6-16 May, 2012 -Camping, Kayaking, Hiking, Bicycling, (and just a bit of work!).

We've been doing a little more to the U-Haul we've converted to a camper.  We got the solar panel mounted permanently and the charge controller, inverter and battery installed.  We also got the counter top and propane cook stove installed.  I still need to make the rack for the propane bottles yet though.  The improvements did make life a little easier when we were camped out.  We left on Sunday morning and came back on Wednesday afternoon.  We had some things to get caught up on before we left but they were mostly routine stuff we do daily anyway.

We're finished making Birch syrup.  I got a little over four pints of syrup from the sap we boiled down.  It takes a lot of sap to make a pint of syrup.  I've read anywhere from 70 to 1 up to 120 to 1 ratios.  In our case we were definitely in the 120 to 1 (or above) category!  The next time we do it we will make a few changes.  We could have begun earlier in the year than we did.  We'd also use a wider, shallower pan for boiling and maybe have a place set up outdoors for boiling the sap down.  It got very hot in the cabin the last couple of weeks.  The finished product tastes and smells kind of like sorghum molasses and I've read of people using it in place of molasses in their recipes.  It's strong flavored so you don't want to use a lot of it on pancakes. 

Scott's teaching mom and dad the finer points of sand, shovels, and dump trucks.

Now he's making sure I read the tape measure correctly when working on the counter in the U-Haul.

I use a circular saw with a metal cutting blade for cutting my steel to length.  It's a lot faster than a hacksaw.  In this case I'm running the saw off the inverter rather than the generator.

Once they were cut to the correct length I got the welder out and going!  This part is for mounting the solar panel.  I use a lot of old bed frames for my angle iron.  Mostly because they're cheap (Free!).

This is our campsite at the Upper Stillwater Lake.  We brought some toys for Scott to play with/on while we were here.  This is his first trip out in the camper so we expected some interesting times while he adjusted to the new lifestyle.

One of his favorite toys was the ramp at the back of the camper.  He had been rolling his trucks down it then got the idea to to ride his big truck down the ramp.  When the time came Susan was on one side and I was on the other to minimize any side trips he might take.

We took him out in the kayaks to explore the lake.  He went to sleep after about 20 minutes and slept until we got back to camp a few hours later.  Even with sunscreen (PF-50) he got a light sunburn.  Kind of the curse of having blond hair and blue eyes.

A shot of Upper Stillwater Lake looking north.  This is a fair size lake with trout, pike and perch.  Most people said the pike weren't biting but a camper next to us managed to bring in a few every day in the 24 to 36 inch range.

This is the outlet to the Upper Stillwater Lake.  I took my kayak down the channel to check it out.  This is taken from the lake side.  The natural spillway is jammed with old logs.  The water is clear, ice cold and a lot deeper than it looks.

This was taken below the spillway looking upstream toward the lake.

This was taken just below the log jam looking downstream.

We rode bicycles whenever we could.  Scott gets kind of heavy in a backpack but is easy to transport in the bike seat.  This is Lagoni Lake next to the Upper Stillwater Lake.  It's a fairly easy trail about 1 1/2 miles each way.  There were several blown down trees we had to lift the bikes over or go around but other than that the trail was level and wide.

This is on the Finger Lake/Hole in the Wall Lake trail.  They split on up the trail a bit farther.  It's narrow with a lot of roots and rocks to negotiate but is relatively level (by Montana standards) and a pleasant hike.  It's not good for bicycles though so I carried Scott in the backpack.  It's about 1 1/2 miles in to the lakes.  We couldn't go to the Hole in the Wall Lake because the trail goes through a bog which was just a bit deep this time of year.

The people from Oregon and Washington will laugh but this is a fairly large tree for around here.  There was a lot of old growth on the trail.

Here comes Odie down the trail.  Almost all of the trail was heavily wooded.  The shade was nice since it got into the low 80's during the day.  Unseasonably warm for around here.

There were some nice cliffs at the head of Finger Lake.  You can't tell by the photo but it's probably 50 feet down to the water. The lake is deep and loaded with fish, beaver, muskrats, and ducks.

Scott got to stretch his legs a bit after we got down to the lake level.

If you look at the picture with Susan you can see a narrow portion in the background.  We hiked on down the lake to take some more pictures and this one is looking back toward where the photo with Susan on the cliffs was taken.  The cliffs are barely visible at the head of the lake on the left.

This is from the same location in the previous photo only we're looking the other way.

This is on the way back out.  Someone has put a ladder against the cliff so that they can climb back up easier after diving off the cliff.  The cliff Susan was on in the first picture was about three times as high.

I finally bored Scott to sleep. 

This is a view of the cliff Susan was standing on in the first photo of the lake. The ladder was against the lowest step at the lower, right side.  This is one of the most beautiful lakes we've seen.  The pictures don't begin to do it justice.

We had some things scheduled for today so we packed everything up last night and headed home.  It was different being at a regular campground.  Most of the time we set up out in the woods someplace and see very few people.  We saw more people at the campground and boat launch than we normally see in a month or more.  It was nice to be back home where it's quiet!  We sometimes hear trucks on the highway 5 miles away or the ventilation fans on the train tunnel ten miles away but other than that the only sound we normally hear is from the wind and wildlife around us.

Gardening, Fishing, Tires, Chicks, and more...

We've been very busy the last ten days or so. I took a couple of days off to spend with my son in Kalispell. He and his wife are starting a garden this year so I brought my tiller down to work the ground up for them. The garden spot is in the pasture area so It was tough work breaking up the sod. I made several passes to get down as deep as the tiller would go.  I'm a bit envious of their soil.  They have about a foot of rich, black topsoil.  We have about two inches before we begin adding compost!

The rototilling was only a small part of the reason for going.  He took me out on Flathead Lake to do some fishing.  Naturally, when I'm along the fish mostly stop biting but he managed to catch six.  He was a little disappointed but in the afternoon when we checked in at the boat ramp he had the largest catch of the day.  They only had fourteen fish total.  Everyone except one guy only caught one and the other guy got three.  We were down about two-hundred feet which is why the fish's belly is extended.  When they come up that fast they don't have time to adjust for the pressure difference.  He was still good eating though.

The weather was overcast and cool with a little wind.  This lake can get ugly real fast so I'm glad he has a large boat.  He was telling me about a boat that he saw flipped by the wind.  Fortunately there were others nearby who fished them out of the water.  The boat sank in 200 feet of water though. 

One of our daughters was having sewing machine problems so she sent it home with us to see if I could fix it.  I took the opportunity to hem up some jeans while I was testing it.  It worked perfectly for about 20 minutes then started messing up.  I looked it over very closely and finally found a broken part.  We ordered a new bobbin holder off the Internet.  When it gets here I'll find out if that fixes it or she needs to take it to someone who knows what they're doing.

I did some re-arranging in my "toy box" and Scott helped.  My toy box has my muzzle loading supplies in it along with a few other things.  Scott had a special attraction to my tin skillet I use when camping "primitive."  I was getting my shotgun wads out so I could go turkey hunting this week.  I'm using my 12 gauge muzzle loader this year.

The wood shed is empty so I'm working out of the outside pile.  That means I have to split a wheelbarrow load of wood every day.  (Actually, I have a couple of days supply split and stacked in the wood shed "just in case.")  This is the amount of wood we go through every day.  We'd be using less except I'm still boiling down sap for syrup so I have to keep the stove going all day.

Something tore through the fence around the chicken pen so they've been entering and exiting at will.  I think it was the dog but it might have been the rooster.  I've never had this problem before so I don't think the hens did it.  At any rate, I put a double layer of wire over the hole this time to be sure that they stay inside unless I let them out.

We have one hen that's broody.  She's been on the nest for a couple of days now.  She's got five eggs under her.  I mark them with a crayon and when she gets to about ten or twelve eggs we'll start eating them again.  I'll leave the marked ones there for her to hatch out.  She's kind of protective so any time I check to mark or gather eggs I get pecked several times.  It's mostly bluff though and doesn't hurt.

The last couple of nights have been down to about 26 degrees with heavy frost.  I checked my blog from this time in 2010 and we still had snow on the ground then.

For now though the ground is clear and thawed out so we've been getting the garden ready to plant.  This compost is a couple of years old and is perfect for the garden.  The dog is acting as an observer.  You can't see him but Scott is riding in the backpack carrier on my back.

Our old strawberry bed wasn't doing much so I tilled it up this year along with some other spots we're going to get planted.  Susan is going to put onions in the places I've tilled up.  The ground is deep, soft and rich but it's taken years to make it that way.

Scott is observing while I scatter compost.  He likes to stand up and swing way over to the side so that he can see better.  It's good practice for me to keep my balance!

We're putting in a greenhouse here this year.  Nothing fancy, just some raised beds with PVC pipe ribs and plastic sheeting.  We'll put tomatoes in when we plant it.  It is new ground though and will take some work to get it level.  You can't really see it in the picture but there's a large hump in front of the tiller that needs to be leveled.  Note the stump in the upper right corner.

Finished!  Note the pile of rocks next to the stump!  I have the tiller set for a shallow cut to take off about two inches at a time.  I used a Miner's pick to loosen the ground and probe for rocks.  I don't like hitting rocks with the tiller for obvious reasons.  Once I've found and extracted the rocks I run the tiller over the ground to pulverize the soil.  I put the blade on the tiller and used it to push the dirt from the hump to the low spots to get everything level.  It was about two hours of work total.

It began raining lightly as I worked.  By the time I finished the clay was sticking to everything including the blade and tires (and my boots).  I kept working until I finished though.  This time of year you do what you can when you can because I've seen the rain move in and stay for a month at a time. 

Susan is pruning blackberry bushes.  We'll be moving these this year.  They're in a bad place and we get scratched up every time we walk past them.  They'll be living in the far corner of the garden soon and away from high traffic areas.

Scott is "helping" Susan weed the garlic.  He's also stepping on the little plants so we'll see if it hurts them any.  It's hard to get things done because someone has to be with him all the time which often cuts our production by half while one of us watches him.  He's worth it and we love him dearly but it does make life a bit more challenging.

Obviously Grandma didn't want these covering the plants so Scott decided to play musical frost frames!  It isn't going to hurt anything though so we let him play to his heart's content.

The partially weeded garlic patch with the plants we put in the ground last fall.

It was time to get the studded tires off and go with regular tires for the summer so I jacked up the car and dismounted the studded tires and mounted the summer tires then put them all back on the Cherokee.  I'm glad to have that done.  For once the beads seated easily which makes the job much more pleasant.  My little Harbor Freight tire machine has paid for itself many times over the last couple of years.  It would have cost us $60.00 to have it done at a tire store.

We're getting down to the last 20 gallons of birch sap.  We've had cool, rainy weather this week which made it nice running the wood stove since we needed it to keep the cabin toasty warm (instead of blistering hot!)

We went for a bicycle ride last night.  Susan rode hers to a fire department auxiliary meeting during the week while I took care of Scott so she has more "ride time" than me this week.

Scott's favorite play area is near the thetherball.  There's lots of sand to dig in.

Here he's helping his mom make dinner at her house.

Now he's watching Sesame Street reruns on Netflix at home.  In case you haven't noticed, he loves climbing on things which sure keeps us on our toes.  (No short jokes please!)

16-24 April, 2012, Feed Grinding, Tire Swapping, Birch Syrup, and the IRS

Another busy week (plus) going on.   The weather has been great (mostly) so we've been outside a lot.  Susan has done more trimming and raking in the yard.  I've been completing some of my  projects too.  I got the tiller running and made a couple of passes in the garden but it's still too wet to work up.  Susan trimmed up her raspberry bushes, cutting out the dead stems so the live ones will produce better. 

We have a relative who's having problems with the IRS over identity theft that's been going on for many years.  The IRS has got to be one of the most incompetent organizations in the entire world. It's a good thing he's saved every scrap of correspondence with them because every time we try to deal with them they don't have any records of previous correspondence.  So, after today's conversation I'll have to re-scan more documents and resend them to yet another IRS clerk who is looking into the matter.  Hopefully this bozo will enter the information into their computer ... but I'm not holding my breath!  A word of advice, save FOREVER everything and anything that has anything to do with income taxes!  I can guarantee that if they ever investigate you they will have no record of previous correspondence.  Another tip ... if you happen to mention that there's a reporter from a major news network looking into your situation the IRS clerk will adopt a much friendlier attitude.

I plugged the holes in the Birch trees and quit gathering sap for the year.  We have enough stored in buckets in the root cellar to make probably another quart of syrup.  It takes about 100 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.  I thought when I began that it took a lot less than that.  If I'd have begn earlier it would have been better because we could keep the stove going hotter all day.  Now it heats up the house too much and with the nice weather and dry ground we have things to do outside.  I checked out some You Tube videos and Birch syrup sells for about $35.00 per pint.  I may do it again sometime but It will be earlier in the year and I plan on having a "sugar shack" to boil down the sap. 

The days are much longer now which means we have lots of extra electricity even though we've plugged the refrigerator back in and are now running it.  I switched the angle on the solar panels to the "summer" position this week.  We were watching Netflix shows on the television in the evenings between supper and when Scott went to bed.  (If you try to read or do anything productive he wants to do it with you so it's easier to just watch television for a bit until it's bedtime for him.) We finished up the "Out of the Wild - Venezuela" series but it's light late into the evening now so we won't be watching much on TV for awhile.  We'd rather spend the time outside.  In a few weeks we'll be going to bed before sunset and getting up after the sun rises. 

A neighbor dropped by and we swapped some of his tires around.  Turned into a bit of a problem so we had to stop while he got some more tires and a tube.  The tires he had were picked up on a trade and they had bad sidewalls.  When we got them mounted they wouldn't hold air.  He bought a radial tube for the best one but when he tried to put it on himself he ruined the bead on the tire so he brought the stuff back here to finish it up.  We ended up removing the tire with the broken bead and tube then removing a different tire from a 4-hole rim and putting that tire on the rim that had the tire with the broken bead which meant we had to put a new valve stem in the rim (lucky I had one left!).  We took one of his tires with  the bad sidewall and put the tube in it so now he has the two tires he needed to put on his truck.  I still need to swap the studded tires on our Cherokee for non-studded ones. 

We had a scare with Susan this week.  She had one eye cloud up for no apparent reason on Sunday.  We contacted the eye doctor on Monday and they got her in.  The local optometrist wasn't sure what was going on so he sent her to a specialist in Kalispell.  She went through a bunch of tests there and she had some broken blood vessels in her eye related to some floaters that had broken off.  He thought it would clear up but there's no guarantee.  Her vision in that eye is still 20/20 but it's like looking through a foggy window.   Our emergency fund is also lighter by over $350.00.  (But then, that's why we have one!)  At least most places give you 10 percent off for paying cash.

Scott is relaxing on swing while he watches Saturday morning cartoons.  Of course in our case they're on Netflix, DVD or VCR tape.  He doesn't sit like this very often.  He's sort of a perpetual motion type of guy.

Time to grind more chicken food.  This is an assortment of outdated food we had on hand.  Most of it came from stuff we got after Y2K.  We helped an elderly couple move into town and they had a pickup load of food that they'd stocked up on for Y2K.  This was several years after Y2K and they wanted to get rid of it.  The last couple of years we've been using some of it for chicken food.  There are beans (white and pinto) rice, wheat (in the red can), a wheat, barley and oat mix in the brown bag, boxes of old macaroni and cheese and a couple of containers of egg shells we've saved since the last time I ground chicken feed.   We mix it as we grind it and I ground about 40 pounds before quitting for the afternoon.

I had a little help though.  Scott loved dipping out the wheat ...

and pouring it into the hopper ...

or sometimes pouring it near the hopper.

We rode bicycles up into the state land south of us to see if the snow is gone yet.  I have some trees spotted that I want to cut for firewood before someone else gets them.  It's about 3 miles (one way) by road.  The snow is gone so I just need to get a permit.

We've been trying to keep a hat on Scott so we have them around him most of the time.  He likes them (which is good) but obviously has his own ideas of how they're supposed to be worn.

This is the turn-around point of our latest bicycle ride.  We lost the license plate on our little trailer last fall somewhere along a ten mile stretch of Highway 93.  We parked the Cherokee and rode along the highway looking for it yesterday afternoon.  We average about 10 mph on our rides so this as about an hour after we started.  We took a half-hour break primarily so Scott could get some exercise then we headed back for the car.  We never did find the license plate but we picked up a roll of duct tape and a Leatherman Sidekick in like new condition.

We had a meeting at the fire department afterward.  Susan is part of getting an Auxiliary set up so this was an organizational meeting where they mainly went over the bylaws and mission clarification.

After hours upon hours of sap collecting and boiling we have two pints of the best tasting Birch Syrup you can imagine.  After making it I fully understand why it cost $35.00 a pint! 

We got the wash tub out for Scott's bath but he didn't want to wait for the water.  He tossed in his bucket of toys and climbed in after them.

We ordered a helmet for him and it finally arrived.  We checked a lot of reviews before choosing this one.  We mainly wanted it to fit well and stay where it belongs.  It does a fine job of both and he loves wearing it.

If he keeps driving forward while looking backward he's going to need a helmet!