Holidays, Check-ups, Movies, Firewood, and Winter Life

I don't have a lot of pictures for this post.  Mostly because I didn't take many!  The big game season is over now.  I didn't get a buck this year (mostly because I didn't hunt hard enough!) although I did fill my turkey tag.  I saws dozens of does but the only buck I saw was racing after a doe and I didn't get a shot.  The weather has been lousy this fall.   Rain, rain, and more rain with just a little bit of snow.  It's like we live in Seattle.  It's hard to get into the hunting mode!  We have more rabbits (snowshoe hares) this year than I've seen in years.

We've made a few trips to Kalispell for various things.  Scott had his two-year check-up last week.  The doctor confirmed that he's a happy, healthy two-year-old.  (Which we already knew!)  We did a face-to-face with an online prepper friend which turned out well and has potential for further plans.  We saw the remake of Red Dawn which we enjoyed immensely.  It's best to think of it as a new movie and not make comparisons to the old standby with Patrick Swayze.  There's more action in this one and I'm not going to say more and spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet.  There's the usual nonsense from Hollywierd but we still plan on buying a copy on DVD when it comes out that way.

Other than that it's been business as usual for this time of year.  We've both been devoting time to writing.  Susan is putting up a website to go along with her Poverty Prepping book.  Her blog by the same name is doing very well as are book sales.  She now has a print version of Poverty Prepping available.  The price is reasonable at $4.50 (Christmas special price) plus shipping directly from her at her blog.  The normal price is $5.00 plus shipping.  I won't know until mid-December how my book is selling when I get the royalty check for the first three months' sales.

One of our unplanned trips to Kalispell was after a call from Scott's parents.  Their car died on the highway going home around midnight so we headed out to get them.  We spent the night in Kalispell then took the alternator off the next day and disassembled it to find the problem.  It needed brushes but you can't buy just the brushes and none of the parts stores had a remanufactured unit in stock.  I did a few things to get that one functioning temporarily and Stephen and I drove back out and re-installed it on the car.  It made it into town okay and they ordered the part for it.  They put it on a couple of days later.

One of the symptoms of worn brushes is that the alternator will charge then quit then charge again until it eventually quits altogether.  Many times you can rap the alternator smartly with the plastic or wood handle of a screw driver and it will begin charging again.  What happens is the brushes get shorter and shorter and the spring tension can no longer push them through the brush holder and against the commutator rings.  By rapping the case you jar some of the carbon loose that's making the brushes stick and they make contact again ... for a little while anyway!  In their case the carbon build-up was too hard and I had to scrape it loose from the inside after taking the alternator apart. 

Another rainy day on the road to Kalispell!  This time it was for Scott's check-up.  Note the lack of snow.  The lake is Dickey Lake.  It's usually one of the last to freeze over in winter.  What's unusual is that it's also one of the coldest lakes in the summer time.

When Scott's getting tired or fussy one of us gives him personal attention so the other can get some work done.  Here he's sitting on my lap looking at himself in the computer using the computer's camera.  It's one of his favorite games.  He's playing with my pipe.  (I don't smoke.  It's more like a prop for photo shoots!)

We heard the che chickens squaking and saw them running for cover then this guy showed up in a tree nearby.  You gotta' feel sorry for chickens.  They're pretty low on the food chain and we have to protect them from coyotes, eagles, hawks, ravens, foxes, skunks, raccoons, weasels, badgers, bobcats, bears, and mountain lions. 

I cut down a couple of trees for firewood yesterday.  We finally got a short break in the rain so I took down two small trees that have been dead for a couple of years.  The slash is still on the ground where the cat is walking.  Scott and Susan came down for a bit and Scott did some exploring.

We're potty training another one (number eight!).  That's one of the things we though we were finished with.  Scott added his own twist to it though that none of the other kids thought up. 

It's a good thing he had a dry run!