Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Debbie continues to improve every day, though that dang knee still can't hold any weight. Just two days until her surgical evaluation. She's backed way off on the pain medication, which I'll take as a very good sign!
Lots of little things got done the past couple of days. I finished mounting my shaper to its mobile base. This was a little complicated by the fact that I needed to raise it a couple inches. I used 4 x 6 lumber, resawn (on the band saw) down to an actual 2" x 5.25". I cut it to the right length and mounted it in the bottom of the mobile base, and the shaper is attached to the wood from the top. Works great! Then I assembled and tested my new log splitter; it worked just fine.
I've been waiting for several months now for a ballast box to go on the three point hitch of my tractor. This counterbalances a load in the front loader when I don't have the backhoe attached. My workaround was to leave the backhoe attached all the time :) Yesterday evening Lawrence W. from Agri-Service delivered it, finally. It's basically just a big steel box with the right bits on it to mount onto my tractor's three point hitch. I fill it with something heavy (dirt or stones will do fine) and I'm good to go. I'll be taking the backhoe off shortly to test this out.
I've set up all the 3" aluminum hand line in our yard now, so we're ready for the irrigation season. We have two lines, with 12 and 7 sprinklers respectively. Today I bought three more sprinklers and risers so that I can extend that to 14 and 8 sprinklers. This is so that I can irrigate two areas that we're converting from weed patch to lawn. Naturally, just as I finished all this setup our Paradise Irrigation pressurized water lost all pressure. I suspect a filter is clogged badly somewhere...
This morning I walked the dogs before dawn, at about 5 am with the sky just beginning to lighten in the east. It was a crisp, cool morning and the dogs all reveled in it. Miki and Race bounded through the alfalfa, which is now about 3' tall. I'm sure they'll be mowing it very soon now, as it's in full bloom.
My neighbor Tim D. came over around 7 am to move his three strings of hand line. I gave him a hand (as he's done for me many times), and we had a fun conversation the whole time we were working. Neighbors driving or walking by stopped to say hello and shoot the breeze for a few minutes. We found a tequila bottle out in our field (where Tim is running alfalfa), and we both marveled at the unlikeliness of that artifact showing up there! I noted on one of his hand line strings, Tim has a 15' long section of 3" hose (allowing him to bend at any angle) that was old and full of holes. I picked up a new piece today and replaced it. Fitting that new hose up would be hard for him, as he's got pretty bad arthritis in his hands. It felt good to be able to help a bit. I haven't told him what I've done (and he doesn't know about this blog), so I'm anticipating him trying to figure out how his old hose magically got renewed :)
Yesterday I heard from LeGrand Johnson company that they're going to have a big loader out our way next Tuesday, and that I can have some of its time. I'm going to get them to do some cut-and-fill work on the southeast corner of our property, between the irrigation canal and the highway. There's a section of old irrigation canal there. I'm going to have them fill that in and make a gentler, consistent slope in that whole area. The goal is to get a slope that I can mow easily. Once I have the right slope, I'll start spraying it a few times a year with 2,4-D, and pretty soon I'll have grass there.
Now I'm trying to get myself motivated to clean up the shed. It's full of packing material and dirt that need to be dealt with. But it's hot and I'm feeling lazy :)
Lots of little things got done the past couple of days. I finished mounting my shaper to its mobile base. This was a little complicated by the fact that I needed to raise it a couple inches. I used 4 x 6 lumber, resawn (on the band saw) down to an actual 2" x 5.25". I cut it to the right length and mounted it in the bottom of the mobile base, and the shaper is attached to the wood from the top. Works great! Then I assembled and tested my new log splitter; it worked just fine.
I've been waiting for several months now for a ballast box to go on the three point hitch of my tractor. This counterbalances a load in the front loader when I don't have the backhoe attached. My workaround was to leave the backhoe attached all the time :) Yesterday evening Lawrence W. from Agri-Service delivered it, finally. It's basically just a big steel box with the right bits on it to mount onto my tractor's three point hitch. I fill it with something heavy (dirt or stones will do fine) and I'm good to go. I'll be taking the backhoe off shortly to test this out.
I've set up all the 3" aluminum hand line in our yard now, so we're ready for the irrigation season. We have two lines, with 12 and 7 sprinklers respectively. Today I bought three more sprinklers and risers so that I can extend that to 14 and 8 sprinklers. This is so that I can irrigate two areas that we're converting from weed patch to lawn. Naturally, just as I finished all this setup our Paradise Irrigation pressurized water lost all pressure. I suspect a filter is clogged badly somewhere...
This morning I walked the dogs before dawn, at about 5 am with the sky just beginning to lighten in the east. It was a crisp, cool morning and the dogs all reveled in it. Miki and Race bounded through the alfalfa, which is now about 3' tall. I'm sure they'll be mowing it very soon now, as it's in full bloom.
My neighbor Tim D. came over around 7 am to move his three strings of hand line. I gave him a hand (as he's done for me many times), and we had a fun conversation the whole time we were working. Neighbors driving or walking by stopped to say hello and shoot the breeze for a few minutes. We found a tequila bottle out in our field (where Tim is running alfalfa), and we both marveled at the unlikeliness of that artifact showing up there! I noted on one of his hand line strings, Tim has a 15' long section of 3" hose (allowing him to bend at any angle) that was old and full of holes. I picked up a new piece today and replaced it. Fitting that new hose up would be hard for him, as he's got pretty bad arthritis in his hands. It felt good to be able to help a bit. I haven't told him what I've done (and he doesn't know about this blog), so I'm anticipating him trying to figure out how his old hose magically got renewed :)
Yesterday I heard from LeGrand Johnson company that they're going to have a big loader out our way next Tuesday, and that I can have some of its time. I'm going to get them to do some cut-and-fill work on the southeast corner of our property, between the irrigation canal and the highway. There's a section of old irrigation canal there. I'm going to have them fill that in and make a gentler, consistent slope in that whole area. The goal is to get a slope that I can mow easily. Once I have the right slope, I'll start spraying it a few times a year with 2,4-D, and pretty soon I'll have grass there.
Now I'm trying to get myself motivated to clean up the shed. It's full of packing material and dirt that need to be dealt with. But it's hot and I'm feeling lazy :)
Monday, June 15, 2015
Paradise people...
Paradise people... This is one of those days when we can't help but think we're actually living in paradise...
First, this morning I was out moving some irrigation pipes (a routine thing out here). My neighbor Tim D. put-putted up on his ATV, hops off, and starts helping me move the pipes. He'd spotted me from his place, a half mile away, and decided that I needed help. I could easily have done it myself (and did so quite a few times last year), but the job was much more pleasant with a friend helping out.
Second, Michelle H. came today to clean our house. She's been coming every two weeks since January, and we've come to think of her as a friend. Always cheerful, her daughter Lizzie often helping, and the house looks great when she's done. Our dogs love her (an important measure for us :). This morning when she drove in, I warned her that Debbie had fallen and hurt herself, and talked with her about what we needed done. An hour or so later, Lizzie rang the doorbell – and she had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Debbie in her hands. I got her a vase and she fixed them all up; now they're at Debbie's bedside.
When we were looking at houses up here, we were looking at the properties and the homes to evaluate them. I did go interview all the neighbors to make sure we weren't going to move next to some raving lunatic, but we weren't consciously using the quality of our neighbors as a selection criterion. Now that we're here, we think we screwed up: we should have found these Paradise people first, then moved into whatever hovel would allow us to be near them. Instead we accidentally bought a nice property right in the middle of a whole bunch of the nicest people we've ever met. The “provincial Mormons”, as one of my friends called them (a Mormon himself!). He was gently poking a little fun at them, but I think they should wear that label as a badge of honor...
First, this morning I was out moving some irrigation pipes (a routine thing out here). My neighbor Tim D. put-putted up on his ATV, hops off, and starts helping me move the pipes. He'd spotted me from his place, a half mile away, and decided that I needed help. I could easily have done it myself (and did so quite a few times last year), but the job was much more pleasant with a friend helping out.
Second, Michelle H. came today to clean our house. She's been coming every two weeks since January, and we've come to think of her as a friend. Always cheerful, her daughter Lizzie often helping, and the house looks great when she's done. Our dogs love her (an important measure for us :). This morning when she drove in, I warned her that Debbie had fallen and hurt herself, and talked with her about what we needed done. An hour or so later, Lizzie rang the doorbell – and she had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Debbie in her hands. I got her a vase and she fixed them all up; now they're at Debbie's bedside.
When we were looking at houses up here, we were looking at the properties and the homes to evaluate them. I did go interview all the neighbors to make sure we weren't going to move next to some raving lunatic, but we weren't consciously using the quality of our neighbors as a selection criterion. Now that we're here, we think we screwed up: we should have found these Paradise people first, then moved into whatever hovel would allow us to be near them. Instead we accidentally bought a nice property right in the middle of a whole bunch of the nicest people we've ever met. The “provincial Mormons”, as one of my friends called them (a Mormon himself!). He was gently poking a little fun at them, but I think they should wear that label as a badge of honor...
The crazy things progressives believe...
The crazy things progressives believe... I heard this on NPR (I listen so you don't have to) while on the road to get some tractor parts. I needed hydraulic couplers for my new log splitter, and I listened to the Diane Rehm show on the way up.
I wasn't on long enough to catch the name of her guest, but I did hear him expound on a notion I'd not heard before. From Ms. Rehm's responses, I could tell this was something she thought of as obviously true. The notion: that competition and altruism were in direct opposition. In other words, that one could not behave in an altruistic manner and still succeed in a competitive environment.
I'd never heard this notion stated baldly like this before. The ultimate altruistic society would be socialist (or Communist), in the theoretical sense – not how any socialist or Communist state as actually been implemented. In such states, there would be no competition. All that is old hat, standard progressive fare. What's new to me here is the assertion that competition must be eliminated in order to have altruistic behavior.
Ms. Rehm's guest expounded on this at some length. He believes, for example, that children should be shielded from competitive pressures – and then they would “naturally” grow up to exhibit altruistic behavior. In other words, perfect little socialists.
This notion is also a wonderful way to demonize capitalists. If you're a capitalist, you are by definition competitive – and therefore you're a selfish oaf and the enemy of the perfect altruistic state.
These sorts of things leave me speechless. I cannot imagine the profound naivete and self-ignorance required to actually believe such utter balderdash.
And these people vote. And they'll likely vote for either Hillary or Bernie. And these thoughts make me feel the doom is approaching...
I wasn't on long enough to catch the name of her guest, but I did hear him expound on a notion I'd not heard before. From Ms. Rehm's responses, I could tell this was something she thought of as obviously true. The notion: that competition and altruism were in direct opposition. In other words, that one could not behave in an altruistic manner and still succeed in a competitive environment.
I'd never heard this notion stated baldly like this before. The ultimate altruistic society would be socialist (or Communist), in the theoretical sense – not how any socialist or Communist state as actually been implemented. In such states, there would be no competition. All that is old hat, standard progressive fare. What's new to me here is the assertion that competition must be eliminated in order to have altruistic behavior.
Ms. Rehm's guest expounded on this at some length. He believes, for example, that children should be shielded from competitive pressures – and then they would “naturally” grow up to exhibit altruistic behavior. In other words, perfect little socialists.
This notion is also a wonderful way to demonize capitalists. If you're a capitalist, you are by definition competitive – and therefore you're a selfish oaf and the enemy of the perfect altruistic state.
These sorts of things leave me speechless. I cannot imagine the profound naivete and self-ignorance required to actually believe such utter balderdash.
And these people vote. And they'll likely vote for either Hillary or Bernie. And these thoughts make me feel the doom is approaching...
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Quote of the day...
Quote of the day... From Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit:
If I were Romney, I’d run for President again, with bumper stickers that just say “I fucking told you so!”Oh, yes...
A morning in Paradise...
A morning in Paradise... Debbie's getting stronger, and having less pain, every day. This morning she looks like she could get up and go for a walk. I think it's only the meniscus tear stopping her, and that should get fixed in the next week or so...
My job for this morning was to set up the irrigation for the strip of lawn along the east side of our property. This is about three weeks later than last year, as we've had so much rain the past month. But it's time now! The pipes have been stacked on the ground for the past 8 months, so they're full of dirt, leaves, and dead voles. After I laid all the pipe out, I left the end plug off and blasted water through the pipes to clean them out. Then I put the plug in, turned on the water, and discovered that I had four plugged sprinklers (out of 12). Not too bad. Fixed them, but then discovered that the last pipe's gasket was gone, so tons of water was leaking around the end plug. Turned off the water, put in a new gasket, turned the water back on, and voila! We've got irrigation (photo at right, click to embiggen)! I'll be using this roughly weekly for the next four months or so.
At the end of this exercise, I was soaking wet from unplugging the sprinkler heads. To get dry, I rode my ATV up and back a farm road near our house, the same one we go walking on – except I took the road all the way to its end. I discovered that we've been walking on the worst part of the entire road! As soon as Debbie's good to go walking again, we're going to change that. The last 3/4 of a mile of that road are a gorgeous walk through rolling fields, right now planted in a grain I don't recognize and alfalfa. The alfalfa is in bloom; looks like the farmer's late in cutting it. The last part of the road (middle photo) is overgrown with alfalfa, but still easily passable. Along the way I saw two pairs of quail, a species I don't know with prominently rusty brown coloration. No chicks, dang it! I also got a closeup view of a meadowlark, plus I flushed a red fox out of that alfalfa field. I think he was hunting voles :)
At the end of this exercise, I was soaking wet from unplugging the sprinkler heads. To get dry, I rode my ATV up and back a farm road near our house, the same one we go walking on – except I took the road all the way to its end. I discovered that we've been walking on the worst part of the entire road! As soon as Debbie's good to go walking again, we're going to change that. The last 3/4 of a mile of that road are a gorgeous walk through rolling fields, right now planted in a grain I don't recognize and alfalfa. The alfalfa is in bloom; looks like the farmer's late in cutting it. The last part of the road (middle photo) is overgrown with alfalfa, but still easily passable. Along the way I saw two pairs of quail, a species I don't know with prominently rusty brown coloration. No chicks, dang it! I also got a closeup view of a meadowlark, plus I flushed a red fox out of that alfalfa field. I think he was hunting voles :)
It's lovely...
It's lovely ... when one gets a good night's sleep, isn't it? And it's a lovely morning here in Paradise. People all around me are setting up their irrigation lines for the first time this year, and that's exactly what I'll be doing in just a little while myself...
Yes...
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Paradise blossoms...
Paradise blossoms... These are all from our yard, today and yesterday. The most surprising ones to me are the wild roses, 25 feet in the air, blooming after climbing our choke cherries (last photo)...
Skyrmion memory?
Human ingenuity seems to have no bounds...
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Debbie is starting to back off on the pain medication. This took a lot longer than either of us expected, but we're taking that as meaning she's on the mend. She's got nearly full use of her right (injured) arm back, and all the swelling at various places in it is nearly gone. She's got a lot of bruising, though, and it continues to “evolve” daily. Her injured knee is still too painful to bend at all – almost certainly the meniscus tear – and she still can't put any weight on it at all. Today we're going to try to get her in the shower, for the first time in 9 days. We're both looking forward to that :)
Yesterday I kept busy with little things. First thing in the morning, while it was still cool, I leveled a few square yards of soil near the house, where we trenched last year to get water, gas, and network to the shed. This is the area where our air conditioner's compressor is mounted, and it's getting warm enough that we would like to have that working again. After leveling, I set four 18" square pavers in place to make a square yard base for the compressor. Then I set the compressor itself on top of the pavers. Early next week our HVAC guy (another of the wonderful contractors I found last year) will be here to reconnect it all, and recharge the refrigerant.
After I finished with that, I tackled a window screen and screen door in our bedroom. These both had falling-apart screen material in them, not at all cat-proof (and Jahar, our Savannah cat, lives in our bedroom). I replaced all that with pet-proof screen, plus installed new wheels in the screen door. This took a trip to Home Depot, of course. If there was anything that I wished was closer to us, it would be Home Depot :)
Just after lunch, a truck driver (with a comically stereotypical Mexican accent) called to warn me he was about to arrive. He was delivering my new log splitter – a 30 ton model that attaches to my tractor's 3 point hitch, and (more importantly) uses the tractor's hydraulics. The thing weighs 550 pounds, so we needed my tractor's fork lift to get it out of the truck. We had another little challenge first, though. The log splitter was laying sideways on a double-sized pallet, twice as long as it was wide. It was sitting cross-wise in his truck. Between the log splitter and the trailer's door was another pallet (not mine) with 1,500 pounds of paper products on it. The driver wanted me to offload that pallet that was in the way so he could roll my pallet to the back. My tractor can't lift quite 1,500 pounds, though – it's limit is 1,250. We tried, but it wouldn't budge. The driver thought we were stuck until I pointed out that we could rotate my pallet (so it was oriented long ways), then move the little pallet alongside and behind it with his pallet jack. It took me some talking before he got the idea, then he was smacking himself in the head for missing something so obvious. The scene was like something out of an implausible Hollywood comedy. Once we maneuvered the little pallet out of the way, offloading mine was a breeze – and now yet another project sits in my barn. Why is this another project? Well, because of course it's a kit – and in addition, I have to get custom hydraulic hoses made up to fit my tractor. Of course.
All you equipment manufacturers out there: it wouldn't offend me at all if you were to deliver the stuff I buy ready to use. Not one bit...
Yesterday I kept busy with little things. First thing in the morning, while it was still cool, I leveled a few square yards of soil near the house, where we trenched last year to get water, gas, and network to the shed. This is the area where our air conditioner's compressor is mounted, and it's getting warm enough that we would like to have that working again. After leveling, I set four 18" square pavers in place to make a square yard base for the compressor. Then I set the compressor itself on top of the pavers. Early next week our HVAC guy (another of the wonderful contractors I found last year) will be here to reconnect it all, and recharge the refrigerant.
After I finished with that, I tackled a window screen and screen door in our bedroom. These both had falling-apart screen material in them, not at all cat-proof (and Jahar, our Savannah cat, lives in our bedroom). I replaced all that with pet-proof screen, plus installed new wheels in the screen door. This took a trip to Home Depot, of course. If there was anything that I wished was closer to us, it would be Home Depot :)
Just after lunch, a truck driver (with a comically stereotypical Mexican accent) called to warn me he was about to arrive. He was delivering my new log splitter – a 30 ton model that attaches to my tractor's 3 point hitch, and (more importantly) uses the tractor's hydraulics. The thing weighs 550 pounds, so we needed my tractor's fork lift to get it out of the truck. We had another little challenge first, though. The log splitter was laying sideways on a double-sized pallet, twice as long as it was wide. It was sitting cross-wise in his truck. Between the log splitter and the trailer's door was another pallet (not mine) with 1,500 pounds of paper products on it. The driver wanted me to offload that pallet that was in the way so he could roll my pallet to the back. My tractor can't lift quite 1,500 pounds, though – it's limit is 1,250. We tried, but it wouldn't budge. The driver thought we were stuck until I pointed out that we could rotate my pallet (so it was oriented long ways), then move the little pallet alongside and behind it with his pallet jack. It took me some talking before he got the idea, then he was smacking himself in the head for missing something so obvious. The scene was like something out of an implausible Hollywood comedy. Once we maneuvered the little pallet out of the way, offloading mine was a breeze – and now yet another project sits in my barn. Why is this another project? Well, because of course it's a kit – and in addition, I have to get custom hydraulic hoses made up to fit my tractor. Of course.
All you equipment manufacturers out there: it wouldn't offend me at all if you were to deliver the stuff I buy ready to use. Not one bit...
Friday, June 12, 2015
This could be us and our dogs...
Dramatic takeoff of Boeing 787-9...
I want a ride on this airplane, please...
Next time you consider letting a kid touch you...
I don't actually know if the result of culturing the hand print of an adult would be any better. But I'd prefer to think so :)
Paradise forecast...
Paradise forecast... It's looking like some warm and beautiful weather for the next 10 days (at least):
Philae found?
Excellent book!
Excellent book! Just finished The Martian, by Andy Weir, last night. It's like the love child of Heinlein and a nerdette. The science and technology are all plausible. The central character in the book chews his way through a seemingly never-ending series of existential threats, using nothing but the material at hands, his will, and a not-insignificant amount of pure American-style cleverness. I couldn't put it down!
I hope that Andy is working on another book...
I hope that Andy is working on another book...
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Debbie update...
This is actually a bit of a relief for us. The meniscus tear, in the grand scheme of things, is far from the worst sorts of injury that can happen to a knee. Debbie's already experienced one of the worst: a tibial plateau fracture, and a bad one at that. Generally surgery to repair meniscus tears is arthroscopic, low risk, and fast recovery. We're hoping that hers will fall into that category.
Also, there's quite likely a bit of a bonus for Debbie in this surgery. When she had her tibial plateau fracture surgery (two and a half years ago), the surgeon “installed” a significant quantity of very expensive hardware – a fancy plate and a half dozen or so titanium screws. She could never bring herself to schedule a surgery just to remove that hardware, so she's been clanking around with it (well, it doesn't really clank) ever since. We're going to see if it can be removed at the same time the meniscus repair is done.
Phone just rang, and she has an appointment with a knee specialist next Thursday...
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