Monday, May 11, 2009

no rain as usual

Last nights light show produced not a drop but it did manage to pump out a gust of 44mph at some point during the evening. The turbines were howlin' there for awhile. It all settled down by midnight.

Woke up this morning to Leon at my door...seems his dog ran off during the storm last night - not good. I gave him my binoculars and he headed out to go looking. I finished up painting another side of the container and cut in the north side to be painted tomorrow. Benita came back for a surprise visit for the day....joined soon after by 26 more longhorns and one burro. More longhorn pics at billybobs blog from his visit this afternoon. http://billybobsplace.blogspot.com/


Crusty Ken and Dale came by with Scratch to try to track down Leon's dog. I drove out for about 2 hours NW of me to search the spots I thought the dog my have hunkered down...no luck. Ran down to Study Butte to pick up parts for my sump pump and to see if Leon was in town (nope). Now there has been no sign of Leon all day and his wife has called me twice as she hasn't heard from him. Had another brief chance of a thunderstorm with lots of lightning at sunset with just a few drops of rain on the Field Lab. Dark now but no lights over at Leon's camp. Lets hope he ain't lost out there somewhere. This sure better have a good ending so I get the chance to tell him to pack up and go home.

10 comments:

Old Wise One said...

Let's hope Leon and his dog are safe. They are probably in town having a beer, waiting on Leon's wife to find them. Keep us posted.

picinisco said...

How are you prepping the containers and what kind of paint are you using.

John in Gilbert, AZ

Allen Hare said...

The mystery of the disapearing Leon. Man, I hope that cat's o.k., and finds his dog. The contaier looks good wearing a coat o' paint. That white paint will sure keep 'em cooler inside. It looks like you've started on the cinder block wall, as well, which you can see from the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Wish I could send you some of the rain we've been having up here in Dallas. Do you have any water left in those 3000 gal. tanks? Good luck with everything.

neil said...

Assuming a coefficient of thermal expansion of 8 for mild steel and a 20 foot container. On a day like last Friday where the Low was 62 - High was 111.

dl = (8 10-6 in/in °F)(20 feet) (12 in/ft) ((111 °F) - (62 °F))

=.094 inches

Any evidence of you containers growing during the day, such as marks on their footings or strange groaning noises at night when it gets cool?

John Wells said...

At 7:30AM, Leon showed up without the dog...it most likely was killed my coyotes overnight or heat stroke yesterday. Its a damn shame and Leon showed very poor judgement in bringing that dog out here without being totally prepared to take good care of him. The worst part is that he and his wife adopted her from the Humane Society after it had been abused for years...what a way to end a tortured life. More later.

Ben in Texas said...

Dang shame about the dog, many years ago I had friend that had a place out there. He often left the front door cracked so dog could go out and in. Long story but short version, a cougar came into the house through the door and got the dog. We tracked it several miles and sadly found the remains. The cat had kits so it was somewhat understandably.

That area is real hard on city folks and pets!!

Carl in Houston said...

really sorry to hear about leon's dog. brings to light just how harsh it is to live out there...

MikeR said...

That's a wonderful photo of Benita.

Bob O said...

Wow, sorry to hear about Leon's dog, but glad to hear about Leon arriving okay. You never know about a dog though, they're a lot tougher and smarter than you think sometimes. I often think that having a pack of dogs, rather than a dog alone, is a good idea, especially in a harsh environment. Dogs look on humans as a part of a pack, but sometimes we part ways on what to do next...if there are other dogs around, they can support each other when humans can't keep up. But when the defecations hit the whirling air circulating devices, we all end up on the same side and look out for one another. One dog is okay in the city or the suburbs, but you really need a smart pack in the outback, I think. Just my two cents.

Couple of things: do you have a built-in braking system in your windmills, or do you just rely on resistance? Second, about the containers:I concur with neil's math...let me think about what kind of effects this could have, negative and positive. They might start to "walk."

BTW--still saving up for the G10.

Thanks for your work.

MsBelinda said...

I am so sorry to hear about Leon's dog but I am hopeful that he might still turn up.

It was very nice of you and your friends to help in the search, I guess that is why I love small commuties because there is still goodness and compassion in people...unlike in the big cities, where no one cares about their neighbors or for that matter even knows them.

The paint job looks great. Are you priming it with Killz?

Glad to hear that Benita came by for a visit.