Thursday evening we had our last dinner together up on the land, and we enjoyed watching the rain from inside the cozy living room. On the way down Andy looked at all the culverts along the road to be sure they weren’t clogged — all except one were in good shape. And there was one patch of road that was rough driving because of the water and rocks that had washed down from the burn area of “our” fire two years ago. This picture shows where the water came down:
This is what the road looked like after Andy spent a couple of hours clearing it off Friday morning:
He hadn’t taken a “before” picture, but these are the rocks he cleared off:
He then spent another hour or so working on the culvert that was getting clogged, and he worked on it again yesterday. By the time he drove down in the afternoon it had been raining steadily for about a half an hour, and it wasn’t showing signs of ending soon. So he’s expecting more erosion and roadwork today.
So far the erosion isn’t as bad as two years ago because the vegetation is coming back, but it’s fairly certain Andy will still have plenty of road work to do.
Do you have any unusual ongoing chores?
How lucky Andy is to have that road work to do. Think of the exercise & muscle he’s getting compared to all the other guys that have to sit in their offices at LANL (Los Alamos National Lab).
Trees — felled about 8 of them on the east of the house, including 3 that were over 12 inches in diameter at the base. The trees were so thick there that 4 of them didn’t fall — they just leaned over into adjacent trees. Pulled them down with my truck in 4 wheel drive low, in gear with the engine idling.
Possibly may be sitting in an office soon, working on Fukushima related training materials.
My close friend Pam married Eiichi Fukushima.(See Mike’s comment.) His father, who recently died, owned a newspaper in Tokyo. Eiichi is his only offspring so Eiichi must be powerfully rich now. However Pam divorced him because he had a girlfriend- c’est la vie.
Agree with bhb on Andys’ retirement occupation…
I don’t think I have anything so radical or unusual to deal with – although I do pick up useful ?art/recyclable stuff when I’m out on my walking…but I would not go as far as roadworks 🙂
I have a niece who is addicted to garage/yard sales; inorganic collections. This w/end we were in a suburb where such a thing was happening, and she got a number of things that she can use or sell-on.
People do that here, they scavenge for stuff…some looking for metal to onsell to a scrap dealer; others looking firewood i.e. pallets with untreated wood; some just poking. Whilst D was chatting to owner of dressing table, lady was next door looking at something else and I heard her say to her partner “no, these are not okay”
We saw some very saleable things on our small tour…and we discussed why someone who had owned/dumped for collection had not sold it on. Particularly things that have so much value – even second-hand will bring a good return!
Unfortunately, I do not live over there…and our area doesn’t do inorganic roadside collections any more. It has a much different system.
bikehikebabe,
Andy did a lot of good work on the culverts this morning. Unfortunately in the afternoon there was a gully washer on part of the road and those culverts are all clogged up now. Too serious for him to handle so we will probably be out big bucks to hire someone.
I agree that his chores give him plenty of exercise. That’s especially important now that the forest are still closed and he can’t take his favorite walks. Tom gets plenty of exercise too, doesn’t he?
Mike,
Thanks for telling us about your activities. I imagine you like working outside better than sitting at a desk. It sounds as if the trees do need thinning.
Cathy,
That sounds like a fun day. I know some people who like garage sales. We’re lazy and just give our stuff away. There’s an organization called Clothes Helping Kids that will come to your place to pick up things, and there’s also a group called Freecycle, where some people offer things for free and others put in requests for things they want. It’s a good system, but I can understand that poking around at sales can be fun too.
bikehikebabe,
I looked up Eiichi Fukushima and Google says he’s one of the lead researchers in NMR science. Is that the one you’re referring to? When I hear the word Fukushima I think of the leaking nuclear reactors in Japan. I assume that’s the connection for you, Mike?
We have freecycle as well…but I went off that because of a few strange people who came to get things! Home alone isn’t always a great way to be…
Jean, that’s correct — I think. The proposal looks like its for developing training materiel for emergency response related to flexible coping strategies under extended loss of power conditions and beyond design basis external events. The tsunami at Fukushima was certainly a beyond design basis external event that resulted in extended loss of power.
Cathy,
I don’t blame you! Our small town is fairly safe, but even so I’m cautious about who I give my address to.
Mine are all entirely usual I think.
I find it amazing that Andy does not consider such work Sisyphean. I would. Or does he, I wonder.
As mundane as it may sound, I recently went through such work with my mobile hand set misbehaving. The toing and froing for some efficiency from the service center was an interruption to my otherwise placid and uneventful life. Unless of course you take in the cooking that I have been forced into by my son who wants to show off to his friends.
I wonder if Andy would swap places!
i admire andy so much.
and maybe it’s not totally sisyphean rummy! some of the culverts stayed clear!
still. your rain sounds heavenly to me even while bringing problems for andy.
alas.
i am a summer slug.
i just don’t do the excessive heat and humidity well.
therefore i hibernate and read. and write. and sleep. and eat.
and i love it!
though it’s fascinating reading about everybody’s life here.
we’re a very diverse and interesting group!
Sorry I’m so late answering your question.
Jean says “I looked up Eiichi Fukushima and Google says he’s one of the lead researchers in NMR science. Is that the one you’re referring to?”
Yes that must be him. He’s a physicist & lives in Albuquerque NM. (BTW – “that must be he” was grammatically correct a long time ago, but it changed to him -what everybody said instead of he.)
Evan,
That’s fine too.
Rummuser,
No, Andy would not like to trade places with you. 🙂
He wouldn’t be sorry if we didn’t have to get big equipment in to fix the culverts and roads, but we’re not surprised. Don’t forget, we’ve been doing things up there for almost 37 years now. We knew what we were getting into when we decided to rebuild instead of taking the insurance money and moving to an easier place.
tammy,
I don’t blame you for trying to avoid the heat, we wilt in it too. And our highs aren’t as bad as yours, plus the air is usually dry. I can see why you want to stay close to your brother, but it would be nice if he picked a better climate!
I’m with you. I love the fact that we have such a variety of lifestyles in this group. 🙂