3 a.m. last night there was a huge thunderstorm in Las Vegas, waking Mr. Troutbend and Buddy the Cat. That weather has moved east into Colorado, and some rain is in today's forecast. But then, the front that Ms. nittineedles warned me about is going to move east, north of me, to the Dakotas, and then head back southwest toward Colorado, what we call an upslope condition. It's going to get cold and rain hard, maybe snow in some places.

I might get freezing overnight temperatures here, so today I drained the pump by the river and used the big air compressor to blow out all the sprinkler pipes and hoses. It's a long process involving opening and closing all the sprinkler valves so the water blows out, coiling up the hoses, and storing them in the sheds. After the first round of open/close we have to let them rest awhile so the water will settle. This is because when the water gets low in the pipes, the air starts blowing across the top of it and it stays there.

There were some tense moments when I couldn't get the drain plug out of the pump (lefty-loosey, righty-tighty) but I had to think about whether that was looking at the pump from the end, or from the top. I finally got it with the help of a can of Liquid Wrench and the decision that it's supposed to be looking at it from the end. It's one of those things that some people don't have to think twice about, but while I was working on it, I was thinking that greatmartin might not know the answer, so we'd both be wondering.

The pump (foreground) and pressure tank. It may look ugly to you, but it's a thing of beauty to us.



It lives in the little house.



Update on the battle with the squirrels:

There is a red tail hawk here today looking for ground squirrels. I'm rooting for the hawk.