26 June - 1 July, 2012 Book editing and webbed feet.

We're about to sprout webbed fet.  It's rained nearly every day which is whay the garden is waterlogged!  I check every night to be sure that we're not growing webbed feet.  So far the answer is no.

My editer at Paladin press has been going through my manuscript and we've been working at clarifying things.  That was 2 1/2 days of sitting at my desk but it was worth every minute.  He did a great job finding weak spots in the manuscript and mistakes I hadn't caught.

I have an article in the current issue (Aug/Sept) of Traditional Bowhunter magazine.  It's the one where I was standing on the ladder taking pictures.  (Shown in the blog awhile back.)  I still have articles scheduled to be printed in Back Home Mag., Backwoods Home Magazine, Backwoodsman, Fur-Fish-Game, and another one for Traditional Bowhunter.

The potatoes need weeded and hilled yet but the ground is still just a little damp!

These were planted late.  I'm surprised that they didn't rot in the wet weather we've had.

When you plant in straw it seems to take forever for the potato plants to come through.  These are up in my tires.  I have two tires stacked with straw and spuds.  We had frost the day after taking this and one of the plants got burned.  It should come back okay though.  Potatoes are hardy.

I hooked the suction pipe up to the water pump to transfer water from the main tank to the smaller ones in the garden.  We're still getting rain though so I may be filling barrels soon.

We had to run the generator to charge the battery bank after several warm, cloudy days.  When it's warm the refrigerator runs more and draws down the batteries so we sometimes need the generator to charge them back up.  While running the genny, Susan made waffles.  She made too many so we froze the extras and had them for breakfast a couple of days later.  We heat them up the same way we make toast.  We sandwich the waffles between folded auminum foil and heat them on the wood stove.

A friend on the forum here mailed some brass to me (Thanks Randy).  We were on bicycles when we rode into town to check the mail so I bungee-corded it to the rear rack on my bike and brought it home.

Our youngest son and his wife just bought and moved into their first house. They also acquired a couple of kittens who, like most kittens, are either sleeping or having fun. 

This one got up and moved into the "fun" stage, hiding and playing behind the couch.

This is the view from their back yard.

Another "pet" they inherited with the place!

While we were in town we stopped at the thrift store.  Susan didn't realize that Scott was doing his own shopping while she was doing hers.

Susan took Scott on a bike ride down to Dickey Lake (about ten miles each way).  The wind was up a bit and the water was kind of rough so there weren't many people out.

She fought the wind going but had it helping her on the way home.  It was about ten miles each way by the route she took.  We're hoping to go on a three/four day ride soon.  We're mainly waiting for a new backpacking tent (larger) we ordered to arrive and then we need a few days of decent weather.  We've been out in the rain before but would prefer nice weather with Scott along. 

Whle they were out I was home mowing the yard.  I used the power mower because it had grown so high while we were camping last week.  I've still go several hours of running the weed eater before I'm finished.

11-25 March, 2012 More Snow, New Baby, Birthdays ...

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post.  I'll have to stretch my memory a bit to remember what's been happening.  A lot of it is routine stuff.  Preparing meals, feed the chickens, cat and dog, get firewood, etc.  We have to work around Scott's schedule of course.  We've also had four birthdays during this time period:  One son, one son-in-law, a grandson and a friend.  Susan has more short (50 to 100 pages in length) PAW fiction stories up on Amazon Kindle and has sold over one-hundred of them so far. She writes the stories and I make the covers for them.  These are the five she has up now.  We took all of the photos used on the covers.

The Rally Point and The Long Ride Home are part of a series she's working on.

My book is ready for the publisher (Paladin Press) as soon as I get instructions from them on how they want it sent (CD, printed, or???)  We spent most of one day going through old photos to use with my book.  I scanned most of them to the computer which took awhile.  We found the photos of when we built the root cellar so I'll probably post them on the blog in a few days.  I sent in another magazine article and have one to finish up yet.  I sent it in to another magazine and the editor sent it back with some suggestions so I'm making the changes.  He said they'd probably use it for a cover story so the pay should justify the extra work involved.  Otherwise I'd just send it to a different magazine.

In addition we've been trying to get an identity theft issue taken care of.  It concerns a close relative who hasn't gotten anywhere in several years (you cannot believe the run-around you get when dealing with the IRS, Border Patrol, ICE, FBI, local law enforcement and some other government agencies when it comes to identity theft).  Anyway, Susan is on the case now and she's not the type to quit ... ever!  We found a national Television News station in the city where it's happening and they're on the trail now.  They seem to be accomplishing things and we hope the guy is arrested soon ... and on national television when it happens.  We'll keep you updated as events unfold.  This has been an unbelievable headache for everyone involved.  Our respect for the FBI, Homeland Security, ICE, and especially the IRS has diminished greatly during this ordeal.  The IRS in particular seems to be filled with incompetent idiots.  We may write a book about this after we're done!

Now that my blood pressure is up a couple of notches I'll go on to different subjects ....

Scott gets a bit cranky around nap time.  He makes so much noise that it's hard for whoever is writing (or on the phone to the IRS, etc.) to concentrate.  One of the ways we keep him happy until he's ready to take his nap is to take him outside.  He absolutely loves being outside no matter what the temperature is.  The only thing he doesn't like is lots of wind.  One of his favorite play areas is in the car ... especially the driver's seat.  He's rolled the window down and is watching Odie bounce around under the window.  Of course when he's finished "driving" I have to turn off the lights, windshield wipers, radio, emergency  flashers, turn signal and find the cigarette lighter and plug it back in the socket.  But it keeps him happy for another half-hour anyway.

Here he's watching Sesame Street on Susan's computer.  No matter what's on television he gets bored with it after about 15 minutes.

Barbara and Victor were over one evening and we played Yahtzee.  Susan got up to get something and Scott immediately slid off my lap and took her chair.  We had to move quick to get the paper and pencil out of the way! 

When we get his snowsuit, coat or boots/shoes down he gets excited because he knows he's going outside.  Instead of the squirming little boy he usually is he sits patiently while we get him dressed to go outside.  We hope he never loses his love of being outside.

We just returned from one of our excursions.  Scott is "helping" unload the wood we got out of the woodshed.

We had several new snowstorms last week.  The weather was warm so the snow was wet and melted quickly.  We got almost a foot of the stuff over a two day period.  This was after the first night.  I love it when the snow hangs on the trees and bushes.

It's probably the last time out with the snowmobile this year.  I took advantage of the fresh snow to do some riding.  I had the woods to myself for the most part and got back on some timber company land.  The snow was firm and untracked and it was great riding.  It still had the "floating" sensation but the snow wasn't so soft and deep you had to keep the throttle wide open to keep moving.  I got near the end of the road and saw someone else coming my direction.  I waved and he cut around and took off down an old skidder trail.  I think he believed he was doing something wrong.  The roads are gated but the company that owns the land doesn't care if you ride vehicles weighing under 400 pounds behind the gates.  He may not have known that or may have thought he was on USFS land (they DO mind if you're on gated roads).  Or maybe he just didn't want to talk!  He's the only person I saw while riding.

Stephen (Scott's dad) was converting some VHS tapes we have to DVDs so Scott decided it was something he'd like to learn too!

Our newest grandchild is named Lincoln.  He was a little over nine-pounds at birth.   We went to see him the first Saturday after he was born.  Their car needed some brake work so I took my tools along and changed the brake caliper on the right, front brake.  It was good reminder of why I didn't like fixing cars in the winter.  I was soaked from the knees down from working in the slush that fell off the car.

Scott is helping Susan do the wash.  He's gotten bad about climbing when he isn't supposed to.  Susan moved the chair out that he used to stand on so ...

He found another way to make himself taller!