Good Morning!!!! 79F @ 6:00AM. Plentiful sunshine. Near record high temperatures. High 109F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
The air is still pretty hazy with smoke, AQM 126 outside and 42 inside. Most of yesterday, the winds were out of the south, but with only a 2-5 mph breeze, it wasn't enough to keep the smoke at bay. Last night at around 10, they swung around to come out of the northwest, as they do most nights, and we have more smoke in the air. By 9 or 10 this morning they'll go back to southerly winds, maybe with a little more strength and it'll clear up a little more, but who knows?
Artichokes always seemed like more work to eat them than you got back nutritionally, Eric, but that blossom is a pretty one.
Once in a while I'll slather a sweet relish on a hotdog, but I miss a Claussen Kosher Dill spear with my sandwich at lunch when the grocery store runs out, which they seem to do regularly now. Not so sure about horseradish on a pickle, though. Maybe get the same effect sprinkling wasabi powder on one of the Claussens?
CV19 numbers are up from what they were six weeks ago here, but have dropped a bit from two weeks ago. Still below 50% vaccination rate, and as it's always been, most of the infected are in the 18-24 age group. Delta leads the pack, but I was surprised they've found a half dozen or so variants so far. Very few deaths, especially when compared to the start of the pandemic. No shortage of hospital beds/ventilators, either, and I hope it stays that way.
Looks like one of the trunks on a live oak up near the top water tank has fallen, a victim of the hot dry weather and fire damage. Think I'll take a page out of your book, Kyle, and wait for cooler weather before I drag it and several others that have suffered the same fate over to the wood lot.
And speaking of the top tank, my short rounds of daily pumping have it a little less than half full. I did get a pressure gauge installed in the drain line to see what kind of head it had, but get no reading. It was one I had rattling around in a drawer, and worked fine with air pressure, but maybe it didn't like water. Got one on the way from McMaster to see if that's the cure.
Looks like there was room for three under that parachute, Ken, but then you wouldn't have the picture if you'd have been along for the ride. Can't blame you though, that looks like a long way up there.
Made some changes to the network here last week, losing connectivity for some of the e-devices as a result. Chased down a few of them yesterday, resetting the passwords and making sure they were on the correct network. The camera I'd left running up at the top tank wasn't working when I went to bed Friday night, but yesterday morning it seemed to have sorted itself out and is still working. I'll add another 900' of cable this morning to simulate the run all the way out to the cul-de-sac and see if it still works, and give it more time to fix itself.
Still no word from the neighbor on fabbing up a rock screen, so I'll start gathering up stuff today to make a start on my own. I have a chunk of chain link fence I use as a drag that'll be a good start on a screen, and just need to find some pipe or angle iron for a frame, then a bit more for some legs. It won't be as robust as a commercial job, but it won't cost several thousand bux, either.
Hope everyone enjoys what's left of their weekend...
