southerly walk, and a failed experiment

Muffin and I walked south today to see that part of the canyon:

There’s a dam down there in the lower left, and a line-of-sight comms install for it on the canyon rim in the upper right.

As we came back on a different part of the trail we saw a small group of people in odd positions/poses in the distance.  Took a while to figure it out without binos, but I think they were shooting photos for a rock band.  There was at least one electric guitar visible.

water catchment upgrade #1 == fail

I picked up a tarp to increase surface area for my rainwater catchment experiments.  I saw some rain in the distance yesterday morning which provided incentive:

I rigged up a triangular area thusly because it required two fewer pieces of cord (the storm was moving pretty fast).  I thought about putting it up on the leeward side of the van but figured for the first run I wanted to be able to see/access the catch bucket from the sliding door:

Wind kicked up ferociously and tore the grommets right out of the tarp just before about a dozen raindrops fell on the windshields.  :-/

Next attempt I will:

• reuse the same tarp, using rounded rocks in the corners to hold them.

• but set it up leeward

• and increase catchment area by tying the tarp out flat with a “pulldown” in the center to drain the water.   Ignoring the tilt, the area of the flat tarp is 80 sq ft  and the area of the triangular configuration is ~40sq ft

marking the fresh water tank

The failure “wonderfully concentrated the mind”, as the man to be hanged once observed.  I got out a tape and measured the height of my 35gal tank:  12”.    So each inch is just under 3 gallons.    I marked it with a sharpie at 25%, 50% and 75% so I could keep better tabs on the levels.

I have ~16 gallons left for the next 8-9 days.  Easy peasy.