pushy wind

The wind was so strong this morning that I had a hard time pushing the front door open when I went to get the paper. Then there was no paper! I searched again later, when there was better light, but couldn't find it. I thought it had blown away. After a couple of hours. it emerged from a bush of hollyhock leaves where the wind had hidden it.

Need more info

This is interesting information, but nowhere near enough to lead me to a decision.

in reference to: What You Need to Know When Buying a Media Streamer | Product Reviews | Wired.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

new experiences

Reinee had a new experience today. At about 6:50 AM, following LaVerkin Creek through Confluence Park as we headed back toward the car during our morning run, she took the opportunity to get up close and personal with a skunk. This skunk crossed the trail ahead of us about a week ago, but Reinee was closer to me that time and I was able to call her to me and keep her a good distance away from the critter, as he "high tailed it" across the trail. This time, I think he was waiting for us to return, and, tail up again, he walked out just as Reinee reached his observation point. I yelled at her to go "back", and she finally obeyed, reluctantly. He followed her! She stopped, he sprayed and he walked into the bushes on the south side of the trail.

Reinee shook and snorted, then trotted to me when I called. Fresh skunk spray smells different than you'd expect, but I had been sprayed once myself and was with Sam when he was sprayed, so I recognized the odor. We walked a short ways, and Reinee started to veer toward the bushes on the right. I was about to call her back when I was relieved to see that she backed off on her own. I shifted to the berm on the north side of the trail. Sure enough, as I passed the spot where Reinee had stopped, I was entertained by the sight of the back end of a skunk, tail straight up and fluffed out. There's not much uglier than the business end of a skunk, even if you aren't aware of just what that business is. That villain had walked along through the bushes parallel to the trail and was waiting to ambush us again. He didn't squirt me, but I didn't get very close.

Because I didn't want Reinee to stink up the car, I sent Terry home to get the pickup. He had a hard time starting it, so I guess it needed a run anyway. It took some doing to coax Reinee into the back with me, but finally we rode the half-mile home in the open air. I think she enjoyed it. Then, after giving her a quick drink of water at the front step, I took her out back and went looking for some tomato juice. When I came back out, she was sliding around in the gravel and getting all covered with dust, especially her face. I doused her with tomato juice, rubbed it in with a rag, and hosed her off. Since she likes to "bite the water", hosing her off wasn't as tough as it might have been. I didn't want to hose off her ears, though, and they had really taken a good squirt from Pepe LePew. I rubbed them with the juice-soaked rag and wiped them off after rinsing the rag.

I toweled Reinee down and washed the towel along with my shoes, shirt and pants and Terry's jacket, scented when he lifted her into the pickup bed.  She didn't smell too bad, but there was an aura wherever she went. Then I made my big mistake. I sprayed some Febreze in her direction. I don't like Febreze; it makes me sneeze, but I figured a couple of small squirts wouldn't be a big deal. Ha! Where it hit Reinee's fur, I guess it cancelled out the tomato juice, because it brought the skunk smell back! So I hosed Reinee off once more. She's drying out, slowly.

wireless mouse

I now have the wireless mouse I need to make the old laptop usable for photo processing. No more excuses. Desert flowers would be a good place to start, because it's been a wonderful year for spring bloom here. I'll put together a scrapbook's worth, and go back and identify the flowers later.

photobucket

I'm still working on procedures to use photobucket pro for photo sharing. I was disappointed to find I couldn't edit my 2 MB originals directly on Photobucket, but I can see that other people wouldn't need to do this, and it does avoid some potential problems. That means I'll be PhotoShopping on the old computer with the dead wireless, and transferring to the wired machine Ihat won't install PhotoShop correctly so that I can upload edited photos to Photobucket. Not an insurmountably obstacle, but annoying.

Woohoo

I've been having so much trouble with this computer that working around it uses up most of my free time. I can't get PhotoShop to work on this computer, and learning new photo programs is mindboggling. I had an old computer repaired and upgraded, hoping to use the old PhotoShop, but when I plugged in my thumnb drive with the camera flash card, the USB ports weren't working (I thought). The wireless doesn't work either. Despair. But yesterday, I tried to use laptop speakers through the USB port. First try failed, but the second port is working. I must have tried the same port twice (ditz!) with the flash card. So I can go back to PhotoShop without the nightmare of copying to hard drive and CD and then to the old hard drive. WOW!
Maybe I'll get back to posting here. I've missed it.

Dogfest, roaring water, cracking rocks

The most interesting thing this week was a trip to Rockville for Dogfest at the Doggy Dude Ranch. Unfortunately, Reinee had an anxiety attack about being there with all those dogs and owners. She'd been there once before, as a test, to see if we could leave her for a few hours, and she did OK, but yesterday she went bonkers and had an attack of extreme dandruff and shedding, her way of expressing high anxiety.


In the yard, I just keep after the weeds. The stakes holding the honeysuckle away from the back fence (so that they don't get herbicided by the city) gave way, and I had to find a new way to tie the wire trellis back. The wind really works those over. It's still a temporary fix but will help for now. We found another apricot that had survived the April 6 freeze -- so now we have two apricots (that's individual fruit, not trees). Aphids are attacking the apricot and the plum. I've seen ladybugs, but they are not keeping up with the supply of aphids, so I hose the undersides of the leaves off every couple of days.

The birds must be feeding hordes of little ones. They've been eating a quart of thistle seed, a quart of sunflower seed, and two quarts of mixed wild bird food (mostly millet) every day.

Our run through the hills was interesting today. The road ahead didn't look like much, though after a while I could see we were approaching a chasm, no uncommon thing around here. Then I noticed a faint roaring sound, which I ultimately realized must be water. Surely, there's not that much water in the river, I thought; there must be a waterfall, or at least some rapids. And then we saw ...

We think this is the dam that provides power for the local irrigation water system. Our street is one of the older ones, so we don't have irrigation water. We have to use culinary water for our plants, so we are definitely in favor of xeriscaping.

Along the side of this chasm, there is an extensive web of clefts in the rock.

Many of the cracks would be easy to step over, and there are photogenic scenes beyond them, but I'm afraid to pursue them because Reinee is busy chasing lizards through the brush as I work. I'm afraid a lizard may go over the edge, and she might slip into a crack. She's a leaper, and would be OK if she saw what was there, but I don't want to take the chance.

She never catches the lizards, who slip by faster than a shadow, but she loves the chase. Here she is saying, "Just one more lizard, Mom?"

On the way back to the car, we see a couple of large vultures headed toward Virgin. I dream of spotting one of the condors someday.

flowers, lizards, rivers and hikers

Reinee had fun chasing lizards today. I actually saw one this time. They are very skinny and move faster than a shadow. She'll never catch one and wouldn't know what to do if she did. She just likes to leap and bound over the bushes in the chase.

Flowers are abundant in the desert this year. A great time for photography. This yucca will be a knockout when the blooms burst out.

Sego lily (to the right) is the Utah State Flower.

I've put together a slide show from today's run. It shows water in the Virgin River. At the end of the walk we spotted some hikers climbing the hill where we started out.

Here's a link to the slide show:

Reinee's Run, May 7, 2010

Thomas Dolby: "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" | Video on TED.com

Thomas Dolby: "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" Video on TED.com

CROSSROADS: Hurricane Valley Happenings

I'm setting up a Facebook page to cover the kind of information that the Hurricane Valley Journal used to provide. It will be mostly links to other web pages that describe events in the eastern part of Washington County, Utah. There are some great websites out there, some good news coverage I can link to, and some absolutely amazing blogs.

cold and windy

It's been cold and very windy the last few days, and Reinee has been missing her walks. There was a shower Wednesday night, but not enough rain to water deeply.

Mayor's hike, then Tangemans arrive, Sunday run

Saturday, LaVerkin Mayor Karl Wilson led a group of us up to the south end of the Laverkin Overlook from the south end of town, where the Virgin River approaches State Hwy 9.  Reinee received special permission to join us. It was a steep hike, and there were opportunities for climbing, but gentler grades were always availble via brief switchbacks. The views were spectacular. 

Here's a link to a slideshow.
Mayor's hike to LaVerkin Overlook
You may have to arrow your way through the slides.

Here's a sample photo:

Terry picked me up at the Overlook so that we would be sure to be home when Jim and Marian Tangeman arrived for their promised visit. It was good to see them again after such a long time. Jim and Terry talked about steam engines; Marian and I talked about eveything else. We enjoyed dinner at Britt's Cafe in Hrricane. Jim and Marian left on Sunday -- entriely too soon.

Reinee's Sunday run produced some nice photos. Many wildflowers are coming into bloom following a nurturing series of spring rains. Among todays new ones were sego lilies and evening primrose. Being unfamiliar with desert flora, I've been unable to identify many of the plants I see. Work to do! There's a joyous prospect.

Here's another slideshow:
Reinee's run 4/25/10

and a sample photo:

Reinee's Run - a slide show

We're having a cold, rainy spell, but yesterday we managed to fit in Reinee's run before the rain arrived. The skies were spectacular. 

We explored what looked like it would be a short trail, the last unexplored trail. It turned out to be the route to the bottom of the canyon, where the creek flows in rainy times. We tried to stay out of the wash as much as possible. The cold wind had chilled us at the beginning of our walk, and we welcomed the shelter of the canyon.

I'll add photos of the canyon after I've cropped, resized and sharpened them.

fascinating trails linked to LaVerkin Overlook

There are a surprising number of trails and viewpoints linked to the LaVerkin Overlook. With Terry driving us to our starting point, Reinee and I have been exploring this area south of Highway 9 between LaVerkin and Virgin. Most of the flowers we found were in the higher area to the west.

summer is here

We ate lunch alfresco today for the first time this year, and The Big Chill booth (shaved ice) at the Hurricane/LaVerkin town line opened for the season.

The apricot tree is providing just enough shade so that it's comfortable to eat out on our mini-patio.

Overlook Road

Tuesday and Thursday, Reinee's Run took us to the Laverkin Overlook road. I took a series photos of the developed lower Hurricane Valley side (east) and the Zion side (west) where the foreground is a deep, rocky gulch. I'll try to stitch the photos into panoramics and post them on a site that will do them justice.

some luck with iGoogle

Computer problems continue, but I have been having some luck with iGoogle.

The Search for Toquerville Falls

The closing of the roads past the gravel pit threw a few big boulders into my plans to find the back road to Toquerville Falls. Yesterday, Terry brought us out to his little overlook off Highway 9, and Reinee and I hiked across country toward the road I had seen from the gravel pit area. It was interesting to see Grotto Cove from above.

Several wildflowers attracted our attention - the reds of blooming paintbrush and mammilaria, and the gentle pinks of Mojave paintbrush. I slipped on some loose rock and my hand came down on a mammilaria. Pulling out the spines was no fun. It drew blood!

In the distance, I could see the gravel road which I thought might take us to Toquerville Falls. Unfortunately, there's no way to get to it without going down into the area near the gravel pit. Using any other route, the final descents are dangerously steep, almost vertical. We'd have to go back out Highway 9 and up past the guard rail section to find a way across. But I could see another way in, from Highway 17, and Terry was willing to explore it, so we went back out and gave it a try. After navigating a half-completed housing development (Those fireplugs looked so lonely!) we wound our way along a steep and narrow gravel road that our little 2-wheel drive pickup could just barely navigate. We were finally able to turn around near the Toquerville water tank. The ride down was scary. Loose gravel created poor traction and there were steep drop-offs on both sides. But we did see a side road that led off to the north, toward Toquerville Falls.

Today Terry took us out and dropped us off at the beginning of that road. It was quite windy, with rain threatening. When it was almost time to turn around, we took a steep road to the right, which led us around by the water tank and back to the car. Reinee insisted on sniffing around near the almost vertical drop-offs. I had to call her back several times. The wind was very strong. Luckily it was blowing away from the steep drops. When we rounded one curve, I could lean into the wind and feel it supporting me. It reminded me of walking over the Nuuanu Pali in Hawaii. Reinee wasn't crazy about the wind, but we pushed forward. The wind was getting into my ears, and I can imagine, with her huge ears, that it was much worse for her.

Tea Party Express III

We went into St. George this afternoon to see what the Tea Party people were up to. Quite a crowd -- we had to park several blocks away.

I was disappointed. It's supposed to be a movement to limit government interference in our lives, but all I heard was more of this religious stuff and a singer on stage going on about marriage being between a man and a woman, and more of the same. Not my cup of tea at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I have no problem with people who are religious being involved, or people who dislike the idea of gay marriage, as long as they don't co-opt the movement. It's supposed to be about limiting government power, about keeping the government under control, not about giving the government additional grounds to interfere in the purview of the states and the lives of the citizens.

Looks like another good idea going off the rails.

cybersmooth

Wow! It took a lot of doing -- mostly because I'm not used to this sort of thing -- but my computer is now running smoothly again. Wow!

cure multiplies woes

Yesterday I bought and installed "Exterminate It" and "Registry Reviver" plus a driver fixer. I ran the first two -- found a hijacker and repaired a hotkey, and fixed over 600 registry errors. My computer ran better for half an hour and then the troubles returned. Ran Exterminate It and found nothing. Ran Registry Reviver and found 63 errors, all file path problems and empty hot keys. Computer ran better for a little while, but then crashed. I was having difficulty shutting down so I did the "Switch User" test and when I used the little red button was told another user might lose data if I shut down. There still should be no other user. This was repeated several tmes till I finally gave up. File path errors had disappeared and empty hot keys dropped to 46.
I sent a report of the computer's state to the folks who own Exterminate It. We'll see what happens next.

no more gravel pit :(

Reinee was straining at the leash and I was straining to see field marks on some cute little blue-backed birds (glasses left at home), so I didn't notice the barrier until we were right on top of it. Several old culverts and some dirt and large rocks were piled across the road, blocking our way at the end of Main Street, keeping us from the dirt road that leads down past the gravel works. This was accompanied by a huge sign that says "NO TRESPASSING".

I was in shock for a while. Then, hoping that the barrier was meant for trucks and such, I released Reinee and we walked along the edge of the high ground to a place where I knew people enter the area on foot. There I met another pile of dirt blocking the road and supporting an old plank which bore two smaller signs: "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing". I leashed Reinee up and we trudged home along the narrow verge, dodging the traffic on Highway 17.

No more place for young people to climb and run, no more place for people to ride their horses and run their dogs, no more place for trucks and ORV's to scramble up a variety of steep hills and humps. And no more time for me to take photographs. I had thought I would have forever to take shots of the interesting scenes that met my eyes at the gravel pit. I had a dozen or more vantage points picked out from which to take these shots. I was waiting for warmer weather, when we'd be taking our walks in the early morning, long shadows adding to the view. One lovely hollow would have made an interesting time-lapse study, with a series of stitched panoramics journaling its spring greening. I had just taken the first of those groups of pictures.

I saw in the police notices in The Spectrum a few days ago that there was a theft at the gravel pit. I wondered if someone had gotten into the office trailer and stolen the petty cash. I'm beginning to think it was a lot more serious than that.

Aaarargh again!

Windows updates continue, with some failures -- still haven't managed to install Vista Service Pack 2.

Aaaaah ...

M y laptop is working beautifully this morning. Aaaaah ...

Aaaargh!

Still doing Windows updates.Some lockups and crashes -- had to unplug and take the battery out once. Will this go on forever???

The Black Hole

I was in a black hole for a week. After returning the new little Acer netbook to Costco, I went back to my buggy (I thought) laptop. But the bugs were mechanical ones, not worms and viruses. Lappy's hard drive ground to a halt on Saturday, March 13, (triskadecaphobia anyone?) and the next day we hauled it down to the Geek Squad. Here I am, a week and a day later, loading up the new hard drive with programs. Some were easier to install than I expected, some were harder. I still haven't managed to reconnect this blog with my iGoogle home page, but I'll get there.

Tom Kimmel, a peripatetic collector of and writer about small steam engines stopped by our house today on his way between Flagstaff and Los Angeles. He keeps in touch with Terry and all the other steam engine enthusiasts he meets along his way, and helps to keep the steam hobby information flowing. Terry's little steam outboard Sprite is out on the patio looking pretty sad. It was somewhat damaged by the woodshed roof on Huckleberry Mountain that came down after burglars pulled out the roof supports. Sprite has been lying on our patio here for three years unattended, and needs a little TLC.

black screen blues

Crushed - that's the word for it. Feeling like a well trampled grape. Windows did not shut down normally on my new little Aspire One last night; it could not close all the programs that were running. There were only two or three. This morning the black screen met my eye and It had to make several attempts before finding a happy way to start with a "previous" configuration. I only used Aspy for 5 hours total, most of which was spent trying to get Eudora to pick up my e-mail, giving up, and finally picking up the messages myself,dealing with it using the clumsy Skyviewmail interface. I did listen to some Internet radio. Love that.

I ran a full scan with Spyware Doctor this morning and it found no threats. It took 56 minutes and checked almost 300,000 items, spending a huge amount of time on the Windows folder.

If this happens again soon, I'll return the Aspire to Costco. I've been battling so many problems with my laptop the past few months that I don't have the psychic energy left to deal with another buggy computer. I'll just back off the amount of computer work I do. That would be healthier anyway. I don't like to think of myself as a quitter, but my brain is too boggled to be effective.

laptop crisis = netbook news

Yesterday, my laptop locked up while updating Windows, and nothing I tried would get it started again. It's been slowing down and having problems refreshing windows. Shutdown problems inclluded a file named SysFade.exe. A search using Terry's computer found an explanation at GeeksToGo. The video driver needed to be reinstalled, but I couldn't do that with the machine locked up. We made a trip to Best Buy, where a very helpful geek-squadder ran a diagnostic on the hard drive, which didn't pass the test. I left the computer behind to have the hard drive replaced. That was done, and Lappy is now waiting for the proper recover disk so he can get up and running again. Meanwhile, I was without a computer.

But ... about a week ago I had seen a little Acer Aspire netbook and fallen in love. There must have been some leftover fairy dust blowing around since Valentine's Day. We ran down to Costco today and picked one up. I have it up and running (and anti-virused), ready to go, though I still have to get my local e-mail set up. It's going to be great. The video is so sharp that the text, though small, is easier to read than the laptop's, and the touchpad is better, too. Aspy weighs less than 3 pounds and would fit in a large purse.

I plan to use the Aspire for most Internet uses and do project work on the HP laptop. ♥♥♥♥

evading the big rigs

Rain cheated Reinee of running opportunities for over a week, but we made up for it today. I'm determined to find a way past the entrance to the area where they're mining gravel that doesn't bring us dangerously close to the road where the big side dumpers are roaring back and forth.

This time we went north by walking near the left side of the road just below the top of embankment. The bank was steep and the dirt was soft and loose. We encountered prickly bushes, stickers and sharp rocks. We had to descend quite a ways to get over the culvert and then had to climb up again. There was a spectacular viewpoint just north of the culvert.

On the way back, we walked much further to the east. This was a much better route, though it did take us down through the wash. The off-roaders have found a crossing place that's fairly wide and shallow, and we followed their example. We stayed west of the telephone poles as we headed back to Main Street, and had only mild rises and falls to contend with.

This walk has been our most strenuous so far, though the time we climbed up to the ridge was more demanding in a different way.

Yard Saling

We went yard saling this morning. It's been a while. I wanted to be sure to get to the BAM (Because Animals Matter) rummage sale. It was a good one. I bought six tops and some odds and ends, including an old wooden yardstick from Pay & Pak. I paid twice what they were asking and still felt like it was a bargain. Two other yard sales yielded a long dress, a green pillow, three screwdrivers, a framed tropical fish print and a nice tin. This was much better than the last dozen or so yard sales I went to. I may start going again.

Spooky

Spooky appears to have recovered, except that his amnesia returned -- he forgot where his catboxes are again. Luckily Terry caught him in time to adjust his location. We're hoping that was a temporary aberration.
We figure he ate something that disagreed with him. I did give him leftover Hawaiian BBQ ribs on Monday, and was surprised when he ate the pineapple bits. Perhaps that caused the problem. Or perhaps it was something in the BBQ sauce, which was store-bought. Pork is Spooky's favorite meat, and everything tasted of pork, so he ate it all.

wind

By definition, wind includes the element of time. Wind is the motion of particles, and motion is based on time and distance. If particles could be one-dimensional, wind would only require three dimensions, but one of those dimensions would have to be time. On a more complex level, wind is a feature of weather systems which move from place to place, again requiring time.

But this morning, as I hauled the trash bin out to the sidewalk, I realized that wind had affected my schedule, the routine arrangement of my time. Terry usually hauls the bin out on Wednesday night to await pick-up on Thursday morning. But the wind was doing its Hurricane thing (There's a reason the town next to us is named Hurricane.) and we didn't want to see the bin blown over, lid fallen open, and our trash flying around the neighborhood.

When we first moved here, The wind flared up almost every Wednesday. I began to wonder if there could be a 7-day cycle involved. That idea seemed unlikely, and it didn't hold up in the long run. A probabilistic anomaly. I've been fooled by those before.

The first couple of months we were here I was surprised to see lawn chairs and decorative pillows blowing around the neighborhood. The funniest sight was an empty mattress box chasing a woman down the street. Luckily, it doesn't blow like that all the time. Most days are quite calm. This morning was just a bit breezy, nothing like last night.

water

Our water has been on and off today. Sometimes the pressure has been low even when there was water available. Our timing was fairly lucky. We filled a bathtub with toilet flushing water when I first noticed the pressure drop, but didn't need to use it, though the toilet tanks ran dry a couple of times.

When the water came back on tonight, the trapped air caused it to spurt wildly. It was an ugly color and very cloudy.

weed time

Timing is a big factor in manual weed control. Rain that comes on schedule keeps the weeds going even in this desert climate. If the rains come far apart, only a few weeds survive, no matter how much it rains. If it rains once a week or more, even if the rain is fairly light, the weed seedlings have a chance to progress until their roots go deep enough to survive dry spells.

Time plays another part. If it's wet and rainy when I have time to weed, I don't brave the weather for this chore. If I'm busy until the ground bakes hard, The weeds are hard to remove entirely, leaving sections of root behind to give their clones a start. If I water the soil (What a waste!) and return to pull weeds the next day, the ground has softened, but if I am distracted from this chore, it doesn't take long for the earth to bake hard again.

Going to seed is another time-related problem. In desert climates, many weeds go to seed quickly. They have evolved to survive in a place where rains may be brief, and they must produce seed before a lack of moisture kills or stunts them. It creates a lot more work if they have a chance to spread their seed.

Kay and Harry

Kay and Harry left on Monday and we miss them. I wish they'd come and stay a while. I hope they had a chance to visit the Coral Pink Sand Dunes on the next leg of their journey, but the weather wasn't very promising.
We had snow (!) on Monday. Big, powder puff flakes. It was gone by
noon, but it was memorable. The big flake in this photo looks
like a bird. I wonder what the apricot buds are thinking. They're about 4 days later than last year.

sick cat

Crazy day today-everything extra complicated, and Spooky is sick. If he's not better tomorrow we'll take him to see Dr. Hooks.
We're listening to MLB.com. Great to hear the Red Sox doing well in Spring Training. I wish we could go watch the Rockies in Arizona, but it doesn't look very promising.

Red Coyote Cafe

Too wet to make searching for fossils in the uncertain washes east of Mesquite seem enticing, today turned out to be a food day. Terry made his legendary Bridge Creek oatmeal pancakes for breakfast, and Harry took us to the Red Coyote Cafe in Virgin for lunch. The Red Coyote features local performers on Sunday afternoons, and we were treated to some songs by blues singer Jerone Wedig. We were also entertained by a boy who attempted to use a bottle cap to start peeling an orange. A waitress finally had to be brought out to cut up the orange for him.

sandstone

Kay and Harry are here. They arrived fairly late in the afternoon, but we still found time to rock hunt at Grotto Cove. No fossils, but Kay was able to replenish her supply of sandstone. Reinee enjoyed running up there with us.

company

Harry & Kay Hibler are due here today. It's been too long since we've had company. I'm out of practice.

Kay will be wanting to collect mucho rocks for the classes she teaches. I hope rain doesn't keep us indoors.

virus scare

A baaaad e-mail link sent me to "The End!!!!" which caused me to lose all my passwords, and I had a tough time reconnecting with this blog. I thought it had disappeared -- not that there's very much to it yet, but I've lost some serious work in the past, and this felt like the last straw. What a relief to find it again.

Doggy Dude Ranch

Reinee had her first PlayDay at Doggy Dude Ranch near Zion yesterday afternoon. It was a freebie -- she stayed just a couple of hours and she loved it. She had fun playing with the other dogs, and was singing a duet with a malamute when we returned to pick her up. She's really mellow this morning.We'll be taking her back up there next time we have a long day of activities planned away from home..
Yesterdaymorning's hike to Grotto Cove with Reinee was productive. I carried back a heavy bag of trash, mostly broken glass. I think one more trip will take care of the rest of it.
Rain showers have already begun this morning, and clouds are thickening. Rain is predicted for this afternoon, so I'm not planning much in the way of outdoor activities.

gravel pit exploration - State Street side

For today's gravel pit tour, Reinee and I explored the area just north of Silver Acres and nearest to Highway 17. It would be easy to cross the road here to reach the health department and Head Start offices.

Near the road and the gravel pit office, we saw numerous good-sized rocks showing large dark areas. The many deep cuts in the mud even included a couple of mud arches about 3 feet high.We surveyed the "first hollow" from the west for the first time. In order to reach the bank of the "second", more picturesque hollow, we'll have to cross the road that the gravel trucks use. Maybe next time.

101 on Thursday

Aunt Loretta will be 101 on Thursday. I've finally started sending out the annual letters again, sending out hers first so that I could include birthday wishes. These last few weeks have been way too busy.

Today has been way too windy!