The vines are leafing out at the winery.Be careful what you wish for. It might come true. I've been wishing for the sun to shine for more than two days in a row for some time now. It's been sunny, warm and relatively dry for nearly two weeks now. So now I'm getting worried about our water supply. The tank is down to the last third. To combat this, I have adopted that venerable Fokker's mantra: If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down. If this keeps up, I may have to hit the laundrimat soon. If we get really low, we can order water but then we can't brag about getting our water for free anymore.
The lack of rain is starting to have a visible impact. Today, there was a huge line at the public county spigot in Kurtistown, which is right on the highway. The county had spigots all around the island for people to fill containers for drinking water. They do this because there are so many people who rely on catchment systems. It's not generally recommended that you drink catchment water, unless it's really well filtered. Also, if you're having your tank cleaned, you spring a leak or experience a dry spell, you can always get water at the spigots. And if you get really desperate, you can swim in the ocean and shower at the beach parks.
I started a new project this week. I'm making a gate for the entry to the driveway. I decided to make a gate when I realized that all the prefab gates are too big to carry with either of our vehicles. The only way to get one here would be to have it delivered. That would effectively double the cost. So, I picked up some scrap/utility wood at the lumber yard and some hardware to hang it once it's built. It's up. Yay! There's still a little more work to do and when It's all finished I'll shoot a picture and post in here. The purpose of the gate is not to keep people out. It's to keep the dogs in. Actually, it's mostly for Doc. He has this bad habit of running down the driveway and into the road when people are walking by. He either barks at them furiously or greets them a enthusiastically. Either way, he scares the crap out of people 'cuz he's really big. And he pays no attention to cars. That's bad. So we have to watch him like a hawk. The gate will make him easier to supervise. It doesn't have to be beefy. It just has to stop him in his tracks if he runs toward the road.
When the weather's nice, the pups and I are often greeted by a little gray kitty who lives just past the bend up the road. This cat actually runs up meet us. He sniffs each dog and they sniff him, then runs over to me to rub up against my legs and get some petties. He purrs like mad. Then, when we resume walking, he follows us for about 50 feet. What a sweetie. He lives in a household with two dogs; a medium sized terrier and a big black lab. The terrier always barks at us and occasionally breaches a hole in his fence to come out and try to intimidated us. He's pretty much all bark and no bite, but it's still irritating. The other day, as the cat was following us, the terror-of-a-terrier ran out into the road right at us. The kitty ran to incept him, then chased the terrier back through the hole. That little gray cat protected us! It was really cool. I just love that kittie.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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