Boy can summer wrap up quick around here. Not going to see sixty degrees for the next couple of days, drizzly, snotty days and the smell of Autumn already.

Had a decent run in the 8th acre. Bumper rows of corn, onions, carrots and lima beans, and as usual a great mass of tomatoes that we're not sure will get ripe. The russets have the biggest tops I've ever seen on a potato plant too...We actually have a good crop of Apple's on the three year old trees, Goodlands and honeycrisp. Wild raspberries up the yangying too. It pays to blast the rabbits on sight!!

We were hot, with a lot of severe thunderstorms for most of July and August, but this lat week we had some 70 degree highs, and set records for lows night before last, we got down to 38, some places were 34 and 35 

NOT ready for that yet! 

Everyone keep saying this is going to be a hard winter for our region with El nino stronger than its been in 15 years or so.

I could use a couple dry days to facilitate replacing an in-tank fuel pump. To complicate matters I had topped off the 26 gallon tank the night before the pump went. Timing...

A friend who owns a 97 Ram (mine's a 98) said to cut a trap door in the bed. My diesel/a-p mechanic brother says to pull the bed altogether. The guys making $75/hr flagging this kind of stuff say to drop the tank. None of them have any useful suggestions regarding paying for the fuel pump.

Ugh,I hope it goers better than mine did in my 93 ranger, I went through 4 pumps before I got one that stayed working more than a couple months. Didn't matter if I pooped for the better ones or not.   The only good thing about that was I could take a couple boards off the flat bed and get to it, would have been a royal pain if I had to drop the tank every time.

That's my fear, having to rinse and repeat. One is $240, the cheapest aftermarket pump overseen is $79, but there are 15 others in between. This is the second time the pump has failed, first time was at 7000 miles.

Oh, and I find I don't have all the tools for this either...

I almost went through the same thing with my old chev. The fuel level sensor went, and was part of the pump assembly. From what I read, it would have been somewhat easier to pull the box off. I just filled the tank, and sold the truck ..

Oh, and my son lives 3 hours south of us. They had snow last friday! Freak storm and it didn't last, but snow in the middle of August??

Pretty darn glorious autumn going on here. I'll finally have to cover some plants tonight if I'm going to coax any more peppers to mature. Octobers a couple days away and I'm ahead of the game on a bunch of around the house stuff--even got a couple cords of ironwood and ash cut and split and stacked for the firepit. Ok, there's some red oak and birch in the mix, but NO BOXELDER!!

I'm thinking about transplanting some pesky day lillys out of the chive patch for the nice lady who lets me live here, but a nap in the hammock sounds better!!

We have been dryyy dry,  except for a thunderstorm about 2 weeks ago that dropped about 3/4" that disappeared almost immediately, been hot too, was ta 90 day before yesterday.  Today we are maybe going to get to 70, cloudy, low clouds and damp.   You would think I could get up decent hay in all that dry hot weather, just one more mystery of the universe I guess.

Sorry for yer dry, we've been blessed with a very consistent moisture pattern, my skepticism aside.

Our garden has been ridiculous this year. This is what out tater patch is producing:



No, the hand grew up on me. The two monster russets weigh in at a pound and a half each.



These tomatoes are advertised to be half this size...They are all meat, almost no mush to them at all. Yes. The PuddenFace has gone blue...



Planted two very small bare-root apple trees three years ago. This is what they both gave us on year three. This one is a Goodland, best pie apple I've ever tasted. The other is a Minnesota obligation, a Honeycrisp, good, but in my opinion overrated...

Y'all get hungry, come on up! Bring beef...

I think summer is officially over, we had a our last 90 degree day about Monday or so, the last few have been cloudy, breezy, fog  & drizzle and much cooler, not a lot of rain to speak of, but sure a change.  Was out yesterday cleaning a pen and wearing my winter coat thinking maybe  my ear winky hat would feel good, ended up running the 1st fire of the season last night too.

Our mornings are cool, but I picked another load of tomatoes this morning. No rain for quite some time, but we're good in the moisture department, no worries. Daytime in the sixties, notes around 45. Not bad for October in Minnesota!

I had an accident in the woods last week, looks like I'll be having yet another surgery. I was clearing the hunting trail behind Dad's house last Wednesday and ripped one side of my bicep from my left elbow when trying to clean & jerk a 150lb. deadfall log. What really ticks me off is that I had the Huskvarna in the trailer behind me and even considered cutting the damned log before I went all stupid. Felt like being shot (ok, what I imagine being shot feels like). I see a surgeon tomorrow morning. This will make 7 surgeries in 6 years. I am become a mess.

Depends if you still have your own body parts, or if they are slowly turning you into robo-stetto...

Hope the surgery works out okay!

QuoteI am become a mess.

Wow, now we know who coded that old video game and wrote "All your base are belong to us." 

That sucks though, start messing with torn muscles and ligaments and its a long heal.   Maybe they will get in there and see its not as bad as they think.

They did an MRI Monday and found that the muscle tendon had separated cleanly, a good thing for reattachment I guess. The surgery was done at non yesterday, took all of an hour. My surgeon is a boy, doesn't look 30, but he came in wearing camo shrubs! Another Great White Hunter. We got along really well, and he accepted the invitation to do some whitetail hunting in my section, since I'll be stoves up til January or so. He will share...
...I am on 2mg's of hydromorphone every four hours for pain, and boy do I need it. My left arm is a constant four alarm toothache. Before the surgery he has no lifting more than a coffee cup for six weeks. After the job was done he said not even that, and my arm is splinted for the duration.

I don't recommend anyone detach a major muscle...ANYWHERE...

Oh, and Nony, it wasn't the fuel tank after all. It seems that the distributor had disintegrated from the inside...yay.

I apologize for syntax and spelling errors. I'm on hydromorphone and letting auto correct right this......