Golden barrel update.  I will start with the good news, this showstopper above the pool seems to have weathered the winter storms well.  I think one of the tiny barrels is rotten, but otherwise we are good here.

This area could use a couple more tree aloes.  There are an aloe marlothii and ferox doing well, they were just quite small when I added them to the slope.   

Night view, with solar lights.  

I can almost forget what is happening over to the side . . . 

Sophia and Ivan (my oldest daughter & her guy) called last year Fall '22 and excitedly told me they had found a late year discount on these 3 huge barrels at Home Depot.  $65, big & beautiful.  I had just started the barrel colony in the slope, and I thought now we're going to get this baby going.  A fast lucky jumpstart on a golden family!  Below: investigating the 2nd.

Annnnd, #3  *These are much larger than they seem in the photos.  

I took out the first one, it was real MUSH GUSH inside.  I will spare you the orange goo, thankfully it didn't stink horribly like a rotten agave.  Here is number 3, when I peaked into the hole I could see a good amount of water sitting inside.  But when I sliced into it, I could see the bottom & core were hard like a pumpkin.  I took a slice out and the water/goo drained out.  *No one is interested in this, I'm documenting a futile experiment!  hahaha.  

Let's excise this rot!  Let her drain!

I should note, I noticed the fuzzy tops looked drab and I could see bits of orange on these in March.  I tried treating them externally with sulfur, then copper fungicide and even Physan 20.  Obviously a futile attempt.  The water was just sitting inside.  I'd been better off blasting them with a hair dryer. Here on the burlap is a healthy smaller replacement for the big rotten barrel (now gone). #2 & #3 are sitting with a nice gaping wound in their side to see if the 92 degree weather coming our way and 80's all next week will dry them out.  I think #2 is a complete goner, and #3 has a 1% chance of healing and being a complete weirdo.  But not likely.  I'm going to look for suitable replacements and let them sit for the time being.  I will add, these came with BIG full roots which I now think was part of the problem.  I should have hacked most of the root ball off and they wouldn't have been able to suck up so much water before getting established.  I wasn't worried because they were placed on the slope, and I thought it would be fast draining enough. Also, I was GREEDY, I wanted faster growth.   The barrel above the pool is on much flatter land and it's been fine for 2+ years... however, it had a much smaller root system when it went in.

Sorry for this glum kinda boring post, just wanted to have a reminder.  Dr. Feelgood snapped a selfie as we were relaxing in the evening!