Too Small to Overcome Deficit

A couple of days ago, Dino sent me a graphic produced by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) that demonstrated how much a respite last week's rain was:  not much.  We're still only at 4.54 inches for the entire rainy season. 

 



We've already started doing some of those uninteresting and less fun things that will help us use less water - shorter showers (yours truly is doing the navy shower thing already which is un-fun in the morning) and capturing the warm-up shower water to use for flushes.

 

I gathered up all of my buckets and placed them in the most productively drippy spots under the eaves during the best portions of our little rainy moments.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, today is a bit of a milestone for the building project.  The power company was scheduled to come out today to install a new pole and finish moving our meter.  Dino has been working like crazy on the electric work to get ready.

 

 

 

 

 

Numbers 97 and 98. House Update

Quite a few folks chimed in on the flycatcher - verdict:   Willow Flycatcher.  Neat!

Then, last week, number 98!  Another flycatcher - Greater Pewee.  There were two of them, although I wasn't able to capture a good shot of both together.  My initial thought when I saw the first of the pair was that it was a Phainopepla, but it became quickly obvious that was not the case, although the size was right.  They put on a good flycatcher show, swooping out for insects, then back to the perch until the next bug caught their attention.

The house project is coming along - in fact, we've got some walls up now.

Tuesday, all of the house building material showed up as promised - our uphill neighbors helped out hugely by stationing themselves at the top and bottom of the big grade and making sure the trailers going in and out didn't cause problems for the other drivers on the road.  They were still finishing up when I got home from work.  But two days later, the framing was up for the shop building and also partially for the rest of the addition. That was exciting to see when I came home.

Wednesday Bill came into town and we used up my lunch hour at the door place looking at doors and door hardware.  We picked out a super nice front door with two sidelights and an art glass window in the door itself. 

Saturday, we made a trek to Fresno to look at possibilities for kitchen countertops, lighting, tile and hardwood flooring.  I unerringly picked out the most expensive granite countertop as the one I liked the best and had to ask the saleswoman to point me toward the more middle range choices.  There IS a budget involved here.

The front of the house as of Sunday afternoon:



The interior of the new shop building - look at the view out the side window - love it.

Big Fun. Except For Those Who Had to Work

The house project is really underway now - six cement trucks rumbled down the grade yesterday to pour the foundation for the addition.  Once they got started with it, there was no such thing as stopping - a veritable whirlwind of activity it was. 

Digging and Construction Oh My

We've been planning for what seems like forever about getting an addition built to the ranch house - and now after a year of working with the builder and the contractor and a couple of different banks, it's starting.  Dirt is being moved around for the pad where the foundation will be poured.  We heard this morning that the outer wall of the living room will be coming out Friday!  We'll be getting a temporary wall there while the rest gets built, but yipes sure wish we'd known so we could have moved furniture around over the weekend instead of after I get home from work.  Never mind, we'll get it done somehow in spite of my currently gimpy hand.

Dino has a to-do list about a mile long.

Of course I could not resist prowling around the heavy equipment that came in last week.  The Case compactor had an interesting aspect.

I took one of my usual long walks yesterday, ending up by a little pool on the river.  I was intending just to cross at the narrow end by picking my way through and across the rocks to reach the other side, but I perched on a rock midway to take pictures of a butterfly.  After a few minutes, I realized that about a half dozen bullfrogs had gotten over their initial fright at my approach and had risen to the surface to bask. These frogs are invasive - they eat the native minnows and the baby pond turtles and are generally frowned upon, although it can be said in their favor that the blue herons find them quite tasty.  (Note: perching on a rock in the middle of the river while keeping the gear from falling in - extra credit.)

The butterfly in question - a Woodland Skipper, I believe.