More of the Same

We're still waiting on rain.  Even though this showed up:

Clouds

It didn't do much.  I suppose it was raining under this cloud, but all we got at the house was a very light sprinkle- not even enough to register in the rain gauge.  At least it's cloudy and cool and not burning sun.

Of course, some days have been burning sun and worse, they've been windless days.  That led to the situation I described earlier where the windmills don't pump.  Since there's no ground water, this is a bad situation.  We fortunately have an electric pipeline that takes water to several pastures.  And we have a water trailer, so what I do is raid one of the larger pipeline tanks and bring water to the non-pumping mills.  It's a lot of work. The trailer breaks, the truck breaks, and the pump breaks.  Today, the pump quit on my last run at 8 pm, so the first thing I'll do in the morning is get a cup of coffee.  THEN, I'll go out and find out why the pump quit.

A pitiful stream of water

The water tank.  It'll take 4 of these to fill the stock tank.

Well, that's the ranch.  Falcon-wise, I've been working on my hawk house.  I have all the panels up, giving me an 8' x 24' structure.

Big Ol' Ugly Hawk House

It's ugly now, but I think I have all the supplies on hand to panel the outside with metal, like this:

Metal paneling

The roof will be green and there will be a green flashing covering the top 1' or so.  After I get it all up, I'll paint any exposed wood dark brown to match the interior and then I'll put decorative rock along the base.  I think it'll look good and more importantly, hopefully, I won't have to mess with it again for many years.

Here's an update on the birds:

The prairie falcon, happy on her block

The peregrine falcon, growing feathers

Mom and David are in ABQ for David's 4th transfusion.  Nothing much to report there- the doctors are still looking into a cause for his anemia and he's still getting transfusions which will, hopefully, allow him to grow.  Hope, hope, hope- it's all about hope!  I hope it rains, I hope I don't have to work on the hawk house, I hope I get the water pump fixed, I hope nothing else breaks, I hope we find David's problem and cure it.  Hope- it's sometimes all we have.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)


Onward!