Walls

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

Built any good boundary walls yet, Dave?

[David V.]

chettl...@googlemail.com wrote:
> Built any good boundary walls yet, Dave?

Not yet. It's 8 AM and it's already 90 degrees outside. Should
reach over 100 by noon. The humidity is approaching 40%. It's too
hot to do anything. I just looked at the forecast and next week
we get ONE day of under 100 degree temps.

Last month, while sorting through the weeds to see what usable
rocks I have, I found some arranged in a rectangle 3 feet wide by
6 feet long. One large rock at one end. I'm not sure I want to
dig that up.

--
Dave

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger." Mark Twain.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

We're having a long hot summer (the hottest on record) as we have done
for the last 3 years but it's not like yours. It's averaging around 85
degrees with 45%humidity. It's only rained once where we are, on the
south coast, since about the beginning of June, but that was a
thunderstorm that only lasted an hour or so.
We started out the summer with a hosepipe ban across much of England
because we've had abnormally low rainfall for the last 4 or 5 years.
The reservoirs and underground aquifers are at their lowest levels ever
recorded.
I don't care what Bush says, our climate is definitely changing. The
seas around Britain are warmer that ever before and we now have the
kind of fish (including basking sharks) and other sealife in there that
we've never had before. On land there are now olives growing in the
south of England, which has never ever been possible before.

On another tack. Any idea who it might be that's buried under your
stones?

Dave C

[David V.]

I didn't know it was warming up that bad in your area. Basking
sharks and olives? That's pretty warm. If the Gulf Stream
changes, we're in trouble.

We all know Bush is an idiot. Global warming is a reality.....
and I am certain we caused it. It's going to take hundreds of
years to fix it. From what I know, the summers will be hotter and
drier, and the winters colder. What a mess.

I don't know who's buried under those rocks. Maybe I'll just
leave them there and put up a fake head stone.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

> I don't know who's buried under those rocks. Maybe I'll just
> leave them there and put up a fake head stone.

Maybe it's a TV actor who died when they were making the last episode
of Wagon Train. The budget didn't allow them to take him home.

Dave C

[David V.]

chettl...@googlemail.com wrote:
>
> Maybe it's a TV actor who died when they were making the last
> episode of Wagon Train. The budget didn't allow them to take
> him home.

There was a lot of gold mining in this area. Many miners buried
most of their finds before they went into town to celebrate.
Often in the course of those celebrations they died and the gold
is still buried out there. Several big caches have been found in
mock graves.

I think I borrow the neighbors metal detector.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

How will you know it isn't just someone with a couple of gold teeth?

Dave C

[David V.]

chettl...@googlemail.com wrote:
> How will you know it isn't just someone with a couple of gold teeth?

If it's gold..... does it matter. :-)

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

I'll have to chew that one over.

Dave C

[David V.]

I'll start making some walls this winter. During the summer the
ground around here is as hard as cement..... and it's too hot to
do anything.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

The temperature here has dropped back to the high seventies and there
isn't too much humidity at the moment, thank goodness, but there still
hasn't been more than a slight sprinkling of rain. I'm meeting one of
my daughters and her family in London for the day on Sunday. I hate big
cities when it's hot. I'm glad I don't live in London any more.

Dave C

[David V.]

High seventies? It's cooled down here..... it's 8pm and 88
degrees outside. Lots of humidity too. We won't get any rain
until late October or early November.

I too hate cities when it's hot. It's great on my ranch though. I
sleep on the front porch where it's nice and cool.

I start a new job on Tuesday. I was a park ranger, now I'm going
to be in "human resources." The pay is the same but I won't be a
park ranger anymore. :-( The job won't be as fun but there is
much more room for advancement here. It's still with Yosemite though.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

Congratulations on the new job. I hope it goes well.

Just as I'd feared, London was like a furnace and crowded even on a
Sunday because of all the tourists. Especially in the Natural History
Museum, where we went, because of all the schoolkids being on holiday.
And did we do some walking? Why do I do these things? Never mind, we
all had a great day out.

Dave C

[David V.]

The nice thing about my new job is that I don't have to deal with
brainless tourists. For many of them their brain takes a holiday
too. The Germans are the worst. They rarely have reservations for
a camp site and they are the worst drivers I've ever seen.

I'm trying to build a small trailer to tow behind my garden
tractor. I need something strong enough to haul rocks around in.
I'm trying to figure out how to get the bed of the trailer at
ground level so I can roll big rocks into it but then raise it so
I can tow it on rough ground. I'll figure out something.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

Wouldn't it be easier to rig up some sort of mobile pulley system on
sheerlegs? Make some folding legs for the trailer so it stands level
when you disconnect the tractor, then use the trailer to haul on the
pulley rope.

Mind you, maybe it's easier to say than do.

Dave C

[David V.]

I was thinking of some kind of bent axle. I could lower the whole
thing to ground level, fill it up, and them lock the wheels some
how so that when I pull the bed comes up and locks. Then unlock
the wheels and drive away. I have it pictured in my mind. If I
can get it out and into reality is another story.

Another way would be to just build an A frame with a short rope
on one end and a longer one attached to the tractor. When I pull
forward it raises the A frame and the rock attached to it.

Either way, I have a lot of rocks to move.

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

We have an expression for encouragement in the UK that derives from the
old comedians Cannon and Ball. "Rock on Tommy!"

Dave C

[chettl...@googlemail.com]

IT RAINED! Not a lot but it's a start. I hope.

Dave C

[David V.]

chettl...@googlemail.com wrote:
> IT RAINED! Not a lot but it's a start. I hope.

You won't get any more until the end of September. Next
summer..... look for 100 degrees.