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.

Visitors today!

Left to Right MC, OGT, JustMe

I'd heard that OGT was headed this way and then heard that MC was to. I was sitting out front after rigging up a makeshift evap cooler all afternoon and up came MC. Wasn't 5 minutes after she got here and here comes OGT. OGT took us to dinner (Supper to some of us rednecks.) at Tevo's place. I wasn't real hungry, but the food was good so it all got eaten. MC is supposed to meet us back at the dungeon tomorrow at noon and then hang out with us the rest of the day. Don't know about them, but I had a great time. OGT also came bearing some gifts that I can probably use. Thanks OGT.

*UPDATE*

We all had a great time at the legion last night for the fund raiser. MC surprised everyone by singing Patsy Cline's  "I'm Crazy" and you would have sworn it was Patsy Cline singing it herself! Man can that lady sing! Contrary to OGT saying that he wasn't good enough on the guitar to do any playing also surprised everyone by doing just that anyway and danged if he wasn't also a good singer and did great on the guitar to. He also got to play some sort of home made wash tub bass thingy and did very good on that to. MC was more or less the Bell of The Ball and both her and OGT now have a lot of new friends and fans.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera there, but OGT did let me take some pictures with his cell phone so when he send them to me I'll post them also.

Also unfortunate that OGT didn't read his reservations all the way through and didn't think his plane from Odessa/Midland was supposed to leave until this evening, but then found out he had to leave about 4:30. We had planned Breakfast and some target practice this morning, but by the time they had gotten here it was really too late for breakfast and they had to hit the road fast to make it to the airport. :(  Just Me and myself did do some target practice and then she had to go get ready to head for Midland herself. All in all it was great to have the visitors and now its back to the old lonely grind around here.

More pictures from OGT's cell phone. I was thinking he took the one of MC and me with my camera, but it was with his cell. Unfortunately the ones in the legion didn't turn out to well, but the second photo is of OGT jamming out on the tub and the third is of MC being caught with the pool cue.

Yucca Soup

One of the legion members was asking about whether Yucca fruit could be eaten or not since there is plenty of it down here now. I did some searching online and found that it could and since there is a yucca a very short distance from the dungeon that is loaded with fruit I decided to make some Yucca soup and try it out. I ate a fair amount of it just to see what it would be like and whether there would be any side effects and a slight bitter taste was all. Some diced tomatoes, other vegetables or meat would have probably made it a decent meal. My conclusion would be that if you are hungry and didn't have anything else to eat it WOULD be a viable meal. I plan to try grilling some of it with BBQ sauce just to see how that turns out. To me it was about like eating a semi tough steak. That was after boiling it for 30 minutes with a little sea salt, course ground pepper (not the dog), and a few other seasonings. I didn't have any Rotel Sauce or tomatoes on hand to try it with.

On another note I finally got that shower I needed! Sure was nice and in my own shower!

 Found one of the Yuccas that was pre blossom so decided to try cooking the stem to see if it tasted like asparagus spears. It didn't, but wasn't bad and not as bitter as the fruit. There are others about to blossum so I guess I'll be trying the flower peddles next. According to the site I got the info from they are the best part of it to eat. http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Yucca

Anyone know what the plant or bush below is with all the red berries on it? No! I'm not planning to eat the berries. ;)

Progress but not much.

Made a little progress on the shower, but not enough. Maybe tomorrow? Its been pretty hot this afternoon and I just couldn't make myself do much more. I'm about out of stuff to use with the build, but plan to cover the interior with a tarp to keep the water off the wood and I might be far enough along tomorrow to take a shower in it. Sure could use one! Not sure what I'll do for a door yet, but it will have a window at the top to give enough light in there to shower by. I still need to dig the trench further out so it will drain where I want it to, but that will come later. I need to get several pieces of corrugated tin for the roof and gutter because I plan to do rain catchment off of the It'll Du complex. Contrary to the way this looks in the pictures the buildings are not leaning. ;)