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By Andy Corbley -Aug 24, 2022

Even though the English government recently announced a ban on garden hose watering in the west of the country, Peter Harden has kept right on hosing worry-free.
That’s because Harden has been storing rainwater in large catch thanks for almost 50 years, and with 6,000 liters (1,500 gallons) of water available to him, his paddock is the greenest on the block.

An 82-year-old retired teacher, Peter Harden has lived in his bungalow for 52 years, and said he installed his first rainwater catch tanks after a famous English drought in 1976.
The keen gardener noticed droughts in the UK were getting more intense and became inspired to take precautions by he and his wife’s holidays to Europe.

“Our holidays abroad in Europe over 50 years frequently included cultural visits to ancient Greek and Roman towns,” said Harden. “We were always impressed by the huge number of domestic underground cisterns that the Romans et al. pre-built to catch rainwater for very dry summers.”

“With this experience in mind, I gradually increased the number and size of my rainwater catch tanks until about 15 years ago when I had nine 375 liter capacity tanks fed directly by rainwater from the bungalow’s guttering.”

But why such dedication? Peter lives in one of the driest areas in the UK. The clay beneath his property in Ingoldsby, Lincolnshire, does hold water, but as soon as the UK gets a drought the clay starts to crack. Now the region is experiencing its worst drought in 26 years, and to protect municipal water reserves, a hose pipe ban has been introduced in parts of the West Country.

“We live in an area with one of the lowest mean rainfalls in the country. We get a circa of 22 inches per year,” said Harden, who about eight years ago supplemented his 9 catch tanks with two more, 1,000 liter (250 gallon) intermediate bulk containers, before adding another pair just recently.

The bulk water containers sit at the bottom of the garden and are filled directly by garden hose from some of the 375-liter catch tanks. “Using an electrically-powered submersible water pump, I pump water through a garden hose from one of the tanks through a spray attached to the garden hose,” he explained.

“As the level of water falls in the one tank it levels out in the other tanks through gravity feed through the interconnected pipes. “Three of my original 375-liter tanks have since become unserviceable and I am waiting to replace them. I also am trying to buy two more 1,000 liter bulk containers to increase my water storage volume.”

Not slowing down, he says he aims to store 9,000 liters soon.

Queen Elizabeth, a beloved leader who ascended to the throne at age 25 in 1952, died Thursday at her Balmoral Castle estate in Scotland.

Takes Deadly Political Aim On Joe & 'Crats & Fires Opening Shots In The '24 Election

IT'S GAME ON, Y'ALL!!!

As gas prices climbed last year, many people directly blamed Joe. My neighborhood 'cheap' gas was $3.35 in December. On the way home yesterday, I see it's dropped to $3.18
Therefore, I think it's only fair to thank Joe for dropping the prices of gasoline.

Man Becomes Principal At Elementary School Where He Worked As A Janitor
September 1, 2022

Mike Huss started working at Ione Elementary School as a janitor. This year, he's the principal.


Huss was a student at the elementary school, and despite him saying that he never saw himself in education growing up, his peers and family believed otherwise.
After graduating high school, Huss became a janitor at the school. His coworkers, friends and family saw how he interacted with the kids and encouraged him to get his teaching degree. And he went for it.

"I wanted to show my young son, that if your dad can do this, if your dad can be the school janitor coaching youth sports, maintain a good grade point average and become a school teacher, you can accomplish anything in this life son," Huss said.
He was looking forward to teaching 5th grade again this year when he got the offer to be the school's principal. They reached out to me and said, 'We think you're the leader the school needs'. That was very humbling and it brings chills just to say it," Huss said.

Huss has only been principal for about two weeks but he already has a lot of support from his school district, his school staff and his young students.
"They give me hugs and say, 'You're doing a great job,' and it's really cute to see a first grader tell you that. 'You don't even know what I'm doing. But thank you very much for saying it.' But they see me out and interacting so I think to them, that's all that matters," Huss said.

The iconic Niagara Falls will illuminate in red, white and black in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence on August 31, 2022.

This follows on from the special lighting of the CN Tower and 3D Toronto Sign in red, white and black on August 27, 2022 in celebration of the inaugural Trinbago Festival on August 27 and 28 at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto.

The Niagara Falls are often lit in special colours for short durations to mark a significant date. The special illumination for Trinidad and Tobago 60th Anniversary of Independence will take place from 10:00pm to 10:15pm on August 31, 2022.

It can be viewed live at

I originally blogged about Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash in January 2020, where all nine aboard had perished.

Kobe's multi-million dollar Sikorsky didn't have any obstacle avoidance equipment, something found on hobby drones costing $500. I'm sure the avoidance system on a corporate helicopter would be thousands and very sophisticated. Maybe the FAA should rethink the minimum safety equipment required for commercial aircraft leasing companies.

It wasn't long after the crash, I began to hear about leaked photos of the dead bodies taken by the first responders. I figured it would all fade away. It didn't.

News today from Associated Press:
"Kobe Bryant’s widow was awarded $16 million as part of a $31 million jury verdict Wednesday against Low Angeles County for deputies and firefighters sharing grisly photos of the NBA star, his 13-year-old daughter and other victims killed in a 2020 helicopter crash."

News link:


Reader reviews were mixed.
Some were slanted that basically Vanessa Bryant is so rich she didn't need the money.

My previous blog on the subject:

The top story is/was the FBI Raiding Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Resort.
News at 11.
I can hardly wait to hear why the FBI would want to visit Mar-a-Lago.

EDIT:
Although the headlines read raid, the FBI conducted a SEARCH with warrant.
I'm amending the title of my blog to correctly reflect this.