Paradise ponders: dead deer, first measurements, wet earth, and sickness at home edition...

Paradise ponders: dead deer, first measurements, wet earth, and sickness at home edition...  Yesterday afternoon, Debbie and I ran up to Aggie's Creamery for an ice cream cone (and, as usual, they were delicious!).  Across the street from our driveway, we saw a dead deer lying, obviously killed by a car.  We stopped at our vet's office on the way up, to drop off some cat food we were donating, and I took the opportunity to ask if there was a government agency that picked up road kill.  Nope.  So when we got home I started up my tractor and picked it up (using my fork).  I took the body of the young buck (a four-pointer) up the road about a half-mile to an old disused quarry where people pile brush to be burned.  I put it on top of that burn pile, so the next time it gets fired off it will make a pyre for the deer.  What a sad job that was...

I've been plugging away on the software for my irrigation supervisor, and making great progress.  As of this morning I have temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and the four water pressure sensors all working.  I'm almost ready to make a case for this thing, and install it in the shed!

The sprinkler guys were here yesterday and again today, also making steady progress.  We now have 10 zones in the back yard installed and tested.  One of the valves malfunctioned, so that will have to be replaced – but otherwise, it's all up and running!  The sprinklers in the middle of the back yard are currently capped off, because we're going to be soaking the back yard to get it to settle.  After that, they'll spread more topsoil to get the levels right, then install the remaining sprinklers.  It feels like we're dangerously close to getting sod put down.

Meanwhile, a couple days ago Debbie came down with some kind of awful cold.  It started with a sore throat and escalated into fever, sneezing, coughing, runny nose, and scratchy eyes.  She got a sinus infection, too; we made an amazingly fast visit to the local clinic and she got a prescription for Amoxicillin.  The good news from that is that the infection is already knocked down by this afternoon, just 24 hours later.  Good stuff!  In the past couple hours, I've developed a sore throat.  I'm not too happy about that...