Visitor

After the rains finally came again late in September, I was surprised to find this visitor clamped to the back door. He seems confused, and well he might be. At first, the summer was cold and rainy. Then it went dry and cold, and dry and hot. Not only the Crick but Panama dried up, from June to October, a record stretch. People began speculating about mass die-offs of trees. Then the rains started in the autumn, and soon we had reached something very much like the average rainfall for the period.

Founding Fathers

I've been reading Bill Bryson's book At Home, in which he describes the enormous difficulties of obtaining basic building supplies in North America. Washington actually imported both mortar and building stone from England! Well, this foundation was laid more than a century later, but by the look of it, Howard Elgee still had trouble getting decent materials. The stone is certainly local, and entirely uncut. The "mortar" is more like plaster or roughcast. It can fill in gaps but it has little adherence and no strength. Most of it came away when I hit it with the hose. The concrete will fill in the gaps.