Independence Day Update

Not much here. We've been watching the fireworks from the front yard. Usually we spend about $100 for fireworks on July 4th and that much for New Years. This year we thought we'd save the money and watch other people's shows instead. The kids kept saying "I wish we had some fireworks." Maybe we'll pony up the bucks next time.

We watched "The History of July 4th" from The History Channel to remind the young ones of the reason we have this holiday.

Last week I got a flat on the tractor. Fortunately, it was on the front so I could take it off easily and take it to a shop yesterday. It has a tube and I don't have the tools to take the tire off the wheel. I guess I need to put that on my list of stuff to get. Either that or get some steel wheels like they put on tractors back when. One thing about tractors is that normal floor jacks and jack stands like you use to work on cars are barely high enough. Another thing about tractors is that they are HEAVY. You can tell when you start jacking one up. My dad told me that my grandfather used a bottle jack to lift his tractors and made his own jack stands. We're going to look around at the farm and see if we can find the old stands. That's my kind of recycling.

Yesterday I also tilled up the weeds in the garden which is not fun when it is 100F+, but much easier with the little TroyBuilt cultivator than it would be with a hoe.

Today it was about 100F again and I ran the weedeater while my better half mowed a little. I think living in the city is bad news but I'd love to be able to finish mowing and weedeating in 15 minutes.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the tractor out and shred some high weeds and grass. There are some places in back where the Johnson grass is as high as my head when I'm sitting on the tractor. It won't be so bad though because the high is supposed to be in the mid 80s. After that I'm going to join the kids in a little shooting. You can't start getting in the groove for hunting season too early.

While I had a holiday from "work" I'll almost be glad to get back so I can relax a little.