Trip to Carlsbad Cavers, White Sands, and Crater of Diamonds

The Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas. We looked for a while but didn't find any diamonds. We did find a few other rocks, though. 

Next stop was Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. This is part of the road leading in as seen from above. 

The caverns were spectacular. We did the tour of the big room on the first day, taking the elevator down. It is about a mile and a half walking tour thru the big room and connected areas.

The next day, we went over to White Sands National Park. It was a very different landscape, sort of like beach dunes, but snow white.

The next day, we walked down into the caverns from the natural entrance. It's very steep and also about a mile and a half. We got to the big room part of the cave in about two hours. This is also the exit for the bat flights. There are about 50,000 bats that inhabit the cave during the summer months and they come out almost every night to feed. We watched them take flight twice during our stay. They have their own part of the cave where humans are not allowed to go.

The views going down were also spectacular, ending up about 750 feet below the surface.

There is a cafeteria and restrooms near the big room. The immense size of the cave is mind-boggling.

We saw some desert bighorns climbing up what looked like a sheer rock face, but they had no trouble finding a foothold to climb with. There were about 20 in this herd. 

On our way back we stopped at Hot Springs National Park and went to Garvan Woodland Garden. Natalie had read about the Anthony Chapel located there and wanted to see it. Stunning place. The gardens spread out over 200 acres.

And we spent an afternoon wandering bathhouse row in Hot Springs later that afternoon. The fact that there isn't any volcanic activity in the area makes the hot springs more interesting. There are cold springs there, too.
 

Dirt pile gone

 Finally finished up the dirt pile this morning. It took about 5 loads to clear it. I was done before lunch.

Potting bench completed

After putting in the lower shelf last week, I finally got the top part completed this morning. I fitted the plywood after getting the supports evened up and level.

I ordered the metal from Man-Sea Metal last week. It was finished yesterday. I was with Lisa, Jim and Matthew in Lexington yesterday, and we picked the metal up on the way back.

 It is ready to use. I'm sure Natalie will fill up the shelf with her planting supplies soon.

New porch railings

Getting the cattle panels home for the new railing centers was odd looking, but I have found this to be the easiest way to transport them. They are 16 ft. long and the truck bed isn't. They are too flexible to just hang out over the tailgate

The old railings have taken a beating over the years and were just rudimentary to begin with. We tore them all out.

Blake came down to help with the project and we got the new rails done. I had already routered out a groove to set the wire in and Natalie, her mom and I painted the groove on Friday so it would be dry before we started building Saturday morning.

 We decided to remove the steps and just leave the ramp. That gives us more useable room on the porch for living space. I'm still putting the corner at the top of the ramp together. There is a lot more detail work to do there. Natalie wants a couple of shelves for potting soil and other supplies to do her plants.

Moving dirt

The load of dirt I got earlier in the week is getting smaller. It's dumped at the end of the girls driveway because most of it is going to reslope the septic tank and drain line.

I did put a load here in my backyard where the water usually pools. I'm hoping it will help out the drainage a bit.

I also put a couple loads here in the new raised garden bed. Heather's rabbit cage cleanings are under the dirt to help with growing whatever we decide to plant there.

 The bulk of the rest of it has been spread here over the tank, pipe and in the back yard. The cows that were loose in the yard a couple weeks ago really tore the ground up. That was during the week-long rain we had and everything was really soft then. I'll be making the covering deeper over the next little while until the dirt runs out.

Fishing Cave Run

The rain finally quit, so I decided to go fishing. It was still cloudy when I got there, but soon the sun started to break through.

The water was high. That was a surprise, but we have had a lot of rain the last week. Over 6", actually.

Just last week, Cave Run Lake was a foot low, but now it is almost 3 feet high. The launch ramp at Longbow was really short. I had a good time fishing this morning even though I didn't bring anything home.
 

And a new number display

This was the old house number marker that Natalie made for the girls, but it was kind of hard to read while driving by.

 She made a new one over the weekend and I removed the old one and put up the new one yesterday. It's smaller, but the numbers are a lot easier to see.