Before sunset today I went out and actually did some physical labor for a few minutes, working on my second water catchment hole and my super-long-term project, the hole which will take me down to the water table and beyond, possibly to where I can tap geothermal energy.
I'm finding that a hammer, with one side either a pick or a wedge, and an old aliminum frying pan make good digging tools for close-quarters work. You bend down and break up the hardpan with the hammer, then scoop it up in the frypan and throw it out of the hole. Should be good for the first 8 or 9 feet at least.
There were two fairly large horny toads in my well hole today, one of which scampered away and the second who let me scoop it up in my frypan. But I wasn't hungry enough and let him free.
The ground is still moist a few inches down from those 3 nights of rain we had recently. This desert might become productive if I could only make some progress on my carbon powder project. I'm finding that a to-do list is helping, hosted at Ta-Da list, with the RSS feed added to my Google homepage.
last updated 2013-01-10 20:53:34. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com