Since changing my life and moving out here, the thought of a deadline rarely occurs to me. Alarm clocks are definitely out of the question. When I woke up with the sunrise this morning, it suddenly hit me that today was the deadline for the Texas Monthly Short Film Contest. To add to the mix...we had cloudy skies and a threat of rain coming in.
Early breakfast at the GrubShack
Logged 6 hours behind the spay gun today(alerted to my typo 12 hours later - that is spray not spay)... I'm really itchin' to get the greenhouse going again. I think the sprout thing is helping get me in gear. The recent shift in my diet also seems to provide quite a bit more energy even in the heat of the summer. Hmmm....critters are raised on vegetable matter and by cutting meat out of my diet, I'm simply eliminating the middle man - going strait to the source...and pulling a plant out of the ground is so much less violent than killing and butchering an animal. Benita approves this message. 84,101,75,0,B
Yet another computer day...the new HP "all in one" (the CPU and drives are all mounted behind the screen) arrived this afternoon. Even out here in the middle of nowhere - one can order a computer on a Friday and have it delivered to the front door the following Tuesday. The thing I really love about a new computer is that it is usually twice the speed and storage for the same price (or less) of the old one. You gotta love Moore's Law. So far so very good but will take some time to get it up to speed with all the imaging software yet to be loaded. Nice to have a big screen again. One more item ordered before I deal further with the sick laptop. http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276554&CatId=3770 With this gizmo I can pull the drives out and suck the info onto the new HP before sending it off for repair. 95,107,79,0,C
Day off for clean up and a visit from Gordon, Sharon and little Ace. Sharon was a neighbor in my old apartment building in NYC back in the 80's - we went through some tough times together with an evil landlord. http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F3/54/1062/482995/ My New York friends were an a road trip heading to LA and made it this far out of their way to drop in. Seems like a whole other lifetime ago. 94,103,77,0,B
Pulled the form off the SW pour and it turned out just fine. A couple of the concrete bags had more pea gravel than sand but it's all good. Just one more like this one then two more with 20 bags each...Walter (the cement mixer) will be called into service for the big pours. Tacked a shade over my solar water heater to cut the sun.....staying warm enough just with the ambient daytime air temps. 95,101,75,0,B
Thunder and lightning woke me up sometime around midnight....late night storms don't happen out here very often. Sucked it up and got to work early for a change. Set the form and rebar and did the pour for the SW side of the greenhouse. Finished 11 bags of concrete just in time as I was starting to get dizzy. 9 - 1:30 was a good Saturday's labor for a change. Cooled off at the GrubShack for two hours with about a gallon of iced tea and their famous combo sandwich.
Missed the cool work window outside this morning so hunkered down once again inside. Loaded the photo editing software I use onto the netbook so I can tweak and post pics again (photos from yesterday). Searched online and found another HP to get me back in business with a full size monitor. This time I am skipping the laptop route and getting what they call an all in one desktop - still low power but heartier. I took into consideration all the suggestions folks gave me but I am rather brand loyal and I don't fault HP for the failure of my laptop - I put that thing through hell the last 3 years and probably got at least 6 years of life out of it being that I ran it 14 hours a day in this desert...still confident that HP will bring it back to life.
Battled five failed upload attempts to YouTube using GoogleChrome as my browser....started number 6 using Internet Explore then went south for laundry duty. Came home to find success. Exclusive preview track off the upcoming CD by the Bent Love Handles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNsBO-9uWXA
In the studio this morning with Brent Lovelady and William Rich...The Bent Love Handles. They were working on some songs for their debut album due out in October. Since I love the music that they write, I'm hoping that The Field Lab can help them out with some advance publicity. Spent the hot afternoon inside working on a video mix of their song After A Fall...on YouTube soon. 80, 110,74,trace of rain, W
Lost my third window for the small solar oven last night...one spare and this one got blown over, and the other piece got nailed by hail last year. If I broke hearts out here as much as I break glass - I'd have a long list of Terlingua ex's by now.
Today seemed like a really good day to experiment with a window air conditioner I bought over a year ago. Since my windows are the wrong size....I had to improvize. The intake for the unit had to be channeled to one window while the vent that blows the cold air was piped to the swamp cooler. We had an exceptionally warm night and high humidity in the morning - this did the trick. Chilled down the hut 6 degrees in just over an hour....running off the generator. Nice to know it works well - for those super hot days. I will easily live with some noise in exchange for the cool air when I need it.
Got hot quickly today - just indoor chores, some fast solar cooking for supper, and a shout out to an old friend. Equestrianly speaking....this is a must have for all the hard core horse folks out there. Invented and patented by Robin Parow - my former next door neighbor in upstate NY. http://www.whipwatch.net/ 100,108,62,0,B
Thursday morning....for your entertainment pleasure till I post tonight...
electrical storm last night...stay tuned.
My buddy Mr.Brown (and Field Lab visitor last year) received his official limited edition Field Lab tshirt today...#001! Please continue to send photos so I can post them all on flickr. Once I get a bunch of pics - will post the link here.
wners.
