How's your Saturday treating you so far?
Oh ~ I meant to look this up, but I haven't yet... is today the first day of Autumn? It feels like Spring with the drizzle of rain we've gotten overnight, but the aromas of dried weeds and grasses so recently sprinkled on which wafted across the adjacent pastures and dry creekbed this morning certainly smacked of Autumn! There are some wonderfully seasonal smells that I have enjoyed over the years while soaking in this spa here at Rancho Carmando.
This morning's wasn't my first dip into the spa since moving back to Old Airport less than two weeks ago. In fact, It was last Saturday night that I finally got the old tub wired back into its old familiar space on one of the little decks facing Jensen's pasture to the north. And what a fiasco THAT was! Because after slowly filling the tub with hot water from an outside hot faucet, I went to the panel to flip on the circuit breaker only to find that an air-lock in the piping beneath was preventing that freshly-filled hot water from getting into the pump!
By this time, it's 11pm and I'm pretty beat from moving and unpacking all day, and I really wanted a soak before bed, dammit! So I took some of the spa's wood skirting apart to access the plumbing underneath. The idea was to simply loosen a big pipe coupling at the pump inlet, drain out the air, then re-connect when my hot water showed up. Problems arose though, when I accidentally spun the coupling too far, which allowed a TORRENT of hot water out of the big pipe until, fumbling, I could re-attach the coupling, which by now had lost its O-ring in the flood of water!
So it's now 11:30, I'm fairly soaked from that cascade, and I have to search underneath the spa's guts using a flashlight to locate a three inch diameter O ring that may or may not have completely washed downstream in the flash flood. I was lucky when it turned up after only five minutes of searching, so I set about preparing to get it back into its groove... hopefully without completely draining the entire 150 gallons of pre-heated water.
Once into a strategic position, I mustered all of my meager reserves and spun that coupling off the pump, slowly separating the joint, and then fighting a fresh flood of another thirty or forty gallons of pleasantly warm spa water, I attempted to fit that blasted O ring back into it's groove in the coupling. With all that warmth splashing into my lap, it took all my powers of concentration and dedication to get that ring seated and the pipe jammed onto the pump, finally spinning the large coupling into place.
By then I was laughing crazily into the midnight air... relieved to have saved two thirds of the water, but wearing one third of it from neck to toes! I was WAY too tired to think about going to bed before re-filling the tub for a maiden voyage and having a victory soak. And so I did, and it was a well-deserved and fairly exquisite soak, though I do not recollect the presence of any of the Old Airport aromas during that first night in the old tub. Not like this morning's post-rainy soak, anyway.
Those aromas ~ aaahhh... so sweet! A little musty, perhaps, but sweet - like the oats that a horse might receive as a treat. And the cool air this morning held that sweet blanket down low for me to inhale... until my coffee cup ran dry, anyway. By then it was time to get downtown to the Farmer's Market to do some foraging for meat and veggies.
Roxanne and Micky from Sinclair Ranch in Ophir didn't have my Bratwurst, but they had an awesome twin-pack of ribeye steaks that I couldn't resist. They weighed three pounds. Brian K. and the excellent folks from Natural Trading Company had their first Butternut squash of the season (organic), including one giant that had to weigh close to five pounds. Ten more pounds there.
Five or so large Asian pears from that nice fella sporting dark brown hair and moustache and black-framed eyeglasses who's in Newcastle (cannot think of his name or that of his farm!) added another seven pounds to my stylish carry-bags. And the girls at Newcastle Produce had some green onions, Bor kale and sweet little cucumbers for us, while the short lady with the cute little girls from Sacramento's Vue Farm provided us with the usual bok choy and some other similar green which I cannot spell, pronounce, or even remember for that matter.
With some odds and ends gathered on the way out, those bags were carrying right around twenty-five pounds of our region's finest, soon to become several delicious meals this week (and then some!).
Oh ~ I meant to look this up, but I haven't yet... is today the first day of Autumn? It feels like Spring with the drizzle of rain we've gotten overnight, but the aromas of dried weeds and grasses so recently sprinkled on which wafted across the adjacent pastures and dry creekbed this morning certainly smacked of Autumn! There are some wonderfully seasonal smells that I have enjoyed over the years while soaking in this spa here at Rancho Carmando.
This morning's wasn't my first dip into the spa since moving back to Old Airport less than two weeks ago. In fact, It was last Saturday night that I finally got the old tub wired back into its old familiar space on one of the little decks facing Jensen's pasture to the north. And what a fiasco THAT was! Because after slowly filling the tub with hot water from an outside hot faucet, I went to the panel to flip on the circuit breaker only to find that an air-lock in the piping beneath was preventing that freshly-filled hot water from getting into the pump!
By this time, it's 11pm and I'm pretty beat from moving and unpacking all day, and I really wanted a soak before bed, dammit! So I took some of the spa's wood skirting apart to access the plumbing underneath. The idea was to simply loosen a big pipe coupling at the pump inlet, drain out the air, then re-connect when my hot water showed up. Problems arose though, when I accidentally spun the coupling too far, which allowed a TORRENT of hot water out of the big pipe until, fumbling, I could re-attach the coupling, which by now had lost its O-ring in the flood of water!
So it's now 11:30, I'm fairly soaked from that cascade, and I have to search underneath the spa's guts using a flashlight to locate a three inch diameter O ring that may or may not have completely washed downstream in the flash flood. I was lucky when it turned up after only five minutes of searching, so I set about preparing to get it back into its groove... hopefully without completely draining the entire 150 gallons of pre-heated water.
Once into a strategic position, I mustered all of my meager reserves and spun that coupling off the pump, slowly separating the joint, and then fighting a fresh flood of another thirty or forty gallons of pleasantly warm spa water, I attempted to fit that blasted O ring back into it's groove in the coupling. With all that warmth splashing into my lap, it took all my powers of concentration and dedication to get that ring seated and the pipe jammed onto the pump, finally spinning the large coupling into place.
By then I was laughing crazily into the midnight air... relieved to have saved two thirds of the water, but wearing one third of it from neck to toes! I was WAY too tired to think about going to bed before re-filling the tub for a maiden voyage and having a victory soak. And so I did, and it was a well-deserved and fairly exquisite soak, though I do not recollect the presence of any of the Old Airport aromas during that first night in the old tub. Not like this morning's post-rainy soak, anyway.
Those aromas ~ aaahhh... so sweet! A little musty, perhaps, but sweet - like the oats that a horse might receive as a treat. And the cool air this morning held that sweet blanket down low for me to inhale... until my coffee cup ran dry, anyway. By then it was time to get downtown to the Farmer's Market to do some foraging for meat and veggies.
Roxanne and Micky from Sinclair Ranch in Ophir didn't have my Bratwurst, but they had an awesome twin-pack of ribeye steaks that I couldn't resist. They weighed three pounds. Brian K. and the excellent folks from Natural Trading Company had their first Butternut squash of the season (organic), including one giant that had to weigh close to five pounds. Ten more pounds there.
Five or so large Asian pears from that nice fella sporting dark brown hair and moustache and black-framed eyeglasses who's in Newcastle (cannot think of his name or that of his farm!) added another seven pounds to my stylish carry-bags. And the girls at Newcastle Produce had some green onions, Bor kale and sweet little cucumbers for us, while the short lady with the cute little girls from Sacramento's Vue Farm provided us with the usual bok choy and some other similar green which I cannot spell, pronounce, or even remember for that matter.
With some odds and ends gathered on the way out, those bags were carrying right around twenty-five pounds of our region's finest, soon to become several delicious meals this week (and then some!).
It's nearly 1:30pm by now. The rain has held off since early this morning, but the breeze is picking up and the sky is getting dark and angry again. We're heading over toward the canyon's edge in a little while... going to an outdoor wedding. The bride-to-be is the beautiful Erin, daughter of our long-time neighbors and friends, Dave and Janet Crosby. It's not looking good for a dry ceremony or reception. Uh-oh... there's the first thunder. And there are now some really fat raindrops coming down onto the driveway with quite a "splat"! ....and more thunder. Nice.
Oh well. Long as we can get to the buffet food before it gets too soggy, the wedding won't be a total loss. And just think of the stories those young lovebirds will get to tell their grandchildren someday!
Naw... it'll be fine. But I definitely call dibs on one of the five big red market umbrellas I delivered over to the wedding party just an hour ago. And I think I'll bring a jacket.
Have fun this weekend.
Just don't be afraid to get wet!
Oh well. Long as we can get to the buffet food before it gets too soggy, the wedding won't be a total loss. And just think of the stories those young lovebirds will get to tell their grandchildren someday!
Naw... it'll be fine. But I definitely call dibs on one of the five big red market umbrellas I delivered over to the wedding party just an hour ago. And I think I'll bring a jacket.
Have fun this weekend.
Just don't be afraid to get wet!