Uninvited Guests

When I lived Pinckney, I had quite a few cats. I think at one point, I had six. There was no way in hell I was going to clean a litterbox for that many friggin cats, so I installed a cat door in the back door. All cats were free to come and go as they pleased. Most nights they spent outside, but Patch liked sleeping on the couch. More often than not, he could be found snuggled somewhere comfy in the house. At around 2:00 one morning, I heard a nasty racket in my living room. It was violent, loud and short. I waited a moment, and heard nothing more. When I stepped out of the bedroom into the living room, I was greeted with a puddle of pee, surrounded by wet scraggly gray hair, and topped off with a messy pile of crap. All of this was in a neat little package right square in the middle of the room. I was confused. Apparently Patch had had it out with an animal of some sort right in my living room. He was nowhere to be found. I went back to bed, and woke up to find him big as ever and happy to let me scratch his head. A couple nights later, I heard some more noise, so I got up noisily, opened my bedroom door loudly, and stomped out into the living room. I then turned the corner into the kitchen, still loudly, and saw the biggest raccoon I have ever seen jumping out my back window. He was too big to fit through the cat door. I put a screen in the window, and figured I was good to go. That weekend I had Savanna. We shared the bedroom when she stayed. That Sunday, with her sleeping soundly on her little bed at 4:30 a.m., I heard some ruckus in the kitchen. I did not want her getting up and coming out to surprise a coon, since she was just a tiny thing then, so I blocked the door, and crawled out a window. I went back in the house through the front door, and went into the kitchen again, and saw another coon running out, this time through the cat door. When I looked into my kitchen, I was horrified. The garbage was tipped over and scattered all over the floor. I had a package of a dozen plain donuts half gone. They were ripped open and scattered on the counter. A bag of doritos, a half loaf of bread, an unopened loaf of bread, and some random other stuff, all torn open and scattered to hell and back. I could not see my floor for all the garbage on it. I grabbed my pellet pistol and went outside to see if I could find the animal that had trashed my house. I found it in one of the hickory trees next to the house. It came down the tree while I was standing there, so I shot it in the head. It turned around and went back up the tree. I was not impressed one little bit. I waited a bit, and it came back down the tree, so I shot it again. Again, it went back up. I know damn well I hit it right in the head, it was no more than 5 feet from me. I waited another ten minutes or so, and it tried again. I shot it again. It went up the tree... again. This went on for quite a while, until I exhausted my CO2 cartridges. I used my last shot and thought, great, what happens now? I spotted my pitchfork leaning against the house, so I picked it up and hid around the corner of the house waiting for that masked devil to come back down the tree. Down it came, and when it was about 4 feet from the ground, I leaped from the house and swung the pitchfork as hard and fast as I could, but I was too far from the tree. It saw me coming and ran back up, pissing like it was the end of its world. This made me laugh hysterically. I'm sure I was slap happy from being up for three hours playing a chess game with a small animal. I was out of options. I had no ammo for my .22, and the only other gun I had was my 12 guage deer gun. I think that would have been major overkill, don't you? The neighbor behind me was up, as it was 7:30 by this time, so I asked him if I could borrow some .22 rounds. He said yes, and handed me a little 50 round box. All he said was "don't shoot my squirrels". No problem, I told him. I had a small raccoon problem to take care of. As it began to get lighter, I realized my small problem was anything but. There were 6 coons in my tree. I went in and got my .22, a marlin model 60 semi automatic. Great little .22. I loaded it up, took aim on a coon, and pulled the trigger. I hit nothing. I tried again. Still nothing. I hadn't shot the gun in quite a while, and it had been moved multiple times. The scope either got whacked, or just gave up the ghost. I went down the street to get Jason, to see if he had a .22. He did. I asked him if he was any good with it, and he said he could do ok. I went back home, and tried a couple more times with the same result. He showed up with his, loaded it, and took aim. When he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. I laughed and said something about taking the safety off. It was. He tried again. Still nothing. This was unbelievable. Three guns and a pitchfork, and I can't kill a damn coon. At this point I had climbed onto the roof to try some more. After a couple more unsuccessful shots, I ripped the scope off and used the irons. What do you know, the first shot took a coon. I was elated! Jason finally got his working, and popped off a couple rounds, and managed to wing a raccoon. I was giggling pretty hard by now, and was having a hell of a time shooting straight. Lee, the neighbor who gave me the ammo, was sitting on his back porch watching. I took aim on another raccoon and pulled the trigger, and two friggin coons fell out of the tree. This put me over the edge, and I just started laughing. By now, a couple of the neighbor kids had heard all the shooting and had come down to see what was going on. JD saw a raccoon laying on the ground rolling around a little, so he grabbed my pitchfork and started beating on it! I absolutely lost it! I had tears in my eyes, and I looked over to see Lee laughing pretty hard, too. Here it is, 8:00 am, 80 yards south of a church on Sunday morning, people going into the church, a moving truck in the new sub across the road with people moving into their new house, and I am shooting coons out of my tree from my roof, Jason is shooting them from the ground, and JD is swinging a pitchfork, wearing a blood spattered wife beater shirt, out by the main road. Welcome to redneckville. In case you're wondering, Savanna slept through the whole ordeal.

Naughty, Naughty

I was at work a few days ago, sanding a job with Chris and Matt, for a pretty nice looking homeowner. Small, dark skinned, black hair, pretty smile... She gave me my first work related piece of ass. Yep. She came out of the kitchen, all smiley, and started talking about how one of her kids had just turned 18. I couldn't believe it, I'd have never guessed it. She asked if I wanted a slice of cake. I said sure. She opened the box in her hands, and in it was a cake in the shape of someone's denim clad backside....

Anti-TP

One devil's night in Pinckney, I was hanging out at a neighbor's house, helping out in the garage, and shooting the sh*t. A friend wandered over and warned me that a mutual friend was planning on TP'ing my house after I went to bed. I said thanks, told him to stand in his front yard to watch, and I went home to go to "bed". I shut out all the lights, opened a window blind in the front of the bedroom, and opened a window on the side of the house. Pretty soon JD came into sight carrying a couple rolls of toilet paper. I waited patiently for him to step onto my lawn. As soon as he did, I pulled the trigger on the .22 I had pointed at the ground outside my side window. He jumped about two feet, screamed "DON'T SHOOT ME SCOTT, DON'T SHOOT ME!!", and ran faster down the road than I ever imagined he could! I went back down to Jason's house to find Tony (my "informant") nearly in tears from laughter. It still makes me laugh!

Quote of the Day

"I found my nuts!!!" : Hammy, the squirrel- Over the Hedge

Wake Up, People!!

The government of the United States has overstepped it's bounds by offering a "bailout" for the mortgage industry. Of course other industries are going to come forward and ask for money. The auto industry hopped right up there and started with "can I have some too?". Now comes Citigroup. Who is next? Where is gov't going to draw the line? What do you think the first industry under that line is going to think? Government's job is not to get involved in private industry. Their job has to do with National issues. National debt, national policy, international policy, national defense, national trade, international trade, blah blah blah. Private business is to be left to the private sector. It should be enumerated somewhere. Oh, you know, I think it is. Let's see, where was that.... Yes! The Constitution of the United States of America! I wonder what that says? Article 1, section 8 follows:

Section 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Do the proposed bailouts fall under the "general welfare of the United States"? I would imagine that you could stretch it out to fit there. However, everything else enumerated in the section has to do with national issues. "All duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States". Everyone is to be taxed equally, but certain groups are allowed large amounts of money given/loaned to bail them out from bad business practices and the results of a slow economy? You know what, I want a bailout. I'm going down the toilet. My heat and electricity should be off in the near future, my cable, my car payments have been caught up by my uncle so it won't be repossessed.... People aren't buying my product, either. Economy is slowing down, and I am forced to change my way of living, maybe find a different place to live, maybe shut down business. It sucks, but if there is no demand, there is no point being in the business. Let private companies figure it out for themselves. The smart ones, the good business people will survive and persevere. The strong companies will go on into the future, and the ones who refuse to adapt to a changing economy will fail. It will get worse before it gets better. A lot of people stand to lose employment, and that will be bad for the economy as well, but once in a while, the cycle has to start over. Let it. We will rebound as a stronger country for it. Stop with the socialist crap.

More Dryer Stuff

So I went downstairs armed with some pipe cleaners and a pair of side cutters, and proceeded to MacGuyverize the dryer. I bent and cut a pipe cleaner to fit the oblong wobble hole in the squirrel cage, reinstalled the snap ring, and spun the drum. No more bangitty bang. I put it all back together, started it up, and it's running quiet, as it should, and moving warm air. Hopefully it will hold up for a few loads of laundry. Hell, as much of a procrastinator as I am, it just might remain that way until it craps out for good....

Dryer Woes

I finally took my dryer apart today to see if I can fix it, instead of replace it. It's been making an awful racket for quite a while. It sounded like the same thing I replaced when I got the dryer, a tension pulley made of plastic. I looked inside while it was running, and determined that the pulley is still good. I could see nothing else wrong. I was finally able to identify the source of all the racket. It was coming from the squirrel cage under the drum. At that point, I quit using the dryer and started hanging my clothes in the basement to dry. They dry, but they take for friggin ever, and they are stiff as hell. Today I took the cover off the blower assembly and removed the squirrel cage. The center of it is all wobbled out. It won't even turn on the spindle, as one side is supposed to be flat. I found a replacement for under 20 bucks shipped to my door. It will ship tomorrow, and hopefully arrive before the holiday weekend. Until it arrives, though, I think I can re-install it with a shim in order to make it work temporarily. Putting on jeans that hang dry in a basement is like putting on boots that are thinly coated with concrete. It sucks ass. More specifically, it chafes ass...

Cars Have a Sense of Humor

Jim's mom used to have a mid 80's Honda something or other that had front end problems. Specifically, it had a bad lower ball joint on the driver's side. Jim pulled the car into the garage to repair it. We took the tire off, and all the pertinent parts, in order to get to the lower control arm. We removed the nut from the top of the ball joint and proceeded beat the hell out of the control arm with a two pound steel hammer in order to free it. Jim and I took turns for an hour or two trying to separate the joint. It proved to be much more stubborn than both of us combined. That is pretty substantial. We both decided to take a break and go have a sandwich. Jim went down the stairs toward the basement first, and I followed. He was almost to the bottom of the 6 or7 steps, and I had just stepped down, when I heard a suspicious metallic "clink" behind me. I turned to see that the joint had separated, and that end of the control arm laying on the floor. Apparently, sir Honda decided that we had suffered long enough.

Carry On

Mio, take two

I left for Mio last Thursday. It was a rough day. I had had a rotten conversation with Tiffany the night before, woke up to find that my phone had been shut off, and my day just went to hell from there. I drove all the way to West Bloomfield to get a check, drove from there to Fenton to meet a builder for another check. He was not there. I went to the store briefly, then returned to the job to meet him. This time he was there. I then went to two different banks, then drove out to find Tiffany. We had a slightly less bogus conversation. At this point, I am severely pissed, and want nothing more than to be far away from civilization. I went home, threw a tub of clothes and supplies into the car, and split. When I arrived in Mio a couple hours later, I realized that I had not called Steve to let him know I was driving separately, I had forgotten my black Carhartt coveralls, gloves, warm boots, my percolator, my compass AND gps, and a slew of other things. Steve decided to wait to drive up in the morning, since he did not know I was already gone. That meant I spent the first night up there alone. Anyone who knows me knows that that is absolutely not a problem. I started a fire outside, had a couple beers, and hit the sack. Friday around mid-day, Steve and Justice showed up, then later that night Stephanie arrived. Saturday morning we all went out into the woods for opening day. I saw squat. Stephanie saw squat. Steve saw several deer, but didn't have a shot. That night brought more of the same for Stephanie and I, and Steve saw another deer, I think. I didn't hunt Sunday morning, I just wasn't in the mood. Steve ended up shooting his 3 point around 10:30. Stephanie once again saw nothing. Sunday night and Monday morning, I saw a total of 7 deer, shot at two, and missed both. I managed to blow the shit out of a tree between me and the second deer, though. It was running. The deer, that is. That tree just happened to get in the way at the exact second I pulled the trigger. Nevermind that the shot was about as low as the first miss. I don't know if it's me or the gun. I suspect it's me. I brought the gun home to take to the range to find out, though. I didn't want to leave. It costs me less money to live up there than it does down here. It's much more peaceful up there, more quiet. The people are fewer and more friendly. It's not the city. One day, I'm going to find a piece of property and build a small cabin like that one. Heat it with a little wood burning stove. Hand pump outside for water, the whole nine yards. Life at it's simplest. Cheap, easy, and isolated. I suspect that I won't have the company I've been waiting for for the last couple years, anyway.

The New Gumby?

Alright, something is wrong. For the last couple weeks everywhere I go, people are suppressing smirks and laughs. Mostly girls. One guy. At a McDonald's drive through, I was certain the guy taking my money was going to make some sort of comment, but he didn't. I was waiting, with a response concerning the size of his 21 year old pot belly. He just smirked and gave me change. Then the girl giving me my food was smiling and smirking too. I walked into a cider mill for some cider and doughnuts, and heard laughter as I entered. The pretty young lady at the cash register was smiling hugely, and commented on my hat. I heard more laughter as I left. I went into a Lowe's a little later, and got the same sort of response. By this time, I'm pretty sure I have something huge and black in my teeth, maybe a green streak in my hair, left half my face unshaven, or I've suddenly become flat and green with a crooked-topped head and travel with a sidekick pony named Pokey. I thought it might be my hat, so I went a couple places without it, with the same results. Maybe I'm becoming a conehead...

Smash

I had a '74 Jeep CJ5 that needed a main bearing in the transmission. The Jeep was in the shop, and I had no other form of transportation. The shop could not locate a bearing. I found one in Waterford, which was quite a trip from Pinckney, where I lived, and a long way from the Ann Arbor shop where my Jeep was. A friend of mine picked me up and drove me to the parts store to get the bearing. We stopped at a gas station on M-59 on the way there. As we were leaving, we were in line behind a woman in a small car. Traffic was mildly heavy, so we had to wait some time to pull out onto M-59. There was a break in traffic large enough for the woman ahead of us to pull out, and she began to do so. Casey and I both looked left to watch traffic for the next break, and he began to slowly roll forward to the end of the driveway. I glanced back and realized the the woman in front decided not to take the opportunity to go. We weren't more than 18 inches from her rear bumper. All I could think of to say was "SMASH!!" fairly loudly. Casey slammed on his brakes before he completely turned his head forward. We couldn't have missed hitting this woman by more than a couple inches. He then looked at me and we both started laughing hysterically...

Quote of the Day

"When a naked man is chasing a woman through the alley with a butcher knife, I figure he isn't collecting for the Red Cross" Inspector Callahan, Dirty Harry

What's Wrong??

Ever wonder what's wrong with this world? I have. I know many people have. I hear comments all the time, phrases such as "gone to hell in a handbasket", and "what has this world come to?". I look around, and there is evidence everywhere of a very disturbing problem. Increases in the population of gays and lesbians, increases in occurrences of depression and anxiety, dramatic increases in debilitating diseases, increases in birth problems that even 20 years ago would have resulted in death. All this points to one thing. Mother Earth saying "there are too friggin many of you bastards, get off me!!". China knew this eons ago. They enacted some pretty harsh policies in order to get population under control. It didn't work. People are going to reproduce. People are going to overpopulate. We have the unfortunate advantage of having a problem solving intellect. We can figure out how to combat all these physical problems, and we have the ability to ignore the results of thwarting natures attempt to control population. In a popular movie, the human race was likened to a virus. That's not far off. We use resources until they are gone, and move on. Humankind has been farming animals and plants for time beyond measure, but at the point it became necessary to do so to maintain population we were over populated. Nevermind genetically altering food to be more productive. Until we have a magic solution that combines our current lifestyle and maintenance of our resources, we will continue to have major problems.

Definition of Merge

It's time to crab a little. Merge: to flow seamlessly into. That means, folks, that if you are attempting to enter a freeway where the speed limit is 70, and the drivers in the lane you are merging into are doing 70, you need to attain 70 miles per hour before you begin your merge. If you do not, you disrupt traffic, and that is not seamless!!!

I Can't Do It

I can not support Abama. Yeah, I spelled it that way purposely. Short for Abomination. The man is brilliant. He is a wonderful speaker, and has roped in many, many Americans with his vague and unclear promises of hope and change. Too many answers to burning questions are vague and non specific. I don't like that. He can not believe in the second amendment if he does not know what it means. He will not say for sure that he agrees with the Supreme Court ruling on their interpretation of it. He believes that certain things on firearms need to be regulated. The only thing that needs to be regulated is education. Firearms education is the absolute best way to prevent accidents and misuse. There is not nearly enough education. Most of what children and many adults know about guns is what they see/hear in tv, movies, and media. That's a subject for another day. Too many issues get a generic and energetic answer from him. He has suckered in someone very close to me, and I'm disappointed as hell. We got into a conversation about him, and I asked her some pointed questions. She responded with anger and defensiveness. All I wanted from her was answers. I was not trying to grill her or change her mind, I was looking for information. She could not give me anything. I asked her one final question before she left. That was "what exactly do you like about him? what answers to what questions make you want him running our country?". This was at the end of a rather unpleasant conversation. She had no answers. Neither does he. I haven't heard a direct and detailed answer from him concerning much of anything that I consider important. I have heard of a fine on people who don't have insurance coverage on their children. I can find no such thing on his site concerning this, but I have found many references to requiring people to have coverage for their children. No requirement can be enforced without some sort of penalty. I want to see what, exactly, it is. Can't do it. I have seen nothing specific, and all kinds of brilliantly flashy waffling. I want a person in office who will answer directly, take responsibility for their actions, and be an upstanding and respectable citizen. No "present" votes, no vague and incomplete answers, no dancing around the issue. Answer the damn question with a definitive answer, and you'll have my respect, even if I don't agree with you.

Added Pics

I added some pictures to an old post. Simplicity Goes Bang. Go see!!

Cold Shower

A couple years ago, I took Savanna up to Looney Loop for our annual family get together. It was an interesting trip. Usually, it's nice and crisp in the morning, and you have to sit by the fire for a bit to warm up, and the afternoons are rarely warm enough to wear less than a sweatshirt over long johns. This year was very warm. I spent a day wandering around in just jeans and tennis shoes. I put a t-shirt and my game vest on to go for a walk. 100 yards down the trail, I had sweat rolling down my back, and my face was flushed. It was miserable. Savanna was suffering, too. She was loud, cranky, and obnoxious. She wouldn't listen to a word I said. It was pretty clear that she was overheated. I grabbed her by the arm and told her to go get some clean clothes, and I set up a shower for her with water that I hadn't bothered to heat over the fire. It was fairly cold, around 60 degrees or so, I'd guess. She didn't like it one little bit. She even cried a little. I told her that she would feel much better afterward. She finished, dried off and got dressed and lo and behold, she was much more herself. Her mood improved 100%, she was smiley and happy. I made sure to remind her of the shower, and asked her if she felt better. She said yes, and didn't misbehave the rest of the day, or the week, for that matter. I'm fairly sure it was the cooling effect that made an immediate difference, and I'm also fairly sure that she didn't want another cold shower! After taking care of her, I went and had a cold shower of my own. It definitely made my day. I hope the next looney loop trip is a little cooler.


Carry on

Steve and Angie Arrive

Well, crapola. Steve and Angie were due here around 4:30, so I started making some food for dinner. I warmed up the rest of my gumbo, the rest of my potato soup, and made my cornbread. They arrived around 5:00, and said they'd eaten on the way. Now, I've got to figure out what to do with my food. Two quart jars of gumbo, and two quart jars of potato soup, no friggin way I can eat all that. I'm finishing off the gumbo, and I'm putting the soup in the fridge for lunch tomorrow, I guess. The cornbread doesn't worry me much, I can reheat that in the oven in the morning. It's good for dinner, and breakfast. Now they've gone off to take Justice trick-or-treating in town. A little more solitude then, I guess. I've got things I need to do anyway. I'll put the tractor away, do dishes, and sharpen the chain saw again. That poor thing needed it today. I sharpened it to the point that it actually bogged the motor down a little. It hasn't cut like that in a long time. I'll just touch it up, and put it up. Then I'll sit around the fire for a bit. I think there is enough firewood to last the weekend. I used up one stack in the past three days. I added another stack today, so theoretically, there is almost a weeks worth of wood cut and stacked. Guess we'll find out. I don't know how much writing I'll be able to do the rest of the weekend, so I'll probably just add to the blog when I get home. For now, I'm gonna finish the half-friggin-gallon of gumbo...

Thursday

Well, here I sit. It's 9:15, Thursday night, and it hasn't been an overly eventful day. I split the rest of the tree I hauled to camp yesterday. Didn't even bother to stack it. It'll give Steve something to do when he gets here, or I'll stack it tomorrow morning. We'll see. I finished the book I started yesterday. Did dishes, twice. Had coffee. First thing I did was raise the flags. Then I started the fire. I was really hoping for a good bed of coals from the night before. I dug through the ashes, and found one coal, about the size of a brazil nut. I put it between two half burned logs, and piled some really small twigs around it. Upon trying to coax it into fire by blowing on it, it made nothing but smoke. I figured it just didn't feel like being fire yet, so I piled more twigs and sticks around it, blew on it one more time, with the same result. Fine. I piled more twigs and sticks, then larger sticks, then small logs, and finally some split firewood. Nice little fire, ready to burn. I just went inside, and let it decide to burn by itself. I then cleaned up breakfast dishes, poured another cup of coffee, and stepped outside to see flames licking around the logs. It took about 15 minutes, and became fire. That fire is now a very large bed of hot coals, with a couple big pieces of wood laying on top to insulate it from the cold and oxygen. Tomorrow it should be a little easier to coax it to life. For dinner tonight, I opened a jar of the gumbo I canned, to discover that the fantastic flavor cooked right out of it. I think the canning process actually grossly overcooked it. Talk about disappointment. Oh well, it's food. Tomorrow I'll warm up the rest of it and make some cornbread to go with it. I think waffles will be breakfast, maybe cooked over the fire. Who knows. Sounds awful good, though. Hopefully there is still some syrup around here....

End of Day One

9:30 p.m.
Today has been fairly productive, and relaxing at the same time. After breakfast, I fired up the chain saw and spent an hour cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood. Then I backed the tractor out of the trailer and proceeded to make some adjustments to the carburetor. I managed to get it to run fairly reasonably, but only as long as the choke is on. The second I open the choke, it quits. I suspect I'll have some work to do to the carb when I get it back home. It ran well enough to pull a couple 4 or 5 inch trees back, and a 24 foot long section of a tree, in three separate pieces. The sectioned one was 12-14 inches in diameter at the thickest part. It's not even the whole limb. It broke off roughly 15 feet above the ground. That's incredible, considering it is red oak. That's seriously strong wood. It's also very heavy. No wonder I had to cut it into three pieces to drag it back to camp. Then I cut up all the little stuff and stacked it, and cut two of the three logs, and split and stacked that as well. In between times, I warmed up and ate a quart of Tiffany's potato soup, had a couple cold Coronas, and relaxed by the fire. I also went for a short walk to the back of the property. Tomorrow I'll cut and split the third log, and see if I can't retrieve some of the other wood that is partially cut in the woods. After finally having enough of the firewood, I lowered and folded both flags, and sat down with Dean Koontz's latest book, and have read half of it. Hopefully I'll sleep a little better tonight than last night. The first night away from my bed is always rough. The second is usually better, though the coyotes howl awful loud around here, and they seem to be louder when I'm alone. They woke me up a couple times last night. Anyway, I have a belly full of chicken pot pie, I've found the bottom of a Corona, and I'm tired from the physical work today. I'm going to set the coffee pot, brush my teeth, and hit the sack.


Carry on

Cold Night

Holy crap is it cold up here. The outside thermometer says 26 degrees. Inside this morning it was 40. Sleeping was a little chilly last night, as the top blanket decided to migrate to the floor. I plugged in the little electric heater in my room last night and turned it on the lowest setting, just so I wouldn't freeze in case something like that happened. When I crawled out of bed, I thought that it must not have gotten too cold, cuz it never kicked on. I realized shortly, though, that when I turned the light off with the switch, it also cut the power to the outlet that the heater was plugged in to. Ah well. I'll probably sleep the same way tonight anyway. For now, I'm gonna finish my bacon and eggs, then go find some firewood for the fire pit, then get started on the tractor. Hopefully it warms up a little... If not, I suppose I can put the little portable propane heater in the trailer and warm it up. We'll see.



Carry on

Arrival

It's Tuesday night, just after 8. I am just sitting down to dinner in the Mio cabin. It was 38 degrees inside when I walked in. I've put some food in the dorm fridge, taken my clothes into the bedroom, and brought the radio in and turned it on. It just played George Jones, "Give It Away". I've dished up a giant plate of Tiffany's homemade chicken pot pie, and sat down to type a little. It's already warmed up 8 degrees in here, though sitting here on the couch you wouldn't know it. The thermometer is mounted at about 6 feet above the floor, and I'm sitting, so my hands are within two feet of the ground. I don't think I can type with gloves, so I'll be keeping this somewhat short tonight. This isn't really camping, since there is electricity here, a fridge and stove, cabinets, a dinner table, and two bedrooms. There is a hand pump for water, and an outhouse out back. It's isolation, though, and that is what I need. I'll have it for the next three days. I expect Steve and Angie sometime Friday. When I arrive back on my own doorstep, I'll be posting whatever I've written during my time here, so I'll have to date these individually. Today is the 28th. For now, I'm going to demolish the 1/4 of a pot pie that I've dished up, and I'm sure I'll go back for seconds. Tiffany, you make one hella good chicken pot pie. Just another reason to love you.