Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[Callender Girl]

After a summer-long drought, it is now Day 3 of When Will the Rain Stop? The duck pen is pure mud, the goose pen is only slightly better and I'm having to keep all the feather-footed chickens in their coops. They are not happy.

I am also keeping them confined so they will have to drink only the water that has the cocci medicine in it. This is the last of five days of treatment.

Should it ever stop raining and the ground dries out, I need to haul goat berries from the pen and spread them over the veggie garden. That's right after I pull out the remaining garden plants. I was still getting yellow pear tomatoes last week.

Lisa, thanks to you, I have the Mamas and the Papas' very appropriate seasonal music stuck in my head!

 

[jvls1942]

Kalib came home this morning. He called Spectrum and
they talked him through re installing the modem.
then he opened up my tower and fiddled with something
in there. I am whole again.
the one or two red squirrels has snowballed. everytime I
trap one, we spot two more. trapped three so far. saw two
more as we were pulling out of the driveway. the little
buggars found or made a hole under the porch and have
a hole through the drywall. just like rats.
we are going to Wausau to shop for a different cell phone
provider. we gave up on T Mobile. they lie to us and don't
give a hoot . going on five weeks without being able to call
out on our cells.
we connected our internet and land line phones with
Spectrum. well satisfied with that. fiberoptics is nice.
going to check with Cricket and Spectrum to see who has
the best plan..

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Glad you are back Jim. Hope you find a better cell phone provider. Seems to be slim picking in Wisconsin.

Squirrels can do a lot of damage quickly. Sounds like you are overrun.

Not much going on here. Still waiting on an actual freeze so I can cut stuff down. Might just get a start on it anyways.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hope your eye exam went well. Lisa. I finally turned on the furnace last night. I only have one dog who climbs onto the bed, but Dinah really made extra heat unnecessary last night.

Exam went well. Darn cataracts makes it hard to read the letters on the chart sometimes. Also they said I would stay dilated a few hours but it always ends up all day. Glad it's over.

I had to put the fan back in the window last night. Too warm. It was 65 degrees in the bedroom. Fan running all night only brought it down to 60 degrees. I'm already acclimated to the cooler temperatures, so anything in the 60's seems hot to me.

 

[jvls1942]

Exam went well. Darn cataracts makes it hard to read the letters on the chart sometimes. Also they said I would stay dilated a few hours but it always ends up all day. Glad it's over.

I had to put the fan back in the window last night. Too warm. It was 65 degrees in the bedroom. Fan running all night only brought it down to 60 degrees. I'm already acclimated to the cooler temperatures, so anything in the 60's seems hot to me.

we still have one window cracked a little.
I am using my brand new HD computer.
the format is different. I will need some lessons
from Kalib. even this thread is different.
I used to be able to give a thumbs up.
now the only option I have now is reply.
after five weeks, Kalib figured out how to
get our cell phones to work. No thanks to
T Mobile..
we have trapped four red squirrels. I saw
at least one more. also saw a chipmunk.

 

[Callender Girl]

Congrats on having a new cell phone and getting a new computer. I was really upset when my trusty laptop died and I had to replace it with this desktop model. EVENTUALLY, I was able to once again do what I knew how to do with the laptop (which really wasn't that much either!).

I don't trap squirrels -- I think it would be a full-time job here, but I do curse them a lot. Still, I feel badly when one electrocutes itself while doing a high-wire scamper on the power pole. I've had to remove two squirrel bodies in the past three weeks. And, reset several appliances, TV and the router after I hear the now-familiar "pop."

I have all the plants and tomato stakes pulled out of the veggie garden and have started applying goat manure -- slowly. It would be faster if I shoveled quicker and if the goats lived closer to the garden. Hauling buckets of poop is not at the top of my fun list.

The high today is predicted at 79 degrees. This is crazy October weather!

 

[jvls1942]

I see that my post went through.
I was worried. byc wanted me to
log in and use my password,
as if I know what it is..
Barb, they do make a two wheeled
wheel barrow. If you are handy, you
could just buy another wheel and a longer
axle and convert your single wheel into two.
the axle is just a piece of cold rolled rod.

 

[Callender Girl]

I have a two-wheeled garden cart I could use. But, because of the terrain and the number of gates I have to stop to open and close, I just haul buckets instead. I need to haul some more before the predicted rain this afternoon.

Jim, I never remember my passwords for anything. I have a spiral notebook marked "The Answer Book" that has all of the passwords written in it. As bad as my handwriting is, sometimes even that doesn't help -- I try to stare intently at the writing until I can figure out what might it COULD say.

It hit 80 yesterday, and when I took out the dogs at 3:30 today, it was still 67 degrees. Guess I will wait a while longer to plant the tulip bulbs I picked up at Menards last week.

I remember being sadly disappointed as a kid when we had to wear coats over our trick-or-treating costumes. Coats may not be necessary this year, and trick-or-treating is much scarier than it was back then.

 

[jvls1942]

the last time I went trick or treating
was with my brother. we each took
a shot glass and walked to our uncles
house. He obliged us with some spirits.
It was cold and rainy here yesterday .

 

[jvls1942]

our fiber optic computer went down for
a couple of hours today.
it is back, but not 100 percent.
the new speakers came today.
couldn't hear anything with just the speaker
on the computer.
we had about 3 inches of rain. I wonder if that has anything to do with our trouble.
I surely hope not. rain was our problem before, that is why we switched company.