Crack, weeds and lottery tickets

If you look closely at the fourth thread from the end, you will see a crack. When under pressure the crack opened up and the spray flew 6' to 8'.

 

I keep hose repair parts in-stock. I replaced a male 3/4" hose fitting. I firmly believe that the impulse sprinkler was throwing the water an extra 3' in every direction after the repair due to the improved pressure at the business end.

In all honesty, I misdiagnosed the problem at first. I replaced the rubber washer under the assumption that the original had "crept" under the compressive load. 

Work-ticket report

I over-achieved on the weeding at 223 minutes time-on-task but under-achieved on the mowing at 0 minutes. I weeded potatoes and cabbage.

In addition to the hose-repair, I also harvested broccoli, sprayed the cabbage for cabbage loopers and tilled the patch where the spinach trials will be held.

While weeding the cabbage before spraying them, I deduced that deer had jumped into the fenced garden. The leaves were stripped off of the grafted mulberry trees and 3/4 of the broccoli had been eaten. 

I was able to give a half dozen cucumbers to a nephew whose daughter ADORES cucumbers. He has a blended family and I take every opportunity to let the newer members know that "dad" is looking out for them.

There is probably another 5 hours of weeding to do in the gardens to get them presentable but I have a volunteer who offered to help in the Upper Orchard tomorrow, so that is where I will be. I will be lugging water and my volunteer will be trouble-shooting equipment with electrical issues.

Random observations

I picked up some Black Friar plums at the local Walmart. Maybe not nectar-of-the-gods quality, but still very, very nice. I may be looking for scion next winter. Shiro and Methley are the two "toughest" Japanese plums for the northeastern US but the quality is...well, OK at best. Cummins Nursery (run by no BS people) say "Fortune" is the highest quality cultivar of Japanese plum in their part of the world.

Mrs ERJ graciously saves the pits from the plums. She would rather have me planting seeds than buying lottery tickets, even though the are the same thing when you get right down to it.