Labor Day

Labor Day is a strange holiday. Many folks still have to go to work as usual so it's not much of a holiday for them, while others have the day off and head to the backyard BBQ or perhaps a park or lake for the last ditch camping trip, or they plop themselves in front of the TV set to celebrate the end of summer by doing nothing. I opted for doing nothing, although that's a common way for me to spend a day. I did actually accomplish a couple things today despite it being a holiday. This morning I found some Brass Quick Connects for the water system and ordered them, along with 2 nifty Water Filter Stands that I suspect may work much better than anything I could build using PVC pipe. I'll use the stands for the two outside water filters, the center filter and the spin-down filter will just be supported by the piping between them. I also ordered a 4' Drinking Water Hose that has a 10 year warranty to connect the water filter system to the TT.

With that out of the way I fed the cat and dogs, and decided it was such a nice day I would do nothing more other than sit outside and enjoy it. It was quite cool last night, the temp dipped below 50 briefly, and the high today was in the mid 70's which was a welcome relief from the past 2 weeks or so of very hot and humid weather. The cooler temps were ushered in by a wonderful thunderstorm Saturday night. The sunsets have been gorgeous, reminding me how much I miss seeing the sunsets (and sunrises) when I'm in Tennessee. Because of the trees and mountains I never actually see the sun slip behind the horizon down there. Friday night looked like this - the grove of trees in the photo is the farm a mile west of me, my second-nearest neighbor as the crow flies, the nearest one is just under a mile away to the south.

Saturday night wasn't nearly as colorful, but there were storm clouds building. I love this one, at different points it reminded me of a gorilla with its baby (or maybe ET) on its lap, a lion, a bear, and a dog licking its lips while someone gives it a nice scratch under the chin. I might have too much time on my hands.  lol

All this was followed a short time after dark by thunder and lightning, a 20 minute downpour and several minutes of pea-to-marble sized hail.

The neighbor stopped by today to check on the cattle he has in my pasture, and he told me he measured just over 2"of rain at his place four miles from here. The crops around here really needed that, and more would be nice. Chances for rain are pretty small though, and it's going to heat up to near 90 again by the weekend.