4.5 inches of Rain Overnight

The rain started about 10 pm last night. At about 8:30 am this morning, I took the photo of the rain gauge - 4.5 inches! It is supposed to rain all day and into the evening. Will try to post more when the rain stops tonight. Good thing I live on a small hill! Flooding in low areas throught the much of Louisiana. Good thing I live in the hill country of Louisiana!

Newest Addition to the House

On Saturday, I picked up a new toaster oven. I had checked reviews online, and the General Electric Convection Toaster Oven with Rotisserie was highly rated. Sunday evening I did a 3.5 pound pork tenderloin on the rotisserie and it came out great! Pork sandwiches all week!

More Rain, More to Come

Thursday night (Oct 8th) we had a short, but very strong storm come through town, and it was followed by light rain the rest of the night. By Friday morning we had 3/4 of an inch of rain.

Starting Saturday evening and all day Sunday, it rained, sometimes coming down in a soft mist, and sometimes as light showers. It let up Sunday, but started raining very late Sunday night or early Monday morning, often coming down quite hard. All of this added up to 2 3/4 inches of rain.

More rain predicted all week!

Rainfall, Monday night

Measured 1.25 inches of rainfall on Monday night as a storm passed through. Quite a lot of wind and some huge downpours over a very short period of time.

More Rain - Love That Rain Gauge!

More rain Saturday night and most of Sunday - almost 2.75 inches! I like knowing how much rain we received. I don't know why I do, but I like it!

More rain predicted for Tuesday and later in the week. We need a break from the rain! (with apologies to Patty in Pasadena, California, who needs rain. You can have some of ours!)

Raining in Ruston

Thursday night (Oct 1st), was a night of some very strong thunderstorms that passed through the Ruston area from a cold front that came through. Here is a closeup of the radar as the storm approached Ruston. I added in Ruston, blue and green are light rain, yellow is heavier rain, and the red is very heavy rain.

Just before the storm hit, I remembered that the day earlier the UPS delivery guy came just after I had returned to the house. The package contained a rain gauge from Patty Montbriand, a friend from high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, who now lives in Pasadena, California. (Some of us fled the Frozen North for more moderate climates!)

I got the rain gauge out in the yard, and the rain hit around 11:15 pm, and really came down for quite a while. But now, thanks to Patty, I know exactly how much rain I got - 1.25 inches over night! The photo below was taken the next morning before I went to work.

Thank you, Patty, for the rain gauge! It's raining all this week, so I will be able to keep track of how much rain we get.

Closing Day - I Now Own a House!

Today was closing day on the house. Good news all the way around - the closing costs were much lower than the estimate, and my monthly payment is lower than the estimate. My monthly payment, including insurance and taxes, is only $120 more than I am paying for rent.

The house is not large 1130 sq ft - but plenty big enough for me and any visitors. Less square feet to air-condition in the summer! It has 3 bedrooms, and the small one will be used as my office. The bathrooms are what the loan officer at the bank said is called a "Hollywood Bath," although I'm pretty sure this isn't how movie starts live! It is basically 2 half-baths that have doors leading to a shared bathtub/shower. Works for me, and will work when people visit.

It has a nice carport that I will love - no more parking under the big tree that drops sap and goo on the truck. The backyard also has a concrete pad patio with a very nice pergola. This will be a great place to relax in the evenings. There is a workshop/storage shed in the far back corner, and on the other side of the backyard is a concrete pad with a chain-link dog kennel that has not been used in years. I think an easy way to get rid of it is to put an add in the paper for a free chain-link dog kennel for whoever wants to remove it.

I won't be moving in right away. I had to pay rent for all of September, so tomorrow I will do some cleaning at the new place, move a few things in the truck Saturday and Sunday, and a few nights next week. Then I will arrange for the cable TV and internet to get turned on somewhere around 24th or so, and rent a truck and move everything else on Saturday the 26th.

I will send everybody the new address, phone number, etc, etc.

I have too many photos to try to put up here on the blog, but there are bunch on my photo albums on Facebook. If you don't have Facebook, you can view the photos at this website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/taylormack/MyOwnHouse

West Point Trip, Part 2 - better late than never

I was in West Point, NY from May 27 to June 1st. It was great seeing Andy, Laura, and the kids. We didn't have much planned, so it was nice and relaxing.

My first afternoon in West Point, we went to Nathan's baseball practice. Watching 5 and 6 year olds play baseball is quite the show.

Saturday morning we went to breakfast, then Andy took Alex to his double-header baseball games. We showed up for the second game, and Alex had several hits.

After the game we visited Trophy Point and had some great views of the Hudson River.

That night we went to an Irish restaurant that had great food. Nathan and Alex are eating some of the onion soup that Andy and I were eating. Somehow, Rachel was left out of the photo, but then she had her own blog earlier in June. I don't think she will mind.

On Sunday, we went into New York City, and took the subway to see the Empire State Building, Times Square, and Battery Park. Here are Brittany, Alex, and Nathan from the top of the Empire State Building, with New Jersey across the river in the background.

We also spent some quality time flying paper airplanes and playing Lego Star Wars on the Nintendo Wii game console. The video game was so much fun that I bought it after I got back to Louisiana. I have had to call and get a couple of hints from the boys so that I could advance through the game.

Trip to West Point, NY - Part 1: Rachel Grace

After the Spring Quarter ended, I took a trip to West Point, New York, to visit my youngest brother and his family.  I will post some photos from the trip later, but right now I will feature some photos of my youngest niece, Rachel Grace.

Above is a shot of Rachel and I.  Note that I am wearing my glasses, and that Rachel has been drolling.  Where do kids this age get that much liquid from?  This photo was taken on May 27th, my first day there, and it was taken by my nephew Nathaniel (Nate, Nathan, or Naters).  He is only 5, but is pretty good at taking photos.

This photo was taken when we were on the New York City Subway.  Rachel rode in style in her stroller.

This photo wa taken at floor level in Rachel's room.  She is still too small to crawl, and sometimes just trying to hold your head up takes a lot of work.  Especially when the camera flash keeps going off in your eyes.

A day out in New York City, seeing the sights and riding the subway can be tiring!

Jalapenos, Habaneros & Cactus

The last weekend in March, I started two habanero chili pepper plants in 12 inch containers.  The photos are from last weekend.  These were small plants from a store, but they were already nice size.  The habanero plants have at least doubled in size.

At the same time I started five jalapeno chili pepper plants.  They were much smaller, hardly larger than seedlings.  They are coming along pretty good, although one plant is smaller than the restl  The squirrels have been digging in the dirt of the pots, and the smaller plant was once almost totally dug up.  The squirrels don't eat the plants, but maybe they are looking for food.  I was told by a friend to sprinkle just a little cayenne pepper powder on top of the soil.  The pepper gets into the squirrels paws and burns, then they lick their paws and get it into their mouths.  They haven't bothered the jalapenos anymore.

Nearly two years ago, Jo Richardson, one of the Political Science professors I work with, gave me three cactuses.  The three were in one small, 4 inch pot.  After about 2 months, I forget them in my old office, where they sat on the window sill without water from Sept to Dec 2007.  I brought them home in Dec 2007, and transplanted them into separate pots in the Spring of 2008.

Bonsai - Ficus microcarpa "Golden Gate"

On May 2nd, I attended the Louisiana Association of Bonsai Societies meeting in Shreveport. After a morning demonstration on a Japanese Shimpaku juniper and following lunch, people broke into different groups to work on various trees.  The President of the Shreveport Bonsai Society (http://shreveportbonsai.org/)  helped me with a small fig tree (Ficus microcarpa "Golden Gate").  

We pruned the ficus, removed most of the leaves (they should grow back within a few weeks), and wired the remaining branches to help the shape of the tree.  The pot is 5.25 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 2 inches deep.  The finished tree is 10 inches tall from the soil level to the apex. The wires around the base of the pot were added before I left Shreveport to help hold the ficus for the trip back home to Ruston.  I will probably wait a couple of weeks to remove the wire from the base of the tree and pot, but the wires on the branches will probably stay on for up to 6 months. If the wires begin to cut into the tree, I will remove them earlier.

This tree will take another couple of years to start getting real good.  Bonsai does not go fast!  I will post more photos of this tree in the future.

Allergic to Louisiana

Back in October, I had a full allergy test done, and it turns out I am allergic to a bunch of molds, weeds, grasses and trees common to North Louisiana, and especially to pine, oak and pecan pollen.  The allergist said I have some of the worst allergies she has ever seen.  Fun, happy allergy shot every week!  Actually, it is much better than not being able to breathe.

The pine pollen started in March, the oak earlier this month, and the pecans about anytime now.  Back in March, I took a few photos of the pine pollen covering cars in the parking lot.

Here is a car that has a bunch of 

pollen covering the hood. Notice the pollen smeared across the windshield.

Here is a photo of my truck.  I had 

to run the windshield wipers to clean the pollen off on the way to work. 

Las Vegas - Penn & Teller, Hotel Riviera, and Elvis

Last month I went to Las Vegas for the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers.  My paper presentation on agricultural change in North Central Louisiana was well-received, there were many other good presentations, and we conducted business for  some of the professional groups to which I belong.

But there was time to see the sites.  On Sunday, March 22, 2009, my friend from grad school at LSU, John Heppen,  and I saw the Penn & Teller show at the Rio.   I got autographs from both Penn and Teller, and John took photos on his iphone.

Me with Teller (left) and Penn (right). In the photo with Penn, I am holding "Penn & Teller's 'A Perfectly Ordinary Deck of Cards'."

The conference was at the Riviera Hotel, now one of the older hotels on the Vegas Strip.

At the LSU-Texas Party, I had my photo taken with Elvis!

A Waste of Time

It all started in 1997, when I started with a Geocities web site. Now it has expanded to things like facebook, twitter, and a blog.

Just what I need - more stuff to try to keep up with!

Anyway, enjoy the thrills from my blog.