t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i went to market basket this morning to get a few things for my mother: bean sprouts, bananas, avocados. i also got a watermelon. coming back to the house to get my stuff, i noticed joseph's contractors were back at work again. friday was supposed to be their last day! maybe they were here to collect their equipment.

the avocado was to make some sushi, after i told my mother this weekend i was craving some california rolls. they used to sell it at the cafe but not before the city came down on them and said they needed a raw seafood preparation license in order to sell sushi, even though at most they only ever had imitation crab or cooked eel, never anything raw.

unfortunately the avocados weren't ripe enough, so my mother wouldn't be able to make any sushi today. i dropped off everything at the cafe before continuing to belmont. i took the trek utility bike today to get some exercise but also it might rain later today and i didn't want to move my motorcycle from a good parking spot.

the first thing i did when i arrived was to check the perimeters. nothing had been breached, all barriers intact.

i brought some korean soup buns from the cafe but i had rice porridge with kabocha squash and leftover ribs instead, along with some diced tomatoes. my father made some jasmine tea with the flowers from our plants.

we spent a chunk of the afternoon cleaning out the basement. we didn't throw out too much, more like consolidating and reorganizing. we ended up emptying two metal shelving units. the plan was then to move the metal shelving unit from the sunroom down into the basement, along with all the kitchen accoutrements, with the final goal of decluttering the sunroom. but it was insanely hot today, heat index close to 100°F. i tried avoiding going out, but the few times that i did, the oppressive humidity and heat was so thick it felt like a wall.

in the late afternoon the oppressive humidity let up a bit, as the sky suddenly turned cloudy, blotting out the sun. it seemed like we might get some serious weather, maybe a torrential downpour, but it was a sprinkle at best. i did hear the rain barrel catch some water but only enough for the first barrel.

around 5pm i went outside to check the perimeters again. i was shocked to find the eastern fence had been breached. even though i piled some bricks along the bottom edge of the fence, the woodchuck simply dug underneath them like they were nothing, even pushing out a brick. having exhausted all other methods, the only solution now was to burying some wire fencing beneath the wooden fencing. while my father was making dinner, i was outside cutting up a 4ft length of metal fencing. i wasn't wearing gloves and in my haste to get it done quickly, i cut my knuckles on the exposed wires not once not twice but three times, bleeding all over my left hand. i had to go inside and put on a latex glove to keep the dirt from getting in the wound once i started digging.

i checked the southern fence and was surprised to see the woodchuck had also once again tried digging underneath the fencing from our side of the yard. once again, it tried at two different locations, both fortified with fencing so it couldn't get out. like the last time it got in, there didn't seem to be any damage, it was more like reconnaissance, trying to make new tunnels so it can come back at another time. it probably panicked once it realized it was potentially trapped and left through the original hole by the eastern fence. just to make sure however, i went around the yard with a stick, thrashing some shrubbery to make sure the woodchuck wasn't hiding in the yard and that i might accidentally trap it inside.

my father came out to help me bury the wire fencing. it was a little difficult to dig, as we had to climb over the pile of logs to get to the space at the fence bottom. we also discovered a small tree root which we had to snip off with some pruners. we ended up burying half of the wire fencing, about 6-7in. worth underground, which seemed to a good enough depth for the southern fence perimeter. because this was the front side of the wooden fence, there wasn't a bottom rail that i could push the top edge of the wire fencing under, so instead i had to staple the wire fencing onto the wood fence to keep it in place. we also piled some logs in front of the fence to block any visible gaps so the woodchuck wouldn't be tempted to dig through.

my father had dinner ready by the time my mother came home from the cafe. i applied some liquid bandage on the cuts on my knuckles: it hurt like crazy when i brushed it on but once it dried it was fine, better than putting 3 bandaids across my fingers.