7:32 am - Wednesday - March 18th - TWW - 50° F, humidity 13%, cloud cover 6%, wind 5 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies this morning with a forecast high of 85° F. The view this morning....
....and on this date in 2025 TLE and I were in Yuma, AZ at one of our favorite.....
According to 'online sources' Tuesday was a 'high pollen' day here in the high desert, and TLE and I would both have to agree it was. After a short foray out to the greenhouse we were both blowing our noses, and sneezing. TLE's allergic reaction to local flora is much worse than mine, so while she remained indoors for most of the day I spent time in the morning watering the 8 trees Phyllis had planted here two winters ago.....
.....three of the trees have really flowered over the past 2 weeks, while the others are putting on green leaves. We water the 'orchard' from a 2,500 gallon water tank using gravity. It takes about 30 minutes to complete the watering process, and I only do it when Charles and Phyllis are not here. Usually they would have arrived here Tuesday, but they have a lot of business to take care of around Phoenix this week, and won't be here until Friday, or Saturday, so it fell to me to do the deed.
After I finally got our 1969 Jeep CJ-5 running again the other day I noticed how dusty she was getting, so after turning off the irrigation water at the orchard I started her up, quite easily I might add, and drove her over to a shady area by the circular driveway to vacuum, and wash her. Tuesday was the hottest day we've had in quite a while, topping out at 80° F, and while that is not what I would call HOT, when you've been used to temps in the 50's and 60's for weeks on end it 'feels' HOT. It took me about 90 minutes to detail the Jeep, but it was well worth it to see her smile again.....
.....I haven't really spent a lot of time driving the Jeep since I bought it back in October of 2024, mainly because it was so hard to start, and always seemed like it was not getting enough fuel. I don't think I've put more than 50 miles on her odometer in 16 months. Over the time I've owned it I have been tinkering with the fuel system, where most of its issues lie. Initially, I found a leak in the fuel line under the floor boards that was difficult to get at, but eventually spent he better part of two days last winter tracing the leak, and repairing it. I had to remove both front seats, and the gas tank under the driver's seat to fix it, and reinstalling the fuel tank, and driver's seat took hours. My main purpose in buying her, and this may sound odd to some of you, was in case we are ever hit with an EMP (Electric Magnetic Pulse), which can be man made (detonation of a nuclear device high in the atmosphere), or natural (caused by a 'mass coronal ejection' resulting from extremely high sun spot activity). An EMP will render all modern vehicles built after 1970, or '71 completely inoperable as the EMP fries the circuit boards in everything. In fact, everything that has a circuit board (cell phones, appliances, TV's, radios, computers, etc.) will never work again. The same goes for our 1982 Newell....no computers...the engine is completely mechanical, so it will run even after an EMP. It is also why I bought the 1969 Chevrolet Tilt bed truck last winter. There are no electronics in it, so if the worst happens we will be able to haul water to the property with it, if need be. For the present the Jeep and Chevrolet tilt bed will be used strictly in, and around the 40 acres which comprise TWW. Neither is licensed, or registered, but if the world as we know it comes to an end it won't matter, will it? I hope it never comes to that, and if the worst never happens the small amount of money we have spent buying them will have all been worth it, if only for the peace of mind owing them provides.
I finished with the Jeep around 2 pm, and even though I was in the shade the entire time, my energy reserves were drained, so I headed indoors to cool down. The Newell interior was delightfully cool on this 80° day.
I checked the propane level in our large stand alone propane tank and found it was only down to 55%, and it has been 5 weeks since we last had it filled. Normally, we would have a delivery every 4 weeks, but it appears we will not need a delivery now until early April. Not having to use the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator much over that time span is the main reason.
Tuesday was also the start of 'March Madness' with the first two games of the 'First Four' being played. Wednesday the remaining 2 games of the 'First Four' will be played, and thus the final 4 spots left in the tournament will be filled. Thursday the tournament will begin in earnest with the first 16 games of the initial 32 being played to whittle down the field from 64 teams to 32 by Friday night. Then on Saturday and Sunday they will further whittle down the number of teams from 32 to the 'Sweet 16'. That is a lot of basketball in 6 days!
Thanks for stopping by!
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