The three of us stood chatting by the moving trailer when I started to feel the tug of a few playful pixie winds. I looked up and noticed some dark knots forming in the light clouds which had been passing over. My nostrils picked up a faint scent of rain which had been poised on top of the mesa, waiting to spring down on us at any moment. Blip - one drop on my arm, blip - another drop on my cheek. I began to consider the prophetic nature of Mark's last comment.
A few moments later found us all sheltered within the Rat and Mark put our coffeepot back on the stove. Quig was an affable man of broad interests so the time and conversation flitted by pleasantly as we waited out the now heavily splatting rains, heavy enough rains that we could see the chocolate torrents spewing off the mesa benches as furiously as we had ever seen them. "Ya got your 'turd-washer', Mark, ya happy now?" Good Heavens, this was certainly a supreme acid test in progress.
After a few of cups of Mark's fine, stout caffeine, we were all getting a little restless so a saunter back to the new porch was in order to assess the new run-off plan. We could see the odd low spot but we were all pleased at the new lay-out forged within a few hours time. Pleasure is never guaranteed to last long though, is it? It was about that time that Quig noticed the new and unusual stance of our two fuel tanks. "Uhm, they didn't install them that way, did they?" Three "Ohhhh crap!" bulbs lit up simultaneously.
I threw on my rubber boots and followed on Quig's heels out to the tanks. A quick look told us that I had not addressed the potential navy effect; that steel boats DO float on water. What we had here were two water-tight 'containment' tanks adrift in the mesa run-off that was now locked behind a new 3' tall berm, their own personal ocean of sorts. The good ship Diesel rode low at the stern, the 'regular' sat precariously low at the bow. Oh joy, the prospects of more water quietly haunted each of us with possibilities, all of them unpleasant. For some reason, I got the odd and uncomfortable image of a counter-intuitive bucking effect when I looked at the 'regular' tank.
Before I could voice those vague theories, Quig planted his arms (which were the size of my legs from years of arm-wrestling big Cats) and jammed the high-side of the 'regular' tank back downward into the swill. We both stood frozen for the long second following the tank's solo leap into the new road. Then we simultaneously issued the very same rude word at volume. Then another silent second elapsed before we both started to laugh.
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.Mark broke the giggling stupor when he arrived with "Holy ----, the gas is gushing out the top vent!" The three of us were able to wrestle and rotate the tank quickly into a 'vent-up' position that stopped the torrent. We lucked out in that the fall had snapped off the fuel hose and filter but NOT the main valve at the tank. As it was, we lost about 50 gallons of gas but managed to save the rest. Mark was not amused by our guy-type frivolity but at least we made amends by placing 2x4 supports at the rear of the diesel tank to prevent it from also taking a swan dive.
It was late afternoon by now and it was time for Quig to walk the big Cat home for the day. Although I had been very worried about the downpours reaching and engorging the creek below us, Mark and I were ever so relieved to find Quig's Cat parked on the far side come Monday; there was nothing we owned that could have pulled out a D8R in distress, nothing.
As usual, this story has consumed more words than I expected it to so the final segment with Dilly supervising the remediation will happen in a couple or three days.
To be continued!
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Techno note: Our satellite connection has degraded to a mere 1.5 KB/second for the last few days so please bear that in mind before sending us anything over, say, a 10KB text e-mail. Sun spots? Who knows ... for now, I'm just calling it the end of any real life as we knew it. For that same reason, I am also limiting my blog photo uploads until the situation improves.
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32 comments:
!!! It never rains but it pours.. I wish we got some spring rain here. Our Australian wheat crop has failed again.... :o(
I know I shouldn't but I am laughing so hard. I can just see you charging after that floating tank trying to save it.
Man, is it ever exciting out your way! Love the blow-by-blows!
Hey, Simon, you're out early even by Oz standards! I am so sorry to hear that you folks lost another year of crops. We are apparently still in a
long drought ourselves. Okay, here's my secret: find yourself on the far side of a bridgeless creek from something you really dread doing. If you are lucky, your prayers for an excuse to not go will make the creek rise far more often from unexpected rains.
Moose, you would have loved it ... it was like an old Buddy Simpson story combined with the best of Red Green.
Would you believe it, Mushy, that we came out here seeking the ultimate in peace and quiet? Still though, it's a far better peace and quiet than we EVER had in civilization (with a WAY better cast of characters).
Yeah, you're right. It is a Buddy Simpson story with Red Green. I'm still laughing at the thought.
Sounds dangerous, lucky none of you were smoking.
It's funny to think that even with all her abundant and often nasty surprises, Mother Nature is a much better neighbor than the average person I meet in meat-space here in the city... *envy mode*
Moose, one thing I do really miss is Buddy's story telling at the Chateau, and yours, too.
Ah-hah-hah-hah, PopeT, I did say something like "Good thing we're not celebrating the new driveway with cigars." Luckily, the spill ran in the opposite direction of the Rat.
Phlegmmy, that's exactly it! We're finding it hard to become disillusioned with Mother Nature and her occasional pranks - she's still awesomely beautiful in the end.
Aiiieeee! NOT good. I'm not gonna say it... not gonna say it...
Oh, Hell. It coulda been worse. ;-)
Sheesh! Never a dull moment.
Buck, I guess that's what kept us from being totally bummed - that we didn't lose the nearly full diesel over backwards and that we didn't accidentally set off a small river of fire (although it would have been purdy to watch until it hit something we didn't want to burn up).
Craver, would you believe that? Right in the middle of all this ideal tranquility, no less. We really do have plenty of enjoyably dull moments though!
Ya know, I bet Quig could dig a river bed down toward where they store those big trucks. And the rains could come there again. And who knows what gas storage boat could float down that river? Hmmmmmmmmm.
Oh my, Cat, you may be on to something there! grin
Oh man. 50 gallons of fuel lost! That's alot of money!
ps, you may notice that I went and got me a blogger account now. Stop by sometime!
Brilliant. There is a publisher waiting for this ,,,,,
Jenny, you and Mark shared the same angst over the lost fuel - he is the responsible one around here these days. There is undoubtedly an extra frustration in this loss in that we bought the stuff at a record high, too.
Yeehaw - another NM blogger! I will be over tonight to visit. Anyone else reading this, click on Jenny's blue nameplate above and drop by, too. Given her hectic NM ranch life, it should be a darn good and inspiring read.
Drats, Jenny, your blog does not show up under your profile. You might have to go into the dashboard stuff and tweak around until it does!
Thanks, Lin. I didn't realize that wasn't showing up (new to this blogger thing). I tweaked, it's supposed to be showing up, but isn't. So try clicking on My Web Page instead and see if that works.
I can't promise anything interesting. Things are pretty boring same ol' same ol' these days.
Hi Lin, just stopping by to wish you a good weekend not that weekends are much different than weekdays when you're quasi-retired.
I haven't read this post yet. Something about tanks and fluids and cigars. Sounds dangerous. I'll catch up later tonight.
Jenny, I like the idea of dropping by a neighbor's place - doesn't have to be exciting (in fact, that might be a plus lately).
Jenny's blog addie is:
http://heresyourtrouble.blogspot.com/
A New Mexico ranching family.
Babzy, hope you're having a great weekend yourself! We can tell weekends around here by the lack of traffic (down to zero from 2 or 3 a day). Admittedly, it's a pretty subtle difference.
I was here, I read, and now, I'm POOPED! I'll be back tomorrow or next, and play a little catch-up....!
No problem, Bruno, not like I'll be going anywhere!
50 gallons of gas lost?? Oh honey, you really don't need that, do you? I don't know how you always manage to remain so upbeat, I'd have been fit to wrestle a lion by then..
Well, Shrinky, sometimes you just have to chalk things up to the 'crap happens' factor. It was certainly better than losing the remaining 200 gallons as well.
Looks like Mark is now skilled at running the skid steer. Regarding the tanks falling,etc., if it was too easy, it wouldn't be any fun.... he he. Most or our serious work on our place is now done. Now, work on the bikes can continue. We'll(hopefully) see you guys before the snow flys, or shortly afterward. love, Red and Sally
R&S, thought you'd get a kick out of our latest 'crap happens'. Gawd, sure wish I had a cozy winter place to work on bikes. But we did unearth some more of my old shop stuff in the moving trailer - just don't have any room to go with it so it went back into storage - SIGH.
Now that the drilling rig is gone, they will let the roads go to crap again so don't wait TOO long to wander out here! Drag Buck with you if you can.
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