Solar fielding, snow shoveling, solar fielding, snow shoveling

That's how we spent most of February.
First stop Gila Bend, AZ for a couple days of testing.

Buck is showing Spitz how they can be the most helpful in the operation.



















When the parents are tractor addicts, most likely the kids will be tractor addicts also.
They love the way the buckets feel; nice and cool on the tummy.



















Mark in his Gila Bend office.























Back home from AZ, we had a few days to recover and to get ready for the next solar fielding.

We woke up on Sunday morning to this beautiful scene. The snow is 2 days late, so we have no time to enjoy it as we have to leave for work as soon as we get shoveled out.
















































Buck is over joyed because he doesn't know how to use the shovel.























Mark is staring on the driveway and I shovel all the walkways first and then helping him to rescue the truck.

Oh no! I can't get around in this. I think I'll go back to sleep until you get rid of the snow.

Are you done with my walkway?

That's better!

Come along Spitz, I make a trail for you.

Forget it bro. I stay up here and watch.

Buck wants Spitz to come and play on the backyard, but Spitz does not have enough clearance.

About 4 hrs of shoveling got us out and on the road. The job is a 7 long days driving and testing

piles in the Antelope Valley. We are working on Larson Ranch, where Mark helped out when he was a teenager. The ranch had not been cultivated for a couple of decades and now they want to turn it into a solar field.

LA county is making sure that we do not cause any damage before the big dozers come in to grub the top 2 feet. Thus we are followed by a group of 4 biologists to protect the one burrowing owl that they found a hole for, an archiologist to make sure we don't pocket any arrow heads that we might find on the formerly farmed and tilled land,

and a cultural monitor to ensure that we are not disturbing any ancient indian burrial site. We

also have the normal safety man that the client sends out to make sure we practice all the safety procedures and are loaded with all the safety gear we must wear. None of these we find a distruction. Once we are on a mission, nothing will stop us!

We had some interesting weather. While the entire southern CA was getting rained on and snowed in, snow level clear down to the beach, we managed to stay dry. The ranch we worked on is surrounded by mountains. The snow stayed up there and all we got is the black sky and the wind. We can get along with that. The rain will shut us down but everything else is OK. The ranch got its rain during the night. Well planned!

Buck is a working dog and he loves to be under out feet. He digs at each location we let him out of the truck. That will give the environmentalists something to do. They need to figure out what kind of holes they are and they need to invent a story to take money from the client. I'm sure they can do it.

Spitz is grounded in the truck most of the time, on account of an incident when he ran out into the sage brush to flirt with a coyote. He was invited for dinner and he ran happily through the brush land not knowing that he was on the menu. I tossed half of my gear down and started running as fast as the steel toe permitted to find the little punk. The coyote ended up running away up and behind a hill and Spitzers came back to the truck. One lucky dog!

On my way back from the sprint, I found the remnant of a small sheep (the body missing but the fir complete) and brought it back to show it to Spitz. I'm not sure he got the point.

Our last day on the site, Sunday, the storm cleared up, but it got really cold and the wind blew even harder than it did during the black cloud days. We were bundled up and ready for it. By 11:00 am when we were wrapping up the project, it started to warm up so we could shed a few layers.

We are surrounded by mountains and they always had a cloud cover over them, which means we had a lot of wind to make sure we feel the cold.

Done with this field, get a good night sleep and head back to our snowy home.

First stop is the ranch to pick-up and deliver some firewood for a client.

Good thing we stopped, because we didn't want to miss our first snow. It was a bit of a challange to drive in, but we made it without sliding off the road.

6 inches is just the right amount for Spitz. He is so happy running through the ranch and playing.

Oh boy! Fresh snow! My favorit!

The new snow cover all around is so beautiful.

When we got home, we had the same amount of snow to shovel as we had before we left. 4 hours later, we were back in the house. Shovel out shovel in...that's the way things are.

Who put this wall in here?

Spitz has no view from the backyard. Lucky puppy.

We have a few days on the rest before we are needed back in Gila Bend.