Winter Ready

October 22, 2023

Howdy folks,

I've been working on a new project this week.  For the first time I had to prep the irrigation system that was installed this summer for shutdown so that we can get it over the winter.  The old foreman for the construction site here for most of the last five years or so stuck around into June and July over this past summer to install an irrigation system for us.  We also had landscapers come and hydro-seed an entire acre around the boss's new house with native grasses and wildflowers.  They used temporary irrigation lines that they ran into the system that the foreman set up for us.  So, in order to shut everything down, I needed to first turn the water off to the irrigation lines and then open up the drain for that same area.  Then, after hooking up an air compressor to a vacuum breaker in the water/air line, I opened up the valves one by one to blow out all of the remaining water that had been lying in them.  Most of the lines are made of black poly material and hold up to freezing and thawing pretty well, but where they all come into the base has a lot of PVC and these parts are much more susceptible to cracking if water freezes inside of them.  We have three irrigation systems, each with 8-12 lines attached to it, so I needed to do all of these one at a time until no more water or vapor came out.  We only had a little air compressor in our tool depot, so I went into Las Vegas and got a much bigger Dewalt one to aid me in the task.  Not only was this something that we needed for the irrigation, but we've been hard-pressed to be able to fill up the backhoe tires with what we've got since all the construction guys left.  They had a huge air compressor in the house while they were working on it that made things easy, but no longer.  So, in any event, it took forever and the biggest obstacle seemed to be how long it took the compressor to recharge after each line that I blew out.  In some cases, this took five minutes or more.  I see now why the foreman recommended that I buy another huge, twin-tanked one, but I opted for a much quieter and easier to move option.  In any event, I did the front side of the house on one day.  That had two irrigation systems and, with my boombox and various wrenches and screwdrivers, I worked the day away opening valves and letting the water fly!  On the next day, I did the back of the house, which only had one system running back there and did not take anywhere near as long to do.  But, I feel that I did a good job, I totally learned a new set of skills and I couldn't believe just how much water came out of everything!  Tons!  I truly felt that they had already drained out somehow on their own.

In a similar vein, I've been pulling all of the flowers out of all the planters around the boss's house.  She really enjoys planting flowers in the spring and being surrounded by them all summer.  By fall, they easily make it through September and into October, but are soon running up against a hard freeze.  There were so many planters, in fact, that everything I pulled made such a big pile that I had to use the backhoe to move it all and find somewhere to put it.  After pulling the plants, I then dug out the potting soil and made a huge pile of it behind her house that her dogs are enjoying immensely.  The final step was to untangle all of the little arms and tendrils of the irrigation system that ran into each planter before her dogs actually run through each and every piece of it, snapping quite a few of the lines in the process.  Erin has shut down the garden for the year and finally pulled everything that she could make use of before we inevitably wake up and it's in the 20s one of these mornings.  Already her pantry is just bursting at the seams with everything and there is no more room on the shelves and so there are vegetables in various states of preservation lying in crates on the floor.  She has already canned much, but needs to do more and each trip to the garden reveals a few more surprises that escaped her view on the last pass.  She hasn't made soap in a few months and is starting to run low on the number of bars that she has in reserve.  But, now that we've moved and made a much bigger space for her to work upstairs, that should happen soon and I think, if I remember correctly, that she has ten different kinds that she is planning on making.  She's been harvesting juniper berries and has been collecting big gobs of pinyon sap for some of the new types of soap that she wants to make.  We'd really like to find a way to use the cholla, too, but it would have to be an exfoliating bar...because once a little bit of the soap wore off, there'd be nothing left but spikes!

I've assembled another batch of pictures for everybody.  First up, a shot of our boss cooking paella for all of her employees in Santa Fe one day...I blurred it a bit just to play with the image.  Then, a similarly manipulated shot of some marigolds.  Next, three plant shots: first, a Colorado Pinyon; then, some Dipladenia rescued from the planters; and, finally, a Fragrant Sumac.  Then, four shots of the horses who were keeping me company while I worked behind the new house one day: Rosie and crew foraging; the whole ensemble; Milagros and Starvation Peak; Felipe and the same.  Next, our bar is beginning to take shape again...there was enough space to have it in the casita, but not really enough to truly use it.  Then, San Juan Jose Mesa looming over the casita.  Next, a fall arrangement I threw together for the boss outside her kitchen door with the Dipladenia, a rediscovered fern and sweet potatoes from the planters...she loves mixing in sweet potatoes with her flowers for all of the verdant leaves that they grow and how they cascade down from the pots onto the ground.  Then, the aforementioned new air compressor that we got.  Next, a spot in the barn that I found for the boss's firewood.  And, finally, two shots of the backhoe full of all of the pulled flowers.

That's it for this week,