I wrote the post below johnny-on-the-spot, very pleased with myself and ready to rush out and get some work done in the cool of the morning. Opened a preview screen, proofread the text, made a few minor textual changes, clicked “publish”…and the whole site had gone down.
Ah, well. Amor fati.
So I went out to get some work done while it’s cool. Cleaned the biggest rocks out of the dirt piles from yesterday’s trench, filled in around the drain pipe, mixed a nice thick cap of Quickcrete for the downspout…
People have asked me about this since yesterday’s afternoon post. I even got an email from a regular reader who objected to it strenuously, on the perfectly valid grounds that making that installation permanent by literally cementing it into position is not in my long-term interest. I was surprised – ever since I was a kid, I’ve always seen it done this way when a downspout connects to an underground drain pipe. First, it’s not permanent – it’s just a cap of brittle quick-cure concrete. You can break it up with a light hammer. Its purpose is to keep dirt from filtering into the underground pipe and blocking the water flow. Really, I didn’t know it was controversial – seems perfectly natural.
When I was done with that, which only took a minute, LB and I went to Landlady’s barn for a rather more involved concrete project. She emailed me last night and asked me to put on my Sexton Joel hat and prepare two pedestals for pet grave markers in Boot Hill. That involves digging out a standard mold I made and filling it with concrete, then sticking in a couple of lengths of scrap rebar for anchors.
When it’s in place, Landlady will stick a marble marker on its angled upper surface with construction adhesive. Works pretty well – we use it for pets and people, though so far the one person we’ve buried there got a bigger marker than the cats and dogs.
Ten years ago last month, and we still miss him. It’s a rare party that “what would T do/say” doesn’t come up at some point. Helluva guy.
(shakes self) Anyway – somebody else asked why, since the Lair now has an official rain management system, there’s no rain catchment system. Rather than rehash that topic, I simply direct interested readers here, where it’s discussed at some length. Short version: I’d do it if I gardened. Lacking a garden, since you wouldn’t want to drink what grows in those barrels, there’s not much point.
Local paper pointed out in an article commemorating some anniversary of A Lincoln being buried here that the job “Sexton” has over the years been upgraded to “Executive Director,” so you’ve got that going for you. Along with a commensurate increase in pay, of course.
Do I recall accurately that you don’t garden because it would mean an 8 foot high fence buried two feet in the ground to keep the wildlife from eating your food, but most important because you don’t have enough water. So you do have water but seasonal and not yet retained on site. You can create wonderful soil from what you have plus old chicken manure and vegetable scraps. You could garden and use the retained water to create wonderful fresh produce on demand for yourself and the chickens. Lots of quick growing crops would do well there. Fruit trees and bushes too. Looking forward to the photos of your garden, your happy chickens tossing a cabbage around and you with lettuce stuck in your teeth, grapes in one hand and a nectarine in the other.