Stormy weather

We've had a bit of a storm the past few days. Part of the recent landscape project was to improve drainage and water control. It seems to be working. Below is the culvert in front of the house. The water no longer comes down the driveway, instead it channels past the house and into the open land.




Out in the solar field you can see a bit of the hail that fell. We had hailstones about the size of quarters. Fortunately no damage to the panels, though production was quite low on the clouded days.



When the weather improves again, I will take some photos of the completed project, including the outdoor fireplace, cantina bar, rainwater collection systems and general landscaping. We've had 4.13 inches of rain in the last 4 days. I hope we're nearly done. The rainwater collection filled to capacity (950 gallons) in the first hour and a half of the storm!

Sneak Preview of the Summer Project

OK, I know I have been mostly absent for awhile. It's been a busy summer. The landscape project is nearly complete. The insulation project is done. Here are two pix showing a little of the landscape stuff. Our cool (hot?) new outdoor fireplace is getting use, even now. A quick fire and a cup of coffee in the early morning is really nice...mostly for the campfire smell, not the heat!



Here's part of the dry creek we built to channel rainwater as well as add interest to the yard. You can see the big bird-bath in the photo.

I'll try to get back soon with more photos and details...

OK, so I am really behind!

We love the Pearl!




Way back in February (remember February?) we adopted Pearl. It's June for heaven's sake and I haven't said a word about her. One word, wonderful!

She's is a dream dog, though only 3 years old (as of April), she is calm and fits in with our older pack. We were worried about adding a youngster, but that was unfounded. She's a great companion and loves to be wherever we are, no matter if it's on the couch, in the yard or out somewhere. She loves to be snuggled and scoots closer if you move away. She's good with other dogs, even small ones. She's a fast learner and hasn't been any trouble at all.

Check out her page on my website

Stand by for news!

We pickup our newest addition later today. Pearl (aka Bull Lea) is joining the ranks at our hound hacienda! Pictures and details to follow.

It's All About the Weather (Station)

OK, so it's a geek thing. I wanted a weather station to report environmental conditions here at the Hound Hacienda. After a lot of research I decided on a Davis VantageVue. It's US made, accurate and has a self-contained instrumentation unit. The indoor console is detailed, has a nice interface, and can be linked to the computer to post data to the internet. I've had the unit running for a couple of weeks now in a temporary location while I decided on the final location and mounting.

I decided on a 20 foot telescoping aluminum flagpole for the mounting. I use an identical one to mount the radio repeater antenna, and it has been up for 5 years with no issue. It's a simple task to dig the hole and set the mounting sleeve in concrete, then drop in the flagpole. An added benefit is that you can easily bring the pole back down for maintenance, it's just about 6 feet tall when collapsed.

The location was selected to keep the station out of the influence of the house and nearby trees and shrubs, for both rain collection and wind measurements. It's recommended to have the wind sensor at least 4 feet above rooflines and a distance equal or greater than twice the height of the building. I chose a site in open land 100 feet away from the house.

In addition to the local display on my desk, I send data to the internet and to several sites that collect weather data and display it for personal, commercial and statistical use. At the bottom of this page are the various links to these sites. I participate in CWOP, the Citizen's Weather Observation Program, and also send to the Weather Underground (Wunderground) site.

LIVE DATA BELOW




Close-up view of instrument package


Instruments on top of collapsed pole


Making sure that the system is level


A person for some size and scale


System fully up and operational

LINKS
MesoWest surface map with weather stations listed
My station is in the center of the map. Zoom in to see more details. There are two in Clarkdale, mine is the one that is lower on the screen

MesoWest Station Details for Station D4348 (me)

MesoWest Current Conditions for D4348

Weather Conditions with graphs

Living in Clarkdale - Weather

A Fresh Start Today

Today started better than yesterday...the snow is clean and refreshing. Sadly yesterday began with the lady next door taking her life. She went outside and shot herself. She was a renter and had been there since September...yet we had never met her. I only saw her outdoors once, briefly as we drove out. I couldn't have picked her out of a lineup if challenged.

Police, fire and EMS came, whisked her away. I had to go into the house (we have the key, owners are in CA) and locate her purse so they could ID her. They rushed her to the hospital, then airlifted her to the trauma center. I understand she's brain dead and on life support until her son can arrive from overseas. Very very sad. What's stuck in my mind is cleaning up the side yard after everyone left, didn't want to leave that there as a reminder.

Sad that we never had a chance to know her, I always looked for her when I was outside to say "hi", but the only hint that she was even living there was that the trash cans went in and out each week, and I could hear the central vacuum running from time to time.

May she rest in peace.