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gunfire and a floating wheel


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Posted by Zonie on February 20, 2023 at 04:02:55

Last Sunday I went hiking near Dynamite Road, but I got only a little muddy. I was deviating from the usual trails to explore other areas, but they were mostly dry.

NWS had a very strange forecast for Statehood Day (aka the feast of St. Valentine). They were calling for the possibility of a dust storm in the afternoon followed by the possibility of snow flurries at night. We didn't get either, but we did get an impressive evening thunderstorm.

The next morning I found that kicking mud into the rut last time I was weeding during a rain was useless as the garbage truck just made it deeper again, so I stomped in that muddy rut while pulling alley weeds from the muddy ground.

Saturday I had a demonstration to attend. It takes place every year. Last time I went I got a hostile reception from one of the speakers, but this time I was ignored. They didn't have the howitzer at the state capitol this time. It's been a snowy winter in the high country, so I expect they really needed it up there for avalanche suppression.

I had checked the automated rain gage reports and found that the St. Valentine's Day thunderstorm produced more rain on the state trust land than in my neighborhood, so today, the mud in the alley having dried, I decided to hike in my more usual place, parking about a mile west of coyote central. I figured that would be the last place I would visit. I'd check out the power line trails for mud puddles first.

It must indeed have rained a lot there. The mud puddles were so large and deep they were in some places over my tall cowboy boots. My socks got damp, but the boots didn't flood to the point of having unpleasant pressure. I headed east and found a lot of puddles there, but only a few were truly muddy. Naturally those got extra stomping. The others were too watery, but they'll have potential as they dry.

I then doubled back and headed north on another power trail to Jomax Road. I knew I wasn't going to have enough daylight to go all the way to Dynamite Road and back. There were plenty of new mud puddles and expanded old ones, and the big puddle by Jomax hadn't been splashed dry by the trucks yet. As I turned back south I heard repeated gunfire from the vicinity of coyote central. Well I had planned to visit that area anyway. I might as well check out what was going on there. "This is Gonzalo Lira reporting from the outskirts of Kharkov," I fantasized.

As I drew nearer the gunfire ceased, and a Jeep drove past me as I turned east towards the ridge. I assume those were the people playing army in the desert.

As I crested the ridge I saw that the water level of the water hole had risen a bit. The carpet I had pulled out was still there, but the muffler was no longer there. Maybe the original owner had returned to salvage it. I did see what looked like a tire floating in the water hole. I waded in and found it was actually a whole wheel. The tire was in bad shape, but the wheel looked salvageable, so I hauled it to shore, hoping the owner would reclaim that as well.

The sun was getting low in the sky, and it was time to head back west to Tatum Boulevard. There were plenty of puddles for splashing and stomping on the way back, but they washed me clean more than splashed me muddy, so cleanup wasn't much of an issue.




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