Office Field Trip

We think field trips aren't just for school kids; our office gang will occasionally pile into a vehicle and drive together to look at something of interest, or to educate ourselves. We've looked at housing communities, plant material, artificial grass, parks, freeway overpass ramps and a myriad of small details. Yesterday after lunch The First Cousin asked if we were going on a field trip, and so we did, but it was a short drive around Morrison Ranch to check out some ongoing questions. What better time of year to be outside?

Our first stop was at the lakes at Highland Groves. You may be aware that the fountain in the north lake has been on and cycling, and that the recirculators in both lakes are doing their job. If so, you might also be aware that the south fountain has yet to flow, and there are often folks at the pump stations, sometimes with small boats and guys in scuba gear. The Water Expert had a short chat with the fellows at the pump station, and reported to us that they were getting ready to fire up the big pumps that will allow the lake water to be used for irrigation. There are different pumps for the recirculation and aerating features; these are the main pumps that move the water from the lake to the landscape.

As we were leaving, we watched an SRP truck "pulling tape" which is quite literal. The developer installs the conduit for the copper wires for electricity, but not the wires themselves. When it's time to provide power to individual homes, SRP hooks up a pickup truck to a special hard-to-break tape and pulls it several hundred feet through the conduit, dragging the wire along behind it. As The Mister explained the process to me, it reminded me of using a safety pin to pull a drawstring through a waistband after it's come out during the wash.

Leaving Highland Groves we notice that the corn planted across the street is already several inches high. There has been some discussion about weekly pictures of how fast the corn will grow. The old saying "knee-high by 4th of July" looks like it will be far outdated, and that corn will be much taller than me before July hits.

From there we went to Lakeview Village to look at the distressed elm trees on the south end of the parking lot. Why do they look dead, yet the plant cover at their bases looks fine? The jury is still out on that question.

While there we noticed that "In The Raw" has a sign in the corner shop inviting job applicants; this is the juice/coffee bar that is coming soon. My last information on them is that they are in the process of getting their improvements approved by the town.

There was a brief contemplation of looking at some bushy grass plant material as our next stop, but work was beckoning, and it seemed time to wrap up our mini field trip for the day and get back to the indoors. It was nice to get some actual sun to brighten up my computer tan.