damdone...

72,85,44,0,C

Another Dam?

Not a typical Monday like in the real world. First of all, I didn't slave away for someone else all week just to have my two precious weekend days off. And best of all, I didn't go to bed last night dreading this morning. However I had really weird dreams last night that woke me up at 3:45 AM...nothing special really, but just the kind of dreams where the first thing you think when you wake up is.....where on earth did that come from? More entertaining than disturbing. Didn't go back to bed until 5AM....woke up at 7:30 from yet another weird dream...maybe I need to change my diet....

Thankful to be back in reality in my waking hours - I took most of the morning fine tuning my SHWH. Not a good Full Sun Day, but the water has started heating up. Not enough yet for that elusive shower. We have 2 more cloudy days on tap so I will really be pushing the shower limit. Early afternoon I rigged the pull chain ( rope ) valve mechanism and built and installed one of the insulated side walls for the tank. ( the north side )

Just as I was finishing up some more shower stall bracing - my brilliant friend Whitebear showed up with his digger/grader to make quick work of yet another project at the Field Lab. There is a spot just downstream from the dam I built last year that needs some major clearing in order to build another dam. He dug out the spot effortlessly and created a nice berm to direct water. This guy really knows how water runs out here and exactly how to move earth to sway the flow in "a more appropriate" direction. Each pass of his box blade was a whole days worth of digging by hand. Now I just have to wait for the next good downpour (someday) to wash out the area so I can build the next dam. Nice to have a project lined up that is most likely months away from having to be completed.

Done Dam

Benita came in for breakfast at 8 AM this morning. Fed and watered her then headed out to strip the forms from the last pour on the dam...it's kind of like unwrapping a present. Looks good - hope it holds water. 50% chance of rain today but doesn't look like we will get any. After cleaning up around the construction site - I came back home to find Benita and 20 uninvited quests for Sunday brunch. Chased off the herd and then gave Benita a small snack.

Went over to Chuck and Kathy's to visit for awhile...their part time neighbor Nancy was there as well. Nancy gave me a squash, some peppers, and a red cabbage from her garden back east. Clouds started looking ominous out west so I came back home. Spent the rest of the afternoon making some cables to connect my new batteries and stripping the hot water heater I got. Finished early today and took a fantastic shower. Hope it doesn't rain tonight as I need to go to Alpine tomorrow for some shopping and the chance to see my friends Abe, Josie and Leo (the potty trained 6 month year old!).

Almost done, dammit...

Today was just a long half day of labor. Stripped the forms this morning from yesterdays pour and built the next layer of forms. Nice and cool and slightly overcast so retained some water today while I worked. Used 8 more bags of concrete mix to finish up. Pretty much done with the dam now except for some cosmetic work. Now that it is in place we probably wont get any rain although the forecast calls for a good chance of it over the next 4 days.

Headed down to Study Butte to stock up on some necessities just in case I do get rained in. Now I'm good to go for at least 5 days. In the rare case that I do get stuck out here for an extended period - I have a one month supply of essentials. Worst case scenario, I can always hike through the mud for a 5 mile round trip to the ranch supply store. In any event, I reckon ordering Chinese delivery is out of the question out here.

Benita was here for breakfast and supper as usual.

Dammit some more

Another early start but just a shift and a half today. The morning began with Benita showing up for breakfast with 8 other longhorns. We had a thunder and lightning storm last night that must have stirred them up. Got .115" of rain in an hour last night. Anyway, after Benita came up to the house I chased the rest of the rascals away - then treated Benita to breakfast. As soon as she was done she wondered off to find the herd. I spent a sweaty morning building the forms for the next phase of concrete on the dam.

Took a lunch break and drove Chuck down to Study Butte. We both had to run some errands and diner food seemed like a nice perk. I stopped by to see my friend Carolyn at H20 To Go and she just happened to have an old hot water heater she wanted to get rid of. This will be transformed into a solar hot water heater to supplement my systems. Checked with the local hardware store down there but they were out of concrete mix.

I ended up buying 2 more 80lb bags at the ranch supply store and picked up two from Chuck. By the time I got back to work it was already 2:30PM. Finished pouring concrete by 5PM. Just one more day of form building and concrete pouring and the dam will be finished. We have a good chance of rain this weekend so I might just catch some. Benita spent the day with the herd but came home for supper. Another longhorn was with her but refused to follow her down my driveway. If he was a bull - he didn't have the balls to come all the way up to my house with her. Glad to see she is following a herd again. She spent a number of weeks on her own after she lost her calf. I like to think I helped her out - she's looking pretty healthy these days.

Dammit...

Worked a sweaty double shift today. Decided to jump into the dam project this morning. Chance of rain coming this weekend and it might be my last chance to catch some of this runoff for awhile Took about 3 hours to clean out ( 9 wheel barrow loads of sand and rock that had accumulated from previous rains ) and prep the area including placing 18 cinder blocks. Guzzled down 4 glasses of water after as I was super parched. Felt bad for Benita so I gave her 2 gallons after I was finished re hydrating. She hung out as usual and even came down to the dam area while I was mixing concrete - it's the splashing water thing I guess and not her interest in my engineering prowess.

Had a 2 hour break then got back into the thick of it. By 4:45PM I was finally done pouring the concrete in the cinder block cavities. The notch in the center of the dam will be for runoff through my planned water wheel that will operate a pump. Next up is to build the forms so I can pour more concrete that will seal the inside and outside of the blocks and level off the whole structure. Now I know why I've been putting this off - it was a real ball buster today. Lightning and thunder to the west of me as I write this....hope it stays north of me tonight.