Saturday, June 27, 2015

Progress in Paradise, Hyrum hijinks edition...

Progress in Paradise, Hyrum hijinks edition...  The dogs and I did our normal morning walk; photos at right. There are several barley fields that are nearing maturity, and are consequently being heavily irrigated right now. 

Debbie continues to improve every day.  The bruising and swelling are starting to disappear now.  There's just a small blotch remaining from her epic black eye, and her right arm is beginning to resemble a human arm now.  Yesterday we took delivery of a machine that replaces the old-fashioned ice bag for her knee.  It works by circulating chilled water through a pad that wraps around her knee.  It chills a much larger area than a bag could, and does it more evenly.  It's also got a controllable temperature.  Nice gadget!

This morning I ran up to Ridley's in Hyrum (a small town four miles north of us), and came across a cheerful scene.  In the city park there were dozens and dozens of kids in bathing suits, and several firemen were squirting them all with fire hoses.  There was much kicking and screaming from the delighted kids, and smiling faces of the parents and adult onlookers surrounding them.  I wanted to take some photos of it, but onlookers asked me not to, so I didn't.  I'm not sure why they care, but I'll respect their wishes.  Sure looked like a lot of fun for the kids!

My neighbor Tim D. is on a trip to Philadelphia with his son for the next few days.  I'm handling the irrigation for him.  This morning that means turning off one string of hand line, and moving three others.  I'll have one last move tomorrow, then I'll stack all the pipe for him as we'll be done with this cycle of irrigation.

I'm working on my tractor, getting the log splitter plumbed correctly.  I filled the hydraulic fluid on my tractor.  It was very low because when I attached the log splitter, its cylinder got filled from the tractor's reservoir, taking about 2 gallons of the 3 gallons in the reservoir.  This is what happens when you attach a big implement to a little tractor :)