As we approach fall here in central PA, we are rain-deficient. Not a drought, just at the point where lawns and plants need attention to watering. So our landscaper chose this period to apply a treatment to our backyard “terrace” (just a flat area half surrounded by rocks, with loose gravel) to keep the gravel in place. The fixative needs a day to set, and dry weather works better. So with a ten-day forecast showing no better than a 20% chance of precipitation, he scheduled the two-day process.
“I dunno, honey,” said Deb, “it’s Zach. You know his record.”
Three years ago Zach transformed our backyard. News trees, new bushes, lots of big rocks (we like big rocks), a stream with waterfalls (powered by hidden pumps) — a wonderful new backyard! Which went over budget and behind schedule, because we had the worst rainy summer ever. Only a 30% chance of rain? If Zach & crew were ready to work, you could guarantee a downpour. With thunder.
The morning of the day the first fixative coat went on, there was zero (zip, nada, zilch) chance of rain for three days. By lunch time, with work in progress, there was a 40% chance of overnight rain in two days. (Two days! Plenty of time.) The next morning, yesterday, there was a 50% chance of overnight rain. By the end of the day, second coat in place, terrace neat and tidy, it was still 50/50.
We awoke to rain this morning, of course.
“Well,” said Zach, who stopped by today (Saturday, but he hates feeling something might be unfinished), “I checked, and they told me 12 hours with no rain is okay. If it’s not a downpour.”
I checked the digital rain gauge. “No worries. More than twelve. Closer to fourteen, really. See, Debster? All good.”
Deb looked at us with her cynical expression. “You realize, Zach, if you’d told us twelve hours originally, it would have rained in eleven.”
ideas stashed away
like an old brown banana
still good for baking
As we approach fall here in central PA, we are rain-deficient. Not a drought, just at the point where lawns and plants need attention to watering. So our landscaper chose this period to apply a treatment to our backyard “terrace” (just a flat area half surrounded by rocks, with loose gravel) to keep the gravel in place. The fixative needs a day to set, and dry weather works better. So with a ten-day forecast showing no better than a 20% chance of precipitation, he scheduled the two-day process.
“I dunno, honey,” said Deb, “it’s Zach. You know his record.”
Three years ago Zach transformed our backyard. News trees, new bushes, lots of big rocks (we like big rocks), a stream with waterfalls (powered by hidden pumps) — a wonderful new backyard! Which went over budget and behind schedule, because we had the worst rainy summer ever. Only a 30% chance of rain? If Zach & crew were ready to work, you could guarantee a downpour. With thunder.
The morning of the day the first fixative coat went on, there was zero (zip, nada, zilch) chance of rain for three days. By lunch time, with work in progress, there was a 40% chance of overnight rain in two days. (Two days! Plenty of time.) The next morning, yesterday, there was a 50% chance of overnight rain. By the end of the day, second coat in place, terrace neat and tidy, it was still 50/50.
We awoke to rain this morning, of course.
“Well,” said Zach, who stopped by today (Saturday, but he hates feeling something might be unfinished), “I checked, and they told me 12 hours with no rain is okay. If it’s not a downpour.”
I checked the digital rain gauge. “No worries. More than twelve. Closer to fourteen, really. See, Debster? All good.”
Deb looked at us with her cynical expression. “You realize, Zach, if you’d told us twelve hours originally, it would have rained in eleven.”
Well, we need the rain, anyway.