Saturday, June 14, 2008

Thar Be Swales Here!

Today looks like it will be a gorgeously hot, clear, sun shiny summer day.


I got the chance to drive a tractor yesterday. I think it's a secret fantasy of every city kid and some who aren’t (Apparently country boys and old men like tractors, too). The school has a new New Holland tractor. Nice. It has more room for the drive than the old ford they used to have, and is certainly more user friendly. There are some “swales” at the elementary. Those are low spots intended to help with drainage…we do, however, live in a desert, and while we don’t get a lot of precipitation, what we do get is generally well handled by our area. Except in the swales, which the designers may as well have labeled swamps…apparently they used clay or something that does not allow easy drainage. You should see the things growing in some of them. YUCK. So, my job was to wait for the dump truck to bring some top soil that my boss wrangled from the city. Then, after it was dumped, spread it out. Which I dutifully did. Monday we will use a box scraper...don't ask me, I only have a vague idea of what it looks like, though I have seen them used, but I am not going to attempt to describe it.

The dump truck did not show for a few hours and I got paid for waiting…it took long enough to get over there on the tractor that it did not make sense to go do something else, especially since, every time I called the boss, he said it would just be a little while and wait.

It was fun when he finally showed and I got to use the front bucket and the back grader type appliance blade…sorry I don’t know the best term for it…probably just blade. I was out on the south side of the school and in the direct sun…I got a little crispy…fortunately not bad enough to do more than tan.

I got the barbeque started when I got home and we had steaks and Asparagus (Cora did the asparagus) for dinner. I love that hickory smoke. I sat out and read one of my history books for class while I waited for Cora to get home and the coals to get hot. They were Rib Eye steaks from Costco...ohhhhh, I do such a GOOD job on those things. Then, somewhere during the evening, my eyelids got super heavy and I could not stay awake. Cora let me go to bed early, since, even when I tried to wake up I could not stay that way…must have been super tired. So, after MANY hours of sleep, I am up, bright eyed and bushy tailed…take my word for the bushiness of my tail, I don’t want anyone poking around trying to prove things.

Today, I think we will work on the house and then go down to my sister’s new house in Prosser. They are having a Father’s Day BBQ. I am not one to miss a BBQ, so we are going. Plus, my niece and nephews are among the cutest kids on the planet. Speaking of the kids, here is one of ora being her usual entertaining self, see how the kid was so excited, he passed out? ( she does that to me sometimes) Nah, this is David and he was tired (as tired as I was last night? maybe); he is the youngest of my neicephews(that is an all inclusive term; I began using it when Carrie would not determine the sex of the first child ahead of time).

I looked at my new palm last night and I am beginning to wonder if they are palms…they probably are, but I suppose I have not grown this particular species from seed before and am new to what it looks like…that Sago Palm I grew several years ago is actually a member of the Cycad family, so it is not truly in this palm’s family. I also noted yet another something starting to sprout in this pot...it never rains, but I drizzle a bunch of water on them anyway.

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