After all the banging noise and money, this is what we got.
And no, water does not come out, yet. “Pump not included.”
Here’s a picture from earlier this morning, as they were pulling out the drill shaft lengths and lowering their derrick.
Category: My Photos
Caveat: Tree #98
An alder tree with it’s weird flower / seed pod thingies hanging off its still-bare branches.
[daily log: walking, 4km]
Caveat: Well
Arthur seems to have bitten the bullet and decided to put a well in. Currently water here is supplied by a bucket on the hillside. Because of the substantial rainfall, this has not been a significant problem in the past, but in the past 6 months we’ve had two “droughts.” Last summer there was an extended dry spell in August/September. And this past February we had an extended cold spell, which froze the precipitation preventing it from getting into the water tank. Both of these might be one-time flukes, or they might be part of a climate-change trend – even Arthur is open-minded with respect to the latter possibility.
Anyway, to address water insecurity even here in the rainforest, he’s decided to pay for a well.
This is a substantial investment.
Here are the trucks of the well-drillers. They are putting the well in on the edge of the new parking pad on the western lot, close to the property line and close to the existing water tank (cistern) infrastructure on the eastern lot.
They got down to a bit over 200 feet, yesterday, and it’s giving 3 gallons per minute. This is not great, but it’s adequate for a house or two. We’ll let it go a bit further, and see how it goes. Another resident down the road has 8 gallons per minute at 220 feet, while yet another gets only 1 gallon per minute with 370 feet. So the water table under the very hard rock of the island is a bit of a crap-shoot, apparently.
Caveat: Tree #97
I failed to take a picture of a tree today. I didn’t take my daily walk. It was raining hard, and I was feeling tired and disgruntled.
So I will offer this tree from my pre-daily-tree archives.
This is the very rare Korean cat tree, with a ripe cat ready for harvesting, taken in Jeollanam Province during a work-related field trip in February, 2011.
For a less tongue-in-cheek explanation, you can visit my blog for that time, here.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Tree #96
A tree which is special because it stands somewhat alone, having survived the “treepocalypse” which Richard wrought on the new driveway last fall.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Tree #95
Back home in Alaska, I found a tree. This one is an alder about to bud leaves for spring.
[daily log: walking, 4km]
Caveat: Tree #94
We have arrived at home. Here is tree #94 – from the archives (I think this is from the Hollis ferry terminal at dawn).
[daily log: walking, 2km; flying/driving/ferrying, 600km]
Caveat: Tree #93
Here is a tree unclear on the concept of “up.”
[daily log: walking, 5km]
Caveat: Juneau
I am with Arthur in Juneau.
He came here for two medical appointments – we’d decided when planning the trip to my mom’s in Australia that it was logical to just tack on the visit to Juneau to the end of that trip.
This did not work out well. We got to see the specialist this morning, but our delayed arrival due to the problem in departing Cairns meant that the general annual VA appointment was utterly cocked up by our missed day. And there seems to be little we can do about it. Arthur is being indecisive about whether to stay longer in in Juneau to get things taken care of, or to go on home and come back to Juneau later – both involve almost exactly the same level of extra expense, and without that as a guide, it’s hard to make a decision.
Meanwhile, I decided to walk around. I’ve never visited Juneau before, despite repeated visits to Southeast Alaska.
Here are some pictures.
The State Capitol building – one of the few non-purpose-built state capitols in the US (the only one?), it’s just a repurposed old office building.
The Russian church.
A neighborhood park called Chicken Yard.
Manila Square – there are a lot of Philippine people in Southeast Alaska (which I knew – I remember my surprise at hearing Tagalog on the streets of Ketchikan), so there is, apparently, a memorial of this here.
The Korean Restaurant that is closest to my new home (bearing in mind that that still means more than 500km by boat or plane from my new home).
A view of Juneau from in front of our motel.
A little hut in a field.
Caveat: Tree #92
We are officially back in Alaska, after a 42 hour long day (because of the international date line and all that).
We landed in Juneau a few hours ago. I don’t have a tree picture – it’s dark here.
So here’s a picture of an Australian tree – one seen during my long walk in Cairns yesterday (the day before yesterday? – depends on the dateline thing).
[daily log: flying, miles and miles and miles and miles…]
Caveat: Tree #91
Another Australian tree: from the neighbor’s yard up the hill. She is actually a pretty horrible person, per descriptions of my mom and others who’ve dealt with her, but I nevertheless like her tree in her yard.
Presumably, we are flying.
[daily log: flying, farther and farther]
Caveat: Tree #90
We were supposed to be flying in the air. That turned out not to happen – we got stuck in a motel in Cairns. A delayed departure for the first flight led to a chain reaction of missed connecting flights all the way to Juneau. Systemic failure. So they postponed everything 24 hours and we try again tomorrow morning, same time, same place.
Malingering around Cairns, I took a very long walk, from our suburban airline comp hotel to the downtown waterfront. I’ll post pictures when I get a better internet connection.
Meanwhile, a banana tree (or two).
[daily log: walking, 12km]
Caveat: Tree #89
An old, gnarled tree up along Wooroora Road.
[daily log: walking, 4km]
Caveat: Tree #88
A tree: some weird pine-ish beast whose name, like most trees, I utterly fail to remember despite being told multiple times.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Poem #973 “Fantasy”
ㅁ the sun drew dragons that plunged and bit black trees' tails with clouds its canvas
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Tree #87
This tree is wearing a mask (really – look at its trunk closely).
Nevertheless, I was able to see that it was there. Its disguise obviously failed.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Tree #86
This is a tree by a pond made by a dam at my mom’s friends’ “block” down near Kuranda.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]
Caveat: Through pouring rain
We drove over to Kuranda today, to visit some of my mom’s friends.
We saw Pat, whom I’ve met during previous visits. Here is a picture of Ann, Arthur and Pat beside the Buddha in Pat’s driveway.
We met Kirsten and Emma at their “block” a little farther west. They live in a big shed and have a dam and a small reservoir on their property. And some dogs.
Here is the dog Mickey playing fetch with a ring-shaped toy, looking cute because the ring wraps around the nose.
Driving back, there was a lot of rain – sheets of rain like falling oceans.
We stopped in Ravenshoe, the closest town to where my mother’s house is, for a late lunch. Here is the Ravenshoe Town Hall.
Looking the other way, here is the Bottle Shop (Liquor Store) and Motel.
Caveat: Tree #85
Another tree. Go figure.
[Elucidative UPDATE by Ann: That is a lemon scented gum (eucalyptus): Corymbia citriodora They, particularly the leaves, smell strongly of lemon and have smooth pinkish trunks. They slowly turn grey through the year and shed thin “dead” bark in the spring to return to the pink colour.]
[daily log: walking, 4km]
Caveat: Tree #84
A tree in someone’s yard up the road.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Tree #83
I saw this archetypal tree as I went on a walk up the road.
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: Tree #82
Mostly we sat around working on jigsaw puzzles.
Here is a tropicalish tree.
I should plant some at Rockpit – I wonder if one could be found that would grow there?
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Tree #81
Up the hill at the entrance to my mom’s driveway, there is an orchard of olive trees. She says they’ve never borne fruit and have never been harvested. I’m not sure how this works – did they plant the trees and forget about them? Are olive trees really slow to get around to being fruit-bearing?
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: Tree #80
A tree down by the river. Perhaps a platypus nibbles (or nests) at its submerged roots?
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: feast on the verandah
So Arthur and I arrived at my mom’s yesterday, and today Ann invited over a lot of her “Australian” family and we had a feast of barbecued ribs and other things to eat, some of which make me nostalgic like my mom’s bean salad and potato salad. The weather was humid and summery (in my feeling of the word “summery”, despite just passing the fall equinox here). The rain broke and the skies were briefly blue.
Here is everyone (minus me) sitting around some tables set up on the verandah at my mom’s house.
The picture shows the following people, going clockwise from the man in the foreground: “Hacker”, Karen, Aaron, Arthur, {my chair, which is empty}, Ann, Kirsten, Bonnie, Emma (mostly hidden), Gwen, Len.
It was nice to meet some of these people who until now I only knew from my mother talking about therm. These are the people who are part of my mom’s day-to-day life here. I am thankful for them and the kindness and generosity they have shown to my mother.
Here is a bird (of course my mother would know what kind, but I don’t) on the rail. [UPDATE, by Ann: The bird is a Noisy Minor, a type of honeyeater, native to Australia.]
The electronic zoom on my camera is quite limited – it’s hard to capture things like birds because you can’t get so close to the birds before they fly away, but far away they are just pixelated specks which when zoom in on end up a bit blurry.
Earlier, we took a walk down to the river (Vine Creek, which flows into Millstream) that runs at the base of my mom’s property. Here is Arthur, beyond the trunk of a big old tree.
[UPDATE, by Ann: The big old trunk is of a Casuarina cunninghamiana better known as a she-oak, or a river oak.]
Caveat: Tree #79
We arrived at my mom’s house in Ravenshoe, Queensland, without major difficulties. There was a lot of rain falling coming up the range from Cairns Airport, through Kuranda and Mareeba. But it’s a much warmer rain than Southeast Alaskan rain.
Here is a tree over my mom’s driveway.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Tree #78
Another tree, from the archive – this time, out the window of the attic at Arthur’s house.
[daily log: flying, some more]
Caveat: Tree #77
A tree, from the archive.
[daily log: flying, some large distance]
Caveat: Tree #76
This tree seems to have had its ambitions and dreams cut short.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km]
Caveat: Tree #75
Here is number seven five.
Arthur and I are getting ready to travel to Queensland. We’ll run some errands in town tomorrow. Wednesday morning, dark and early, we take the ferry to Ketchikan, and then spend a Very Long Time on some airplanes.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km]
Caveat: Poem #960 “A progression of events in time”
ㅁ Time retreats, yet frozen, making curved frames for geologic, emergent, processes and shaded subtle colors - bands of sand and stripes of turquoise - until at last the next thing happens.
– a reverse nonnet.
Caveat: Tree #74
Here is a strange looking tree.
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: Poem #959 “Some signs on a map”
ㅁ I read on the map: "Ice-creature seeks cool solace." I drew red circles.
– a pseudo-haiku.
