July 10, 2012 Another Wild Night



Our sunset Sunday evening



Thunder clouds to the north last night

















Friday began our hot spell with temperatures well above average.  It was "only" in the high 70's on Friday so I was able to get out and do some raking and hiking before the heat set in.  While re-sculpting our yard, it was discovered that our drain field was full.  I contacted the man who owns the company that did the work and he agreed to put in a new one.  So Friday afternoon he brought up the materials for the job in his horse trailer.  Saturday morning he was up with the backhoe and had the job done in three hours, doing it himself to be sure it was done correctly.  By the time he left it was 82.

There is a lot of raking to be done to smooth out where the drain field was put in but it is simply not going to get done in this heat.  Sunday was 85 and Monday 86, with temperatures in the low 100's Down There.  All I could do was sit and sweat.  The dogs dug out some nests under the porch and spent their days there.  I finally got some reading done though, choosing some history books: The Last Wilderness by Murray Morgan which is the history of the white man on the Olympic Penninsula in western Washington, and Sqee Mus by R. Emmett Hawley which is the history of the white man in Lynden, WA, north of Bellingham.  He moved there with his family in 1871 when he was 10 years old.  It was first published in 1945 and my Mother bought the book from the Whatcom County Museum in Bellingham many years back.  Fascinating books, both.  Yesterday I started My Wilderness: The Pacific West by William O. Douglas (former Supreme Court Justice, who was from Washington.)

Thunder storms were predicted for Sunday night and the static lightening began about 10:00 pm to the south.  Then the clouds moved in and the booming began.  The storm with all its fury had arrived.  The sky was as light as day out there and I new I wasn't going to get any sleep unless my bags were packed.  So I put a change of clothes, my meds and the dog's meds, my computer in a couple bags by the door, along with our 72-hour pack and get-away bag (which is always packed).  Finally about midnight I went to bed with my clothes on.  Soon after I heard the wonderful sound of raindrops.  Listening to their lullaby I was soon fast asleep.

I awoke with a start Monday morning at 6:00 am.  All was quiet and the sun was shining.  I let the dogs out.  Put my boots on and went for a rather belated lightening watch hike.  No smoke anywhere, not even in the distance, which was rather surprising, but quite a relief.  So back to bed it was until 9:00 am when JB called to see how I fared.  They had a nasty storm in Seattle also that started around 1:00 am.  The past two years had been so cool and wet that I don't think we have had a thunder storm since 2009.  Certainly nothing as spectacular as Sunday night.  Elsie called to check on me, too.  She referred to the storm as "biblical proportions".

Monday got up to 86, which was almost unbearable, and another storm was predicted for last night.  After dinner (a yogurt) I decided to move the Jeep close to the house for a quick get-away if need be, but it wouldn't start.  All the electrical came on, but no start and no clicking from the starter.  I called Larry and he said it come up to have a look.  He added that they would be sure I at least had one of their ATV's for the night in case I had to get out.  I decided to at open up the windows in the car to cool it off and when I tried the key, it started right up!  I immediately called Larry and left a message, but he arrived a few minutes later.  He thought there might have been a sensor that just got too hot.  We had a nice visit and he said he hadn't seen a thunder storm with lightening like that since he was a kid.  He used to sit out in his yard and watch the lightening that filled the skies many of the August nights.  He had actually spent most of Sunday night near a ridge just to the northeast of us where lightening has started several fires in the past.  He was there until the wind and rain forced him back home.  The lightening actually did set a few fires way north of us and he pointed out the plume of one of them.  After he drove back home Elsie called to ask if I could let their dogs out this afternoon as they are going out to dinner to celebrate their daughter's birthday.  Then Larry got on the phone to tell me that on his way down, about 1/2 mile past our driveway, he saw a huge, bull elk standing in the road!  If only he had had a camera. . .  What am I talking about, he doesn't even have a cell phone. . .

The Monday night storm never did materialize.  The clouds arrived but were quickly blown north.  However I see that we did get a good rain during the night, which I slept right through.  It is a little cooler this morning, but the hot spell is supposed to last a few more days.  Oh goodie. . .

During the past several months JB has been taking the dead mice out of the traps, although we have had very few.  Of course what happens as soon as he leaves?!  Two mice in the traps, one Friday and one Saturday.  Thankfully they were both killed instantly.

I have realized that blogging just twice a week is not enough, so beginning tomorrow I will be posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Thought for the day:  Security is mostly a superstition.  It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run that outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.  Helen Keller