Boy, we got one of those terrible storms yesterday…

First bunch of storm cells slouched off to the east and left us alone. But around 3:30 black clouds started building and building, with distant ominous rumbles, just growing and growing, lightning flashing and thunder banging, getting darker and meaner and closer for hours…

…and in the end they rolled off to trouble somebody else, leaving us with some gentle rain and nothing else. Teaser.

Kind of reminded me how scary a good desert lightning storm can be, like I needed a reminder. I can show you two prominently lightning-scarred trees a literal stone’s throw from the Lair’s front porch – and then there’s the way lightning fried the old inverter two years ago. Yeah, I pay attention when the lightning flashes, not that there’s much I can do but unplug the unpluggable electronics.

Anyway, I’m going to ease off this morning. No concrete pouring. I borrowed my neighbor’s angle grinder…

And that’ll get through even 3/4″ rebar a hacksaw will barely scar before you run out of steam, but it does take minutes rather than seconds. And it ideally requires sunny weather – though I watched my battery voltage with interest while I cut through this one in yesterday’s heavy overcast and I must say, I’ve really been handicapping myself by sticking to that two-battery bank – so this morning is just for cutting rebar and then setting all the forms in place proper. If I try to add pouring the actual concrete to that, things are going to get rushed. Mistakes will be made, and not in the government bureaucratic sense where the mistakes don’t have any consequences for the guilty.

Also, honestly, I’m about to be threatened for dominance in my own house by this enormous pile of dirty laundry. So probably not a lot of building update posts today.