I finally spotted a firefly in the yard, two nights in a row! I expected to see more by now considering they will all but disappear the first week of July. Temps have been in the 90s for a few days, so maybe more will be out this evening :o)


Bing DALL-E 3 image

This guy was spotted a couple of miles down the road from my house:








Another resident reported a bear sighting in a different part of town; it could have been this one, or maybe another. Unfortunately my trail cams are messed up because I’d love to see one of these fellows go through :o)

It’s me against the chipmunks and mice! I finished putting up the crop cages and laying heavy items on the skirts. Coffee grounds/liquids and rodent deterrent have been applied. Reminiscent of the deep drums in *Khazad-dûm the striped monsters, unseen, were chip-chip-chipping all the while I worked at this!


Crop cages over blueberries in the side yard prior to securing aprons.

In another backyard struggle, The Huntress 2.0 found another bunny nest; fortunately she was coaxed away before she could do any damage.


Initial protection.


Added dissuasion.The doe has ample access points through the barriers.

*Guess who just rewatched LOTR?
________

One for fun:

Nyarrrrr!

We heard/felt a large explosion during our stormy Saturday (today) that seemed like thunder but could have been a sonic boom. The news stations said otherwise. Possible space rock burning up in the atmosphere, thought our local meteorologist.

An FB post by a group that monitors emergency news first mentioned this, along with a screenshot from Twitter-



In other news today’s storms caused about 9000 customers here to lose power, down to 1100 now. Thank goodness for my talismans (2 generators): my power never even flickered ;o)

Just a few from Imgur to help take your thoughts off world events.







The dragon seems happy.


Who indeed?!


Good graffiti!




‘My’ generation understands the basis of this :D


Yep, that’s me. I just watched The Desk Set again for the umpteenth time!




Enough!

Poor bunny! Like those licorice jelly bean comics at Easter-








It reminded me of my tiller oil change-

Busy, busy. I finally cut down the second tree that was damaged during our blizzard.








It’s the leaning tree in the background.


Bzzzzzzz! *blush* I trapped the bar/chain in my first cut at the base of the tree, even though I knew better, and had to disassemble/swap it out with an older, saved “just in case” one to continue.

I brought the tractor and cart in to haul these off and *bang* the tractor threw its drive belt. Actually, a stick got into the rear pulley and forced the belt off. I spent a frustrating half hour trying to get the belt back on from underneath before giving up for the day and going online for help: “Remove battery, battery box, and access the pulley from above…” *laughs* Some sites suggested tilting the tractor up on its side, or removing pulleys!


In.

Out. That’s the pulley beneath the plastic battery box. I stopped taking pictures after removing the battery. The box popped right out :o)

And as the 21 year old belt was in questionable shape, I bought a new belt, installed it, and all is well! And I have saved the old belt, just in case…

(aside- I still have an old set of saved belts around here somewhere from my scrapped ‘71 Plymouth)

Anyway. All the wood has been removed and stacked for future splitting. The broom, seen in the cutting pic, above, was my measuring stick for making sure the logs would fit my splitter: 20” max to fit, 40” min log length to be trimmed later. I ended up cutting those longer pieces down today due to their weight.

*sigh* So I also had to do chainsaw maintenance. The chain was dulling so I got to use my Xmas gift sharpening kit to clean it up! Nothing fancy, just files and an angle guide. What a diff that made.


Internet pic.

Enough. Have a cute comic-

It’s been wonderful weather for outdoor work: more mulching has been done and brush has been cut and removed. I also gave the rototiller a better quick pre-season going over: motor and gear oil topped off and a flat tire taken care of.*







I’ve had a furry friend keeping me company out by the shed since February; a rabbit has taken up residence nearby :o)


Waiting patiently to see what might be available.


Soooon…

Edit - I just noticed that this bunny is probably a New England Cottontail: there is a dark patch on the forehead and not the white spot of the Eastern Cottontail!

* I probably mentioned this before in regards to the tiller… When I was about 16 I watched, in awe, mind you, a friend of my sister manually replace a tire on his 1970 Road Runner. He took the original tire off the rim, and replaced it with another, with tire irons. To seat the bead he looped and tied a rope around the center of the tire, tightening it by turning a lug wrench slipped beneath it while filling the tire with air. Heh, I use the rope trick on the tiller tires, when necessary, with baling twine, a crescent wrench, and a hand pump.

Just a few finds, mainly from Imgur. Some with comment…








This would be me





Cute pups! And do people still say that?






This gave me pause (not paws), but I didn’t wish to overthink it!

I’m so tired of getting the following message when trying to connect to dreamwidth:

“504 Gateway Time-out”

It’s like the bad old days when trying to connect to AOL after they announced their unlimited hours for $19.95/month!

*shrug* I expect more from my free services.