All for a hot shower

Last Saturday (1/28) Kelly suggested a trip to Cape Perpetua.  I’ve been there four times already, but it is always a beautiful destination, especially on a rare (or not-so-rare this winter) clear day in the rainy season.  It is hard to believe with the 55-degree weather and everything still growing that it is in fact January…

Sea anemones in the Cape Perpetua tidepools

Strange root pattern, probably formed when roots grew into a now-decayed stump.

Kelly and Rosalie at the overlook

Sunset over the Pacific

After a two weeks of wet, including the epic flood, our weather has returned to anomalously dry and clear.  This time we had enough wind across the mountains to keep the air mixed and prevent a cold foggy inversion from forming.  As of today (2/5) we have had four bright clear 55-degree days in a row, with one more forecast for tomorrow.  Liz and I hiked up Bald Hill Friday afternoon, a few minutes too late to catch the sunset though not too late for a good glow.

Prior to that I inspected our beehive.  Probably due to a poor queen laying insufficient quantities of brood, and possibly exacerbated by too-wet conditions in the hive, our colony has dwindled to a cluster of about 70 bees surrounding the queen.  They almost certainly won’t make it to spring, though they are leaving plenty of honey that we can use to jump-start our bees this year.

Bald Hill just post-sunset, 2-3-12

Afterglow

With the clear days, my solar shower finally got hot enough – plenty hot at 134 degrees.  That inspired me to finish the project, attaching a showerhead and setting up our old tub with a drain into the chicken yard.  I decided to add an enclosure with shower curtains for some measure of privacy, as the shower spot is in view of some of our neighbors.

After three clear days

Shower completed. We hung shower curtains from the metal pipe a few minutes after taking this picture.

Mark and his project.