A very good Fourth...

It was such a beautiful day to be off from work. I had yard work that I had been putting off because.... it was too hot... it was too wet....or I didn't have the needed time because of my work schedule.

But yesterday everything fell into place. It was an 80 degree day with little or no wind. I had two brush piles that had been waiting to be burned since March. After Jef and the kids had helped me clear out the yard and piled up all the stuff in ONE HUGE PILE, the rain set in.

I was scared to burn the one huge pile because it was under trees and I was not sure what the consequences would be so little by little I moved some of the big pile to another location and still had to sizable piles to burn. But the rain kept on coming. I had even tried one time to do it when the rain had slacked off for a few days but it had not been long enough for the pile to sufficiently dry out. It just wouldn't take hold.

But...yesterday was different. It was "just right". I had a full day. I wouldn't be starting a fire then leaving to go to work-- which, of course, I wouldn't have done anyway. That was one reason it was hard to find a "just right" time. And there was no wind. That was very important too. I got my water hose out anyway and wet down the perimeter of the larger pile.

For the last few years, it seems it's not long into the summer before we go from being water logged to dry, dry, dry. When the change comes, we are put under "no burn orders" because of the danger of burning anything under such dry conditions so I knew I had to get this done before things got any drier.

As soon as I got up, first thing I did was go borrow my brother's weed eater (a battery powered one which doesn't require jerking. My shoulders don't seem to want to handle the jerking very well.) After I ate breakfast and got my brush piles started burning I worked on weed-eating my yard. I was happy with the weed-eater in that it was easy to start and light weight, but it lost significant power after about 15 minutes of work, so I had to switch batteries. I had hoped that perhaps the battery in it was already low and that when I got a charged up battery, it would have more staying power, but that was not to be the case. So I was only able to do about 45 minutes worth of weed eating.

I did go back in the evening and do some more but even after the battery had charged all afternoon it still didn't have much staying power. My brother thought it may be because the batteries were a year old. I don't know. I was hoping it would be a weed-eater that would work for me.... and it still may because I probably don't need to do more than 30 to 40 minutes at a time anyway. And if I had something I could easily start and use for just that long, I might could stay on top of the outer growth.

I got my riding mower fixed at a very reasonable price. Josh-- unthinkingly-- did not check the oil and the engine locked up. I was afraid that it was going to be very expensive to get it fixed, but Sister Debra's brother works on lawn mowers and he found be an engine and installed it and did so at a price I was very thankful for. So my yard is not hard to mow. It's just the stuff I can't get to with the riding mower.

I worked on the yard until after two and decided it was time to quit as Jef and Jeni and the kids were coming here to eat and I needed to start getting ready.

We had a good evening together and celebrated Brad's birthday...which will be next week. Davis went all out for us and bought me a grill and charcoal, the hamburger meat and hotdogs, frozen fries, a gallon of ice cream and a birthday cake for Brad.

Anyway, the conclusion is that I had a wonderful day. I felt very good about the yard work I was able to get done and then it was a nice ending to have family (with grandkids) here to top it off.
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