Winter blew in

12/22/07 Saturday
Well it’s officially winter now and the weather celebrated by sending us a cold brisk norther blowing up a storm of sand. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be crawling underneath the truck in this. If it’s not the cold it’s the sand getting in my eyes and at ground level there’s the most sand. It’s kinda interesting when the winds, which normally blow out of the south, change directions. You see all the tumbleweeds blow till they hit a fence or lodge in some mesquite tree where they gather and wait. What do they wait for? The wind to change. Now they are unleashed, charging with the wind in the packs they each joined over the season. I drove into town to pick up some eggs and bread and sure wished I had the camera with me. There are some giant six footers out now. In fact I forgot to buy some butter so I think I’ll do that and get a picture or two so y’all outside of this realm can get an idea what I’m talking about.

Wally came out to see what we’ve been doing with the place. He drove me to Odessa where I wanted to get a press for the U-joints. They didn’t have one so I got a heavy duty C-clamp to try. If it doesn’t work they have a two ton hydraulic jack I can make one out of. Eric has a welder he said he was itching to use so I’m sure I can scrounge up some steel and we can fabricate one. That’s a good idea anyway so maybe that can be done next year if I don’t have to now for the U-joints. On the drive to Odessa we were dodging some of the tumbleweeds.

So here are some pictures of tumbleweeds. The first is the bottom side of one and then I took the other side to give you a better idea how big it is. Not too big, only about five feet tall. How’d ya like to play dodge ball with this on the highway? With a fifty mile per hour wind you can bet it’ll be moving at fifty. It’s when you run into a herd of them it gets interesting. Fortunately they don’t do too much damage when you hit them. A guy right in front of Wally and I smacked one on the interstate and it pretty much disintegrated into a million twigs. Can’t be good but better than hitting a deer.


The wind is dying down so I think I’ll go work on the U-joints now. Cherie isn’t feeling good, her tooth has been hurting for while she said. Knowing her that could have been for a few days. Top of my list for when we get some real money is to get her teeth fixed. That’ll be a couple of grand or so as they are in bad shape. She’s laying down now so I’m being quiet and doing this in the office.