; July, 0; August, 1 1/2; September, once - today.  So I've mowed the whole lawn only 4 times and the back yard an additional 2 times through September this year.  Incredible, really, just absolutely incredible.

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In other news, Madison was fashionably ranked number one on yet another list.  This time it is for the Most Neighborly City in the US, 2023, after being ranked second last year by neighbor dot com.  Madison has consistently made these kind of lists and has often topped these kinds of lists in the last several years.  No matter where you live it's easy to take what is local for granted, but there are actually a lot of good things about this area.  I often seem to find more and more to take for granted around here.  More lately, I've been trying to make an effort to take more advantage of many local amenities, but there's always more that get missed.  We have a really good zoo in town that I haven't been to in years, and I feel bad about it every time I think of it, for example.

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Finally, it's the new fiscal year this weekend.  Normally not very notable but we're headed for another government shutdown at midnight due to the intellectual toddlers in Washington, and for the second straight year I have to work on a weekend.  Tomorrow afternoon I have to sign on for a few hours to get some end-of-fiscal-year work done and do some testing due to system updates for the fiscal year changeover, and I'm really not happy about it.  And since I work on government contracts but for a private company we will have business as usual if the government shuts down, but without funding it will be hectic catching up on payments once the in-fighting in the Senate and House gets resolved.

We all have to work together if we are to survive.  The way things are going now, we're doomed.

Exhausted Sunflower*

The sunflower looks exhausted.  This holiday weekend is the second heatwave since it was at peak bloom, here, and still not much for rain chances in the extended forecast.

I haven't mowed the front in a month, since August 4, but I have mowed the back since then, on the 17th.  There is still green in the lawn, though starting to tend brown in areas.

Otherwise, I worked a 12 hour day on Thursday to get some mandated overtime hours in so I didn't have to work on Saturday, only to have overtime canceled on Friday.  I still hate my job - my employer, to be accurate.  But, it is what it is for now.

I made baguette yesterday but inadvertently preheated the wrong oven, top instead of bottom, so it didn't turn out quite the same due to the missing steam.  Instead of 3 baguettes I made 6 demi baguettes to give some away, but we'll keep these.  They're still real good and I'll give it another go tomorrow morning.  It's hard to keep them short, and short enough for two per row on the tray, so the practice will be good for me.

Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone.

100º Sunflower Baking

I'm not sure what the official numbers were, but I saw 100ºF actual temperature and 117ºF as the 'feels like' temperature on Wednesday.  It was over 90% humidity in the morning but was down to mid-40's at the hottest part of the day, which is still more than enough to be very palpable at that temperature.  It was our first 100 degree day since July 2012, in a worse drought that year.  Thursday was much the same, just a few degrees less.  Kate dug up an old pan to put out with water for the critters so we did that and I threw some peanuts on the stump area to help bring them in so I could put out the trail camera to see what happened.

This new trail camera shows the temperature on the pictures but not the video, which is disappointing.  I've searched through the settings a few times, but the option just isn't there.  The video below is clips with pictures here and there, all in timeline order, of that time of the week so you can take a moment to consider the temperature and time of day.  The water pan wasn't used a whole lot yet, but it was a new thing, too.

Other than that, last post was the sunflower at its peak.  I now have a bungee cord helping stabilize it as it appeared to be leaning more, and with the heat and heaviness of the bloom the top is looking a bit more droopy.  And if you look close, the small one does have an odd, small attempt at a bloom.

You can't tell, but yes, I've been watering.

I also did some baking today, trying a new recipe for the second time.  It's a very versatile French bread recipe and a full batch makes a lot of dough.  This batch I made into 4 burger buns with 4 pepperoni and cheese rolls below those, and hot dog buns and a baguette on the right.

Oh, I was off work for an appointment today, so I had the time.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Full Bloom

Eken Park Festival and 10 Foot Sunflower

We made our way to the Eken Park Festival for a couple hours yesterday.  Had a few drinks and tried to keep to the shade as it was pretty hot out.  Today is even hotter (currently 91ºF but feels like 100º with the humidity) so if it was today we wouldn't have gone.  In fact, most people at the festival were parked on the hillside in the shade, content to watch the band and other happenings.

Much smaller than Atwoodfest, but a nice local gathering, nevertheless.   It was within walking distance but because of the heat we decided to drive to a friends house a few blocks away then walk down to the festival together.

We're going to be pretty hot this week, up to 100ºF (~38ºC) actual temperature possibly, so I don't expect to be outdoors much, including my walks.  And while we had a couple rains recently there is nothing in the extended forecast.

But the sunflower is starting to bloom.  The two in the corner are dead and the one by the house may still get a small bloom, but I've loved watching this last growth spurt of the big one.  Vertically, it is just shy of 10 feet tall, but if you measure at the angle of the stem it is 10 feet tall, so I'm calling it a 10 foot sunflower.  Yes, only this one successful plant out of many seeds, but I've learned lots and the entertainment it's given me this summer is well worth it.  I look forward to next year.

Sunflowers Update

The big sunflower is over 8 1/2 feet tall now, almost as tall as me standing on the landing outside the back door.  Certainly taller than my lovely 5 foot 4 inch wife who kindly agreed to pose next to it for scale.  

All of the sunflower plants, even the smaller ones and the barely alive one behind the one in the corner, are finally starting to grow their flowers.  Whether they all come to fruition we'll find out, but I expect at least the big one to bloom eventually.  This has been an interesting experiment, and I look forward to growing sunflowers again next year, though maybe a different type.

Low Mow Summer

We got some rain early last week, some beneficial rains for a change.  The first things to start growing back were crabgrass and all the other weeds before the grass started greening up again.  Me, being pragmatic, first attacked the weeds by pulling and spray before attempting to mow for the first time in a long time.

To backtrack, this year I mowed the whole lawn for the first time on May 13, then mowed just the back yard on June 4.  So an unusually long time between mows with a one mow May, a half mow June, and zero mow July.

The state of the lawn yesterday.

After tending to weeds for a couple days and after a day grace period to give the spray time to work, I tried to start the mower and it wouldn't start.  It was really hot out, so I figured I'll try the next day.  The next day was the same.  It was even hotter out but I texted a mechanic friend who told me anything carbureted would run like sh - poorly in this heat, so I waited but was still unsure.  The following day, last Friday, I tried it again in the morning but it just didn't seem like it was getting any gas, so I called the service I've used to come out and tune up this and the snow blower every couple of years.  They came out on Monday this week, diagnosed the mower and tuned up the snow blower.  The mower went back to the shop and I hadn't heard back all week until this morning, and they delivered it back around midday.

A relatively simple fix, if expensive by having home service and delivery.  After 14 years a little dirt in the gas tank and carburetor and a pump that stopped working was preventing the engine from getting fuel, so a clean carburetor and tune-up and it starts on the first pull, as it normally has except for the first start in Spring.  I could have gotten a new mower for the price of this whole episode.  Not as good of a mower, but still my next mower may be electric to basically eliminate these maintenance costs.  No gas, no oil, no spark plug, so essentially no engine maintenance and I can sharpen my own blade.

So I finally got the lawn mowed this afternoon, after 61 days.  Pretty incredible for this time of year.

New This, New Thats

I don't believe we've had any rain since I posted about it last, but we did have a couple minor air quality warnings that didn't amount to much.  Mostly in the 'Moderate' category so nothing like what we had a couple weeks ago.  It's still a thing and still affecting other areas too so we may get another bad spell, we'll see.  Anyway, a few new things happening around here lately.

• A couple months ago we got a new vacuum, a Bissell Pet Hair Eraser, and boy does it get up the cat hair.  We've stuck with Oreck for a long time now, but I'm glad I decided to try another brand.  This small house, and I still have to empty it halfway through - and we only have the two rugs, no carpet!
• Speaking of the cats, they got a new cat tree same as the old cat trees.  Availability of them have been sporadic, so a year or two ago when I saw it available again I ordered another.  We had a nice one when they were young that they outgrew, now we're on the fourth cat tree of this type, one of the few cat trees I've seen that I'd say is for adult cats.  They've not been as hard on them as they've gotten older, 11 years old last April, so not sure if we'll need another.  The old one from the front windows is now the porch cat tree, I disassembled it just enough to put it back together with the best of the used sisal rope pillars as I've done before.  The cat's don't care.
• 
  A few months ago my wife's phone, same as mine at the time, bricked.  She just woke up and the phone was dead, but luckily and thanks to Amazin we had her another phone late that very day.  Since then, my Pixel 3XL has had a couple hiccups.  Nothing major, just acting up slightly, and I was due for an upgrade so I got a new Pixel 7A.  Now, transitioning to a new smart phone is always a pain in the butt, right?  Not anymore.  First off, Google pretty much owns me - gmail, blogger, youtube, chrome, fitbit - all that and more.  Much of the reason I got us Pixels last time.  But upgrading from an older Pixel to a new one is the easiest transition you can imagine.  The new phone showed all the same backgrounds, and all the icons in all the same places like it was the same phone.  You have to download them again, but they make that really easy, too.  I think I'll be sticking with Pixels as long as I have a smart phone.
• But, on September 14, 2022, Google notified me that I had used 50% of my 15GB storage.  Now last week they notified me that was up to 70%.  How?  I've deleted a ton of old emails and drastically reduced the amount of pictures I take since then.  Now I will go through my old pictures I have in Google photos and delete everything unnecessary - I'm up to January 2017.  I'd always taken many more pictures than needed so I could pick and choose the best ones, thinking it's all digital anyway, but that seems to have caught up to me.  And I DO NOT want to have to pay for storage.  The alternative is to just not back up my photos in Google, just on my hard drives.  Also a real possibility.
• Not a lot to report on the new trail camera yet.  I tried giving it a go a few times with no success until I finally figured out the new SD card had a little switch to protect it that I must have nudged after the first use.  It's currently out in the garden watching over the pepper plants which have gotten munched on by critters, likely rabbits, due to how dry it's been.  The peppers are now caged again and I haven't had any other use for the trail cam yet so I've let it be for now.
• Later this week I have new sandals coming, a new kitchen faucet, and a new baguette baking pan.  I found a new recipe for french bread that is supposed to be very versatile and it makes a lot of dough so I expect to have a couple baguettes, some buns or rolls, try my hand at pepperoni rolls, and maybe a round loaf.  So a day of baking coming up this weekend.

The garlic will be early this year due to the weather.  My wife checked it last weekend and it was almost ready to come out of the ground, so we'll be checking it again this weekend.  And the sunflowers are doing good.  Well, one is doing great, another not too bad, and two others seem stunted but so far I'm letting them grow to see if anything will happen.   I just went out to grab a picture, and it is now officially taller than me!  As you see here, the leaves always seem to get a bit droopy in the late afternoon sun, but they always come back.  Cheers!

Correction edit:  My wife picked all the garlic while I was on my walk this afternoon.  I just noticed now!

Holiday Weekend Updates

Happy holiday weekend, everyone.  I know not everyone has today off, but I took it off to have a four day weekend with the Fourth of July tomorrow.  Anyway, so far I've had a one mow May and a 1/2 mow June; will I mow in July?  I only remember because I noted it here, but I first mowed this year on May 13, then mowed only the back yard on June 4, and it looks like it may be some time yet before I mow again.  The front yard is mostly brown while the back is mostly hanging on to green and all of it stopped growing long ago but for going to seed.

Raspberries are almost done and today I noticed the first several walnuts had fallen in the yard.  But where are the helicopters from the maple trees?  They normally fall like rain later in the spring, causing a cleaning of the gutters, but so far nothing.  I can't even be sure if I see them in the trees or not.  As dry as it's been it may be possible that there won't be any this year, or maybe a very few.  The humidity finally arrived last week, so temperatures that were more than bearable before now require the air conditioning on and outside chores planned around the weather.

All four sunflowers are still alive, two seem to be doing very well while the other two almost died but recovered though they seem stunted, so we'll see how they do.  But the other two are looking very promising.

The bird feeder now requires refilling once a day.  It's gone in less than a day but I will only refill it once a day.  I got the gardens cleaned up somewhat this morning, including digging up the monster oregano plant, leaving just a tiny sprig to live on.   We gave up on the strawberries, they exist only for the critters now.  And I have the new trail camera trained on the stump where I've been putting the extra peanuts from the bird food (since too many clog the feeder) so will have to bring that in soon and see what's been enjoying the feasts I put out.  And I've painted more doors.

Yes, after painting the front door there was still a lot of the quart of paint left over so we decided to paint the back porch door and the side garage door.  And there's still at least 1/3 of the quart left but I think that's enough painting for now.  Henceforth we may be known as the Purple Door House!

I'll put pictures of the doors after the break.

June This-And-Thats

I've a few things on my mind and I have a new keyboard to get used to so I need to do some typing to see if I still like full size keys, so here we go!

• New computers come with a keyboard but they are cheap ones with flat, "chiclet" keys and I can't stand those.  For the last few years I've had a keyboard with actual keys, about half size keys, but keys.  There's nothing wrong with that keyboard but it is filthy, as keyboards get over time, so I ordered a new one that has full size keys.  What size keys do you prefer?
• 
  The bird food we have now is good but has some large dried fruit and lots of peanuts, and sometimes those clog up the feeder so I've been going through it and removing those dried fruits and many of the peanuts.  Now, without the clogging, the birds have been emptying the feeder in just about 2 days.  Plenty of entertainment for the cats, for sure, but tiresome to keep going through the bird food and refilling so often.  My wife knows more about bird food so will get something different soon, but there's still a few pounds left.  The dried fruit and peanuts that I remove I've been putting on the stump around the gnome for the critters.  I put the trail camera there to watch and while there's a few entertaining videos they are all pink still, hard to watch so unusable.
• Because of that, I ordered a new trail camera, this one.  I spent a bit more hoping it's worth it, and it should be here anytime, actually, maybe by the time I'm done writing here.  Then a few hours later a new SD card is scheduled to arrive, as well.  I know BW bought the same trail camera as I had, and I hope she has better luck with it than I did.  And I'm hoping I like the new one better since it has been very interesting putting it in different areas and seeing what happens when we're not around.
• Early this afternoon I want to paint the front door, so if the trail camera and SD card arrive in time I was thinking of trying a time lapse.  The door is currently a dirty white, and so we picked out a shade of purple to add a little color.  If I don't do it today it will be at least 2 weeks until I can get it done because we're going to be hot so very likely will have the air conditioning on for much if not all of that time so the door will have to be closed.
• 
  Because I just touched upon the weather, since I last reported on it we've had some very cool days and some comfortable days recently, but just a very little rain.  And while there is a small chance of rain today I don't see it happening and there's no real chance for the next week or more.  We've officially moved from "dry" to "mild drought" again.
• So we've still been watering the gardens and sunflowers every day.  One sunflower has really taken off, the pair seem to be doing okay still, just younger.  And the other seems to have been struggling a bit, so I hope it makes it.  I feel I should take the cage off the bigger one but I'm afraid a critter will fell it with one bite.  Precedence was established long ago.
• I made baguette again yesterday, and my latest baking purchase was a UFO lame for making the cuts.  I hate it.  It doesn't work as well as a sharp serrated knife and seems very dangerous when loosening/tightening as one slip and your finger would slip into the razor blade.  I'll stick with the knife, see the difference in the picture here.

• 

  Top two serrated knife, bottom UFO lame.

  Someone also mentioned the state of our street recently and I noted how there are worse.  In fact, the next block over is much worse.  Well, there's been a surveyor in the neighborhood recently and little pink flags started appearing on the lot lines, see bird feeder picture.  I talked to him the other day, and the city is looking to update our street and that other street, and I'm sure the sewer under it while they're at it.  He surveys and creates a 3D model which then is used for the planning.  Our two streets create a horseshoe so it makes sense to do them both at one time, and likely next year, he said.  It won't be fun while it's happening but will sure be nice when they're done.  

I think I'll get used to this new keyboard, but work will be the real test.  Worst case, I clean up and reconnect the old one.  Now I have to go fill the bird feeder again, and the trail camera is late...

Dry Pink Sunflowers

Well, I don't feel like writing but I should at least draft some notes of what I've been meaning to write about.

Recently the trail camera pictures and video have had a pink hue.  Well, I finally looked it up and it is a filter used for night vision that is supposed to move over the lens depending on the light level, but gets stuck while over the lens even in bright light.  I tried the couple hints of what to do without luck, but the last time I unloaded the card there was a small section of files that were in true color, so it did work for a short time again.

Four sunflowers still alive (out of 50 seeds) and all in the corner of the house/porch/stairs.  The first round of planting was pretty willy-nilly, and most if not all of those seeds got dug up and eaten.  Second round of planting was a bit more thought out, but similar results.  The last 8 seeds then got planted in this corner, and I put a little fence around them.  From those, one came up in the corner by the porch, the biggest one currently.  One was coming up further away from the porch side, by the house, and from one of the prior plantings.  I soon got a fence around it, too.  And there were two smaller ones coming up in the corner by the house from the last planting.  There was one coming up in a perfect spot by the back corner of the garage, but that got eaten and dug up before I had the wits to fence it in.  I'll know better next time.

Two weeks with hardly any rain.  So I mowed first time this year back on May 13 and not again until June 4, and even then I only mowed the back yard.  So far without rain the back yard seems to be holding its own for now, while the front lawn is almost fully brown.  We have a sprinkler for such a situation, but it's way too early to panic.  The sunflowers and garden get watered, that's enough for now.

So much for not feeling like writing, I guess.  I'll grab a picture of the sunflowers to add and call it a post!