The good ones are never here long enough. This morning Encore passed quietly into the pasture everlasting. Though her name on her papers was Charry-Dat she became known to us as Encore. The name had meaning on several levels from the degree of involvement we had in music growing up to the similarity of her markings to those of one of my father's past horses.

It was a cool December day when I first met the horse that would become my first horse. We were celebrating Christmas in San Diego and had seen a couple of horses listed on the board at the feed store. We ended up with a trio of thoroughbreds from a stable outside Del Mar. Two-year-old Encore came with her chestnut half brother Tarn, who passed a couple of years ago, and the dark bay three-year-old Tenaya.

With the VW Bus packed and a new engine freshly installed we set out for home on New Year's Eve. About sixty miles later, while pulling a grade, the new engine quit and we were forced to be towed back to the grandparent's house. The next day after a trip to the rental car agency we packed what we could into the Chevy Astro Van and set out for home again. The horses arrived a few days later and were boarded at a neighbors while the corral panels we'd purchased were delivered.

When they first arrived my heart was set on the young stud-colt. I knew I wanted him to be my horse. It quickly became apparent that he was too much horse and too green for my first horse. The horses spent the next few weeks at the neighbors and we would go each afternoon we were home to work them in the round pen. Within a few weeks the corrals were setup and the horses moved to our place.

Catnip's minty freshness mixes with the edgy onion aroma in the air as the sky fills with clouds bumping into one another as so many bags of cotton candy piling up. Spring is well on its way in Southern Nevada. Though the warmth of the day is somewhat less than the normal 70 degrees for this time of year, the trees are budding out and the grass is greening up. All of which means it is time to get the garden underway. As one who spends most days building with electrons planting season is a perennial favorite. The richness of the soil and dealing in the realm of real things instead of theoretical always refresh the mind.

For gardeners and those considering some improvements to the home landscape, Rain Bird publishes a nice Low Volume Landscape Irrigation Design Manual. Sometimes better know by the name "drip" low-volume irrigation saves not only lots of water but lots of money for its users. With the savings, folks might be interested in Hunter's Wireless Valve System.

Stepping into the hot shower this morning the water pressure seemed a little lower than normal but not badly. Turning around I picked up the shampoo and clicked open the lid. Lifting the bottle to encourage the flow of shampoo the water stopped coming from the shower head. It just petered out and stopped. Dry as a desert summer day. Now comes the fun part, wet and in cold air I try to try off as best I can while gathering some clothes to head outside. Every faucet in the house shares the paucity of water flow. Going to the well it seems the top of the well is frozen. Fortunately not broken or busted open by the pressure of freezing, but none the less, frozen. Returning to the house I test the adage about whether watched pots boil. This one did not. Not that it didn't try or wouldn't have but that I lack the patience to wait for a full boil. Headed out with a kettle full of hot water and turning the pump back on, the hot water softens the icy plug in the pipes and water begins to flow.

Time for more winterizing.

The great thing about publishing rumors is that if I publish them they rarely come true. CNN and a few other outlets picked up the story late Friday afternoon. Friday morning I skipped my normal podcast listening on the way to work in favor of hearing NPR's coverage of Renquhist's retirement. It was not to be. Even their story on O'Conner didn't mention the rumor floating around.

This weekend was spent on much more satisfying projects. Things like assembling a pile of old concrete blocks into a garbage shelter. I've driven home for the last time to see the trash cans blowing about. They're nicely contained. This afternoon bought real progress like completing the cross braces for the fence which we should be able to install next weekend and replacing the world's worst lawn sprinkler installation. It's another project that will usurp hours of daylight next weekend as well. For some reason the nearly-square rectangle of lawn in the house was the victim of installers who didn't completely grasp geometry. On one edge three sprinklers provide nice coverage of the lawn. On the other side, where there is more sun, there are only two sprinklers and a perpetual brownish thin spot. It doesn't help matters that fluid dynamics plays a role as well. The two lone sprinklers trying to do the work of three were installed on an extra 50-foot run of 1/2-inch line instead of directly on the 3/4-inch feed line.

In other ranch news it seems the owners of the vicious dogs next door (the ones that attack our horses) will be getting new neighbors. These neighbors will be raising goats. Likely they will also need to study Nevada's law about dogs harassing livestock.