Not a Good Day

Not a Good Day was Originally Posted on July 25, 2012 by lavarock

I got a call from my friend that it rained pretty hard last nigh at her place. That is the location where my puppies will be beginning Tuesday. I had just disassembled here and reassembled at her place, a 10 by 10 foot chain link kennel. The flattest place is ner her house and next to where we cut up the meat for the dogs at the co-op. Now besides covering part of the kennel with a tarp, I need to find something t okeep the puppies up off the ground. I have a couple of pallets and may put them under a couple of the shipping crates (plastic kennels) that they now use for shelter. As long as they don’t destroy them, I can use them to ship puppies on the airplane to other islands.

To combat a beetle that is effecting our coffee trees, I was going to use a backpack sprayer. However, people tell me that is unusable because of the weight and constant refilling needed. So I opted to use my power tow-behind sprayer and my new ATV to pull it. The ATV has a trigger accelerator which uses your right thumb and the right and left hand generally t ostear the thing. Riding along at spraying speed is not easy, so I searched and found some tubing t oextend the spray wand about 100 fet. The hose cost me over $100. When you press the wand trigger, the pump on the base unit (hooked to the ATV’s power) and the pump supplies all the pressure I need. Then I can drive the ATV to the middle of each coffee tree row and walk 100′ each way to spray the left side of the left trees and the right side of the right trees. Then I wind the hose, move the ATV t othe next row and do the same, catching the other side of the last row I sprayed and the first part of the next row. I would do this 42 times and be done. I can use the irrigation system out there to fill the sprayer, which holds 25 gallons.

My preliminary test worked fine, but when I brought the sprayer down t othe house, it flipped over and one wheel lost pressure. I had to take the tire off (pretty simple though) and pump it up with my little auto tire pump. I will also have to slightly straighten the fork where it attaches to the back of the ATV. SIGH! I need to get this spraying done. In the meantime, it is now pouring down rain.

On a sad note, a year or two ago a couple had bought a dog from my friend, and her husband passed away over night. Their two dogs are being cared for by my friend, in the meantime. It was very sudden as I understand it, and very sad. It just shows you that life is very short.