1-15 May, 2013 - Pahranagaht Wildlife Refuge, Nevada, Utah, Idaho then Home Again.

Home again finally!

On our last trip into Vegas we noticed a new billboard.  I bet he gets lots of business.

We left Lake Mead because it was getting too hot for my thick Montana blood and spent a couple of days at the Pahranagaht Wildlife Refuge.  It was a little cooler due to the higher altitude and the camping was free.  We found out that the campground host was also from Montana.

There was an abundance of wildlife in the lake varying from ducks and geese to muskrats.

We took a bike ride to check out the petroglyphs on one of the bike trails.

 

This was the best example we found.

We picked up a hammock at a yard sale for ten bucks.  It worked well.  I spent one night sleeping on it outside.  Scott loved it whether by himself or sharing it with someone else.

We took a drive in the desert and happened upon this native specimen.  He was kind of grumpy!

This is a rest area on the way home.  We're still in Nevada at this point.

 

Flathead Lake in the afternoon.  We're about seventy miles from home here.

 

Scott found a new place to eat his breakfast.  The base rotates so he can nibble at the food from all sides of his plate.

We took out some bushes to open up the area around the driveway.  I hooked onto this  one with my pickup and pulled it up by the roots.

This stump took a little more work.  I dug around it then cut the top roots before attempting to pull it out.

 

All I did was break off the top so I dug deeper then used a trowel to dig around the tap root(s).  I rant he chain through the center and pulled again.  This time the chain just pulled through the wood.  We gave up pulling it and burned it out.  Burning season is closed so you need a permit except for "recreational fires."  We didn't have a permit so I piled some wood in the hole, ignited it and we pulled the lawn chairs up to enjoy our evening campfire.

Scott commandeered the trampoline as his new play area complete with toy box.

The first project for the summer is to finish the porch and get it screened in.  Here Susan has caulked all the seams in the front.

I have both end walls framed in now.  We'll have screen doors on both ends.  The wood burning cook stove will go on this end so I'll have to route the stovepipe between the studs.  It's going to make a nice summer kitchen.

 

 

We sere sitting around with Scott's parents Saturday night so I used the time to put new webbing on one of the old lawn recliners we had.  I pick up the webbing at yard sales so I get it pretty cheap.

I had a seventy-five foot roll and though it would be enough but ended up running out with one strap left open.  I finished it with another package I had but it was a different color.

Our daughter and SIL who built the cabin on our property bought a 12X60 mobile home and moved it to a lot in Eureka.  He got a job in town and tired of driving over our excuse for a road to get to work.  The people he hired to move it left it slightly crooked on the lot so we used my pickup to straighten it out.  Scott is examining the truck before we move the mobile home.

 

We used the truck a couple of days previously to haul a load of trash to the dump then filled it up again before coming in for this trip.  I normally keep the tires at about 45 psi for a softer ride unless I'm hauling heavy loads.  We put some weight on the hitch and when I noticed how the tires were being compressed we unhitched the truck from the MH and I took it to a gas station to pump the tires up to the maximum of 80 psi.

When we hooked up the second time I also put some 2X6's between the frame and axle stop.  That kept the truck springs from sagging so much and gave us a little more height with the weight on the hitch.  The tires were still compressed a bunch but we got the trailer moved over without incident.

We'd also brought in three, 100 lb. propane tanks and one 20 lb. tank to fill.  It cost us $201.00 for 310 lbs. of propane.  That should last us about two years.  One tank is an oldie but goodie.  It's made with heavy steel and weighs 97 lbs. empty.  Full weight is 197 lbs.

 

Scott was afraid of the generator when it was running but loved watching the saw work. (Susan would hold him up outside the shop so that he could watch.)  I got him acclimated to the generator and now he likes to stand on the big generator while I use the radial arm saw to cut wood. (I was using the small one to run the saw.)   I found some earmuffs that fit correctly but he decided that these were the safety glasses he wanted (they look like mine).  Now he can get close enough to really see the saw work.

 

Susan is finishing up another book to publish on Amazon.  Its the next one after her book Food Storage: Preserving Meat, Dairy, and Eggs, only this one covers fruits and vegetables.  She's been busy catching up on laundry, cleaning (inside and outside), watching Scott when I'm working and all the other tasks that need doing after three months away from home.