There has been a wildfire raging between here and Alpine for several days now. Below are some pictures of the smoke from it on the horizon between Santiago peak and 9 Points Mesa. It would be about 30 miles North of here and is in rough terrain so they aren't having much luck in stopping it. Fortunately so far the wind has been keeping most of the smoke away from here, but there is enough of the smell to make it a little tougher for me to get my breath. See more about it here http://www.kwes.com/Global/story.asp?S=14174392&Call=Email&Format=Text
The Cone Noses have already come out. Note the remains of one I squashed out by the falcon yesterday afternoon. Damn! I thought it was much later in the year when they came out.
Here is a close up of Bee Bee a couple of days after I applied the mud. Note all the damn cracks in it. It turns out that McCoy's gave me the wrong stuff for the job and this is the results of that. I ordered White mortar MIX and they gave me the raw gray mortar (without the sand) instead. I don't have a clue what to do now, but one guy that does this sort of thing said I might be able to apply the mixed stuff over it and take care of it. He also said it might not to. Grrr!
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thanks for the update! about those cracks, I stuccoed my house in phx and had those. ya got to keep it damp every day for about a week and take a damp sponge and go over it every day. the cracks disapeared on mine.
ReplyDeleteSaw the fire on our news here in Cape Town 'bout 36 - 48 hours ago. Have been watching your blogs to see if there was any mention of it / if it was near to you. Take care there, y'hear!
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth is a cone nose?
Nick, Frann is planning to go to Alpine tomorrow and I'm going to ride with her so we should be getting a lot closer to where it is. I hope I can remember to take my camera to take pictures if we see anything of it on the way.
ReplyDeleteI think I have a sponge around here so may try that. Thanks.
Dani, here is a link to information about the cone nose. They can and do have really nasty bites and in some cases people have swelled up the size of a baseball around the bite. (Probably an allergy?) They are also called kissing bugs because from what I hear they usually bite around the lips and eyes where the tissue is tender. I also hear they are drawn by CO2 like mosquitoes so that would be another likely reason they bite around the mouth or on the face. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triatoma_dimidiata