Tuesday, June 30, 2009

lots of rain but none for me

35 longhorns took up residence this morning at the end of my driveway - only 4 wandered in to check out what Benita was up to. Had a surprise visit from Guillermo so he got a good back scratch and some snacks. Got another early start today and poured the last voids for the north and south entrance. Set the forms for the transition section on the east entrance and poured them as well. As I was cleaning up from the labor, I spotted some baby Mexican Generals (Mexican Privates?) by the shower stall. These little grasshoppers were barely a half inch long - but grow to over 2 inches long as adults.

Did a quick GrubShack lunch then headed back home to get some more work done. Benita was on hand all day but kept a low profile. Lots of cloud cover all day which really helps with the temps and UV. Around 1:30PM it started looking really ominous in the sky so I checked the Doppler radar - sure enough there were some major storms all around me. By 2 it looked like it was pouring east of me by the highway so I called the GrubShack for a weather update - Betty reported that it was a deluge just 2.5 miles away. Checked in with Chuck and he got dumped on as well. Meanwhile back at the Field Lab, not a drop of rain.

Took advantage of the natural evaporative cooling that the clouds and storms were providing and got back to work. Made 4 trips to my dam with the wheel barrow to shuttle sand back to the east entrance to fill the remaining blocks. Pulled the forms on that end by the containers and filled the last two re bar voids with concrete. Clocked out at 6PM.

11 comments:

dave said...

John,
I loved the photo of the Mexican General. My wife spent her morning trying to get some pictures of Monarch butterflies and the catapillars they come from, but met with limited success. Your photos are outstanding.

Bob O said...

I think it's Mexican Generals, because of the stripes down the legs that mimic the formal uniform of a Mexican Army general...at least historically.

Looks like you're getting a lot done, despite the summer weather. Good on ya.

Anonymous said...

John, I know you are busy and don't have lot of time to answer questions, but I hope you might find a few minutes. I'm wondering how you found your property? Do you have neighbors or any houses/buildings that you can see? How far is it to town. Would there be other properties in you area that are available?
Thanks

Allen Hare said...

Good looking work, John. Those walls are creeping up on ya. I thought you'd be filling all the voids in the concrete block with concrete. I guess the sand will save a lot of money, and still provide a measure of stability. Good thinking.

Anonymous said...

It looks like Benita is playing hide-n-seek. LOL

neil said...

Looks like the Division General's Coat on this page...
www.aztecclub.com/uniforms/uniforms4.htm

Alec said...

Randy,

To answer your question about property for sale around John
you can go here there is lots of it
and very well priced

http://www.poatri.org/operations_propsale.html
Tracy

bb said...

Poor Belinda. I wonder if she's beginning to feel left out.

Ben in Texas said...

Got a hair brain idea for ya.. Teach
Benita the route to the Grub Shack and leave instructions there for them to attach your lunch to one of her horns, and send her home.. :-)
I can see a Huge Publicity thing building around it.

Hey,, it's late and maybe I am getting tired?

Mr_Brown said...

John can you or someone here on your comment section explain the thoughts behind the concrete block wall? These are dry laid blocks and are fill mostly with sand? It seems like the horizontal strength (I know there is a better term) could be a bit weak. Or maybe in the great scheme of things it doesn't matter. I'm only asking because I'm interested to learn.

Regards.

John Wells said...

http://www.thenaturalhome.com/surfacebond/quikrete.htm