I had a great Father's Day

I had a great Father's Day (and birthday celebration). Due to  scheduling conflicts of my kids' work schedules, it made sense to combine my birthday celebration (I was born in June) with Father's Day. Even so, only three of the four were able to attend.

Gifts were very low-key. I received some music, a couple of shirts and two expanding file folders. Mrs ERJ got me the folders to organize my garden seeds by the month that the seeds are to be planted. I guess she felt-my-pain as I rummaged around trying to find the seeds to plant THIS month.

Life was lovely until about midnight when the first of 3-or-4 thunderstorm cells swept into the area. That was unexpected. Zeus does not like thunder and he let us know about it.

So...birthday boy got to sleep on the couch last night because one of my "kids" is afraid of thunder. Mrs ERJ got to sleep in the bed because she put on a FABULOUS party.

Weather look-ahead

The daily highs will be about 15 degrees (F) above average for the next few days. The humidity will be low and there will be large day-night temperature swings. That means we can play-the-bounce and run the A/C starting at sunset and turning it off at sunrise. Then closing most of the curtains in the house and letting the temperature "coast" through the daylight hours.

I was very surprised by the rain. We picked up about an inch of rain. I had an impulse sprinkler running all night. That patch of garden is very well watered.

That amount of rain means that running the tiller is not an option for about three days. Tilling is a Goldilocks proposition when it comes to moisture. Completely dry makes a lot of dust and the soil can be rock-hard. Too much moisture means the soil will first turn into wet concrete and then will not be fluffy when it dries. Experience taught me that three days of dry weather after a significant rain are about perfect with regards to easy and effective tilling (for MY soil in MY climate).

Today's plans

I need to make a trip to a Big-Box building supply store to purchase wire terminals. Handsome Hombre has a piece of equipment that will not start due to the ring-terminal to one of the battery posts fatiguing. He is working 10 hours a day and I am not.

While I am at the Big-Box I might buy a box-fan.

There is a store next to the Big-Box I want to visit but it does not open until 9:00 so I will time the trip so I will hit the parking lot of the Big-Box at 8:30.

I might take Zeus for a swim to help him beat-the-heat.

I need to run a finer-mesh fence around the bottom of the fence enclosing Mrs ERJ's garden. I (almost) caught a rabbit red-handed but it squirmed-and-wormed its way out through the 2"-by-3" mesh. It wasn't a very big rabbit but it was big enough to wipe out a row of young lettuce plants.

I might put a little bit of fertilizer on the patch that received a double-dose of water. I will dissolve it in some water and side-dress the plants. I will do that at mid-day to give the dirt time to firm-up.