It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

In this area, one usually expects thunderstorms to be over fairly quickly. Last night, we apparently had bands of thunderstorms going by. One time the thunder was so loud that the house shook. I kept expecting to lose our electricity, though Mountain View Electrical Coop has been pretty reliable the past two years.

However, by 8:45 pm the thunder had stopped, though it was still raining. So I was surprised when the door bell rang. Sometimes loud noises will trigger our doorbell. Then there was the sound of a knock.

Our house is not very approachable in daylight, let alone in the rain and dark, so knocks at night are unprecedented. I told Jack to get the door since I was already in my pajamas, then started putting on my robe. All I could think was one of the horses had gotten out or hurt, or the barn was on fire, and one of our neighbors had seen it.

Instead, it was a Monument police officer, asking if anyone here had dialed 911. Jack and I both went “Duh…” and replied no. I looked at the dogs, who were happily checking out the visitor. The officer said that was what the last six places he had checked had said. Evidently the electrical storm caused some spurious 911 calls, and when they tried to call our house they couldn’t get through. I check our line (lots of static) and the emergency operator tried our number again and was able to get through.

This morning I can see the barn, and two damp looking horses, and a lot of drenched looking ground.  And we are supposed to get more rain and storms today.  I am surprised not to see flash flood warnings.

Pulsate

Pulsate is a strange little Flash application that plays random tones in response to circles that you draw on the screen.  Draw at least two circles (but more is even better) to hear the sounds.  Press the space bar to clear the slate.

New Deck

Full Size 1200×798
For over a decade, we had an outdoor spa. However, it had become increasingly leaky over the years, making it hard to keep the water level where it should be, and last summer we decided to decommission it. Two weeks ago, we paid someone to haul away the old spa, and this week a contractor from Handyman Connection built this lower level to fill in the gaping hole. He said we could stain it in a month. We are very pleased with the job that he did.

Woman is a Tool Using Animal

We buy our hay in three ton lots from our suppliers, delivered and stacked by two wiry young men.  The two young men have changed over the years, since slinging around eighty pound bales of hay is not a long-term career.  It gets stacked in the hay aisle of our barn, as high as seven layers.  Sometimes it seems as though the stackers are being unnecessarily clever about how they interlock the bales as they stack. I try not to fuss about how high the bales go, since they are doing pretty well to stack the hay and still leave room for me to get into the stalls from the hay aisle.

However, getting the top bale down when it is stacked seven high can be challenge, since they are over my head. I used to get Jack to do it but he generally brought down half the pile, scattering bales like pick up sticks, and fussing about getting clobbered in the process.  So I mostly do it myself now.  I became a lot more cautious about doing it after the time I impaled myself with a hay fork when a bouncing bale hit the hay fork in my hand. One doesn’t expect eighty pound bales to bounce, but they do.

I’ve developed a fairly efficient process for getting down the top bale.  I hook the hay fork into the twine of the bale and make sure it is securely attached.  I loop one of my lead ropes though the handle of the hay fork and hold on to both ends, pulling steadily until the desired hay bale drops to the ground.  The lead rope gives me enough room that I can move back if I’ve miscalculated how many bales will drop.  However, usually no more than two bales will come down if I’ve selected the correct bale. 

I am extraordinarily gratified each time this method works since I’ve developed it.