The Stockade - no plum trees and cultivated

Since I got the electric chainsaw it's easy for me to start it and I can cut up anything I want but I left the plum tree in the stockade for Brother Brent.  The first reason what I knew he was just itching to cut something up while he was here.  Second, he was interested to see if plum wood would make an interesting pen (he turns pens).  Third, the plum tree was surrounded by a whole thicket of little plum trees.  I'd planted the plum and a pollinator tree when the stockade was first built.   It only produced little pears like I could find in the wild plum copse.  Fairly inedible since there is more pit than pulp.  What it was good at was producing little pear trees which were gradually taking over the stockade.  Brent went wild w/ the chainsaw and clippers.  I would have been happy if he'd thrown the cut saplings over the fence but he and Brother Phil piled them into Jormungandr and took them out to the tall grass beyond the meadow and dumped them there.  Not only was it hard, hot work, but I may have neglected to warn Brent that plum trees have thorns.   Anyway, I'm happy to have that corner of the stockade cleared out, the denizens of the area where the cut trees were dumped are happy to have a new place to hide from coyotes, and, hopefully, Brent's happy w/ seeing the 'fruit' of his labors.  I'll plant another tree there after I'm certain that there isn't a plum tree resurgence.  Maybe something like a service berry.

After Brent finished cleaning out that corner of the stockade, Phil cultivated the garden for me.  In his younger years he went over this same stretch of ground w/ a much bigger tractor.  Not sure which tractor he preferred but I'm glad to see the garden turned over.

Hazelnuts

 Librarian Trevor hadn't been able to find anyone to do this Saturday's shift and he had an outing w/ old friends he wanted to attend.  Brother Phil and I went out for breakfast at the cafe and then I went over to work the library's four hour Saturday shift.  New volunteer Paul was ready to get started when I opened up the library doors.  He had already trained w/ Trevor the day before so knew how to check out/check in books.  When I'd started a lot of years ago, I'd sat in w/ a volunteer for a couple of hours and then started working on my own so there isn't a lot to learn.  We have a bit more automation now and a few more rules but the system is built to be pretty self explanatory.  Our only issue for the morning was soon after we turned on the cash machine it suddenly went dead.  Nothing we tried could revive it.  I texted Trevor what had happened and wrote "Everything will be free at the library today."  Figured if that was a problem he'd call me back.  Actually only had a patron owe 30 cents for some copies.  If Trevor wants it, I'll pay the library next week.  

When I got home Phil was ready to tackle the two-person job of placing the the velvet-like backing on the plywood for the slide-rule display.  I was happy I didn't go w/ real velvet but w/ a streatchier and more forgiving cloth material.  We did a dry run-through.  Then Phil sprayed the base w/ a glue.  He had placed scrap wood pieces underneath to keep it up off the plastic covering the table.  He pulled off the plastic and placed the plywood back on the scrap wood.  He took one end of the cloth and I the other.  I placed my end down first making sure the salvage didn't show and there was sufficient material on the sides.  We continued laying down the material until Phil's end was in place.  Pressed down to make sure the material had a solid contact w/ the glued board. Repositioned some of the cloth on the sides of the board where it had doubled up on itself.    We both stepped back.   It looked perfect.   No rips.   No wrinkles.   No yelling at each other.  A minor miracle.

Cloud Iridescence

 

Attended the County Board of Canvass this morning.  It's when the county officials go over what the surrounding towns and villages (and one city) submitted as documentation from the August 11th election to make sure everything is correct and complete before they certify the vote tally for the county.  I'd attended once before to see what checks/balances they performed.   This time I had an uneasy feeling about their turn over in staff and some changes in procedures.   I wasn't worried about the voting itself  - just wanted to be sure our town was submitting paperwork in the form they required and reassure myself that all was going smoothly in their office.   I grabbed a coffee and bopped over to the County Seat for the 8 a.m. meeting.   Only one aide was there and she was manning the front desk.  Two other people were certifying the election results w/ the county clerk.  Our town is alphabetically first so we were the first scrutinized.  They checked that all of the paperwork was signed (Yep);  that the EDR's (Election Day Registrations) paperwork submitted, total entered, and supplemental poll book page signed (Yep);  that the absentee log was included, the opened envelopes they came in were included, the number of absentees entered in the paperwork matched the log (Yep); and the vote count for each candidate was the same as called in to them after the election (Yep).   I stuck through the meeting listening to the comments on other town's paperwork but prepared to leave when they transitioned to the villages.  They asked if I had any feedback.  I again questioned how they wanted tally sheets handled.  If you use a tabulator the tally sheet only lists the number of votes each candidate received from the tabulator's final count.  The tally sheet total, however, is made out in duplicate by two different poll workers and has a signed certification on the back.  The canvass didn't verify their numbers against the tally sheets.  They checked their numbers against the sheet the town clerk uses to call the county clerk's office on election night.  It's a paper that isn't on the checklist to put in a secured bag, isn't signed, and I didn't realize wasn't just thrown away after the count was called in.   Seems a mismatch to me.  The County Clerk said to keep doing tally sheets the way we have been.  One of the canvassers made a big deal that the name in the poll book of the last voter for the election be circled in red.  I'm not sure what the purpose is.   Poll workers put down the page and the number of the last voter on multiple other pieces of paperwork.  I knew enough to circle it because I had sat in on an earlier canvass where the same canvasser had brought up the same issue each time a town neglected to do it.  I asked where it was written for the poll workers to circle that voter's name?   If it isn't on a checklist somewhere, poll workers are likely to forget to do it.  The canvassers had made a comment that they ought to include it on an existing checklist.  Hopefully w/ my added encouragement it will get done before the next election.  I'll write up some of the things other towns do (both bad and good) and send it out to Chief Inspector Andy and Town Clerk Chris.  See if there are any improvements we should make.  

Lots of little solar eclipses (kind of)

 Yesterday my whole body was sore every time I got up from sitting.   I put together the hours worked for this last election and sent them off to the town clerk.  She hoped to have them before the Town Board Meeting tonight so payment to the poll workers could be OK'd by the board members and sent out.   In the hours around noon, I went onto the deck to take a picture of the sun coming through a colander.  At my locale, only 4% of the sun was eclipsed but it would be cool if I could show that.  Turned out to be too small a change to show up using the capabilities of my setup.   Brother Phil and I checked out a restaurant that people coming in to vote yesterday had given rave reviews.  (They were right.)   I zoomed w/ friends afterward.  We've all had a lot going on this summer so hadn't talked for quite a while.  I'd hoped  to sit out behind Mjolnir on the tete-a-tete and watch for the Perseus meteor shower after dark,  Clouds came in about that time and covered the sky so that wasn't an option.  Realized that for a very laid-back day, I was tired.  Luckily I had just enough time to pull back the bedsheet, jump in, and pull it back over me before I was asleep.

Hedge Bindweed

 

Partisan Primary Election.  Got to the Town Hall around 6:15 a.m.  Polls open at 7:00 a.m. and we had someone waiting about that time to vote before taking off for work.  Figuring this might be the calmest portion of the day we went through all of the absentees.  After that it was a fairly steady stream of voters.  No lines to speak of (the beauty of voting in a rural area).  The ballot was a little complicated in that it contained candidates for all five parties and people couldn't cross over to vote in more than one party.  I thought I would have to spoil ballots because of overvoting but whenever the machine caught a case, the voter and I found a way to get their vote recorded correctly.   After each big group of people I would check that the number of voters in the two poll books matched the machine's count.  Obviously the number of voters and the number of ballots cast should always match.  In the afternoon around 3, after a group of voters left, we found that one of the poll books numbering was off by a lot.  The machine and the other poll book counts matched.  Since they had matched less than a half hour earlier the two people on the poll books backtracked to find where the numbers had gone wrong.  To count voters in the poll books  each person on a poll book is given a pad of sticky numbers.  As each voter comes in the two people pull the next number off their individual pads and affix it next to the voter's name.  The County provides the pad of numbers and somehow they had stuck a page of duplicate numbers in one of the pads.    The poll worker threw out the duplicated page of numbers, removed the bad numbers affixed already in his book, and put the numbers from the correct page in their place.   Whenever there is an anomaly in the voting I write it in the Inspector's Statement. (in duplicate).    Poll Worker Carla wanted me to write that we had to resuscitate Chief Inspector Andy who went into shock w/ the numbers being so wildly off.   Andy wanted to me to write it up that we had to suspend voting while the Chief Inspector went home to change his shorts.  I opted for something more bland.

I got home around 9:30 p.m.  Hadn't realized how sore my legs and back were.  Looking forward to bed.

Ian's a Senior

 Tomorrow is the Partisan Primary so today is a prep day.  Chief Inspector Andy caught me before church yesterday and asked if there was anything else he needed to get ready.  I thought about it a moment and replied no.  He asked about checking to make sure vandals hasn't broken into the town hall and wrecked our setup.  Gotta like a guy who thinks of everything.  I said I'd check on it today.  Actually, more than likely would have even if he hadn't said something. 

Foggy morning.  Drove over to the County Seat for an appointment at the clinic.  I knew from taking my blood pressure at home that the A-fib had returned.  Doc had been weaning me off a medication but now I'm back on it at full strength.  Once back home I started going through my election prep checklist.  (You had to have guessed I'd have a checklist)  Checked in w/ each poll worker for tomorrow.  It's not so much to remind them they will be working the election as for me trying to ensure everything goes seamlessly.  Check.  I'd filled up the car w/ gas on the way back from the clinic.  Check.  Set two alarms for tomorrow morning.  Check.  No need to set up so Whip has access to her run while I'm gone all day.  Phil is here and said they would be in and out of the house during the day.  Check.  Figure out who I'm going to vote for.  Check.  Will wait until this afternoon to finish up the rest.

Tansy and Canadian Thistle: Which one will I be pulling?

Brother Phil asked if he could do some laundry.  I showed him how to use my washing machine and also the dryer.  Later in the afternoon he asked if washing a credit card would hurt it.  I've washed many things by mistake but, so far, not my billfold.  It was Brother Brent that quickly quipped, "You've been laundering money?"  Well, that's one way of doing it I suppose.  (Side note:  Didn't affect the credit cards but that's because he hung the washed clothes outside on the clothesline to dry.  If he had put it in the dryer it might have been a different story.)

 Brother and Sister-in-Law Brent and Evelyn got on the road by 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.   Sister-in-Law Sheila took off this morning to make lunch w/ a friend on her way home.  Brother Phil will stick around a while longer for a class get-together.   I acquired a new house guest last night.  Heard a cricket in the house.  Not a problem.  I'm sure Dunder or Blitz will seek it out and welcome it in their own way.

Sheila getting ready to take off

 Brent said we should go on our traditional buckthorn run.  I don't remember it as a tradition but cutting buckthorn trees is always a good thing.  Phil took his hedge trimmer and walked a couple of trails cutting back the overhanging raspberry and blackberry canes.   Brent and I slowly drove Jormungandr down the trail around the meadow.  I cut trees on the meadow side - some buckthorn and some ash - while Brent cut a bunch of buckthorn growing on the forest side of the path.  We met Phil out on the trail,  The bench seat on Jormungandr can only seat three so I told Whip to get out and we gave Phil a lift home.  I 'put the pedal to the metal' on the way home to create a cooling breeze.  Only in the 80's but working out in the sun had tired all of us.   By the time I parked Jormungandr Whip was laying at the front door waiting for us - big grin on her face as always.

It was my birthday yesterday and I feel properly celebrated.  I was carded and called, received presents, got flowers, and dined.  The flowers are a bit of a stretch - my new daylily, Final Touch, finally bloomed on my birthday and I'm counting that as receiving flowers.   Phil & Sheila, Russell & Donna, Brent & Evelyn and I went out for dinner at a supper club.  I was happy we could all get together before we disperse again.  Whip, who stayed home, got a doggy bag out of it so she was happy too.

Black Eyed Susan

Excerpts from the Sheriff's Report:

12:32 a.m. - Crash detection reporting vehicle crash at 74 m/p/h  with all airbags deployed.  No occupants found in vehicle.  Fire department made contact w/ driver via phone.  He was in the cornfield.  Vehicle failed to maintain curve in road, traveled through a ditch, jumped over driveway and into a yard, coming to stop at a tree.  Driver fled the scene before EMS arrived.  Citations to be mailed.

9:21 a.m. - Caller requests welfare check for cousin.  Hasn't heard from her for a while.  Deputy in contact with person of interest who drinks water out of the creek and goes to the bathroom in a bucket.  She talked about her money being locked up.  She can't access it.  DHHS does know her living conditions.  She does not have a phone.

10:25 a.m. - Caller reporting their spouse hit him across the back with a board.  Wife upset because he was calling his sister to get meth, which he admitted.  Incident sent to District Attorney for review.

10:49 a.m. - Male called to report the new striping near intersection is slippery.  His granddaughter fell of her bike.  Officer didn't see anything obvious.

10:59 a.m. - Complainant reporting a burglary to his storage unit.  Believes someone stole his items.  Deputy in contact with manager of storage unit.  Complainant had wrong unit number.

2:26 p.m. - Caller reports individual hit their van with a piece of equipment saying "I told you to move."  Individuals argued over moving vehicles so one could get through.  Complainant stated someone backed into him pushing his van backwards.  He then admitted he used his van to try to push machine forward.  Deputy told them he could arrest both of them or do nothing.  Complainant became upset and left.

2:53 p.m. - Caller requests to meet with a deputy regarding threats made.  Reporting party and witness state male of interest shook his fist and told them he has a surprise for them before he leaves.  Deputy spoke with male of interest who said he never said anything threatening.  He stated he's a Christian and had gifts for them, wanted to give them something nice.  Male admitted to tearing up grass on both sides of his trailer by driving on it.

3:25 p.m. - Caller saw a UTV get into an accident.  There were four people involved.  A male was cut and bleeding from the arm.  They did not want to call authorities as they were drinking.  Game warden spoke with one of the vehicle owners.  Will follow up.

5:48 p.m. - Report of a female wandering in the woods.  She lost her phone and purse.  A neighbor found her and gave her a ride home.  

8:29 p.m. - Officer checking on a privately-owned helicopter that landed in the field next to Verizon.  Checking to make sure nothing is wrong.  Everything OK.  Pilot flew in to pick up items from nearby restaurant.

Why it's called Bird's Foot Trefoil

 Since I was going to the County Seat to get groceries, I stopped off at the County Clerks office to pick up the second set of tally sheets that Chief Inspector Andy and I had noticed were missing when we did the Public Test of the Voting Machine on Saturday.  I was greeted by one of the Clerk's new aides.  I explained I was from the Town of Atlanta and we didn't get a second copy of the tally sheets in the paperwork sent out by the Clerk's office.  Would she give me a second copy?   I'd paused to make sure that question had registered w/ her.  She bustled off before I could say more.  She went to talk w/ the other new aide and I overheard, "We can copy them when they bring them in."   Fortunately she didn't come back to me w/ that suggestion but instead went on in to talk w/ the County Clerk herself.  County Clerk Connie came out to say hi and that she was printing out a second copy of the Republican and Democrat tally sheets for me.   Figured Connie would understand my next request: "Could I  have tally sheets also for the Green, Constitutional, and Libertarian parties?"   They are also on the ballot though they have no one running for office so any vote would have to be a write-in.  Connie looked at her aides.  They told her, as far as tally sheets, they had only included one copy for the Republican and Democrat parties in each town's packet.  Connie printed out an additional six copies of blank tally sheets for me to use when reporting each of the other parties and told the aides they would have to get in their cars and hand-deliver the extra tally sheets to each town.   I quickly asked for some 'I Voted' stickers and retreated from the office.   From the parking lot I texted our Town Clerk to let her know she might get something from Connie about tally sheets but that our town had all we needed.  Thinking about it, I was surprised no one had brought this up to the County Clerk before me.  By Wednesday, most everyone would have conducted a Public Test and should have noticed.  Sure, not a lot of people around here vote the Green, Libertarian, or Constitutional ticket but those parties are on the ballot.  We are required to submit an official form stating the number of votes they received - even if it's zero.   The Town Clerk texted me later and asked if I was the reason the County Clerk had just sent out a blanket e-mail to all clerks about the delivery of extra tally sheets.  "Yep" I texted back.  She responded w/ an emoji.  I'm horrible at interpreting those things but I believe a yellow face w/ a big grin and tears at the edge of both eyes is a good thing.

Sunset

 

The president has banned my vacuum.  Well, technically I just can't upgrade my Roomba since it might be a national security risk.  One reason given is a automated vacuum could map out the footprint of my home and transmit it back to China.  If someone in China wants to know how to find my bathroom, all they need do is ask.  Should I find the Roomba up on my desk going through my papers that might give me pause but right now it's only going to find a Lands End catalog and the yearly renewal notice for my P.O. Box.  The government also expressed concern that the robots could be ordered to cause harm to people.   Good thing I have a dog.  Whip would defend me vigorously if a Roomba stalked me while I slept.  I've seen what she does to small vermin and it isn't pretty.  She is a solid sleeper though.  I might have to wake her up first.

Drove to Churchville with Brother Phil.  On the way back home we went through the hills and there isn't usually any traffic.   I said, "Pretty sure I can make it through the hills w/o hitting the gas or the brake."   Phil seemed skeptical but I explained the cruise control is all I need to speed up or slow down.  All was going well - even through a series of curves - when I remembered the stop sign where County Road O meets County Road F.  I amended my statement, "I have to use the brakes at the stop sign but the turn later onto O I'm pretty sure I can slow enough to make."   Phil's response was a mumbled "Just get me home safe."  Not sure if he was talking to me or to God.  By the end of our trip, I'd used the brakes three times - once for the stop sign, once when I noticed a bunch of turkey crossing the road, and once to slow quickly so Phil could see where a new B&B was built.

Brent and Phil and the blanket chest

 

One of the reasons I bought Jormungandr was to use it in getting rid of garbage dumps on the property.  What wouldn't burn was dumped in a pile in the woods.  I know of five on the property and thought I could use the ATV to pick up the refuse there and dispose of it properly.  When Phil heard about it he said Brent and he should do it this year.  I limited them to one pile this year - a bunch of orange plastic baling twine in the middle of the old forest.  They went out this afternoon, found it themselves (well, it is orange), and filled the back of Jormungandr.  Tomorrow is garbage pickup day so after tossing the usual bag of house refuse, Phil filled the rest of the bin w/ old twine.  He dumped the rest of the orange twine near the end the driveway where I would constantly be reminded to fill up the rest of the garbage bin w/ twine week after week until it's gone. (At least that's my plan.)

Phil and Brent also looked over the old blanket chest that came over w/ the Hanke family (Grandma Pearl's side).  It's had a crack in the cover at least since my mother's time, there is a crack near the bottom, and it's color is best described as 'blotchy'. After watching The Repair Shop on TV I wondered if I should be doing something to keep the chest intact for another 150 years or so.  Brent and Phil determined the crack along the top was caused by the glue drying and falling out.  They fished out the glue, cut a sliver of a board and glued that in the crack.  Underneath they added a board to give the whole top more stability.  They thought the crack at the bottom was the same sort of thing but not a major deal.  As for the blotchy exterior they thought it told the story of the trunk showing where the handles, shipping strap, and lock had been at one time.  They suggested it not be refinished.  They did replace the castors which were not original and, surprisingly, of different sizes.

Picture by Evelyn Kuehnlenz.

Sandhill Cranes

August is my time to start looking for Christmas cards.  National Wildlife Federation was my 'go-to' place for cards but last year, even though they had a website for their cards, they didn't have any cards on it.   This year they admitted that they no longer make cards because "of changes in consumer behavior".   What does that mean?  I asked Google if sending Christmas cards was no longer a 'thing'.  It replied that it was declining in popularity due to cost, time, and the more convenient use of social media.    I'm OK w/ being old-fashioned about this.  While I do send out a handful of e-cards to people when I don't know their current address, I enjoy sending physical cards.  I enjoy thinking of some short snippet I can write in each that I hope will elicit a smile from the recipient.   I enjoy keeping in touch w/ far-flung relatives and friends at least once a year.  Really enjoy receiving cards too.

August is also the month I order my next year's calendars.  I have a Lang-sized calendar holder in the dining-room but I'm not limited to that size since brother Brent made inserts for it.   Slightly smaller calendars, as this year's, fit equally well.    I do have a 'type' of calendar I prefer - folksy, nature-based, no inspirational sayings.  I am making a list of calendars for this year that fit that profile - flowers, trees, naïf drawings - but sometimes I go 'rogue'.  Kilty Pleasures is in my mix of possible calendar candidates.  It features a lot of bare chested muscled men wearing kilts.  That might be thought-provoking.

Rick, Paul, Molly, and Peter (Brent is there somewhere)

Voting machine Public Test this morning.  No one came as usual so Andy and I voted as many times as necessary to feel comfortable that the count was correct and the machine would catch errors.  We also went through the paperwork delivered from the County Clerks Office checking that we had every document that might need to be filled out.  Only one set of tally sheets.  We've always had two - filled out after polls close by different poll workers, one copy going back to the County Clerk and one staying w/ our Town Clerk.  We could copy them but I'll bop over to the County Clerk's office next week and get them to make us an extra set.  Have to ask for "I Voted" stickers anyway.  

Cousins Rick, Dawn, and Paul were at my house by the time I got back from the test.   Cousins Molly and Peter arrived a little later.  They drove in from the Big City to see everyone and shoot clay pigeon w/ their shotguns.  After shooting we all had root beer floats.  It's the only time I can make use of the big glass mugs Honeywell gave out to team members whenever we installed new software at a branch.   Being on the Database team, I was involved in every installation.   At 7 p.m. I warned everyone that I would be watching Svengoolie and tonight's selection was Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter.  Many started to watch it w/ me but soon migrated to the deck in an effort to feed the hummers by hand or split off to talk about something else of interest.  Can't imagine why a bad B-horror flick from the '70's couldn't keep their attention. (Ha)

Funny thing - my house looked cleaner after they left than before they arrived.