Many little jobs

My time has been consumed by many little tasks.

When I was working I would do what was fast and hide the collateral damages.

In retirement, I am unwinding the chaos and entropy of 20 years.  That includes dealing with the collateral damages.  Even little tasks take an embarrassingly long time to complete.

But since this month's motto is "Too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash." you are going to read about it, embarrassing or not.

Project Number I:

 

Before

Before.  Apple tree that was trimmed when Ed Hall was here is immediately above the black bucket

This is one-of-two piles of trimmings that came off the apple tree.  Top of tree had been grafted to Hawkeye and Mutsu apples.

After removing wire ties and pulling T posts I hooked up Mr Green Jeans to pull the fence.  Trash on ground in lower left is from when my boy "cleaned out" my truck.  He learned collateral damages from me.

After Mr Green Jeans worked his magic.  Notice wooden posts still attached to fence.  Pulling those was a pizzer as each strand of wire had its own 1 1/2 inch staple.  OSB in upper right side of photo was cut into pieces to make bee hives.  Feedlot panels to the barn.

Low hanging branches received a haircut and this is what it now looks like.

The dogs have been more vocal now that they can see up the driveway and can see the house.

Incidentally, the doghouse in the picture has a floor of 48" by 48" and is 74 inches from ground to peak-of-roof.  It is a two room plan that was taken from the internet specifically for large, working breed dogs that are housed outside in severe climates.  It looks big enough to house Cujo's extended family.  I would be intimidated simply by the size of the doghouse and the battered nature of the fence top rail.

I mentioned the improved security spin to the brilliant, talented and beautiful Mrs ERJ.  She agreed that it was an improvement.  She cautioned that she did not want me to go overboard on security....just to stay in that healthy middle ground.

That means that Project I.5 will have to be delayed.  I had a mock-up of a Browning Ma-Deuce that I was going to slave to servos and an IR sensor array so it would "track" temperature hot-spots (like bodies) as they moved.  I was going to mount it on the peak of the garage so it "looked" down the driveway.

Project Number II:

This is likely to be a fantastic year for apples.

We had a storm cell pass through and it tore a top out of a small apple tree.  That usually happens later in the summer when the apples have sized up and their weight stresses the branches.  This is unusually early to start seeing this kind of damage.

Crop load.  Number of apples and size as-of July 11

Wind damage, before tidying up

Can you spot the graft?  This tree is in the middle of being flipped over to another variety. 

After tidying up.

Project Number III:

Make lunch for a roadtrip.

Today I drive to Ohio to pick up my youngest daughter at throwing camp. I got feedback that she found lunch on the way down to be a little skimpy.  Starting from lower right and working clockwise, 7mm thick slabs of ham on deli rolls with romaine lettuce, celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with ham slices (recipe courtesy of Jan Klco of Whitehall), banana-spice cake with cream cheese icing (recipe courtesy of Jean Burk...less the ammonium chloride to reduce goat urinary calculi), plums and bananas.

I hope there is something left by the time I pick her up.  It is a three hour drive and I can eat a lot in three hours.