Last week, we sent our granddaughter a baby care package. Verna picked out things that a new mother would need after giving birth plus some little outfits for our first great grandson. The granddaughter, in return, sent us a wonderful gift: a framed 3D ultrasound image of his little face with a colorful card.
I just hanged up the picture in our office today where I can see his little face as I sit at the computer. Click on the image and the picture link to enlarge.
This is an image of lower Casandro wash just before it flows into the aqueduct under Mariposa Drive. If it were not for Casandro Dam located 1000 feet upstream, the entire property zone where we built our house would be flooded rather than just this trickle.
The dam’s catch basin stores most of the water flowing down upper Casandro wash when the monsoons come. There is a regulated pipeline that originates in the basin and ends with the pipe that slowly releases the trapped water at a point below the dam.
Just last Friday, Verna and I were down in this part of the wash picking up bottles, cans and other unsightly debris to be recycled rather than be an eyesore to us and anyone else that likes to see our desert clean from debris like that. Click on Verna’s image to enlarge.
One hell of a gully-washer this afternoon. The skies opened up, the thunder and lightning came and after the sheets of rain let up a bit, we went out to see the road flowing like a little river. Click on the image to enlarge.
We had been grilling hamburgers earlier and managed to get our trailer awning retracted and the gear put away before the monsoon showers came. Putting the stuff away in time was a combination of luck and intuition.
Verna was in the kitchen preparing Meaty Ziti Casserole while Cabela and Bay Bay anxiously awaited for her to drop something their way. She will generally oblige them by launching an occasional tidbit for them while ensuring the treats are equally divided.
When we got married on Catalina Island, it was about five years before we returned for another visit. This photo was from our vacation there in September of 2004, almost ten years ago.
I was rummaging around some of the photo archives on the terabyte disk and found this one taken as we departed for the mainland. Click on the image to enlarge.
Our lemon tree has been doing great this year. I trimmed it this spring and it already needs to be trimmed back more. I took this photo today of some of the lemons just at the top of the tree. There are many, many lemons and we will be harvesting them in the near future.
We are planning to use the lemon skins to produce Limoncello, an Italian liqueur (digestivo). We will take the pulp and squeeze the juice out to keep for future use as ingredients to meals or as lemonade. We’re looking into how to preserve lemon juice over the long term. Click on the image to enlarge.
