My garden is going better this year than it ever has in past years, probably due in part to using the new tiller, and actually weeding it occasionally. Still, a couple of the cucumber plants died completely and the rest are doing very poorly. One watermelon died and the other one is simply not growing (but it’s still green), and my yellow squash are growing way too slowly. At least we’ll have plenty of tomatoes and corn this year–dozens of tomato fruits and many ears of corn have already appeared. The jalapeños and bell peppers weren’t growing for a long time, but they’ve finally gotten bigger and if I’m lucky I’ll have some peppers by October. Fat lot of good they’ll do me then when the tomatoes are all gone.
I put new shocks on the front of my truck the other day and they didn’t seem to help with the front-end bouncing up and down when I come to a sudden stop. One of the old shocks was obviously shot (no gas pressure inside, and leaking a lot of hydraulic fluid). I’m not sure that there are any other possible causes for the continued bouncing, unless the shocks that I got were bad, but that’s very unlikely. With that heavy diesel engine in front, I’m lucky I don’t catch air from the spring rebound.
Traci is up in Joe’s Valley for the weekend, so the boys and I are going to do some geocaching this evening, and we may even work on Torrey’s dog house tomorrow. At the back of the house there’s a closet that is built out past the foundation by about two feet, and the area underneath the overhang is the ideal size for a dog house plus some extra tool storage. I’ve got the ground underneath dug out, framed, and ready to pour concrete, and when that’s done I’ll frame in the walls and put up insulation and siding. The dog doesn’t spend a lot of time outdoors, but on the rare occasion when we have to leave town and can’t bring her along, she’ll need some sort of shelter.