The canopy for our carport ended up on the front porch when Connie drug it over there to keep the wind from stealing it.
I don’t know about everyone
else, but Connie and I are standing around (running around, actually) shaking
our heads and wondering where on earth the time has been going. It’s like being
on a bullet train where you get on and, instead of taking hours to complete the
trip, you’re there in no time plus a pit stop. Perhaps Stephen King was correct and the
Langoliers are chomping away at the minutes and hours.
The first of the month just
got here and yet…..we’re in the middle of the month already. We greet the day
only to find ourselves ready for bed in what seems like only a couple of hours.
The year is ¾ used up and it’s as though we have accomplished so little. That probably
wouldn’t be such a big concern except that there is still so much to
accomplish.
F’rinstance, though I did
complete the trike project, Connie’s trike is patiently waiting to be assembled
and the motor is certainly abiding in silence so that it can be allowed to
express itself in noise and bluster.
And….there are the
longsuffering trees that could use a nice drink of water. They don’t complain though
their portion is river water (and we know what fish do there). They’re a bit
stressed but then, I would be too if I were starting to wilt around the edges.
And....we now have to account
for the repairs from our big blow. That was a mess. The neighbor is having his
roof replaced on both his home and his old barn. The east side of the roof of
his barn (400 free to the east) ended up in our yard. One chunk of corrugated
roof hit our van and scuffed the paint on the back and top as it flew into and
then over it. How nice that we had just had the rear re-painted and the
previous damage fixed. Then a 10’ x 2” x 4” rafter flew over and landed on our
(newer) back yard fence and smashed a section of that. It’s a smallish area for
Connie’s clothesline with cute white fencing (until now).
And….we have a few trees and
a couple of vines that need to be replaced simply because they croaked on us.
Try as I might, I’ve only been able to kill a very few plants while the rest of
them mock me with their leaves and limbs and thrive anyway. For whatever reason
we did lose a couple of apple trees (saplings), peach and plum trees, (ditto),
and a couple of grape starts that failed to thrive. The rest of the 12 vines
are struggling but I suppose that that isn’t any wonder given the fact that our
front yard area is about as fertile as a Sears parking lot. I’ve had to
maintain a pretty strict water regimen lest I end up with dried grape leaf
table ornaments. Ah, but that’s some of the problem; I’m having difficulty with
the “strict” part. I just don’t recall that term being used much in connection
with my name. “Strict Ran”…naw…not much of a ring to it.
And….the pump house lattice gate
hinges were trashed when the wind wrenched them free and commenced to violate
them by whipping them like a red headed step child. It may be best just to pull
them off and replace them rather than try to fuss and fight with them to
straighten them out again.
And….we’re dealing with a
roofer who will be replacing the shingles that were hustled into the next
county. While we’re at it, we have determined to install a couple of solar
powered attic vents to help assuage the cooling costs during the summer time.
We estimate a utility savings of about 3-5% or so. One of the vents will go on
the garage so that our stored goods will remain usable for a longer time. The
barn sports two nice ones and we like them and the idea of their being self
sufficient. The ones we’re eyeballing have a life-time warranty (I keep
wondering whose life).
And…wait folks….there’s more
(your Ginzu Knife commercial for the day)! We are getting ready for the big
“Apple Festival” yard sale that we host each year. Most likely, there won’t be
quite as large a turn out as last year but this will still be a major event.
There could be 15 or more venders this year as compared to 22 last time. Some
folks have little to sell and others have little time to spare. Connie (“Yard
Sale’er in Chief”) has been prepping for this thing since the last one ended
and is getting her boxes in a row. It’s a tough job but…I support her all that
I can …when I have time…and if my pom-poms are working. A big hug usually works
now and again.
It’s a hoot because we go
dumpster diving for boxes when we go to town. We’re getting good at it! I could
change my name to “Delbert” so they can call me “Delbert the Dumpster Diver”.
Has kind of a ring to it, eh? On one occasion, we ran across a dumpster in the
ally (downtown) that had a ton of personal items in it. I appeared that it
could have been the tailings of a broken relationship where the gal pal tossed
her bad boyfriend’s goodies into the trash. There was some really nice “stuff”
including clothes for our yard sale and even a couple of things for eBay. You
just never know what you’ll find. In any case, it evolved into some free
money….free money is my friend.
Speaking of water…there is no
(N O) water flowing in the Tule River below Springville. It’s almost eerie to go to the Lower Globe Road bridge (.6 miles down the road from us) and see
puddles of water instead of a stream. There is a small flow into Springville
but the ditch company siphons off what little water there is for its clients
(among whom are the Minnicks). This is the driest season in recent history (at
least since the 1930’s when they began keeping records). We received less than
6” of rainfall this season (about 11” is the norm). A couple of T-storms in the
high country helped a tiny bit but it still only manifested as a trickle by the
time it got to us. The trout are seen hitch-hiking to the lake.
Contrast that with places
like Oklahoma where they have seen a few times when the rain was
falling at the rate of one inch per hour. In other words, they get is much rain
in one day as we get in one year! In the rain forest area of the Olympic
Peninsula in Washington state, they get around 200 inches per year! Talk
about “green”!
Not long ago, Longview, WA was undergoing a “drought” and folks were
complaining. I was unable to wrap a brain cell around their “problem” because
they only got about 30” of rain for the year and had the confluence of the Columbia and Cowlitz Rivers at hand. And, unlike California, there was not so much as a smudge of brown to be
seen. Hmmmmmm. Wonder what those folks are thinking?
In any event, things are
mighty brown around town (his says with a frown as he wears his britches upside
down). I’ve started trying to do the “drip irrigation” gig and will probably
stay with that. It would be nice to just use the “soaker hoses” too but the
ditch/irrigation water has a lot of particulate matter so it clogs all the
filters/screens and small holes in the hoses in short order. It works great for
about 5 minutes. There is a screen at the weir but, for some reason, it still
isn’t 100% effective in junk removal. That is actually an issue even when using
the impulse/impact sprinklers. I’m always having to carry a crescent wrench
around so I can pop off the sprinkler and clean it out or replace it. It’s a
full-time job (which fits right in with my other two full-time jobs).
But, that’s part of the point;
I don’t have time to keep up with all of this stuff the way that it needs to be
done. Some of our orange trees are getting stressed and I don’t like that. Our
oranges are usually as sweet as candy but not this time.
Also, we have four loquat
trees that have yet to have anyone (wonder who) harvest them. They produce a
marvelously sweet fruit and are so bountiful that some of the limbs break down.
They would be excellent for canning but I simply can’t get to it and they go to
waste. I hate that. Now that we have our canning and dehydrating supplies and
equipment pretty much ready we can (hopefully) prevent this lamentable loss
next season.
Our tangerine tree is a mess,
too. The fruit is almost dehydrated on the tree. Eating one is like eating a shoe
box dipped in Kool-Aid that has not sugar added. I was able to put some water on it for a few days and
let it get a good soaking. We won’t lose the tree but I think it’s still mad at
me.
Maggie the Wonder Dog
(“Maggasaurus” for short) is still happy and healthy and still as sweet as a
box of Ju-Jubes. She’s still goofy too but at least she’s worthless. She loves
us and we love her so all is well in the pet department. And, apparently, so is
her crop of fleas. The poor dog has been treated (twice) with that expensive
goop that you apply along the spine area and she is still suffering. There is a
new collar that is suppose to work miracles at killing fleas so I’ll try to get
one. I think it has an army of nano-bots parked inside that flood out and track
down the fleas and whack them with tiny laser weapons. The dog will turn me in
to the ASPCA or PETA if I’m not more mindful.
I have a new espresso maker!
She’s a beaut! It’s a “Melita”/”Salton” brand. Talk about a “deal-and-a-half”!
We were in the thrift store the other day and Connie saw this white espresso
maker sort of hiding behind some other appliances (all of her kitchen stuff is
white including my small old espresso maker). When we looked at it, it was new!
Well, it was the white version of the black model that we recently acquired as
a backup unit! That meant that I could ditch the small one for this one that
has more control over the steam for frothing! This particular model retails for
119.95 (on sale for probably 89-99 bucks, no doubt)! We purchased it for….6
bucks! Of course, I had it on the counter in no time and making great espresso
coffee with which to please my discriminating palate (uh-huh). It brews in less
than half the time of the other one, too! Zowie! It makes enough foam to cover
the entire kitchen counter, too….but I only did that once. I know how to use it
properly now.
Most of the time the coffee used
around here is a blend of “whatever dude” that I have around the place (many pounds
of many roasts, grinds, and brands). For instance, lately I’ve been using a
50/50 blend of med-dark roast Folgers “Columbian” coffee mixed with a 50/50
blend (pre-blended) of generic S&F “French Roast” de-caff and regular
“Espresso” dark roast. It’s produced a truly excellent coffee latte’. Another
experiment was using Folgers “French Roast” with a generic “French Roast”
de-caff. Interestingly, the Folgers “French Roast” is a bit lighter than the
usual FR. To me, it’s more of an “Espresso” roast because it doesn’t have the
deep black oily presentation. In any case, it was a fair cup of java but I’ll
likely just use it (Folgers) in the regular coffee maker (my little white four
cupper) for now.
“S&W” brand used to have
a “French Roast Columbian” roast that was the bee’s knees but they stopped
marketing it for some reason. I loved that stuff! When still playing music with
the “Cedar Grove Bluegrass Band” with Don and Shirley Gerber, Shirley would
brew us up a jug of that stuff and …my oh, my! …what a treat! After they
discontinued it, we were all bummed out. However, I did notice that “Town and Country
Market” has recently started carrying “S&W” “Dark Roast Columbian”. My
guess is that, if it’s not the same exact coffee that I miss so much, it’s
close enough to be used in an espresso maker for making latte’s. We shall soon
see since our church is right around the corner (literally) from there!
The “borate bombers” are flying over again.
We have a fire up on the “Western Divide” not far out of the “Peppermint Creek”
area. Thankfully, it’s not a large one like the latest “Rim Fire” at Yosemite. It’ll be the largest California fire in our history when they finally stomp that one
out. It’s amazing to me…the forests have been around for….how long?....and we
come along and try to “save” them by “managing” them. So, what happened when we
started tree hugging? We are losing millions of acres of forest and kill who
knows how many animals. Brilliant, eh?
Earlier this summer, there
was a fire only a few miles from here on one of the hillsides near the lake.
The bombers swooped in and brought that one under control in no time. It was
just the brown grass and a few trees and not a forested area. My guess is that
the fire only scorched about 150 acres or so. It was uncomfortably close to the
“Montgomery Ranch” estates, though, and the good folks there were probably
sweating bullets and changing “Huggies” for awhile. This entire area is a
tender box so everyone is in “high alert” for fire hazards.
Stay tuned for more of who knows what. It
could be interesting.
Glad God kept you and Connie safe......
ReplyDeleteI guess the evil combination of global warming, cloud seeding, chemtrails and Democrats in Sacramento have led to this(your property mess).........At least you wont blame it on the Reagan Tax Cuts of 1982....
Stay strong...and hope your psuedo-crypto-demi-bunker and compound are rebuilt and ready for the impending KAOS......
Tx for updates..and stays in His Peace and in touch Esay!! with a Chet and Buck Owens fret attack...take care amigo!
Chris in San Clemente