A Clean House -- Well, a Cleaner One, Anyway!

We put in some major effort today, cleaning up after all of the dust storms. I think I'd blocked out memories of what it was like to live on the ranch in all of the sand and dust! To this day, I don't care for knick-knacks, got too sick of dusting them and then looking over a few hours later and seeing that they were dusty again.

Forry vacuumed while I cleaned mirrors and dusted, then mopped the tile floors. I went ahead and washed the bathroom throw rugs while I was at it. I'd better take advantage of having water before the well driller finally gets busy. We'll be using water from the tanks that Jeff had filled, but will need to be conserving (back to boon-docking?).

Jeff has had trouble with the domestic well the last month or so. He's not been able to keep ahead enough to keep the yard watered. The water table in this Odessa Aquifer keeps dropping. We drilled the well deeper a few years ago until they ran into sand. Now they will have to pour concrete into the well to fill in the sand area, then drill through it in order to make it deeper. The well driller moved all of his equipment in last Friday, but said he wouldn't get started until after Labor Day. This morning he said they had an emergency, so didn't make it today. Maybe tomorrow?

Dust Storm

It's Labor Day weekend which means it is also the East Adams County Fair and Rodeo in Ritzville. There is an unwritten law that you cannot have a fair in Ritzville without a dust storm to go along with it. And sure enough, long about 3:30 this afternoon, the wind started coming up and the dust blew! The wind gusts were strong enough to shake Auntie Violet a bit! About five o'clock it started to quiet down and now (at 7:45) it has started to rain.

We weren't too ambitious this morning. I think we have one day with lots of activity and busyness, then the next one is a lazy day. We did go into Moses Lake after lunch and got some dishwasher soap for Forry's new toy. We spent some time at Home Depot trying to find a new connector for the dishwasher hose without any luck. When we got back to the ranch, Forry got out his grinder and made the one we had fit. The dishwasher is at this very moment running its first load of dirty dishes...

Thunder and lightning and DUST!

We had a storm move in late this afternoon. There was lightning and thunder and it really got dark. The wind came up with an old-fashioned dust storm. I could not see the shelter belt from Auntie Violet's windows! (about sixty feet away...) We got a few drops of rain with it, but I can imagine that the car and motor home windows are going to be filthy when the sun comes up tomorrow. I was just outside trying to see if I could see any stars, but it must still be clouded over. But, it does smell good outside -- there must have been enough rain to settle the dust.

When I was a kid, dust storms were not that uncommon. But there have been so many changes in farming practices, that they just don't happen that much anymore. The field above us that is fallow (in this dry country a piece of ground is only planted to a crop every other year, on the odd years it lies "fallow" in order to store up moisture) was recently weeded and I'm sure that's where much of the dust was coming from.

We had a full house in church at Menno this morning. There are families visiting on vacation plus the Jantz clan was having a reunion on the church grounds this afternoon. It was neat to see so many little kids in church!

I talked with a friend yesterday who I have not seen in many years. She has been reading this blog for a while, so knew what was going on in our lives. It was good to catch up with them and hear what they have been doing.