Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig” entry. We’ll try something different this week – add your favorite photo caption as a comment about this grand canyon elk that has learned to use the drinking fountain or elk waterer as the case may be!
Also check out the last thingamajig answer. Put your guess in a comment below.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
After the rash of organic and sensitive crops being mistakenly sprayed by aeriel spray planes (not to mention the large crew of field workers as well), IDALS, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, has implemented a sensitive crops directory that aeriel sprayers are asked to consult before spraying.
The department provides the signs at a discount and leaves it up to handymen like myself to figure out how to get the sign 8-10 feet off the ground with the sign at a 30-40 degree angle from the post. I just bought a heavy piece of 10 ft PVC vent pipe and a 45 degree elbow. I cut about two feet off the pipe, mounted the sign to the small piece then connected the two pieces with the elbow. Then I drove a steel fence post into the ground and just slipped the PVC pipe over it. I’m hoping I can get away with not attaching it to the post so I can slip it off in the winter to spare the sign and PVC some weathering.  The PVC seems heavy enough and puts enough torque against the post that it doesn’t seem to want to spin around at all.
Ever since we moved in, I’ve been meaning to take this old, heavy pump out of the basement. That day never came, until today, when in a fit of basement cleaning, I decided it was time to get the sawz-all and cut it loose from its pipes.
I’m happy to report that the removal was uneventful – I drilled a couple small holes in the pipes going through the wall before tearing into it to make sure it wasn’t holding back water – we think it was for an old cistern that is now filled in with dirt in the front yard. It sure was an ugly thing and really prevented full use of that part of the basement in terms of shelving and storage.
It was a day to dig up some of the potatoes and garlic.
Unfortunately, the kids were so efficient at cleaning and putting away the garlic in the hayloft, that I was’t even able to get a picture of this year’s garlic crop! Linda is sporting a new potato fork – the old wooden fork broke last fall and was replaced with a new fiberglass model.
Martin is using the fruit picker to harvest the last of the apples from the tree that was laid down on the ground during one of the spring storms.
The tree is literally hanging on by a thread and we’re hoping to get it through this year so we can grab a graft next spring to continue the tree – it’s an old variety that ripens in mid-July and is good for pies and sauce.