Clearing Skies

After a little bit more than two-inches rain yesterday, things are clearing-out in the skies above, and draining-off in the land below. We’re still short of our “average” rainfall, but a lot of Sierra Cement landed on the High Country and several resorts are extending their ski-seasons. Temps are expected to climb rapidly over the next few days with a mix of sun and clouds – but no further rain is in sight.

Yesterday: 1.02 inches

After a foggy morning the skies cleared to puffy clouds, sunny and breezy. Another “rain event” is forecast for tomorrow, headed down from Alaska, then another Monday night into Tuesday – about a half inch, each. So I’m glad I got the field mowed, but on the other side of the house The Embankment is covered in a flourishing thicket of weeds that are choking-out the Day-Lillies and Iris, and obscuring the steps.

Meanwhile the doggy is loving the cool and wetness – and sleeping in the sun when she can.

Second Cut

Before another “threatening” rainfall, between the two of us we got the field done. The near dog-lawn was cut last week, and the bit of field across the fence was mostly cut. Cutting came to an abrupt halt when the 5-year old secondary belt (the one that runs the blades) which had suffered malign use, abuse (and had been ” smoked” a couple times), finally came apart and flew away. Fortunately my wife was mowing at the time, so the blame didn’t fall on me – except for the part about having savaged the belt in prior years…

The next step was to lower the mowing deck, un-do the primary, and go get a replacement secondary belt. Two nuts that held the spring-loaded, rear retaining pins had been over-tightened and prevented the pins from releasing the deck from the rear draw-bars, but engaging the use of a claw-hammer and brute force accompanied by minor bruising and scuffed knuckles, allowed that situation to be rectified – and with a 5/8″ socket I loosened the nuts sufficiently to make future repairs easier. Sheesh

The Storm that Wasn’t

Supposed to get between 1/4″ and 1/2″ of rain, but got nothing.

I have so little reason to believe anything on TV anymore.

UPDATE: This was supposed to be posted last week but some glitch in the queue manifested…

82-Degrees

Nice and sunny. We had lunch at a little brew-pub with the wife’s BFF from way back, who lives across the Folsom Resevoir, in Newcastle. And brought the doggie – after I combed-away handfuls of fur tufts.

Good Morning Flyover

The active contrail is a Delta flight going from SFO to JFK, traveling at 565mph and climbing to 37,000-feet and more. Two places I don’t really care about much and have no intention of revisiting.

Slight Change in the Weather

A bit of cooling is forecast for tomorrow, as a system is moving down from the Northwet and bringing some snow above the 4,000-foot level. It’s been a great Springtime with the daffodils popping up all around, but we can really use whatever moisture God decides to provide, before Emperor Newsome decides to mandate a drought and water-lockdown.

Meanwhile we had our neighbors from the other house over for lunch: grilled New Zealand lamb – which turned out very nicely – and the mild weather allowed me to turn my attention to the Embankment drip-lines, and complete some repairs.

In other news of ageing infrastructure repairs, I’ll be returning to the periodontist for round #2 of root planing, in an effort to ward of further decrepitude – plus I get a shiny new toothbrush.

Happy Valentineses!

Mild Weather

Sunrise on Monday was pink and orange, giving way to a low-60 degree day and the prospect of grilling, so we did.

The object of the grilling was a flank-steak “pinwheel” that rolled-up around an Ortega chili.

Yummy!