It finally stopped raining

We have been enjoying intermittent rain for the last five days. In total, we picked up about five inches of rain.

Things are very wet and squishy.

Historically, it has taken three days without rain before I can get on the garden and till. I am not sure we are going to get three days.

In a day or so, I might stretch a line and pop the tomato plants in. I don't need to till to do that.

Maintenance
I have an upright freezer that stopped working with no warning. The motor and fans seem to run. It short cycles.

One of the on-line suggestions was to replace the defrost thermostat. The part was cheap and not hard to get at.

No. It did not fix the problem.

I am going to bite-the-bullet and call a repair guy. It is $90 for him to ring the doorbell. First half-hour is paid for. Parts extra.

Chainsaw maintenance
I also did a little bit of chainsaw maintenance today. It had thrown the chain. The chain did not want to go back into the bar. A quick feel-test showed that the root of some of the teeth had a burr, undoubtedly from when they hopped out of place.

A new chain is now on the bar and I am looking for a small stone to hone the burrs off.

I finished off grafting persimmons on my place and have to clear away competing trees and brush. I bought the scion from Cliff England and have  been very happy with the wood.

Mr England is a nurseryman's nurseryman. I told him the varieties of persimmons I had, what I liked about them and what I did not like. Then I asked him to pick out varieties that he thought I would like.

Barbara's Blush
Lehman's Delight
David's Kandy Corn
Rosseyanka
Prok
Journey (Rossey X F-100)
Styx
Kansas
AC/DC
Metallica

I am very excited about fruiting out these varieties but first I have to get the scion to grow and to keep the deer away from them.


Electric fences

I will want to add a plastic extension to this handle so the fence does not nip me

I want to find a better way to diagnose shorts in the fence. I picture a knife-blade switch to disconnect the run of fence that is suspect. In parallel with the switch I picture a neon indicator "lamp".

If opening the switch causes the lamp to start blinking then the fault lies somewhere down-line of that switch. That is what lamps do when you put them between a power source and a ground.

If I cannot make the lamp work, then I can always station Mrs ERJ in the barn by the energizer and open-then-close the switches sequentially. She can tell by the sound of the energizer and the blink of the tell-tale if dropping out a run of fence "fixed" the short.

The advantage of the neon lamps is that I might be able to diagnose the issues without a second person.

It will be interesting to see how long they can take the beating the fence gives them and if I will be able to see the blink of light.