I have a few pictures from earlier in the week that I forgot about… first up… our family of Purple Martins have all growed up.. at least we got one family… I had thought we had two nesting pairs but the count is up to only 6 birds? so not sure how many young we had…
Bit I caught a few coming in on the 4th to rest up…
We set out 3 squash plants and this is just a part of one… I had forgotten how big the leaves are on them… so far we have gotten 4 off and several that ? shriveled up after setting… maybe too much water so I cut back on the water and things seem to be ok now? since I had misters out I probably should have drippers on them…
Also in the all growed up our family of geese are just about fully growed and ready to fly… I am guessing sometime in the next 2 weeks they will take off and visit other places… the little ones now look like the parents… just a bit smaller…
Remember the 11th and 12th were supposed to be “Big Moon” nights as it passes closer to earth…… I got a few shots…. of course this is zoomed in a bit…
But this is zoomed in a bit more… it wasn’t this big but sure was big and bright both nights…
And still pretty big this morning when I got out and around… Made my 3 mile walk… after the rain moved on and boy was it humid and still near 80 degrees so it was just hot out… and no breeze at all… when I got home I determined that I needed to rework some things on the tower…
I needed to put a slip-not clamp on the dipole support… and move the windom support about 35 degrees clockwise… and I wanted to put up the TV antenna I had gotten months ago for the shop TV…I also needed to make sure nothing was touching the guy wires so I could get an accurate check on the tower being insulated… turns out it is not insulated from ground and loading the vertical probably will not work as I had planned… so maybe a fall back plan is to run a 43 ft. length of heavy wire up the supports for the dipole standoff’s and see if I can load that as a vertical? or just keep using the short Diamond I have but if I do that I for sure am going to move it down closer to the pond and run counterpoise wired into the pond … always wanted to try that and see if it helped so that is my next antenna project… as I contemplate the wire up the tower or just getting a 43 ft. vertical and set it where I intend to put the short one… with a lot more radials of course…
I spent all morning on the tower project… and it was damn hot and no wind and extremely humid… I was sweating like the “sinner” in church… ha!
I noted one strange activity today… everywhere I went to untie or retire guys or antenna ends that damn cat followed me? I figured she just wanted in but when offered she stayed out where I was… cause the dogs were in… also the cat has gotten used to the new dog and pretty much ignores him… she has made a few swipes at him and not sure but may have connected a couple of times cause now… she just hisses a bit and the dog backs off… but if the cat goes out and the dogs get a chance the chase is on for a little bit… I usually put a stop to it before it gets too wild…
This afternoon after lunch, I got home and figured I better get after the power washing… the front porch needed it pretty bad so I got it done today… 3 hours of power washing but at least I had a fan out there and the wet spray made it bearable… now to let it dry and get some of that new deck stain/oil to coat it up… want to try the Mountain Cedar color and see if it hold up ok… most of the deck I washed still had a good bead to it from the water seal I put on, so I am not sure how the stain/oil is going to do? It will work great on the stairs and front of the porch where the sun has pretty much removed the seal… but further in? just not sure.
That was the big activity for the old retired guy… Tomorrow… another Doctor visit… sure get tired of those but age had it’s difficulties…
WD0AJG