Yuma Spring

I was looking for inspiration for today’s Blog when Steve Haderlie’s missive arrived and mentioned Aloe Vera flavored Yogurt. As it turns out, the Aloe Vera in our yard is in full bloom as it is every Spring. Their bright yellow flowers on 4-foot stalks project above the plants and are filled with sounds of the high pitch screeching of the hummingbirds and the hum of the bees as they flit around the stalks of flowers. I counted over 150 of them one year. It does manage to have a few flower stalks during the fall, but no where near the number that Spring has.

The weather has gotten warmer with lows now in the 50s and 60s and highs in the 80s. Yuma is ahead of last year as far as rain goes, but behind for the average year. So far, Yuma has not had any above hundred-degree days. By the end of the summer, this are 120 days or better of those high temps.

Yesterday it was time to stabilize the drift wood after “baking” it last week. In this process, the air is first pulled out of the wood by a vacuum pump in a vacuum chamber while being soaked in a liquid the manufacturer calls “Cactus Juice”. See more at https://www.turntex.com. It is amazing how much it foams during the first few minutes of this process. I have to keep opening the valve to let the air out and allow the foam go down or the cactus juice will get sucked into the vacuum pump. After a while in simmers down into a slow boil and the valve can stay closed.

After a few hours of pumping, it is ready for the next step which is to release the vacuum and just let it soak in the juice. After that, it is time to bake the wood again for 30 minutes at 200 degrees to harden the Cactus Juice in the wood. When this process is done, it can finally be added to resin. When that is cured it can be turned on the lathe.

The drift wood that I collected had some unidentified material in it. I think that it is kelp roots. The other pieces are some kind of pine. The pine has some spalted wood (fungus) in it. They add irregular lines to the wood grain and is much prized by wood turners. I will be happy to see what “turns” out from it all.

Not all of the now-dried drift wood that I got will fit into the 4” diameter vacuum chamber at once and the excess awaits its time wrapped in saran wrap and contained in plastic zipper bags before I get it all stabilized, assuming that the first batch proves worthy.

I also spent some quality time with my 3 Dremel tools and accessories. I have learned from YouTube that I was using the burrs wrong. They are not router bits that are used perpendicular to the wood, they are used at an angle less than 90 degrees in other words, for grinding. For my efforts, I came out with a local mountain “Picacho Peak” carved in walnut. I learned a lot and will do better next time. I think that I can make some pretty barrettes that way.

We received an email that church will be held at 1PM (instead of 11AM) and in the stake center for our ward today as our building is being fumigated for bed bugs. Add that to your “Only in Yuma” list. That will give it 2 weeks to clear out the fumes before we go back since next week is General Conference.

I have continued to watch Church of Jesus Christ music on YouTube and have found another wonderful singing group called “Elenyi”. I have enjoyed their music and I think that you would as well.

I close with one of my favorite scriptures: 2 Nephi 25:26.

And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.