Grass mowed; sprayer winterized

It seems increasingly likely that we will be right where we are until we get snowed in.  So we slipped home late Saturday night and returned yesterday afternoon.  It was a long trip with not much time at home but we made good use of the little time we had.  First we raided neighbour Keith’s garden, returning with new potatoes, corn, tomatoes, carrots, squashes and who knows what all else – I wasn’t directly involved in the raid.  I was busy using the time to spray various village lawns.

I had intended to spray our own lawns but it didn’t work out exactly according to plan.  First I carefully mixed some Curtail M according to my usual protocol.  I put “some” water in my spray tank – I’m not sure how big it really is but I filled it roughly 3/4 full.  Then since I didn’t know how much water I was dealing with I didn’t concern myself with how much Curtail concentrate I added.  I put in a couple of glugs, thought that didn’t seem like enough so added a couple more and called that good.  Then I started spraying but that’s pretty random too because I mainly just try to avoid driving in the same wheel marks twice and I don’t really know how much spray solution I am applying.  I’m sure I’m applying something because the tank eventually goes empty and it must be roughly the right amount because what I did this spring killed a lot of weeds.

So I started spraying on neighbour Keith’s property but there were a lot of weeds so I sprayed a lot more there than we had originally intended.  Then I moved down to neighbour Michael’s place and sprayed north of his shop.  I sprayed that area this spring and killed some of the dandelions but I wasn’t happy with the control so I wanted to go back.  Unfortunately when I finally got to our place my tank was pretty near empty so I didn’t get much covered there.  I did get a remarkably good kill this spring and I got over a few bad spots yesterday so it wasn’t a complete failure but clearly I should have started spraying on our own property.  That was neighbour Keith’s advice when I was complaining to him after the fact.

The most important part of the whole trip was getting some anti freeze into the sprayer and I definitely got that done so – even if my weed spraying turns out to be spotty – I should still be able to use the sprayer next year.  My big fear until I got that done was that some morning I would wake up to frost on the windshield and a busted sprayer pump waiting for me at home.

Neighbour Keith also told me that we have a furry trespasser living in my new shop.  I’ve never understood why squirrels get a pass.  They’re just rats with fuzzy tails.  Just because they have good PR doesn’t make them any less a rat.  Years ago we had one scoping out the Savanna 5th wheel as a possible winter home.  I attempted to trap him with a gopher trap but he was able to lick peanut butter off the trip pan without setting that trap off.  His undoing came when I set a mouse trap under the gopher trap.  Marilyn saw the whole gory incident from the kitchen table.  He attempted to steal the peanut butter, setting off the mouse trap in the process.  That startled him and he leaped straight up coming down hard on the gopher trip pan.  And that was all it took.  I have some plans for Keith’s little rat but they’ll have to wait until we get back home.  I have to keep his ultimate fate a secret because more than one of my neighbours evidently thinks he is cute.  I just don’t get it.

I’ve been looking for a blower for this little guy and I actually found one in Yorkton but waited too long to go get it so I’m back to looking.  Winter approaches.  There’s a complete tractor in Winterpeg with a blower and home made cab on it but its a long way to go and the guy is a little too proud of it for my liking.  Something closer will likely turn up and I got by just fine with the blade last winter so its not really urgent.