Neighbor's Pant update

Just an update on my neighbor Robert Dawson's plants. Sure look good! Not much other news for now. Maybe later and if so hopefully it will be good news instead of more bad news.

Cone Nosed Beetle

Found this blood sucker here in the dungeon tonight. Glad I found it before it found me after I went to sleep! And here I'd read where they mostly hung out in adobe buildings. I guess not!

Where'd It Go?

This morning in the area where the red square is in the above picture there was a large pole barn. This evening it was GONE! That was after some really high straight line winds came through during some storms around here. The barn has been around for years and I was over looking at it just a few days ago because it was abandoned and there were materials that could be scavenged. I have a feeling now they are between that place and Study Butte 18 miles away. I was out in this storm trying to contain all of the loose stuff around here because it was blowing everywhere!

What's left of the guest house foundation. There was a pretty good bit of HEAVY stuff on it and the tarp was ripped up and pulled away from steel stakes buried in solid rock.

At one time I was wrestling the flipper barrel trying to keep it up against the dungeon and had to give up. I was also out rounding up stuff that has blown out down the south valley that just shouldn't have been able to blow away.

The wind genny going in to Helli mode! Got a lot more that way than this picture shows.

Curtain rod and some screws pulled out with the flap thrown up and over in to the shower. The complex survived though.

A mobile home in the distance looks like it may have been rolled over, but I'll have to investigate that tomorrow.

Just before this all hit one BIG whirlwind came through in front of the dungeon and scarred Pepper so bad that she was making trails down the road in front. I had to yell at her to get her to stop running and finally got her back here and in the dungeon. She was cowering in the back corner after that.

Spring Break Break Party

My neighbor invited me to go to the Spring Break Break Party at the Big Bend Resort tonight with him and his wife and daughter. I accepted and had a good time. Brisket sandwiches with trimmings and beans were very good. There was dancing with live entertainment and I had a request to dance, but just couldn't get comfortable with any of the songs that came up so declined. As usual I forgot to take the camera, but my neighbor Robert Dawson took his so hopefully I can post pictures in a day or two. It was held in the BBMI Party Barn and there were plenty of people there, but there were also other events going on at different places at the same time so it didn't have the attendance it could have had. Like I say though I had a good time and think everyone else did to.

The neighbor hasn't come through with the pictures of the party so here is filler.

Internet Neighbors

A few photos of my neighbors places seen from the dungeon. All but the Legion are either bloggers or run web sites that you may know them by.

The Legion as seen from here.

I believe the yellow arrow points to Buddy Crofard's place, but if not then its real close.

A guesstimate of where OGT plans to build.

Bill and Caren's place Aka Bigfoot and Littlefoot.

Just not much else to write now other than its finally starting to cool off some. Windy as heck, but that means free electricity to me. ;) I may add more to this thread later.

Excuse the emotional content.

  Bummed with the heat and quiet a few other things and the lack of anything to do I find some old thoughts and emotions creeping back in. I decided it was time to fire up the Zune and stereo to help out, but with all the tear jerkers on it I'm having to try and dodge those. Not easy since there seem to be plenty that remind me of old times. 

Just so happens that the battery in the Zune was down and the only way to charge it was let it charge for hours connected to the USB port on this laptop or connect it through my charger to my inside backup battery. (Which was outside because I was charging it with the solar battery charger today.) I didn't want to leave the laptop on to drain the battery bank prematurely (which will be anyway with the stereo on and the evap fan and pump running all night to.) so... I made sure to turn off the light inside here knowing that a trillion bugs were lurking outside because of the light shining through the window. Never the less turning off the light only partially helped because when I opened the door to get the battery only a billion bugs made it inside. 

I'm having a hard time imagining Pepper as another human and if I could pull that off I'd be imagining she was an extremely weird lady. There is only room for one weird person in here and I'm that person so she just isn't too good at helping cure the lonesome blues. Oh well... It will be time to rack out soon so that imaginary weird woman can wake me up at 3:30 wanting out and then wanting back in at 4:00 and then back out at 5:30. (Not to mention the half billion bugs I won't get killed tormenting me all night) I did manage a short nap today by setting the other fan in front of the evap fan and setting so that it was blowing the cool air on me in the bunk. I don't think its supposed to be so hot tomorrow so maybe I can get another longer makeup nap?

Mean while its back to listening to the Zune which is a little more company. That and making good use of the fly swatter I recently bought to help deal with all the bugs.

The Almost Blind Blogger

Near disaster folks. We are supposed to have a 30% chance of rain so while getting the car cover down to cover the falcon the tie cord caught the camera and sent it plummeting two bunk stories to the floor.  (about 5 feet) When I tried to check it out I kept getting a General Failure message in the viewer. I finally managed to make use of the hammer again and get it functioning again. Hope it holds up because we all know that a Blogger without a camera is almost blind.

Photo #1 is the tarp shade I spent day before yesterday under. Couldn't use it yesterday because of an occasional high gust of wind in an otherwise almost calm HOT day. I toughed it out in here until there was some shade in front of the dungeon.

Photo #2 is the picture I just took after working the camera over with the hammer. Looks like I'm not blind after all. Oh... The Range Rover belongs to OGT. He plans to start building down here soon and we have a deal going to get him from the airport in Midland when he can come down here.He'll let me know a few days before I'll need to pick him up at the airport and I'll be able to drive up to Odessa a couple of days early to visit family. Then I'll pick him up and head back down this way. Works for me...

MDB & Green - Evap

Don't have a lot to say right now other than its 103 outside according to the thermometer my neighbor gave me. At least I can keep up with the inside and outside temps now. I put one of the pumps that OGT brought to use by making a feed for the evap cooler so now I don't have to keep spraying the pad down with a spray bottle. (Plastic coke bottle with small holes drilled in the lid) The evap is working pretty good, but its still in makeshift condition at this time. May be that way for a while. The fans are running off of the little solar battery charger and the pump is running off of the inverter. Its holding at 96.6 in here for the time being.

Got out and took some pictures this morning while it was cool. The desert is greening up pretty good and a lot of blooming going on. Also one of the Yuccas is flowering so I got to pull off one of the peddles and try it. Wasn't bad raw and I think they should go good in a salad. Might be good stir fried to? I hear so. I'll have to try them with something else.