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Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1
- Thread starter Chrisplosion
- Start date
BTW…
It looks like the Oscar eggs weren’t fertilized properly. So far as I can tell nothing has hatched.
These fish are not quite 2 yet, so much hope remains that they will produce.
It looks like the Oscar eggs weren’t fertilized properly. So far as I can tell nothing has hatched.
These fish are not quite 2 yet, so much hope remains that they will produce.
I live in the middle of California (latitude-wise) and about 600’ elevation, at the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. On a good day I can see Mt Whitney at ~14,000’+
But because of forest fires in California we have been having a lot of bad days where smoke comes down into the valley at random times and that is quite unwelcome.
It was particularly bad about 36 hours ago when I was working outdoors and I thought a house was burning down in our neighborhood as the smoke was so bad.
Well it rained nearly all night long and I think the forest fires have been doused, because this morning the air is thick with the smell of wet campfires.
My cisterns, which are normally dry all summer, are overflowing. They actually only exist for water control when we have (rare) heavy rains.
Every year, Fresno will have a few days where it rains hard enough that they have flooding in places, but we are 300 feet higher than downtown Fresno (which is a great blessing . . . In many ways.)
Almost a whole lifetime ago I worked for a company that manufactured very specialized concrete forming equipment.
We built a giant slipforming machine that poured two continuous 48 inch diameter storm drains the length of freeway 41, from the point where it dives below grade to the point where it surfaces again.
That serves as a giant cistern whenever there is a storm, and it collects stormwater which is pumped out into the river by a rather slow pump.
No pump in the world could keep up with a really torrential downpour, and the sub grade portion of the freeway (very wide and maybe 8 miles long) is the real emergency cistern for that part of Fresno.
Everywhere around the developed areas in this portion of the valley, there are artificial ponds to contain this water, until it percolates into the ground or is pumped off to water the local parks.
I expect that as soon as this cloud cover blows off we’re going to start seeing the first influx of Canadian honkers. There wasn’t a speck of water in our local pond to welcome them yesterday, but this morning it will be a different story.
But because of forest fires in California we have been having a lot of bad days where smoke comes down into the valley at random times and that is quite unwelcome.
It was particularly bad about 36 hours ago when I was working outdoors and I thought a house was burning down in our neighborhood as the smoke was so bad.
Well it rained nearly all night long and I think the forest fires have been doused, because this morning the air is thick with the smell of wet campfires.
My cisterns, which are normally dry all summer, are overflowing. They actually only exist for water control when we have (rare) heavy rains.
Every year, Fresno will have a few days where it rains hard enough that they have flooding in places, but we are 300 feet higher than downtown Fresno (which is a great blessing . . . In many ways.)
Almost a whole lifetime ago I worked for a company that manufactured very specialized concrete forming equipment.
We built a giant slipforming machine that poured two continuous 48 inch diameter storm drains the length of freeway 41, from the point where it dives below grade to the point where it surfaces again.
That serves as a giant cistern whenever there is a storm, and it collects stormwater which is pumped out into the river by a rather slow pump.
No pump in the world could keep up with a really torrential downpour, and the sub grade portion of the freeway (very wide and maybe 8 miles long) is the real emergency cistern for that part of Fresno.
Everywhere around the developed areas in this portion of the valley, there are artificial ponds to contain this water, until it percolates into the ground or is pumped off to water the local parks.
I expect that as soon as this cloud cover blows off we’re going to start seeing the first influx of Canadian honkers. There wasn’t a speck of water in our local pond to welcome them yesterday, but this morning it will be a different story.
