December 31, 2008

Christmas 2008 and Sophia Noelle

We celebrated Christmas on both ends of the drive from Amarillo to Garland. Christmas Eve we exchanged presents with the Zbinden clan and came back Christmas morning for breakfast before hitting the road. Christmas evening we exchanged presents with the Wylie clan. The big event, though, took place the day after Christmas at 5:59 p.m. when Sophia Noelle entered the world. She wasn't Sophia Noelle at the time because Jill and Dave hadn't settled on a name. That happened the next day so our champagne toast wasn't very specific.

Kaylee and I spent some time together after everyone else left for the hospital Friday afternoon. John and Kathy came to visit us. We ordered pizza, hung out and awaited events. Then after we got the call we loaded up and headed for the hospital. We didn't get to see Sophia except through a window until the next day. She's pretty quiet but seems really sweet. I think she'll fit in really well.

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December 21, 2008

Other than a quick trip to the shop with Joyce to feed the cats, we've stayed in the house all day. Well, I guess Joyce did got to church. Maybe I should say I stayed in the house all day. It only got as high as 28 degrees according to my thermometer so indoors seemed like the place to be. It is kind of nice to get a day off like this so long as there aren't too many. As usual I'm a little sore from yesterday's exertions and the R&R is nice. I moved some dirt around the shop, dug up and reset another fence post and, with the help of Chris and Joyce moved several pieces of furniture to the man cave. The day before I moved the desk chair Dad refinished from the back porch to the basement along with the game table and extra chair from the kitchen. Saturday we moved the TV stand we brought with us from Garland and had in the spare bedroom, the recliner from Genna's office (pink room) and the TV from the green room. I tested the TV out this afternoon while Joyce cleaned litter boxes and the reception was pretty good. The rabbit ear antenna could be adjusted to retrieve an acceptable picture. The common usage will probably be for watching movies on DVD or VCR so the broadcast reception is just a bonus. Come to think of it, that TV will need a digital thingy for broadcast reception soon. I wonder what that will do to the picture.

Yesterday afternoon I busied myself in the shop

putting up some peg board to hang tools off of. It was nice to be out of the north wind that had been blowing all day. I didn't suffer from the cold in the morning moving the dirt and fence post because I was dressed suitably and was working pretty hard. But in the afternoon when I'm beginning to tire out the shop made a very pleasant place to piddle. Chris borrowed my torch and solder to try to repair the dogs' water trough that apparently ice had damaged. I expected him to work on it in the shop but I looked out the window and saw that he was working on it in the driveway at 2005. I guess he preferred the cold north wind to my company. Can't say as I blame him.

We're pretty much set for Christmas. My contribution to wrapping presents was to shove Joyce's Christmas present into the sack she gave me to use after wrapping it in the tissue she provided. I just don't know what she would do without me. I guess we'll find out, though, because on Christmas day we'll drive to Garland and it may be a while before she comes home.

Finally, I'll call your attention to the Shop link on the menu to your left. It is a slide show of the shop construction and is a little under eight minutes long. I'd be interested in how well it worked if you view it.

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December 15, 2008

From a low of 11 degrees this morning to high of maybe 17. Currently we're about 16 degrees at 7 o'clock in the evening. It is cold. It was interesting how the weather changed yesterday. I had been in the house all morning and Joyce came in about 10:30 to tell me it was really nice outside. I hadn't looked at any weather but someone said it was going to turn cold Sunday night. Anyway I went outside to do some puttering and though it was breezy it wasn't bad. As the day wore on the west wind got stronger and there were a few gusts that must have exceeded 40 mph. I was under the juniper next to the driveway digging up seedlings when I noticed the air was getting cooler. It didn't start blowing out of the north right away. In fact the wind began to drop but the air was getting colder by the minute. By the time I finished my outdoor activity and headed indoors the temperature had dropped over 15 degrees from a high of about 60. The wind got up again out of the north and it was fast becoming quite unpleasant outside.

As I said I collected some seedlings yesterday and potted them. I used our new potting arrangement in the shop. First I had to rig up a shelf in the window above the potting table so I would have some place to put the seedlings where they would get a little sun. My shelf-building efforts were minimal. I just retrieved a suitable board maybe four feet long by 9 or 10 inches wide, one Dad saved way back when and that I had saved again from the barn demolition. I cut a couple of lengths of 2X4 as front legs and propped the back of the board on the window sill, not elegant but functional. That was maybe the first time I used my work bench in the shop. It was nice to have a decent work area. It will be nicer after I've done some rearranging.

Mostly the seedlings I collected were junipers but a couple were pines, I believe. Grady Howard

mentioned once never seeing pine seedlings in this area and I hadn't either until these two came up under the juniper. I would like to compare their needles to the pine growing on the west side of 1911 but its branches start too high up to do that from the ground. I'll have to get a ladder sometime to get up high enough to make the comparison. I think the seedlings are from that tree. I wish I knew how to get pinon pines started. We have plenty of seeds from the two big ones on the place. Maybe I'll do a little experimenting and see if I can figure out what conditions they require to germinate.

Saturday I worked some on the grounds around the shop trying to get the dirt leveled out and the detritus picked up. It's beginning to look better but there is still a ways to go. I also planted another one of the junipers from the nursery. It isn't accurate to call them seedlings. They are much bigger than that. This time I took more care to avoid as much damage to the roots as possible. That's two down and six to go.

Chris helped me move Genna's desk down to the man cave Saturday. It was no small task. Some of the three pieces are heavy and bulky. We managed though and it fits nicely in the southeast corner near the window. That's step one to moving my office down there. In fact I guess that was the biggest step because everything else is small and light in comparison. I'll call the phone company and get them to switch the phone from 2005 to the man cave. When that happens I'll move my computer equipment down there and get myself set up. I don't really require much stuff, just the computer and peripherals, a telephone and the desk that is already down there. I'll have to move the filing cabinet and some other office supplies and books but that is fair easily done. As cold as it is, I think it will be nice to be down in the man cave away from that north window.

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December 7, 2008

We spent the afternoon in Quitaque with the Dudley's after inviting ourselves down. We told them we would bring refreshments, pizza, which we did so maybe it was OK. They seemed chipper, Clyde none the worse for his ordeal last spring, at least outwardly. It was a pleasant afternoon. The weather was warm and clear. The drive is about 90-105 minutes, not unpleasant. We drove the Pathfinder to limber it up some and listened to Christmas music coming and going. Joyce had another episode of her hair standing on end like she had on the way back from Garland last weekend. It was dark and I theorized we were passing a cemetery when it happened but we don't know for sure.

Yesterday was a marvelous day weather-wise. Though it started out cold, the air was calm and remained so all day. Before midmorning I had begun shedding layers. Of course I was working pretty hard moving dirt around so I warmed up pretty good. I guess my big project for the day was relocating the tree nursery. Several weeks ago I yanked up several juniper seedlings and planted them in peat pots. Those that were still alive I planted in larger containers and lined them up under the drip line on the south side of the shop. My bright idea is to take advantage of the moisture running off the shop roof. It doesn't take much to amount to a pretty good drip. I mulched the pots with leaves I raked up by the well and along the front lane. Then I put a layer of pine straw on top of that to keep the leaves from blowing away. I burrowed down through the pine straw and leaves to open each seeding to a little light but hopefully I left enough mulch to protect them from the force of the runoff, which would be considerable if it rained very hard.

Chris applied Thompson's Waterseal to the shop driveway and doorstep for me. The concrete people recommended that to save it from snow and ice. Then he helped Joyce collect the rocks left over from the construction. Most of what was left had been run over by machinery so it had to be dug out of the ground. Joyce and Abigail had done some of that a couple of weeks ago. Abigail came over and helped again, earning a little pocket money. With Chris's help they finished cleaning them up. We used them to put a border of rocks around the window well so the steel grate had a buffer zone between it and the dirt.

Hopefully I'm learning a little bit about growing seedling trees. I discovered that the junipers in the nursery east of 1911 that had grown far past the seedling stage had grown out of their plastic containers. I'm afraid the one I dug up may not survive the transplant because I cut too much of the root. I'll have to be more careful with the rest in that size category. Those are two year's old. Those that had been in the nursery all year and are still seedlings but pretty well established I transplanted to a larger container. I think that will allow them another year's grown without escaping the container and I should be able to plant them next winter with risking damage to them. Those I also planted under the eaves of the shop. It will be interesting to see how that experiment works out.

Friday night we kept Rebecca while K&C Christmas shopped. Abigail went to movie night at their church. It was cold Friday and a fire felt really go. The three of us just hung out all evening staying close to the fire. Joyce and I were ready for bed when Rebecca's mom and dad came and collected her.

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November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

We're back home after a pleasant week in Garland and surrounding area. We bucked a stiff north wind all the way home, which dropped our gas mileage to slightly under 29 miles per gallon. By contrast, on the way down on Monday we averaged over 35 miles per gallon. The drop in mileage resulted in our barely making it back to Amarillo on a single tank of gas. I realized it was going to be close and resolved to stop for gas in Claude if the low-gas signal went off before then but to push on if it hadn't. It went off just as we passed the only gas station in town. I started to stop but the cars were backed up waiting to get to the pumps so I decided we would try to make it to Amarillo. We did and probably had 10 more miles to spare.

We enjoyed our week at the Wylie's. It was pretty crowded once the Zbindens got there but nobody got seriously blowed up. I guess our accommodations were even tighter when we were in Red River last summer. The Thanksgiving Dinner the ladies prepared was outstanding. Dave did an excellent job of smoking various turkey body parts. Kari and I ran the Turkey Trot in the morning so I was more that ready for the repast by the time it was ready for me. I ate too much, of course, but did so without regret having burned off so many calories that morning.

Tuesday while Joyce, Jill and Kaylee went to Jill's doctor appointment, I took the car to the dealership to answer a recall, something about the vehicle spontaneously bursting into flame. I also planned to

pick up our Turkey Trot number packets. I was going to wait for the ladies to pick me up since the service technician said the repair would take three or four hours but by the time they were out of the appointment I had discovered that the DART South Garland Transfer Center was right behind the dealership and I thought it would be interesting to see if I could get to Luke's Locker on Oak Lawn via public transportation. The personnel in the center told me which bus/train combination to take and I was on my way. Sitting in the waiting room of the dealership reading the paper I learned that it was dollar day at the Dallas Zoo. The entry fee is normally $10. It was a nice day and I thought what the heck, for a buck I'll visit the zoo since the train takes one right to it. As you might expect there were a lot of people there, mostly parents with children but I enjoyed walking around anyway. I was rewarded by actually seeing a gorilla in their natural-like habitat and a tiger in its habitat. It is quite possible to see neither since they have enough habitat they can hide from view, and usually do. Can't say that I blame them. After the zoo I successfully accomplished my errand and was back home in time for happy hour, the car repair having been completed by the time I got back to the dealership.

In the interest of full disclosure, we enjoyed a pleasant evening at the Hunt's, John and I played golf in fairly nice weather, and Joyce, Kathy and I had a little Starbuck's treat to close out the week.

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November 9, 2008

We're winding down a busy weekend, just waiting for it to get late enough to go rustle up something to eat. It is windier today than yesterday. Yesterday was as ideal as last Saturday, how lucky can we get. I spent the day moving stuff into the shop and, with Abigail's help, I got all the stuff moved out of the driveway at 2005. We even got the mowers moved out of the 2005 garage. It isn't pretty the way it is arranged in the shop. This is all the stuff that came out of the shed/barn, even the tables. As time goes along I'll sort through it and try to thin it out some. As it thins, it should be easier to arrange more elegantly, if old nails, motor oil and candy business paraphenalia can be elegant. Today I moved most of the stuff our of the 1911 garage that I want to reassign to the shop. That includes the pickup. I don't yet have locks on the door of the shop so I've still got some power tools in the garage at 1911. Anyway, lots of moving and sorting and no doubt that will continue for some time. Joyce got her cats relocated to the shop,

all except Cotton who has developed an eating disorder and Joyce has him in the house while she nurses him. Also, when she was loading them in she couldn't find Elmo, so I guess really it was just Chloe and Sydney that spent last night in the shop. It will no doubt take a while for them to get aclamated but whereever the food is I'm sure they will be happy.

Kari and Chris left A&R with us Thursday and Friday evening while Kari joined Chris in Las Vegas. He was there on business. They got back yesterday evening and I haven't heard a recap of their trip. I guess all went well. Joyce stayed pretty busy with the girls, as you can imagine. I spelled her a time or two. As I've already mentioned, Abigail helped me yesterday from mid-morning until about 4 o'clock when we called it quits for the day. We had a pretty good time together. She made me a lucky charm so I guess she's the first to complete a project in the shop, the first of many I hope.

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November 2, 2008

Almost finished

Halloween came and went with me on the road, at least at trick-or-treat time. I left Artesia, NM about 6 p.m. Texas time and got home a little before 11. It seemed like a long week. I left for Dallas around noon Sunday and, yes, I did get home at 5:40 Tuesday, which was nice. Always nice to sleep in one's own bed. But the next day I left after lunch for Artesia so it hardly seems like I was home. Nevertheless it was a productive week and everything came off without a hitch, so if it seems like I'm complaining I'm not. At least not much.

Yesterday compensated for the week on the road. The weather was unbeatable and we got some good work done. We cleaned out the garden in the morning and I spent a few hours painting in the afternoon. Today was productive as well as I ran the lawnmower over the yard at 1911 for the last time this year, raked up twigs at 1911, washed the car, swept out the garage, trimmed the bushes in front, filled the firewood stand, bombed the roaches in the cellar and swept out the shop.

The big spruce farthest east along the driveway has a

lot of dead needles I noticed with alarm today. I looked at the other big spruces and saw that there were dead needles in them as well, though not as extensive as the first one. I'm hoping it is a seasonal phenomenon I haven't noticed before. I don't see how it could be drought. That four inches we had two or three weeks ago should have set them up for a while and we had seen to it that they were watered between the rains. The pistache is showing out. The shumard red oak on the west just south of 1911 is, too, but it's canopy isn't as large as the pistache and it is hidden among the junipers so it isn't as noticeable.

As you can see, the shop is just about done. There are a few details remaining but I'm hoping we can wrap it up this week and get the tradesmen off the place. I want to get started moving and cleaning up the area. This building process has gone on long enough. There won't be light enough for doing anything outside after dinner until March, but I can work in the shop and there will be plenty of work to do getting things organized and squared away, which was the whole point of the project in the first place.

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October 26, 2008

Picnic on Genna's Overlook

Saturday was on of those beautiful days made all the more pleasant by the contrast of the unpleasant weather preceeding it. Tuesday and Wednesday were windy and cold. We got a little moisture Monday night as well. So on Saturday I felt we should take advantage of the weather and suggested we go out to Riverland to watch the sunset. Joyce and Kari came up with some victuals and when we got there we hiked out to Genna's Overlook. I say hiked because for little people it was something of a hike. Though it is less than half a mile from where we parked the car, Riverland must have gotten rain late because the grass was really high. It was so high it tended to hide the prickly pear and bare grass which made for treacherous navigation. It was worth it

though. We got there about 45 minutes before sunset, plenty of time for a little picnic. There were no bugs or wind to speak of. On the way home we stopped at Braum's and capped off the evening with ice cream.

The bricklayers didn't start up again until Wednesday but they are finished and have decamped. I'll be gone most of the coming week and Tom the construction manager says his goal is to finish off the shop while I'm gone. There may be the odd this and that left but the remaining work, the plumbing and electrical finish out and the driveway, will be done if he accomplishes what he plans to. That means it will be time to start moving in soon.

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October 19, 2008

October 19, 2008

We started drying out Wednesday after totaling over four inches of rain accumulated Saturday through Tuesday. I spent Tuesday in Arlington and Joyce said it rain steadily all day long. It is still pretty easy to find mud, but the brick layers are supposed to start up again tomorrow. They might not be able to finish in one day, but they might and showers are predicted for Monday evening so we'll keep our fingers crossed that they do. Used to be when there was a chance of rain we didn't worry about it because it never rained. Now it seems like if there is a chance, well by golly it will rain. I guess I ought to shut up and stop complaining, knowing that it can stop raining and not start up again for months. Sure would be nice to get the shop finished, though.

It was breezy yesterday but it calmed down toward evening and we enjoyed a nice weenie roast. That activity is more pleasant this time of year when it's cool and it gets dark fairly early. Just makes a fire and roasting marshmellows more fun when the fire feels good. Today was another very nice day and I used it to finish mowing the south end. You'll recall Andreas mowed much of it when he was here around Rebecca's birthday. I think the grass has stopped growing. At least the native grass has. The blue grass in the shady spots will grow all winter, at least some. I would like to get all the mowing done before Halloween. As the season advances it is less and less likely that the pleasant days will coincide with weekends and the evenings are getting shorter each week. Soon there won't be enough daylight to get anything done.

So, if all goes well, the brick layers will be gone by the end of the day Tuesday. As you see in the pictures, their scaffolding forms a formidable barrier so the other guys will probably hold off until they are out of there. Saturday I loaded up their waste pile and hauled it off to the dump. They generate quite a bit of detritus, stuff like pieces of brick, paper used to separate bricks, unused mortar and the plastic straps that hold the bricks together. At the dump each vehicle is weighed going in and coming out, and you are charged at the rate of $25 per ton with a minimum of $5. My load was half a ton. My back is a little sore today. The unused and dried mortar piles were too heavy to lift so I had to break them up into manageable pieces with a sledge hammer. One piece weighed 40 to 50 pounds and had one of the plastic brick straps looped into it. When I picked it up and heaved it out of the pickup at the dump that strap caught my wrist. As you can imagine those straps are very stout since they hold the stacks of bricks together. It wasn't going to break and the mortar block wasn't about to stop before it reached the ground. Fortunately after catching on my watch band, then my thumb, the strap slipped off my wrist before I got deposited in the dump along with the rest of the junk. I walked away with a largish strawberry and consider myself lucky.

The painters finished the interior painting last week and had previously done the outside, so they are done and out of the way. That means the light and plumbing fixtures could go in this week leaving just the driveway and doorstep for the following week. At least that's what I'm hoping.

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October 11, 2008

Shop Construction Progress Update

Today is a rainout. I was painting 1911 and the bricklayers were hard at work on the shop till it started raining about 10:30. Now they bricklayers are gone and I'm stuck indoors updating this Web page. I have the house to myself because the ladies, that's Joyce, Janice, Jill, Kari, Rebecca, Kaylee and Abigail, have gone to Plainview for the get together celebrating Max and Juanita's 50th wedding anniversary. I was given a pass. I don't mind. I can always entertain myself one way or another.

Speaking of the shop, there has been quite a bit of progress. The roof is on and the brick will be finished in the next couple of days if it doesn't rain. The trim carpenter has come and gone and the painters have done their prep work. They should finish painting by mid-week next week. Then the plumber will put in the sinks and hardware and the electricians will install the lighting fixtures. The driveway will go in last and then it will be time to move in. That should be lots of fun. I'll be trying to consolidate tools and stuff in such a way as to make it useable. There are Dad's tools, my tools, Genna's tools and Ronalds tools and, no doubt, there are bits and pieces of hardware from all four sources. It should be interesting to see what I finally wind up with.

Last Sunday I flew to San Francisco to work a trade show. It was not well attended so there wasn't a lot of activity. Fortunately the hours weren't bad. However, though the time at the show wan't long at any one

stretch, it was fairly frequent which didn't leave much time for doing anything else. I did go down to the Embarcadero Monday evening after the last session but it was 8 o'clock by the time I got there and I was too tired to do much. Also, there wasn't much going on at that time of day. There weren't the entertaining crazies I remember from the last time I was there, which was during the day. I basically spent an hour and $11 to ride the train. The alternative would have been to spend the evening in my hotel room so maybe it was worth it to at least try to find adventure.

It sort of rains off and on. Joyce said we got an inch of rain last Sunday. It greened up the grass pretty good, even though it is getting late in the season. Andreas Zbinden got to do some mowing while he was here for Rebecca's birthday. He had wanted to when he was here in May but we hadn't had any moisture so there was nothing to mow then. He spent a couple of hours on the south end this trip and did a very nice job. I think I'll hire Swiss guys to do all the mowing.

Last Friday evening we celebrated Rebecca's birthday. H&E were here for the occasion. They had been in-country for a couple of weeks touring New Mexico and Colorado. They even spent a few nights in Red River. When it came time for birthday cake, we sang happy birthday to Rebecca. She doesn't like to be the focus of attention and demonstrated her dissatisfaction by starting to cry, pulling her shirt over her head and sliding out of her chair. She seemed to enjoy opening presents, though.

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September 28, 2008

Shop Construction

Getting pretty dry here. I'm not complaining, though. That makes it easier to keep up the progress on the shop and it cuts down on mowing. I'm still hoping to mow just one more time this year. From a distance the grass looks overgrown, but it is really just the blue gramma seed heads. The grass itself isn't very high. Other than being dry, the weather is excellent. We were a little warmer last week than the week before but we're still getting down into the low 60's or even into the 50's at night, then up to about 80 during the day. The wind kicked up a little last week but was still just in the breezy category. The last couple of days have been pretty still.

I've been spending the last few Sundays trimming the junipers around the house. I pretty much completed what I was trying to do today. Good thing because next Sunday I'll be travelling to San Francisco. I've raised the limbs to just about the top of the Quadrille brick wall in back. The wall looks nice so no need to hide it. Just need to hide the roof tops beyond it. Besides raising the canopy, I trimmed the higher limbs back to encourage the tree to go up and to fill in. I would like to come up with something to separate the grass from the bare ground underneath the trees, something that looked good. I don't think I want to use metal edging. One can certainly get stuff at Home Depots/Lowes to do that and that might be what I wind up doing, but that stuff just screams HOME DEPOT. I guess I'm being uppity.

Last week I transplanted a couple of gay feathers from the pasture to that grass/bare ground area. I hope they get enough sunlight there.

Yesterday I started the prep work necessary to do some painting on the house. I probably should have started before yesterday. I'll be out so much in October, I may have trouble getting much done and the fine weather won't hold forever. I don't plan to paint the whole thing, just the areas that need it. A lot of that will depend on the weather. We've been here five years and it has been probably seven, maybe eight years since some of the house, the older part, has been painted. Always better to paint before it really needs it.

We're supposed to get the roof on the shop Tuesday. Tom the construction manager said the brick will go up over the next two weekends. The shop and basement were sheet rocked last week and I thought they were going to tape and texture, too, but they didn't. We're getting close. All we lack is finishing.

Janice has spent the last several nights with us, ever since her hip surgery. Today she ventured out to go somewhere with Jon and Joanie. The care givers told her after her surgery she could go home and would only need help when she went grocery shopping. Not true. She's doing fine, but no way could she have taken care of herself.

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September 14, 2008

Shop Construction

We got about an inch of rain this past week. Luckily it came later in the week after the plumbers, framers and electricians had finished so there wasn't much driving and stomping around in the mud. We're waiting on inspections or they may have already been done. Someone was here Friday and did a good job of tracking mud into the shop but I don't know if that covered all the inspections. There were several: plumbing, framing and electrical. I spent all day yesterday on clean up. Joyce helped me sweep out the shop, basement and loft. Chris helped me clean up outside. We have a dumpster but it got full so the workmen had to start piling detritus up on the ground next to it. I told Tom the construction manager to have the dumpster picked up but not brought back and I would take care of the pile on the ground. So yesterday I pulled the pickup up and loaded the ground pile so I could take it to the dump. That gave me the chance to scavenge anything in the pile I wanted to keep. Much of what Dad scavenged from the 1911 construction and stashed in the barn had been disposed of and the remainder went with the demolition. It's handy

to have odd pieces of lumber around for our little projects so Chris and I stacked the good stuff neatly under the junipers north of the garage. We may get the roof on this coming week. They should also stain the basement floor and put up the sheet rock. Or put up the sheet rock and stain the basement floor. I'm not sure of the order. The bricking should take place the following week. We're getting there.

The Zbindens went to the fair yesterday and brought us back a turkey leg. Joyce and I ate what we wanted of it, then turned it over to the foxes. It was gone in no time.

We're expecting a visit from John and Kathy today. Kathy wasn't sure what time they will be here. I guess Kathy will continue with the job of handling the contents of 2005. They'll get to see the place pretty and green but the rain started it growing again so it doesn't look quite as clean cut as it did. It's been two weeks since I mowed it, not counting the yards, of course.

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August 31, 2008

Shop Construction

My Audubon Society Field Guide to North American birds says that a chimney swift spends all day on the wing. It feeds on the fly, drinks from ponds and streams on the fly, even collects twigs on the fly for nest building. Lately one has taken to buzzing me as I mow. I don't remember seeing them around the place before this year but all summer long we've seen them skimming over the fields collecting insects. Perhaps the mower kicks up bugs and at least one of them has learned to come arunnin' when it hears the mower going. I've always felt our little urban island is three dimensional when one notices the trees and birds. While true of any place, the large area makes it more pronounced, sort of like an aquarium. Its not just things attached to the ground. The swift enhances my sense of that as it skims around while I mow and I enjoy it.

You can see from the pictures more of what I'm talking

about. Cody the crane operator offered to let me got up in the basket and I jumped at the chance. That may be a poor choice of words. I took advantage of the view from 70 feet up to snap some pictures.

As you can see, we have an above-ground structure now. This coming week they should just about get the framing done. Maybe in a couple of weeks the brick and the roof will go on and a couple of weeks after that the project will be finished. I'm looking forward to that.

Mowing is still taking a lot of time. I just mowed the south end last week but will do so again, taking advantage of the holiday. The goal is to keep up with it so it is easier to mow and to keep the place looking good. It is hard to beat when it is pretty and green, and freshly mowed.

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August 24, 2008

Some shots around the place on Sunday evening

Monday evening I mowed the pasture. Yesterday I mowed the area west of the pasture. In the ensuing five days the grass grew so fast in the pasture that in comparison to the area next to it, it needs to be mowed again. I think if you watch closely you can actually see the grass growing the way you can see the minute hand on a clock move. I'm not complaining. The areas scarred by the construction project are recovering nicely. Still, I'm going to have to stay after it so it doesn't get away from me. My guess, if no more rain, I'll have to mow the place at least one more time before fall sets in to give me some respite. Of course, the immediate yards and garden will probably need mowing several more times.

Tomorrow I'm hoping and expecting that they jump back into the project. They followed my suggestion and stayed off of it last week because the ground was so wet. The outfit that built the basement came in on Wednesday, I think it was, and collected the supports they'd set up to support the top/slab. They managed to drive their vehicle in the mud and rut up grass some, evidence that staying off of it last week was a good idea.

However, it is dry enough now and I'm sure everyone is ready to get going on it. I'm ready for it to be finished soon. Although it hasn't taken any longer than expected, it seems like we've been at this for quite a while.

Yesterday I trimmed junipers before mowing. Chris usually shows up late in the morning on Saturday and wants to help and I took a chance he would do that yesterday by leaving the trimmings rather than collecting them. He didn't disappoint so I was able to get a lot more done in the time I had. The junipers tend to expand horizontally rather than vertically, taking the path of least resistance. The limbs sticking out make it harder to mow around them. By trimming the limbs back, it improves the appearance of the tree, forces it to go up rather than out and makes much easier to mow around. Trimming them isn't hard because the limbs are low and can be taken off with lopers or hand shears and the trim will last maybe a couple of years or more. That's important when there are as many junipers on the place as there are, 140 by actual count. I have eight more in the nursery ready to plant this fall.

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August 17, 2008

Basement Building - Putting The Top On

Three inches and expecting more. I see a lot of mowing in my future. The 1+ inches we got late last week would have been enough to crank up the grass again but we added another 1+ inches since Saturday morning and the forecast is for more over the next couple of days. Fortunately the top to the basement was poured before the rain came so those cement trucks weren't driving on soft ground. The plan was to start putting up walls and framing the basement this coming week. I don't know what the rain has done to that plan. It is very muddy around the structure and that mud is as sticky as, well, mud. I hope the rain stops and it can dry out some before they come and start working. We are anxious for the shop to be finished but a few days isn't going to make any difference.

Last Sunday Joyce and I watched four foxes in the enclosure from our kitchen window. It appeared to be two adults and two adolescents. We're used to seeing foxes singly and maybe two at a time, but we didn't realize there were four, apparently a family. They are not too shy either. One early morning last week I walked down to the 2005 gate and put some trash bags out by the curb. I passed a fox in the lane and it stayed put when I came back by, seemingly curious about what I was up to. Abigail spent the night with us one day last week and she and Grandma put bread out for the foxes. Apparently the foxes could see them

sitting in on the backporch and waited till they left to get the bread. The next morning coming back from a run I encountered one chowing down on a slice of bread in the backyard. It didn't run when I came around the corner and finished its bread unconcerned. I worry about the young ones. How will they make a living as adults? There is only so much food in the neighborhood and beyond its borders there be monsters.

Yesterday was a rain out and Joyce and I took advantage of that to go see the Colt exhibit at Panhandle Plains Historical Museum. As you know, Sam Colt invented the first practical revolver. At the exhibit I learned that the blue dome I've seen many times on trips to Hartford is atop the Colt factory. I had always wondered what that was. We also drove over to the Buffalo Lake Wildlife Refuge and saw the silted-in remains of Buffalo Lake. We followed the road to Nazareth, too. As a kid I was intrigued by the sign pointing to Nazareth when we would visit the lake and wondered what Nazareth was like. Now I know that it is a little Panhandle farm town just like any number that dot the area. Anyway, it was not a bad way to pass a rainy Saturday afternoon. It looks like it will be too wet to get out and do something productive today, too. What a shame.

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August 3, 2008

Basement Construction
Red River

It has been a busy couple of weeks. The basement walls and floor have been poured and the void between the the earth and the basement wall filled in. This week they will put the top on the basement and begin putting up the garage walls. The shop should begin to look like something then. Seems like there has been a bare space or just a hole in the ground where the barn used to be for quite a while. I doubt the structure will be completely finished by the end of the month but it shouldn't lack much. Then the fun begins. That is, moving all the clap trap from 2005 and even 1911 (work bench, etc.) to the shop. This is going to go down as a very busy year.

Today I finally caught up on the mowing. With the rain we had gotten the grass was growing rapidly when we left for Red River. I almost finished the north end when the mower quit on me. The main drive built gave out and I had to finish with one of the push mowers. The north

end still looks OK but even though I had mowed the south end, the rain we got mid-July kept the grass growing rapidly. I didn't get the mower back until Wednesday evening this past week but I finished up the south end. It has dried out so rapidly that the grass has stopped growing so, unless it rains some more, I'll probably only be mowing the immediate yards and only because those are watered. There will still be plenty of weed work, though and the lane hasn't been raked in quite some time.

It seems everyone had a high old time in Red River. The consensus was that we should have had a couple more days, a good sign that everyone enjoyed themselves. Abigail and I fished nearly every day but only caught one fish. We are learning, though, and I think we're going to get the hang of it pretty soon. Abigail also spent a lot of time in the pool. They kept the water in it too warm for my taste but I was called on a few times to play with her in it.

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July 20, 2008

The Hole

Since mid-June the weather here has been about as benign as one could ask for. We got another nice rain Friday evening, over an inch and a quarter. Not only have we been getting sufficient rain since mid-June but the rains have been spaced ideally, that is about every two weeks. That's keeping in mind this is, after all, dry country and too much rain can cause as many problems, maybe even more, than not enough, mosquitos being the prime example of problems caused by too much rain at one time. Joyce and I were at Mr. Gatti's Friday evening where we had dinner with K,C,A&R. It was raining heavily when we got ready to go and we waited some little bit for it to get down to a more modest downpour before making a run for the car parked some distance from the building. We had to ford a few rivers on the drive home.

With a little luck I will catch up on the mowing today. All I lack is the pasture to have gone over all of SA at least once. Of course, some areas will be ready for another going over by the time I finish but that's OK. The first mow of the year is the hardest because I have to rake up the twigs that have fallen over the previous 9-12 months. What's that you say? Why don't I keep them raked up all the time? Well, I try. After the first time it is easy to walk the area and pick up any odd twigs that have fallen since I last mowed. I'm not letting the grass go this year. I've done that experiment and learned quite a bit from it. For one thing it is easier to keep up than it is to catch up. For another, long grass has to be raked after it is mowed and while the hay is useful for mulch,

collecting and placing it is a lot of work. I've also come to realize that I can't keep up with the weeds when I let the grass grow. That means too many of them manage to seed out. Fewer go to seed if they are kept mowed. It is still a challenge to keep them from seeding out because they are so adaptable/insidious. If they aren't mowed they tend to grow long seed stalks, but if you mow them they will come right back with much shorter seed stalks which means they seed out quicker. I've even seen some that would put up their first seed stalk a 12 to 18 inches high but after being mowed will put up a stalk too low for the mower to get the next time around. In some areas such as the northeast lane where my neighbors let their alleys go it is hand-to-hand combat against the weeds. My backpack sprayer and weedeater work well for the weeds I don't pull, but I think a flame thrower would work better.

So, the basement hole has been dug, the footing poured, and the sump pump for the kitchen sink has been installed. This week I expect they will put in the walls but I'm not sure what the progression is. I'm also not sure what we're going to do with all the dirt piled in the pasture. Do we just push it into one big pile? How does one maintain that? Will it be too steep to mow? It would be nice to landscape it but that would be expensive and we're already spending more money than we like. Maybe it could be landscaped in stages so the cost could be spread out some. No doubt we'll figure something out. Of course next spring it may just blow away.

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June 29, 2008

Barn Demolition

It took about two hours to dispose of the barn, including the time spent waiting for the truck to dump its load and return for more. It was, of course, with mixed emotions I watched it go. The barn represented a lot of SA history. It was probably the first structure on what was otherwise just a piece of prairie. Dad built it, I suppose. I know he built the sheds on either side because I was around to see him do it. The structures served well for some 60 years. In the end, though, they were no match for the equipment used to remove them.

As you might expect, there has been a great deal of adjustment required. Some of us, animals included, adjust better to change than others. Some hate any change at all even if ultimately it will be an improvement for them. I think the worst is over now and everyone is beginning to settle down. It was hard for some to let go

of the barn but now that it's gone and they are faced with that reality it may be easier for them to adjust.

Speaking of adjusting, the four inches of rain we've received over the last 30 days has changed the equation here on good ol' SA. Instead of scrambling to keep things watered, we are scrambling to keep up with the weeds. Yesterday I sprayed four loads of Weed-B-Gone and every evening last week I spent most of the evening digging weeds. The big problem, of course, is the grassy weeds. Nothing to do but dig them out by hand. The goal isn't necessarily complete eradication, though that would be nice. Instead it is to keep them from seeding out. They will increase exponentially if they are allowed to. Oh, and Joyce reports that she was set upon by mosquitos when she went down to the garden this morning.

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June 22, 2008

SA Pics

A little before midnight Friday the weather alert radio Kathy gave me aroused me from a deep slumber with its dulcet tones. Shortly it began to rain and it rained and rained and rained. When we checked the rain gauge after breakfast Saturday morning it held two and half inches. That is the most rain at one time we've seen since we've been back on SA and it was much needed. Since the inch we got a couple of weeks ago had pretty much evaporated, we were going to have to do some serious watering. Now we're set for at least a week on just about everything except the garden. The grass is already looking green. This morning I got out and sprayed some weeds. The lack of rain through most of the spring held them in check but I expect they'll come on strong now

It is good that the weeds haven't been to bad lately because a great deal of time has been spent getting ready for the shop construction. The dog run has been built and we were saved a lot of time by the outfit that

will do the shop construction when they built the dog house for us. They manufacture structural insulated panels (SIPs) and build with them so they made the dog house out of SIPs. It shouldn't get too hot or too cold for the dogs. We took the dog houses Joyce used in the barn for the cats and put them in the dog run, then installed the cats. They will house there during construction and move back to the shop when it is finished. The barn is scheduled for demolition Tuesday and thanks again to the construction crew helping us moved stuff out of it, we're ready for that to happen. We put the more essential items in the 2005 garage and the rest on the 2005 driveway. Saturday we spread tarps over the stuff in the driveway. It was a day late, true, but maybe it didn't hurt to have some of the dust washed off everything. Now that it is covered we're guaranteed no more rain. That's fine with me. I don't want the ground too soft while the construction equipment is driving around the place. I'll try to keep this page updated with new pictures as the construction proceeds.

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June 15, 2008

Kaylee's First Birthday Party

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June 8, 2008

Snake Fest

Last Saturday we took off at noon and went to the Snake Fest at Wildcat Bluff Nature Center. It was pretty well attended, lots of kids with their parents. Abigail got to touch a couple of snakes including a prairie rattler. We had never been to Wildcat Bluff so, while Abigail and her father waited in line so she could get her face painted, I ventured out on the trails around the bluff. One could make a circuit of maybe three miles by following all of the trails. There were three or four. The actual Wildcat Bluff for which the nature center is named is pretty nice. That is, it is picturesque. It turned out to be a pretty good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Yesterday Chris and I moved some stuff out of the barn/sheds as part of the process of getting it ready for

demolition. We also set the posts for the dog run. During the evenings last week I pulled the posts from the north end of the place where there were posts still standing form the fence that got replaced when they built Quadrille. When they built Quadrille they put a concrete foundation up against the SA posts so it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to dig them out. I only needed seven so I did a couple each evening and had the requisite number when we were ready for them Saturday. Before we put the chain link up we'll need to build the dog house. I had thought I would buy plywood to build it from, but after pricing plywood panels yesterday evening, we may go back to the original plan of using material from the barn/shed.

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May 25, 2008

We haven't seen much of the Zbindens, Hans, Elisabeth and Andreas, who arrived Friday evening. Hans and Andreas did spend quite a bit of time on SA yesterday. Andreas helped Joyce mulch the garden. He's a pretty good mulcher. Kari told me he wanted to drive the tractor so I got it out and let him have a go. What he really wanted to do was some work with it but there isn't any grass to mow so all he could do was drive it around some. There are a few places here and there that could be mowed. The tractor would be more than was needed for them but how many times do I have a chance to have a Swiss hired hand? And Chris doesn't count because he's been here too long.

Joyce and I are going to a going-away party for the Lopez' this evening. I guess they are just about out of here.

Abigail and the little boy who lives across the street in the old Futch place played yesterday on SA. They climbed up into the oak in the front of 2005 and, to my knowledge, did not break any limbs on the tree or themselves. I thought about how Mom would have enjoyed her great granddaughter gamboling about the place.

The dirt work in the pond is just about done, I guess. I ran some water into the pond yesterday but did not fill it. In fact I only put enough for it to encircle the island and only just. I guess I want to make sure I have the dirt the way I want it before I rent the compactor. The water in the main pond area lingered much longer than the part around the island. It was deeper, of course, but I'm looking for encouragement and confirmation that my strategy is sound so I'm willing to believe the water loss was less in the main area even without compacting. The encirclement area still has a layer of silt so it soaks water right up. Until I compact the dirt I'll likely run a little water in every now and then so the wildlife can begin to congregate around it and come to rely on it.

Joyce and I met with James Haney Friday. He's the man that will draw up the plans for the shop (formerly the barn).

He originally had his gallery, which is now on Olsen Blvd., on the corner of the I-40 access road and Wolflin, behind SA. Mom purchased a number of things from him and he remembers her quite well, and fondly. The wicker basket picture on our back porch was purchased from him as was the duck by the fireplace at 2005 and probably some other things. We enjoyed sharing memories with him. He works a lot with the guys I contacted about building the barn. I didn't remember the name but I passed it on to Kari since she is looking for someone to help them with the 2005 remodel. Turns out she's encountered him running and at the gym. She's delighted to find someone she knows rather than relying on a stranger. Last fall I found the plans to 2005 in the cellar when we cleaned it out. I think it was the cellar. It may have been in the shed. Anyway we took them to James who was excited that we were able to find them. They should save him a lot of time and Kari a lot of money. As for the barn, our plans have changed quite a bit. I had been thinking about a gambrel roof barn for the last two or three years, but the man who is going to build it for me convinced me I should use brick on the outside since one of my highest criteria is low maintenance. To me, brick wouldn't look right on the barn so I started thinking about other configurations. I finally decided on a normal gable roof "shop" with an east-west orientation. We'll put lots of windows on the south side to make it suitable for seeding garden plants. I'll also put the work bench on the south side to take advantage of the natural light. The garage door will be facing east. I measured the tables, vehicles, mowers, etc. and roughed out the floor plan on graph paper so I could figure out how large to make it. Obviously the larger the more money. We'll still build the basement, a major expense, and as it stands now we'll take the cabinets and counter tops out of 2005 and put them in the basement. James was so excited by Mom's Flair stove it may wind up down there, too. James will match the brick and roof with 1911. At first when it looked like the gambrel roof barn wasn't going to work out I was disappointed but now I'm excited again. We gave James a check so I guess we've committed. Watch this page for further developments.

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May 11, 2008

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day and Joyce is running around in circles it seems. Actually I think she's running late to get down to 8 Quadrille Park to stay with Rebecca while the rest of the family goes to church. Joyce had just enough time between church and baby sitting to change clothes and start the dishwasher. Happy Mother's Day.

Friday afternoon and yesterday we spent on the front plant beds. I took Friday afternoon off again and we hustled a couple of loads of rock. During the week I cleaned out the herb bed to the east of the porch and reworked the dirt so it would be ready for the landscaping fabric and rocks. I getting away with calling this my Mother's Day present to Joyce so I wanted to get it done before Sunday. Of course, I made the mother in question do half the work. Anyway, we got it done and are pleased with the result, and, in the process we finished the other bed we started last weekend. We bought chimney liners and terra cotta pots (from Italy of all places, via Wal-Mart) to plant the herbs in. We put in a little dry river bed that is actually functional. It starts where the rain comes off the valley of the roof like a cow urinating on a flat rock and slopes down to the edge of the bed and, hopefully, away from the house. The rocks in both beds are situated to catch the roof run off, which was the majority of the impetus for the project.

Even a little rain can splatter dirt on the porch and porch posts if it hits bare soil, which it will when new plants are planted. A downpour will cause a small water fall at the roof valleys, the force of which can erode the area it hits. We had an opportunity Wednesday to test the bed in the font when we got a half (seemed like more) inch of rain. It performed well. All total, we hauled over two tons of rock. Yesterday Chris and Abigail helped us unload the second load from Friday and the load we got Saturday morning. They were a big help.

Speaking of the rain, that is the first appreciable moisture in a while. Months, maybe. It helped a lot that the soil in the herb garden was damp when I started reworking it. I should take advantage of it to spray the weeds but it's Sunday and I'm too tired. Besides I need to rest up for the work week and it's Mother's Day. Here's hoping we get another half inch plus soon and so we don't slip right back to dry again.

Chris and Abigail also started painting the play house and swing yesterday. Abigail invited me to help them, which was nice, but I begged off claiming fatigue. What they've done so far looks pretty good. I wonder how hard it was to get Abigail cleaned up for church this morning?

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May 4, 2008

Misc. SA Pics

Joyce and I spent Friday afternoon working on the flower bed in front of the kitchen window. I took the afternoon off so we could go to the Rock Ranch and load up on rocks. After cleaning out the attractive but virulent wild flowers/weeds Grady gave us a couple of years ago, we left only a small area for flowers and filled the rest with river rock, most ranging in size from a man's fist to his frontal lobe. This arrangement will have the advantage of requiring much less maintenance and will handle the roof runoff better if it ever happens to rain again. We're not sure what we'll plant there. Something colorful and able to thrive on benign neglect, hopefully,such as the pincushion flower (scabiosa columbaria).

Although we ran out of rock before covering the rock area of the bed satisfactorily we are so pleased with how it's turned out we've decided to do the same thing to the herb garden on the east end of the porch. The vegetation in that bed had also gotten out of hand so we'll clear everything out but the tree, put down the landscaping fabric and cover it with river rock as well. We're going to get some chimney liners to plant the herbs in and set up a drip system to minimize the watering hassle.

Working only an hour or so on Saturday mornings I have nevertheless progressed with the pond to the point that, after maybe a couple more Saturday mornings, I should be in a position to rent the jumping jack, pack down the dirt and fill it up. I don't know what I'm going to do with all that extra time and energy once I don't have to swing a

pick for an hour every Saturday morning. Yesterday after digging in the pond I spent the rest of the morning weeding along the east side of the south riparian zone. That is nearly as pleasant and soothing to my back as digging in the pond so I guess I'll just do more of that.

Chris, Abigail and I cleaned up the compost area yesterday. We're going to try to do a better job of composting so we'll have enough to mix in the garden soil this fall. The garden is ready for planting this year and Joyce collected her plants and seeds yesterday morning. However, I want to do a better job of improving the soil in the late fall and winter this year so it is in better shape come spring planting time. That's easy to say now in balmy weather. Winter's cold will no doubt test my resolve when it comes time to execute my plan.

No progress on the barn this past week. The man who is supposed to get back to me with an estimate hasn't. Chris and I did load up a little bit of scrap lumber since we were going to the dump anyway with the pallets he'd used to create a mulch bin. I'll have to do better by allocating more time and energy to getting stuff cleared out of the sheds and barn so they will be ready for the wrecking crew when the time comes.

Genna's iris have been showing out the last week or so. I've never been an iris fan but those behind our house and those Genna planted have given such nice color this spring that I've warmed to them.

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April 27, 2008

As usual on a Sunday morning I'm stove in from yesterday's labors. We are getting the garden ready for planting and Chris and I spaded up the rows and rounds. We had to go back and bust up the clods and rake the dirt smooth. We lacked two rows at quitting time. Before getting started on that I had spend an hour or so moving dirt in the pond, as is my want on Saturday mornings anymore. I keep pecking away and it may only be a few more Saturday mornings before I'm ready to rent the jumping jack and give it a go. I'm encouraged that that will work based on the holes I dug for the grapevines Joyce and I planted last weekend. These were seedless table grapes and it is best to plant them at least 100 feet from regular grapes. Otherwise they are apt to form seeds. So we wanted to put them someplace at least 100 feet from the garden where we have the wine grapes and decided the east end of the orchard would work. Joyce ordered three grapevines so I dug three holes and was the digging ever hard. It was no small task to dig the three holes and once we got a hole the way we wanted it we filled it with water. The ground was very dry. Well, the water was absorbed very slowly. After the filling the first hole we broke for lunch. When we got back the water level was down only two or three inches from where we'd left it. I realized later that the holes were in line with the old wagon road that runs through the place and surmised that that was why the ground was so compacted. Based on that, I'm hopeful that compacting the pond will have a similar effect. We'll see.

We drove to Quitaque last Sunday to visit the Dudleys.

Clyde was his old self and it was easy to forget he was sick. They told us the first round of chemo really made him sick. He couldn't eat for a couple of weeks afterward and lost a lot of weight. After they inserted a feeding tube in his stomach he was able to take nourishment. They also adjusted the medicine that controls the nausea so he's able to eat normally, at least to the extent he can swallow. Anyway we had a very nice visit.

Friday evening we had a weenie roast. A north wind blew all day but had died down to nothing by the time we were ready for our weenie roast. It was an ideal evening for it because it was just a little chilly. Not uncomfortably so if you had long sleeves on but enough that it wasn't unpleasant being close to the fire. Not that I had to get close to the fire. Grady and Barbara joined us and I chatted with them while Chris and Abigail roasted the weeners and made somemores. Nice to be served but I was over served and wound up eating more of both than I should have because I'm a guy that just can't say no.

Joyce has gone down to 8 Quidrille Park to stay with Rebecca while Chris and Abigail go to church. Kari ran a half marathon in Oklahoma City this morning. Friday night she was dreading it. Not the run but the time away from her family. These activities, when they are in the theoretical stage, seem like good ideas but when it's time to actually do it one sometimes wishes one didn't have to. She'll probably look back and be glad she did it by the time she gets home this afternoon.

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April 6, 2008

Joyce just called from Houston where she and the rest of her gang, that being Max, Jaunita and Janice, stayed in a Hampton Inn last night on their way to the Cayman Islands and other points of interest. They are due to board the Carnival Conquest at 4 o'clock today. She'll be out of touch until maybe this time next week.

I spent last weekend in Nashville at a trade show. It was held in the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, a nice enough place but expensive. The restaurants were also expensive. If you look at some of the pictures in the link you will see several of something that looks like an object covered in ivy. That is a person. You may be able to make out her face in some of the shots. She put on sort of a mime act. She was on stilts and had cane-like rods to steady herself. The effect was to make her tall and then, vine-like if you will. She would move slowly and sort of mimic what you might think a vine would grow like if you speeded it up. It was fascinating to watch her. I think underneath the green paint she might have been a real cutie pie and she may be a dancer or gymnast because her moves were elegant.

When Kathy and John were here a couple of weeks ago we scattered Genna's ashes on Riverland at a nice place overlooking the Canadian River Valley. We dubbed that spot Genna's Overlook. Toward the river there is a V in the canyon rim that affords a very nice view of the valley and we will henceforth call that Genna's Notch. I think she would be satisfied.

It was a typical Saturday yesterday for this typical white person. After breakfast I spent an hour moving dirt in the pond. Though slow, there is progress and I think I'll get there before long, there defined as being able to compact the dirt and run water in the pond. Friday I purchased another pine to plant along the lane so that was my next project after working on the pond. While I was working on that Chris showed up and we gave the a lane a going over, raking twigs and cleaning up downed limbs. Abigail joined us before we finished about lunch time and she and I went to the Beef Burger for lunch while Chris walked the dogs. We then picked up Chris and took our load out to the chipping site. We came back with a load of mulch and mulched several elms in the lane. I've been working on that for several loads now and a couple more loads should finish that up. After spreading our mulch, Chris went home and Abigail stuck around to help me with some watering. She did a good job of moving the sprinkler on the small spruces on the east side of 1911. Earlier in the day I had watered the big spruces.

While we had that water going, we cleaned out the pipes and ditch closest to the well and started running water. I'm always looking for an easier, better and faster way to manage the work on SA and my latest idea is so obvious I don't know why I didn't adopt it sooner. I've been thinking that it makes sense to treat the west side as a riparian zone since the irrigation ditch runs the length of it. The last time I ran water down it I used the metal water blocks to dam up the ditch and get the water to overflow. When it does it runs east into the tree line. That worked OK but it required a lot of attention. My latest idea is to just let the water run both ways from the well at the same time, perhaps blocking it just at either end. I may then go back and place a few siphons but if it turns out that that can be done easily, that is just let the water run without having to keep track of it until it fills the ditch end to end, I may be able to do that often enough that the ground in the riparian zone, that is from the ditch 10 to 15 feet to the east, the natural direction the water will flow, will naturally absorb water from the ditch much like a river bank would and it won't even be necessary to run any siphons. If that works, then I can plant wild plums in the r-zone, which is the way they grow naturally, and have nice secondary vegetation underneath the trees along there and maybe even now and then have a nice crop of plums for us and the critters to enjoy.

Yesterday's watering also gave me a chance to test my latest strategy to keep Joyce's goldfish in the well pond from going down the ditch when I'm running water. It is a pain to try to get them safely back in the pond when it's time to turn the water off and it is too easy for them to wind up high and dry when the water drains out of the ditch. The screens I put over the pipes under the enclosure fence last summer would clog up and cause the water to overflow. Constantly cleaning them out added to the work. So, I took a PVC elbow and a length of 4" PVC pipe, stuck it in a length of concrete pipe lying around and positioned it at the overflow point of the pond so that the open end of the elbow extended down into to the water. When the well is running the pond level comes up several inches and it comes up in the pipe until it begins running out the other end. Thus the water isn't restricted and there is no screen to clean. It is my belief the fish won't swim down and then up the pipe, nor will debris floating in the pond go down and then up. I haven't counted the fish since I ran the water yesterday but at least I proved the water runs without overflowing the pond. Later I'll check on the fish. I've go my fingers crossed.

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February 17, 2008

Beaver's Bend

We're getting a nice snowfall. It is surprising since the day dawned bright and clear. The wind got up and made it unpleasant so I've spent most of the day indoors. I only just rousted myself to fetch some kindling before the snow started. Even then there was a drizzle falling.

Jill and Kaylee joined us today. I collected them at the airport this morning. Shortly after lunch Joyce, Jill and Kaylee headed over to Janice's to work on the accumulation. I wonder if it is snowing there. Likely it is.

Yesterday was cold and wet. We had an ice storm going in the morning but, thankfully, the temperature got up high enough that the precipitation turned to drizzle and the ice melted off the trees. After the mess I had to deal with last year I'd just as soon avoid any significant ice storms for a while. So, yesterday was a good day to finish up our taxes, a task I started earlier in the week. I've been using the Turbotax web site for the last few years and thought the service they offered pretty good. This year they must have outsourced their programming to Bangladesh. There were several, uh, anomalies that caused me some frustration.

For one thing, the program insisted on doubling the amount of my gas royalties. After numerous tries at getting it entered correctly and briefly considering putting in half the correct amount in the hopes of tricking Turbotax into showing the correct amount I finally decided to take a chance that despite the incorrect amount on the screen (and several other things that worried me) I would press ahead and see if the final output wasn't correct. Turbotax will let you enter all the tax info before you pay but you have to pay up before you can even review the actual return much less file and print it. As it turned out my hunch was correct and the figures in the actual tax return were correct. So I got it filed and printed but when they put up their little survey screen asking how likely on a scale of 0 to 10 I would be to recommend Turbotax to someone, I checked the zero.

The snow is still falling, though gently at the moment. The ground is white and if this keeps up much longer the grass will soon be covered. It's a real treat to get to sit here in the sunroom and watch it snow.

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January 27, 2008

A few SA pics

January is almost over. Hard to believe since it seems like the year just started. Before we know it it will be July and time to start Christmas shopping again. The weather has been favorable to working outside the last few Saturdays. The only problem I had last Saturday was that my drinking water froze up on me. Yesterday started cold but calm so it wasn't long before I was shedding layers. I've been starting the day working on the pond. Nothing like moving a few wheelbarrows of dirt to get the blood flowing. So far I'm encouraged by my strategy of shaping the pond so I can run a jumping jack over it in the hopes of greatly reducing water loss. Rather than hauling the dirt off somewhere I've been putting it around the sides to give the sides a more gentle slope that I'm hoping I can use the jumping jack on. It also has the not insignificant advantage of disposing of the dirt nearby which means I can move more of it with the time and energy I've budgeted.

I say budgeted because it is the time of year for trimming the deciduous trees and I need to spend time on that. Last year the cold, wet weather wouldn't permit doing the necessary trimming, or working on the pond for that matter. Also the ice storm and resulting detritus threw me way behind. It was March before I could do much about that. This year is, fortunately or unfortunately, dry and I've taken advantage of that to get

trees trimmed, starting with the interior trees on the south end. The pole trimmer makes short work but is very demanding on arm and shoulder muscles. Chris has helped me a time or two, which really speeds things up. Next weekend we'll be in Oklahoma but I'm hoping to pick up where I left off the following weekend and move to the perimeter trees.

Since last spring I've been cultivating and mulching the fruit trees in the orchard. It takes about 45 to 50 minutes per tree to cultivate around them and then cover that with a layer of pine straw raked from under the pine on the south side of 2005. I made doing one every a Saturday my first task of the day and now they are all done, even the apricot and plum in the meadow. At some point I'll probably do that to the two cherry trees and the pear tree south of 2005 but I'll have to wait until the pine straw builds up again. With all the wind we're having lately that shouldn't take too long.

Through the fall I planted pines in the lane to replace the long gone elms. I'll resume that bit of foolishness probably in March, the goal being to fill in all the gaps. I don't remember exactly how many more I'll need, half a dozen maybe, unless I start whacking down some of the lesser elms.

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