Moon Shadow

April 17, 2022

Hello again,

Well, we are absolutely bushed after this past week. I've gone from cutting and trimming flagstone to now helping to do the patios...i.e., cutting and chiseling a design out of the huge, square stones and then working them down to the finished product, smooth as can be. After a few attempts, and ruining one of the flagstones in the process, I feel that I've gotten the hang of it and have been more confidently cutting the rough shapes out with the grinder, cutting little squares to be tapped out with hammer and chisel, refining this process with a smaller chisel, and then finally polishing the sides really well. On top of that, we finally got the two patios that are now finished firmly set into place with mortar mix. This was an extraordinary undertaking that involved the foreman, my friend, Valentin, and I moving 64 stones off of the first patio, one by one, and then painstakingly cementing them into place once their level and spacing were perfect. Doing the bigger one took us most of the week and then we banged out the smaller one like it was nothing in one whole day...I think that one had 45 stones or so. This past weekend I've literally been a lump on the couch(other than a trip to town) that has not been able to move, with very sore arms and a very sore back and watched so many soccer matches that my eyes almost popped out of my head! As for Erin, with spring coming on, she's been busy mixing landscaping into her normal chores, plus the ever-increasing number of potted plants that the boss has put outside now need tended to on a daily basis, too. And she is slowly but surely getting her garden ready for the year with all of the raised beds now in place, just waiting to be filled, and one huge bed only needing a second tier added to it. Soon enough, she'll be bringing loads of horse manure back to the garden in the buggy from out in the pasture. Usually two or three overflowing loads does the trick and gives her enough to keep the beds at a roughly 50/50 mix of dirt and manure. We have one compost bin set up and need to build another three to make a nice, compact square in one area next to the garden. We've had it half-full for most of the last year while it has otherwise sat neglected, and it's clear to see that without regular watering absolutely nothing is going to compost. So, on top of relaying all of the irrigation lines in the new garden, Erin's also going to find a way to drizzle some water over the compost with the same lines. And this is just the extra stuff for her, every day she cleans the boss's house and mixes in a hefty dose of pet-sitting and errand-running to boot!

The wildfires keep spreading out here. The Hermits Peak Fire, about 12 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has continued to hover around the 7500 acre size and looks like it is not about to begin to co-operate with trying to be tamed. This fire began about ten days ago and there are currently two fires to the south around Ruidoso, one along the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque and also another one northeast of the fires that are just to the north of us. The Hermits Peak Fire is about twenty miles away from us to the north, but continues to spread out to the north and east as the winds tend to come out of the south, west and southwest here. We took a drive into Las Vegas to do some shopping and couldn't quite make out the smoke very distinctly, so we went further north up to the Watrous Coffeeshop, one of our favorites, and saw a much different profile of the fire on the way back to the south. From this direction, you could really see the steep, stony canyons that the fire was in and the contrast was very stark between the smoke and the mountains. There was absolutely no mistaking that a fire was taking place from this perspective. We stopped for some quick Mexican(me a chimichanga with a plate full of rice and beans, and Erin two sopes, one with beef tongue and the other with chorizo) and then continued on with our day...the couch was missing me and my arms still felt like lead! The weather was all over this week, with one morning actually in the 20s, but by the weekend we were up in the 70s. Every day, though, was incredibly windy and this, of course, is not very helpful with the fire situation. There's a burn ban now, and even things such as welding or even running any internal combustion engines outside off-road are being limited and/or banned for the moment. At some point they'll even cut off access to the national forest and, if the fires continue to spread, to any of the towns and villages nearby. We are already in a deep drought and all signs are pointing for this to be a bad fire season. For them to be starting now, this early in April, is not a very good sign of things to come. But, we keep going about our daily lives, full of all of our comings & goings and chores, and have learned to keep an eye on the horizon at all times because sometimes people only get a few minutes to gather their things and go!

Now, for this week's batch of pictures. First up, a series of three shots of me standing between the barns, silhouetted by the setting sun: the first with the color all blown out on purpose; then, a closeup and a more distant shot, with the latter making me look twenty feet tall! Then, a series of eight shots from the three of us putting the bigger of the two patios in: first, some of the pieces splayed out on the ground; then, a shot of Valentin cleaning the mortar off the top of the stones and trimming the edges; next, a shot of the table with our drinks, grinders and other tools on it; then, a stack of mortar mix; next, a shot of our fancy bucket and drill-paddle system that we used to mix the mortar; then, a halfway-done shot; then, a nearly finished shot; and, finally, a closeup of the last two pieces to go in. And, finally, here's a series of five shots of all the stone work that I've been doing: first up, a shot of a stone once I had the big squares chiseled off before I switch to working with a smaller chisel; then, my first finished stone; next, a shot of my first and third finished stones(let's not talk about the second one!), making a U or V in the pattern that Valentin created; then, the doorstep for the third patio, the first stone for that one; and, finally, a companion for the doorstep, all smooth and ready-to-go.

Have a great week!