Happy 4th of July, Lounge! (pix, dial-up notice)

[Kali]

Mine has turned into a most excellent 4th this year. The fried chicken is done, potato salad too. There is some beer in the fridge and the temperature is not so bad as it has been. The reason? We had a fabulous rain yesterday and more is supposed to happen today. 1.25 inch here at the house. It came down a little fast but I ain't complaining, believe me!





it did wash out the main road some more, but we never use this anymore anyway. it is a shared right of way between El Paso Nat Gas (now kinder-morgan I guess) and AT&T, so you can imagine how the road maintenance buck get passed on that.




One reason we never go that way anymore is because we got one of the back roads worked on last year. We traded some fill dirt for the work. The place they got the dirt was a little "pond" that was not much more than a shallow depression that caught water and held just about long enough for the toads to do their thing (very fast in this arid climate). It is quite a bit deeper now, and we shall see if it holds any better. At the very least it will slow that much more run-off. It didn't fill all the way yet, but the toads were out and singing last night within an hour.




In less than 12 hours these guys were out as well.

rolypoly bug porn!




mmm mmm good!




hey! where are you going, get back here and help me with this!




awww mannn, all alone with my ball of poop

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Kali!

Great pics! Your pond looks good too...I love love love the dung beetles! Nice work, getting close like that!

And your dinner sounds wonderful...

Thanks for sharing your day with us!

[Kali]

4. ha!

I was reading and replying in your vibes thread while you were here.

hope you are feeling much better!

[HopeHoops]

2. That's not porn - THAT is an orgy - and those are dung beetles.

[texanwitch]

3. Great pics.

Looks like my Grandparents little pond for the cattle.

It had a little spring that kept it filled, even had a few fish.

I can hear the frogs singing.

We uses to have that here until the townhouses were built.

After a rain the frogs would start singing.

Hope you get more rain.

[Kali]

5. we have 4 major ponds

and a few more that don't hold long, but they are ALL rain filled. The closest to a real spring we have puts out maybe a gallon an hour??? nobody has ever measured it that I know of. It had been cleaned and scraped out once in the past but I have no idea when or who did it. We used to have pretty shallow water in several places but that is another unfinished lounge post.

Have you had enough rain now or still dry?

[texanwitch]

6. We have had a fair amount of rain in the Houston area.

Outer areas have received some rain but I am sure they can use more after last summer.

We are close to the gulf so we get a little more rain.

The areas to the north got some rain a few hours ago, it looked like they got rain.

The yards are green now, so I quess we are doing Ok.

A lot of trees did die last year, our big park near our house had to cut down a lot of dead trees.

If we get a hurricane or tropical storm I don't know how a lot of the trees wiil take it.

I had my trees trimmed before Ike, glad I did.

[Kali]

8. oh man we have lost so many trees the last few years

mostly all "wild" stuff, but it is sad to see all their dead skeletons everywhere

[texanwitch]

10. The native Oaks and pecan trees seem to OK.

Pecan trees have deep roots.

The china berry trees seem pretty hard trees to kill.

Last year at this time everything was brown.

I am so glad I had my trees trimmed back, they were big.

We didn't have a hurricane for 30 years so trees grew pretty tall.

[Ptah]

7. Great pictures, Kali!

Thanks for posting them; I'm glad your internet speed has improved.

You are about 1.25" ahead of me, I must be in a dry part of Tucson.

Your 'main' road looks bad, glad you have another way to get out.

[Kali]

9. really no rain yet?

looks like west of Tucson got some good storms this morning and I just heard a storm advisory on the radio for Oro Valley area.

Benson had cancelled their fireworks show due to dry conditions then it rained yesterday so I wonder if they have reconsidered, then we heard it rained again down there this morning - and rained out the parade! heh we usually go to Willcox for fireworks but it looks like more rain and I just don't feel like driving anymore. I was out all morning checking ponds and watergaps.

Oh man I could talk roads as long as weather - just that country thang eh?

[Ptah]

12. I mis-read your rain total, I thought 1.5" when it clearly says 1.25"

I've had about a quarter inch so far.

Such a misunderstanding, I should probably resign as Lounge host.

[Kali]

14. or start some kind of ridiculous flame war in meta instead

[bluedigger]

11. Lucky you!

It's been cloudy and cooler here all day, but nary a drop of rain. Did you ever post part 2 of the well story? If so, I missed it.

[Kali]

13. not yet. I do need to do that.

and I was actually thinking of doing it in more than two parts because there are quite a few pictures.

In fact that is one thing I didn't look at after the rain! may need to take even more pictures now...

[bluedigger]

18. Who do you think you are?

George RR Martin?

Get busy - winter is coming.

[Kali]

19. oh man

that is how the house cleaning goes. I'm waiting for spring to roll around again so I can do a real spring cleaning. From like...2002.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

15. !

you post the "shittiest" Pictures, Kali and I meant that in the nicest way possible.

Happy Fourth

hey, me and you -- we should totally get together and blow up some stuff one day, right

[Kali]

16. excellent idea

you should head out this way sometime (October being the best time of year for weather)

series

know some gun folks you might enjoy meeting too

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. that would be a blast

would love to get out that way. One of these days. One of these days!