State of the Household Report

16 August 2010
9:03 PM

Sunrise at	5:43 AM	in direction	55°	Northeast
Sunset at	10:05 PM	in direction	305°	Northwest

Duration of day: 16 hours, 22 minutes (6 minutes, 52 seconds shorter than yesterday

Cutter continues to adjust.  He is now exceptionally happy to see me when I return home from work.  I think that must be because it means it is time to eat.  Tonight we trimmed branches from trees, and the dogs watched from the deck.  As I went back to the deck, he was exceptionally excited.  I invited him to come out with us.  He could not bring himself to leave the deck without a lot of coaxing. He is not afraid, but oddly, like the dobermans has a clear idea that this is the limits of his space.

I finally got him down, but then he immediately strayed toward the back.  He would come when called, but not as promptly as he did for Aliy nor as quickly as he did for me when he first got here - hmmmm.  So, I put him on the retractable lead.  He immediately explored the length of the lead, but would not pull beyond it.  He was then very content to be out in the rest of the yard with me because he knew where he should be - what his limits were. 

He is smiling a lot now. 

Regarding the tree project, each night after work, I have been working on trimming branches off of trees.  Tonight Gary had to help because I am getting to the point where I would either need my chainsaw or the bow saw to cut the branches.  He has a power blade that works like a bow saw but without the human muscle power.  He worked for over an hour and still has two full trees to go.  I have managed to clean out all of the smaller branches and twigs off the birch trees. 

We have two infestations on the birch.  One is the Amber Birch Leaf Miner which I have never seen before.  They are the cause of the brown spotting on the trees in our yard and other areas around town.  There are some trees that appear to be entirely free of them and some totally consumed.

The other is a little beetle that looks like a lady bug, but isn't.  They are usually found on the seed clusters.  I am taking a sample into Cooperative Extension tomorrow to see what they are.  They definitely are feeding off of something in the birch because that is the only place I have seen them.  The Interior climate spawned two insects interacting on the birch in the same year.  I was assured the beetle was not eating the Leaf Miner because they found their way into the inner lining of the leaf and the beetle would not be able to get to them.

We are both pretty pooped.  I think it must be good that Gary and I can still do hard work at our age, but my body thinks I am just plain stupid for pretending to be 20 - heck even 30 or 40 would be nice.