Beautiful day yesterday, after the torrential down pour about six in the morning that is. Weatherman said this is the second wettest May on record and it's got a few more hours to go for the win.
Top photo is a gardenia I bought at Menards yesterday - only $22.00 for a good size plant loaded with buds. I love these plants. Hopefully I can keep it alive. I've got a small orchid I got about three years ago that's doing well. I'm hoping it'll bloom this year. In spite all of the rain, or maybe because of it, everything is blooming around the shack now. The various lilacs, iris and the old fashioned roses are exceptionally pretty. The lilacs and roses are very fragrant as well. Maybe all the rain has washed the pollution out of the sky so the fragrance shines through better.
Bottom photo is the Sperry Rail Service car that came through yesterday. Most all of the trains running on these tracks are coal drags feeding the power plant a few miles away. There is the occasional local but not much freight these days. The power plant is scheduled to close in a few years. When that goes, that'll be it for these tracks. It'll give me a chance to ride my railbike for a while until they rip up the tracks.
I went out to the shop the other night and the first thing I noticed was it smelled like raccoon piss. I thought maybe with all the dampness in the air, maybe it was a leftover from the mess I had last year. Nope - another raccoon has somehow managed to get in there again. I set the trap again yesterday. Damn you trash panda! Now I need to clean the mess before I can work out there again. I don't know what their urine is made of but it's really nasty stuff.
Leon Redbone passed away yesterday. I saw him a couple of times in concert. The one time he had laryngitis and couldn't sing so he played quite a few songs and showed shadow puppets on a screen. He also had a young guy on the banjo with him who could really play. Not what I expected but a great show just the same. RIP Mr. Redbone.
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2 comments:
Re: tearing up the tracks: Immediately my mind starts thinking; I could use a section of rail for SOMETHING. Wonder what they do with all that material?
I use a 2ft piece of rail as an anvil. Well, not exactly an anvil. More of a thing to beat and pound things against. :-)
I picked up few short pieces of rail while I was still working at the high school and cut out some anvil shaped pieces. They work decent enough for what they are. I also made a small dolly for automotive work from a chunk of it. The top had the rounded profile of the rail, the bottom was cut down and milled flat with a carbide cutter. Pretty handy little tool.
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