30 December, 2012 - 5 January 2013 - Chimney Cleaning, Icy Roads

Another day another ... train?

Susan went through some of the toys we have stored from "yesteryear" and found this train set. It was missing a few pieces but there were enough left to make the loop.  Scott spent hours playing with it.

This is another of his favorite toys.  His big interests in life right now are planes, trains and automobiles.  Here he's making a crash landing on the snow.

Okay, on to the next adventure...

We bought him a kid's computer for Christmas.  He loves it and isn't as interested in "helping" us when we're using ours.

His mom and dad got him a Cars blanket.  Cars is one of his favorite movies.

I was sorting some brass so Scott decided to help a bit.  I gave him a can of 270 and 25/06 brass to mess around with.  I don't have any firearms in those calibers.  (Although if I found some at a good price ...!)

Chimney cleaning time again.  This time we need some repairs on the top pipe.  The bottom and top have both corroded to the point that they need replaced.

I took it off then ran the brush through the pipe a few times to knock the ash out.  There wasn't any creosote build up.  We only burn seasoned wood and I run the stove hot for awhile every morning which keeps creosote deposits at a minimum.  As long as I was already there and had the brush it only takes a few more minutes to scrub out the chimney.

I didn't feel like going to town for a new cap and and we keep a couple new sections of pipe on hand so I just attached the old cap to the new pipe.  It should work okay for several years before it needs to be replaced.

The snow was piling up on the U-Haul so Susan shovelled it off.  I think I hear the camper whispering "let's go south until the snow is gone."

We got a call at 5:30 am from our SIL.  He ran off the road dodging a deer and needed help getting on to work.  The battery was dead in his truck so I drove him to work then we got him out after he got off work.

A neighbor brought his tractor over to lend a hand.  It worked great because he could lift the back of the truck out of the ditch using the loader.  (The bumper is rusted through and was already bent before he hit the ditch.)  I'd have had to chain up all four wheels to get him out with the Cherokee.

I thanked another neighbor who stopped traffic on the curve while we were extracting the truck.  It's pretty icy and we were worried that anyone coming around the turn would ignore the flares I set out and either hit someone or wind up in the ditch themselves.

 

When Scott's parents came up Saturday there was a wreck blocking the road about two miles closer to the highway than where this photo was taken.  They had to make a ten mile detour (one way) to get to the next road to make it to our place.

 

We bought some bacon and fried it up for breakfast.  It was a nice treat. It's a lot better cooking it on the wood stove.  Eventually the grease splatters will burn off.

Getting water for the animals is always a chore during the winter.  We don't like using our drinking water if we can avoid it so I set a bucket of snow behind the wood stove.  It warms up during the day so we have water on hand for the animals.  All we have this winter is the cat, dog and seven chickens.  The chickens don't drink a lot but they need fresh water at least a couple times a day.

 

 

5-13 September, 2012, Skunks in the henhouse, camper painting, wood cutting, new grandchildren

Right in the middle of catching up on the blog the dog began making a ruckus outside.  She'd been barking at something off to the south of the cabin last night and today but this time whatever it was was in the yard.  I grabbed the shotgun and went to investigate and found a skunk under the chicken house.  The chickens were gone (I hadn't shut them up for the night yet) so I hope they're roosting somewhere else.  I didn't see any excessive feathers strewn about so I don't think the skunk got them.  Anyway, I shot the skunk and have the bruised arm to prove it.  The shot was taken with me laying on the ground holding a flashlight in one hand and the shotgun in the other.  I lined the (12 gauge) shotgun up on the skunk and pulled the trigger.  The butt plate was resting against my biceps just above the elbow and I can sure feel it now!  I'll extract his smelly, mutilated body tomorrow when it's light out.  Hopefully the chickens are safe.  I put the dog in the house while this as going on so I wouldn't have to worry about the skunk spraying her.

It's just one more reason why you don't wander around in the dark here without a gun of some kind and a flashlight with you.  It also shows why a dog is an asset on the homestead.

Now, about the rest of the week...

I dug some of the rocks up out of the yard.  The ground seems to grow them naturally.  Those that stick their heads above the surface get dug up. 

But then you have to fill the holes in with more dirt so we go to our dirt pile and fill the wheel barrow with dirt to fill in the holes where the rocks used to live.

We (Susan) are repainting the camper.  Here Susan is spraying the brown that goes on the cab and along the bottom of the  box.  We're using an airless paint gun which is having issues.  There's a lot of "orange peel" in the finished product.

The final look after we're done!

Okay, Susan is finished.  I still need to clean the paint gun up (with Scott's help).

Scott is helping change the memory card in the game camera.  I went three days with no critters at this site so I moved it to another location the next day.  At least I know where to not put a tree stand.

Scott and I went to the shack to get a few things and on the way back he wanted to play on the snowmobiles.  I uncovered one of them and he spent a little time in the land of imagination where two-year-olds like to go.

Scott's dad and mom were up so his dad and I did a little shooting with 22's. 

Susan, Scott and I took a break on the work one afternoon to play a game of horseshoes.  I won but only by one point.  Scott had a pair of plastic shoes he used.

We still wash dishes.  One of the problems with doing a blog like this is that there's only so much "new" stuff you can put on it after awhile, so ... you get some re-runs!  We had plenty of rain water so I used that for the wash water and "town" water for the rinse.  We had the kettle heating on the wood stove so I had some hot water to mix with it.

The mornings and some evenings have been cold enough to need some heat so we've fired up the wood stove  several times.  The side benefit of this is having hot water. (We keep a kettle of water on the wood stove.)  So ... I used hot water when I washed the dishes and laundry.  It was nice to have hot water instead of the cold water we normally use.

We also got the sourdough out of the refrigerator and began using it again.  These are sourdough pancakes and we love eating them.

Susan made cookies and we caught Scott in the act of helping himself to a few.  He's like a bird and eats a bite out of each one.  We caught him before he got too many though.

Scott has a new cousin.  This little guy's name is Tommy.  His mom had some complications so they induced labor.  She was in labor almost two days before she had him.  Mom and baby are both home again and doing well.

Of course Scott loved the hospital.  Tommy was born in the same room as Scott used a couple of years ago.  They moved mom and baby to a recovery room while we were visiting and Scott discovered the running water in the bathroom.  We stripped him down to his diaper and let him have some fun.  (With grandpa staying very close.)

Here Scott is helping grandma put the dried mint in jars for storage.

Susan has been harvesting garden crops this week beginning with the onions.  Next will be the potatoes and carrots.

There were two large trees blown down that I was cutting up for firewood.  This is the last of the second one.  I couldn't get them all in two loads so I had to make another trip for this batch.  It's green so it will go to the back of the wood shed to cure until spring.

The wood shed is almost half full now.  I was getting too tired to throw the large rounds of green logs up on the top tiers so I split some of them into quarters.

Scott got the idea to re-arrange his cabinets and decided that the oven would be a great place to store what had been in them.  Unfortunately grandma needed that space for cooking dinner tonight so they all went back into their original home.

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!