The News From Lake Morena

A Touch of Red Might Help

I'll be 75 in August, so it was time for a red pickup truck.

Actually, the timing had less to do with my age and more to do with rocks...

It All Started With Landscaping

My beloved Sábado is a pleasant place, but aside from the mustard weed (which will eventually take over the earth) it's kind of a barren wasteland. The ground is sandy, so when it rains, erosion becomes a big problem.  Thank God (and the Medinas) I have the old Ford tractor to smooth things out, or I'd be living in the Grand Canyon.

Things got so bad down by the road that I had to put down a load of golf ball-size rocks to fill the ditch, since the regular gravel just washed away.

So I brought in an expert

I know nothing about plants or landscape design, so I hired a local designer to make me a plan that used only native plants and grasses. She did a nice job of understanding the place and how I use it, and came up with this plan.

Barely visible at this scale are some small dark spots.  Those are rocks.  Boulders.  There are no rocks on this entire property, but the designer insisted I need boulders to enhance the 'natural' look.

Luckily, my new neighbors to the north had some lovely white crystalline rocks that they were happy to donate to the cause, so I loaded up the tractor bucket, the neighbor's Bobcat bucket, and my truck bed with big white bolders.

That's when the trouble started...

Loading these monsters into the truck using the tractor bucket, and then unloading them took a toll on the truck (predictably, I now realize...) The bed was dented and the tailgate bent, and there were a few other owies to the poor 14-year-old pickup.

I called my insurance agent to find out if Comprehensive covered idiots dropping huge rocks on a truck and was assured that it did, so I took it to the body shop.  The next day State Farm called to say they were totaling the thing, since it would cost more to repair than it was worth. They were going to pay me an obscene amount (relatively speaking...) to send an otherwise perfectly good truck to the salvage yard. Kind of broke my heart, but they said she would be permanently saddled with the registration caveat "Salvage" if I decided to keep her.

Nowadays you can buy a car online, so I sat down at the computer and found this beautiful 2016 Ford F-150 with less than 10,000 miles on it. It had been a company truck for an outfit that must have gone out of business or something, and it's essentially a new vehicle, still covered under factory warrantee.

So I guess my rock-hauling days are over, and I have a car payment again and something that deserves getting washed more often than every time it rains.

But I'm in love.

I'm still a little nervous driving such a nice big truck though.  I stopped for coffee on the way home from the dealer and this is where I parked.

The Sun Shines Bright on my Old Morena Home

The same new neighbors who gave me the rocks, Eric and Ofelia, also gave me two big solar panels. (That's what you call a good neighbor!) I ordered up the mounting hardware and a new charge controller, and took advantage of a visit by my favorite brother-in-law Danny to get them installed on the shop roof.

I now have nearly 25% more solar capacity and the batteries are back up to 100% before lunch!

Dan The Man

I lay in supplies when Danny comes

Other good friends Sarah and Scott had a big elm tree die in their yard, so with a lot of help from Macey and another neighbor I call Rancher Rick, I now have a full wood shed ready for next winter.

In the Shop

Haven't made much progress on the shop remodel, but I did manage to build a little cabinet for my drills.

And Danny and I made an Aggravation board for his daughter.  Now the other daughter and a cousin want one.

 

The big project at the moment is a case for a large, full-rigged model of HMS Victory built by old buddy Bruce. The case looks like a simple structure, but will probably consist of nearly 100 individual pieces by the time it's done.

Need to get this thing finished before I can start on landscaping.

And of Course I Voted

Hope you did too!

That's the news for now.  Stay tuned!