Cold wet studio mess
It’s frequently said about the desert that there’s two ways to get into trouble in it: not enough water, and too much water. This train of big winter storms has definitely proved the latter.
Tomorrow I’ll be drying out the studio which, being the informal structure it is, has many leaks and moisture-retaining properties, and has been taking on water steadily for most of the week.
<< Here’s a shot of it tonight: dark, chilly, wet, and dank, with towels and buckets catching the drips that are still finding a way in. Some of the buckets have 3 inches of water in them, and the smell of mildew is becoming noticeable, probably from an ancient floor mat that catches clay from my shoes on the way into the house.
Lovely work environment, isn’t it? Usually it’s sunny, bright, and dry. So I’m not really complaining, because there was no actual damage, just moisty inconvenience.
An additional entertaining feature is that after years of use as a plant room (by previous owners) with a leaky swamp cooler on the roof, the brick floor is saturated with salt from the concentrated cooler water. After wet weather, when there’s less foot traffic, feathery white salt crystals grow upwards from the bricks like a miniature coral garden, the hair-like crystals fine as mold hyphae, some of them half and inch or more tall. I’ll get pictures if I can, but this time they’ll probably all be trampled before they grow: tomorrow, if it’s not raining, the dry-out begins, so I can get back to work. There’s a new big Rαtdog in the works…with serpents…