Rain in the Foothills. We got an inch just since last night when it started around 10:00PM. The dog splashed in the mud this morning, and I dug a few fresh rivulets to help standing water flow into the main drainage.
UPDATE: Snow on the Dogwood!!
We’re expanding the footprint of the “dry creek” area, and have been moving large, smooth river-rock out to expand and build up the walls of the drainage…
The little copse of Birches suffered an overgrowth failure. The now-missing front tree (that was dorked up by someone previously topping it), grew a “waterspout” that was so burdened with pollen-pods that the top snapped off last week.
So with a few nice days ahead before another wet-weather system rolls in off the Pacific ocean, I decided to remove it with my Stihl chainsaw-on-a-stick… Now the pathway up the embankment is more open and fewer dangly birch-pods festoon the remaining trees.
So with that done it’s grillin’ time, with some zucchini and asparagus, and re-heating a piece of petite fillet.
Really not too surprisingly, it rained. But not enough to get the drainage really flowing – just light showers overnight, not a deluge. This is a reminder to us that it’s not yet Summer and bigger things are afoot beyond our mastery. So plans change, like I won’t be washing the truck today. Instead we’ll go shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables up in Camino at Boa Vista where I can run the dog in the big field…
Really not too surprisingly, it rained. But not enough to get the drainage really flowing – just light showers overnight, not a deluge. This is a reminder to us that it’s not yet Summer and bigger things are afoot beyond our mastery. So plans change, like I won’t be washing the truck today. Instead we’ll go shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables up in Camino at Boa Vista where I can run the dog in the big field…
No real updates to mention up here in the sticks, with some shoppers at Home Depot wearing masks and others not. Locally The Chinese Virus incidence number is pegged at 54 total – with no new recoveries – and the number of known active cases at just nine. There have been zero deaths attributed in this County, and people are growing tired of Gov. Greaseball’s edicts and have begun to ignore them.
It’s a hot one today in the mid-low 90’s – yesterday was 91. Did a cut on the field after spraying it a couple days ago with a broadleaf herbicide that doesn’t harm the grass, and there’s a lot more grass remaining than I expected. Meanwhile I am social distancing in 100-yard increments when not otherwise out and about.
Have a great Summer y’all, and Happy Mother’s Day to those who still have them.
Gardening, that is…and we decided to expand the doggie-poolside (and reduce therewith some mowing) area by two more squares of astroturf. So that meant going to Home Depot… 
The Wuhan Chinese Flue distancing guidelines meant we all stood, about half-masked, in a line to enter the Essential-in-These-Parts store, while a security guard clicked a counter. As some number of persons left the store, another number were allowed to enter. Since I needed to replace the Kohler toilet-seal so it wouldn’t run annoyingly all the time, I made a detour through Plumbing after picking up the astroturf. Then I went to Hardware and got six 10-inch, 3/8″ carriage-bolts to hammer into the ground as anchors since I didn’t have any tent-stakes. Works a treat.
Meanwhile in the zoomed-in Matisse-like iPad image you might notice red blotches (under blue arrows). Those are flags where we are expanding the size of the dry-creek drainage, about six to eight feet, to contain more run-off and avoid mowing in the squishy area. So a bunch of work ahead this Springtime moving rocks around to build the new, expanded perimeter. In the Summer when it all hardens-up, I can drive a truck-load of rock out there and fill in the gaps…
Supposed to clear-up today, but for now we have a blanket of fog here on the Western Slope.
Might gear-up and go to the store today, the shopping list is getting longer…
After a week of cold and wet weather this morning dawned in a light rosy haze that quickly burned-off and cleared out. The preceding week was an reminder of the gray and oppressive viral conditions, but today is cheery is a reminder of promises to come! 
God bless everyone and keep you well.
After a couple evenings of caliber-based cocktail fun, we have the American .30-06 based WuFluSour (M1-Prepper), and then last night’s British influenced .303 Colonial Tonic…. so what’s a raggedy band of pirates supposed to finally do? Rum!! And herewith we present the piratical themed, stabby-pokey, knife-based, Stroh Sanitizer!. 
At an astonishing 160 proof, it does the job of Mack the Knife, all by itself!
Our guest metal artists are, from right to left, a Desert Storm Ontario Knife Company OKC-3S with a very fine edge (fits on the Mossberg 590A1), in the middle a kinda rare but dull WWII Aerial Cutlery M1 Carbine bayonet with leather stack-handle, and finally on the right a factory polish shiny-steel 1900 stamped US Krag bayonet that has a real *gladius* feel. Heavy and pointy, you couldn’t let it rest tip-down in the palm of your hand, because it would just penetrate and drop through to the guard. That’s what my dad taught me anyhow – and he was an Eagle Scout.
Quinine in The Colonies was a necessary Malaria suppressant, from the Dutch in Java to the French in Pondicherry and Goa, but mostly the British in India and polite society demanded a social response – which was to add Gin. So the Gin and Tonic was invented.
About a mile and a half from my own birthplace is the Ishapore Arsenal, from which this fine 1942 “Smelly” was produced, and which is not very far from the old Dum-Dum arsenal where the concept of expanding projectiles originated. The arsenal imprint “GRI” stands for “George Rex, Imperator” for George VI the last king of India.
1942 was a very dark time with the clouds of war literally on the horizon, and armed forces of Imperial Japan running amok and unimpeded throughout Asia and the Malay Peninsula…so a Gin and Tonic was a civilizing agent in a time of disaster and uncertainty.
