Today, we painted the computer lab of the school at the mission. It went pretty quick with six people and we had the room done by the afternoon.
But it was hot!
The little window air conditioner couldn’t keep up with the cooling, but luckily it cools off pretty easily in the evening, as we are at about 5500 feet.
The rest of the day was spent doing other life sustaining things like sitting in front of the air conditioning unit… or blogging…
The radishes, the spinach and the Peas grew pretty fast. The onions still look a bit thin, but at least were much easier to raise than in the plastic dome. Next time I’ll sow everything right into the garden. The gaps in the rows are caused by the spaces between the soaker hoses. Maybe I should lay them closer together, if the seeds in between are not sprouting at all.
The herb corner and the flowers are not done yet, except for a few lilies (in the back right corner) and a hollyhock, which the neighbours gave me. The hollyhock looked pretty limp after the move, but she recovered well. Let’s see if the lillies are not to stressed and bloom this year already.
The concrete block is mine, I use it to hold down the tarp on my fire wood, but how it fell on the snake I do not know. I have not seen any other (living) snakes around here. The mentioning of snakes is also rather rude, as Native Americans see them as harbingers of bad luck.
As far as I can deduce as an amateur, this is a Striped Whipsnake and not poisonous at all for humans, pity. They are supposed to be very fast, but apparently not fast enough for falling rocks. Dunno what I’ll do with it yet…
Volunteered to chauffeur Grandma Ruth home to Arizona from a visit to Dan in Illinois in June. The route via St. Louis was suggested by Mapquest as the fastest, but the many construction zones and two t(r)oll roads did not convince me to use it again. Traffic was often dense and I missed my exit in St. Louis because of construction closures.
Arrived in Shawnee National Forrest late at night and could not find the way to Dan’s ranch in all the fog. Back to civilization, looking for a working phone… but sometime before midnight I made it in one piece.
The picture above was taken during the official tour of the premises in the six wheeled Gator(TM). Dan planted a few fake crops to lure game closer to the stands and the heavy snow of last winter also caused much change in the local flora.
As you can see, the main lodge is making good progress. The kitchen, the master bed room and two bathrooms are working and in use. The living room, or rather the living hall, is still a bit rustic but usable. Now the big semi-trailer in front of the house just needs to be unloaded… I’ll report more, when we will stay longer in July.
For the return trip, I picked the route via (or actually, by) Memphis, Tennessee. Much less stressful, no tolls and, in my subjective opinion, even faster. We drove all the way to Elk City, OK on the first day and then Jeddito on the second. Showed Grandma Ruth our new surroundings and the Walpi Hopi village in (or on; depending on your perspective) First Mesa, then drove her home the next day.
I had a little adventure on my way back, as I decided to take the route via Strawberry. Only a two lane highway, but much nicer than the other way. Saw lots of forest and game, including a very fat deer that walked in front of my car… Wait a minute, that is a bear! Wow, National Geographic, right through my windshield. Never thought I’ll see one in real life. It seemed to be a young black bear, just like the one on the right in the picture. After he noticed me, he ambled off into the bushes in that typical bear gallop. Too bad I had unpacked my camera at home.
Obwohl die Trabantwerke in Zwickau schon lange tot sind, haben die dort hergestellten Fahrzeuge bis in die ferne Zukunft einen hohen Gebrauchtwert. Ich habe mehrere Trabanten in City 17 sowie auf dem Weg nach Nova Prospekt im futuristischen Endzeitspiel Half-Life 2 gesichtet.
Even though the Trabantwerke in Zwickau are long since dead, the vehicles manufatured there have a high resale value far into the future. I have sighted several Trabants in City 17, as well as on the way to Nova Prospekt in the futurustic endtime game Half-Life 2.
According to the license plate they all seem to be owned by Russians.
Wartburg, Barkas or others didn’t surface yet, but once in a while you’ll run accross a truck very similar to the W-50. All quality products from East-German shores, no West-German cars in the future! Ha!
