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<\/a>Pam finished her ‘summer holiday’ wreaths and hung them on the gates around the dog run. Here is one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a>The house looks fine in its 4th of July garb. <\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a>Even Gromit got into the act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>I kept busy as well. One task that should have been done last fall, but didn’t, was addressed this week. I put new brake pads in the rear of the truck. I had done the front pads last November but the advent of cold weather and Becky’s arrival made me put off doing the rear brakes. The job went OK and the brakes are now nice and quiet; they had been ‘squeaking’ which is an indication of worn pads. I’m glad to have completed that particular job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other indoor projects included scanning more negatives and creating another “travel” video. The latter was part of a longer SW Colorado vacation from 1989, before we moved back to Wisconsin. (We were living in Oregon at the time.) The movie’s main topic is the area around Marble, Colorado, including McClure Pass, the marble quarry, the Crystal Mill, and the Town of Crystal. Run time is 12:46 and you can view the clip, if interested, from this page.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next up for me is the replacement of the John Deere’s electronic clutch that operates the lawn mower deck. The old clutch has been acting up for some time, not wanting to engage after it has been running for a while and getting warm. The John Deere is around 30 years old, dating from the early ’90s, and needs some maintenance to keep it in operation. A clutch replacement is a fairly common problem for older riding lawn mowers. Here is a photo of the new clutch.<\/p>\n\n\n Hopefully the job to replace the old unit will not be difficult or take a lot of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The yard plantings are doing very well this year. One example is a maple in the east yard. Chewed off by deer last winter, we were uncertain it would survive. The tree has instead exhibited phenomenal growth, putting on more that 2 feet of new shoots this year.<\/p>\n\n\n Other flowers are doing equally well.<\/p>\n\n\n The outside cats like to get under the hostas and day lilies, under the oak trees, to stay cool. Here is Dusty taking advantage of the shade.<\/p>\n\n\n A couple of events to note. Last week, the 4th of July weekend, Elma hosted a tractor pull. I attended this event (drove the several blocks on my ATV) and watched a couple of classes and enjoyed the short outing. This weekend it’s Elma Trail Days, the first “full” celebration since the pandemic began. There will be street vendors, a concert, and fireworks were shot off last night. We will have to see how successful the event will be. (Last year most events were canceled, although there was a parade.) Here are a couple shots from this year’s parade, which we can enjoy from our front porch.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>