January - March, 2014 - No Snow!

Would saying it's been awhile be too much of an understatement?

 

We've been a little busier than usual this year.  We hit the road on January 2 to head south for the winter (once more).  We gave the Cherokee to a daughter and SIL because it had so many miles on it and we wanted something larger for our road trips so we bought a Ford Expedition from one of our sons.  He purchases them (usually not in running condition), gets them running and sells them again.  This one was too good to pass up.  It's definitely a dream to travel in with electric everything, comfortable (heated or cooled) leather seats and individual climate control for each seat.  It has a built in DVD player which Scott adores. 

 

But despite the comfort it's still nice to be "home" again.  Scott was so tired of travelling he began asking to go "home" several hours  before we reached our destination in Overton.  As soon as he saw the motorhome he relaxed and simply said "home."  Here he's curled up on the couch with the cat beside him.  We spent a few days at the Overton Wildlife Management Area before heading farther south to the Boulder Beach Campground.

 

We volunteered to work for the Park Service for awhile and in return for 20 hours a week of labor they paid the fees for the camping site.  We spent a few weeks at the campground, doing volunteer work then headed for Stewart's Point.  We liked the work but were tired of living in a "parking lot."

 

Scott appears to be quite comfortable sitting on the ball while watching a DVD on the television.

 

The trip to Stewart's Point was uneventful but once we got here the transmission went out on the car.  We were without transportation for a few weeks until our son and DIL brought down another vehicle for us to drive and trailered the Expedition back home with them.  They spent about a week with us before going back home. 

 

In the meantime another daughter and SIL came down with their camper to spend a few weeks here vacationing. 

 

We needed some boards to level the motorhome so I bought a couple of long 2X8's and Scott and I cut them down to size.  This is at the Boulder Beach Campground.  Note the bare feet, short sleeves, sunshine, and NO SNOW!

 

We took the Expedition on a road trip to visit a friend in AZ then went up to the Grand Canyon.  On the way we made some side trips.  We're working on a prepper book to counteract some of the nonsense from televised shows like Doomsday Preppers and wanted to do some research and take some photos of ancient Indian dwellings.  This is Montezuma's Castle.

 

 

Scott was in charge of security so he brought his rocket along.

 

This is at Walnut Canyon with dwellings built into the mountainside caves.  It was really impressive.  You have to wonder what kind of leg muscles those people had after climbing up and down all day long.

 

This is Wapatki and another example of ancient life on high mountain plateaus.

 

Now we're at the Grand Canyon.  It was an overcast day so the colors are washed out a bunch.  Photos do not do justice to what you see.  The canyon is so deep, wide and colorful that film can't begin to capture it's grandeur.

 

It too has some great American Indian history.  The Havasu lived in the bottom of the canyon during the hot summers, growing their gardens.  In the winter they lived on the plateau on top, hunting and supplementing their summer crops with meat.

 

This is back At Stewart's Point.  Scott is enjoying a little "splash time" in the lake.  If you stay in the shallow water it's nice and warm!  His "boat" has leg holes in it so he's basically wading in the water.

 

As usual we're using our solar cooker for everything from food preparation to heating hot water for washing dishes.

 

Another side trip to do some rock climbing/exploring.

 

Scott loves playing in the caves of all sizes.

 

While our daughter and her children were here we spent a Saturday at the atlatl competition.  The park service had extra atlatls and darts for use by visitors so we got to try out several different types of throwers and different types/lengths of darts.  As usual there was a pretty stiff wind that day but we all had a great time.  Afterwards we drove over to see Moose's Tank and let the kids do some climbing around.

 

We put up the wind generator this year.  We bought 20 feet of steel pipe then sawed off a six foot section of one.  That will put the generator about six feet above the motorhome roof.

 

 

I ran the wires through the pipe then installed the wind turbine.  This is a Whisper Quiet 400 watt unit.  We brought two, 165 watt panels with us.  I'll permanently install them on the roof next year.  We thought about making mounts to keep them on the ground so we could turn them to the sun easier but after cleaning them off several times after Scott rubbed mud on them (he was making mud while playing in the water and clay) we decided that the roof would be the best place for them!

 

There was a Navy plane landing and taking off on the water so Susan and Scott got on the roof for a better look.

 

This is the charge controller for the solar panels and the inverter to power the 110 volt electricity in the camper.  We're running an electric refrigerator since the propane unit didn't work and it's cheaper to replace it with an electric one.  We don't have to buy as much propane either when we're away from electric hookups (which is most of the time!).  There's a 25 amp "smart charger" at the left of the charge controller.  In the lower shelf there are four golf cart batteries which are connected to another 12 volt deep cycle battery in the original battery compartment.  We've never even come close to running out of power this winter.  We are going to upgrade to a larger inverter next winter.  This one is only a thousand watts.  We want two thousand watts minimum.

 

The battery went dead on the Expedition while it was sitting so I took it out and wired it to the output on the wind generator.  That was in the afternoon on a windy day.  By morning it was fully charged and ready to go again.

 

While we were between visits from our kids and without motorized transportation we made several trip into Overton on our bicycles.  Susan usually had Scott on the bike seat and I took along the trailer behind my bike.  It's 34 miles round trip with a couple of very steep, long grades and is quite a workout.  We ordered some gas motors for the bicycles but I can't put it on hers (bike frame is too small).  This is my bike with the motor.  We've used it for trash runs and short trips but haven't taken it to Overton yet.

 

I've been using some of my VA medical benefits while in Nevada.  It's easier here than in Montana because it's over 300 miles to the nearest VA hospital in MT.  It's my first time using the VA and while the service I get is good the wait times are unbelievably long.  Most of it will just have to wait until we're back next winter.

 

 

New Book Out

I have a new book in print title The Greenhorn's Guide to Chainsaws and Firewood Cutting.  It's available in print form or Kindle versions at: http://amzn.to/17m3O3C.

This book is for the person who is new at or just now entertaining the thought of cutting their own firewood. In fact, (if you haven't already!) don’t even purchase a chain saw until after you’ve read the first chapter because that’s where I tell you what to look for to get the saw that’s best for you. After that, there will be chapters on using your saw safely and effectively, a chapter on properly maintaining your saw and another chapter on sharpening the chain so it cuts like it did when it was new (in some instances it will cut better!) After learning about chainsaws and how to use them we’ll go on to chapters about which wood makes the best firewood and how (and why!) to season green wood properly. From there we’ll look at splitting firewood (including “problem” wood with knots or twisted grain), and the tools you’ll need to accomplish that. Safety is stressed throughout.

All through the book I’ll keep an eye on expenses. There’s a big difference between the equipment requirements of the professional woodcutter or logger compared to the homeowner just getting a few cords for the fireplace every year. Likewise I’ll bring up options for the more diminutive woodcutters among us. After all, not everyone is a testosterone driven, Paul Bunyan wannabe!

Keep in mind that this is the beginner’s course in woodcutting. I’ll tell you some ways to spot problem trees and then advise you to leave them to professionals. I have no desire to delve into the more advance techniques of woodcutting. Sawing on trees can be very dangerous work. Leave the risky trees to professionals until you’ve had a lot of experience and training. By the time you’re that good you’ll have the wisdom and knowledge you need to tackle the big jobs.

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1-8 December, 2012 - New Book, Phone Problems, Little Boys

Any one want some rain?  We've had weeks of rain and cloudy weather.  We have nearly a thousand watts of solar panels yet the average daily charge rate has been around one amp per hour due to cloudy skies.  We've had one day in which the solar panels brought the batteries up to full charge.  Yesterday it finally cooled off enough that we got some snow (about three inches). 

The good thing is that I finished up a Kindle book and got it published online at Amazon Books.  The listed price is $3.99 and like the title says it's aimed for those who know very little about firearms. 

It's available at:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=the+gun+guide+for+people+who+know+nothing+about+firearms

 So far it's only available on the Kindle format. There will be a print version out very soon.

One thing that sets it apart is the photography.  I took a lot of time putting the photos together and setting them up.  One of my pet peeves are e-books with little tiny photos in them.  Most of mine take up an entire page and the writing is easy to read.

This is one after resizing but before labeling.

I shot most of them free hand but used the tripod on a few.  Susan snapped this when I wasn't looking!

Scott helped.

Scott's showing his youngest cousin some of his toys.  

We found a mini-trampoline for Scott at the thrift store.  The first time he did a flip over the bar he giggled then said, "oh-oh!"  Then he did it again. 

We had some of his bigger toys stored in the barn but he accompanied Susan out there a couple of days ago and discovered the stash.  Now it looks like a toddler's used vehicle lot in the cabin.  We're slowly getting them put back in the barn whenever he isn't watching.

The phone quit a couple of days ago.  I did some checking to see if it was our problem or the phone company's.  It was ours so I re-routed the phone cable going to the cabin and set the phone jack in a new location.  We put the kitchen counter in after the phone was installed.  The problem was that if water drips off the back corner of the counter top it hits the phone jack which corrodes the wires then the phone quits working.  I moved the jack to a safer location so hopefully that will be the last time we have to deal with that problem.

I set the portable phone base outside while I was re-routing the wires so we'd have phone service while I worked.  It's all finished now.

Other than that it's been business as usual for this time of year.   I've got a load of clothes soaking in the laundry tubs.  We still have meals to prepare, dishes to wash, wood to split and bring in every day and other chores to do.  We still have a few potatoes left to sort and store in the root cellar too.  Winters are our slack time so we get a lot of writing done.  I'm not running the trap line this year so we may be able to head for Nevada early next year...we hope!

31 October, 2012 - Roto Rooter, Electric Chain Saws, Home Again ...

It's nice to be home again although we miss the warmer weather and friends and relatives down south!

One of the trophies I got building the deck.  The drill slipped and I ran the screwdriver bit into my thumb.  It's healing nicely.

The joys of home ownership!  While we were at my mother's house the sewer pipe became clogged with tree roots so Roto-Rooter was called in to fix it.  One of the tiles about thirty feet from the house had partially collapsed and the tree growing overhead had plugged the drain pipe.  He got it opened up again but recommended that some repairs be made.  Estimates put them (new pipe and double clean-outs) around $800.00.  It should be done within a month. 

Small children love to follow the examples of adults.  Here Scott picked up a section of the newspaper and joined Susan in "reading" it.  Pretty soon though, he was snuggled in her lap while she read the paper.

I've never owned an electric chain saw and my stepfather had three of them so I gave them a test run.  The first one is run on 19 volt batteries.  It wasn't impressive at all.  A bow saw would be faster by the time you change the batteries every couple of minutes.

The two saws that used a power cord did well.  This little McCulloch cut like a champ and was difficult to bog down.  It did make more noise though than the saw shown below it.

The best one was this 3.5 HP, 16 in. Craftsmen saw.  It was fast and comparable to the majority of gasoline powered mini-saws in that size range.  Of course you're limited by the power cord but if you're looking for a small saw to use around the home place it wouldn't hurt to keep in mind one of these electric models.  They're much easier on the ears!

We headed for home, stopping once more at Paladin Press in Boulder, CO on the way.  I took a few photos while there.  We picked up another 30 of my books along with a few written by other authors.  I get a substantial discount due to being one of their authors.

This is coming over the pass between Livinston and Bozeman, Montana (heading west).  I used to live about four miles south of where this photo was shot. We were six miles beyond the closest power line.  It was my first experience living off-grid. 

This is Scott in his bee costume and his mother getting ready to hit the streets trick-or-treating.

His mom and dad are swinging him between them as they walk down the hill.  Scott loves it!

After making the rounds, Scott was busy as a little bee checking out DVD's and Computer games.  He had a blast once he figured out that people at the houses would give him candy.  He'd hold onto whatever they gave him until he got to the next house then he'd drop that handful of candy to make room for whatever they gave him there.

Now there's more wood to be cut, split and stacked, and I need to put the winter tires on the Cherokee.  Hunting season is in full swing as well with trapping season open for water trapping (beaver, otter, muskrat, mink).  We're way behind and are playing catch-up now.  I guess boredom won't be a problem any time soon!

Creating the Low-Budget Homestead

My book is printed up now and I recieved my ten copies from Paladin Press in the mail today.  They did a nice job on it.  The title is Creating the Low-Budget Homestead.  The retail price is $25.00.

28 August - 4 September, 2012 - Camper Painting, Wood Cutting, Truck Repairs, and more...

It's been one of our more productive weeks.

The U-Haul got a new coat of paint this week. We decided to repaint the camper to a lighter color to make it a little cooler in the sun. Susan masked off the windows and lights and covered the cab with old blankets.

Then she began shooting the paint. 

We're using an airless paint gun which doesn't throw the best spray pattern but does okay considering the primitive conditions we're under.  The bad thing is that it takes a lot of cleaning to keep it functioning properly.

Susan finished the light color then we decided we didn't like it and bought some new paint to go over this coat.  It's nearly the same color but more glossy. More on that in the next blog!

We have a son-in-law who works at a grocery store and the store threw out a box of bananas because they were getting too ripe to sell.  He gave most of them to us and Susan peeled and froze them.  We bought some chocolate coating and after they're frozen they'll make great treats.  Take them out, dip them in chocolate and they'll taste great on these hot, 80 degree days, we've been having.  (Okay, 80 degrees is hot for around these parts!)

We bought another hundred pounds of grain for the chickens but decided to save it for later.  Regular chicken feed has tripled in price in the last two years so we're getting more creative.  We bought a 50 lb. sack of cracked corn and another of mixed grain of corn and barley.  We'll mix them together when the time comes to feed them to the chickens but in the meantime we ground up another fifty or so pounds of outdated or rancid food stores.  (We've been rotating our stored supplies and feeding the old stuff to the chickens.)

Scott couldn't wait to help and is dumping old rice and beans into the hopper of the grinder.  You can't see them but the chickens are crowded under the table eating the rice that he spills.  It took about two hours of grinding to fill the 50 lb. sack.  We used rice, beans and old pasta for the most part.

The long, sunny days have given us an abundance of electricity so I've been running the case tumbler in the afternoons.  I've got about a thousand brass cases to run through the cleaner.  These are 30/06 and 270 brass.

Our youngest son "retired" his pickup.  He was given a newer car that gets much better gas mileage and he's giving this one to a sibling (we don't know which one yet).  He told us to take the tires (nearly new) which I'll put on the Cherokee later.

I dismounted his old tires and put some others back on that still had some life left in them.  Here I'm breaking the bead lose using my Harbor Freight tire machine.

Now I'm removing the tire from the rim using the same machine.  We got this one on sale a few years ago but they're still under $100.00 at Harbor Freight Tools.  We paid for this one the first time we used it.  I have an article coming out soon in Backwoods Home Magazine showing how to use it.

There are three, current issue, magazines on the news stands now with my articles in them.  They are Fur-Fish-Game, Back Home Magazine and Traditional Bowhunter Magazine.

The truck had a dead miss in it so I located which cylinder was cutting out then checked the compression.  It was about 125 pounds but the gauge leaked down before I could take the photo.  Anyway, that's plenty of compression for the cylinder to fire.

I checked the resistance in the plug wire and it checked out okay so ...

I checked the plug.  It's in serious need of replacement but the parts store is a ways off and I'll let whoever gets the truck buy new plugs for it so I opted for a temporary fix for now.

In case you aren't familiar with how spark plugs "wear," in the first photo you can see how the center electrode is rounded and burned down more on one side.  The rounded edges make it more difficult for the spark to jump the gap.  When the air in the cylinder is compressed as in the compression stroke it's even harder for the spark to jump the gap.  In the old days of point type ignition the spark plug would quite firing long before this.  The newer, electronic ignitions have a lot more juice (over 80,000 volts) though so it isn't uncommon to see plugs worn to this extent.  The problem is though, that when they get this bad it's sometime easier for the spark to go through the spark plug wire which burns the plug wire out.  Then you have to replace the wires and the plugs. So far the wires are okay.

Anyway, to "fix" the plug you can file the electrode flat again (as in the photo above).  You'll want a spark plug - AKA "ignition" or "point" - file (which you don't see many of today).   You can use an emery board (like those used in a manicure) in a pinch.  I put the plug in a vice and filed the electrode flat again then re-gapped the plug and the engine is running smooth again.  I'm sure the other plugs are worn as well so whoever gets it will need to replace them all.

We also siphoned the gasoline from the forward tank to use in the Dodge.  The tank switch valve hasn't worked on this truck since he got it two or three years ago so this fuel is getting some age on it.  We thought we'd better get it used up if it's still good.  (It was ... barely!)  The best siphon hose I've found is a hose and bulb for outboard boat motors.  The cheap ones don't work well and don't last long. I've used this one for several years.

I'd cut up a couple of small, dead trees back where the truck had been parked and loaded them into the back to bring to the wood shed.  It's the first wood cut for the season.

I knew where there were some recently blown down trees so I cut a couple of loads of them for firewood.  They're green yet so I'll stack them in the back of the wood shed to cure until we need them.

Because the wood was still green I didn't fill the truck quite as full due to the weight of the wood.  When the springs are flattened out I stop loading the truck.  I don't like replacing broken springs.  The first load is on the ground and the second load is still in the truck.  Only eight more loads to go!

I set my game camera up on a nearby trail to start taking inventory of the local deer passing through.  (You can see it on the tree in the center of the photo.)

When we (Scott and I) went to check it yesterday the cat came along.  There was a dead rabbit (snowshoe hare) in the trail.  It's unusual to see one like this.  Most of the time you just find some fur scattered about.

Scott wanted to check out the stump a bear ripped apart.  We put a bell on him to help keep track of him. 

When I got to my camera I saw that the lens to the flash was broken.  I had two pictures of the possible culprit.  The first was mostly fur as was the second.  I can't tell what kind of critter it was.  We have deer, elk, moose, bears (black and grizzly), wolves, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, mountain lions in addition to dogs and small game in the area.  Any ideas about what's in the picture?  I couldn't tell by the tracks in the area either.  It's a well-used trail.

Of course, the only clear photo I got of a deer is one where his head is behind a stump!

Noticing the angle of the sun it's entirely possible that the sun broke the lens out.  The flash's reflector may have focused the sunlight directly on the lens.  Anyone have any ideas or experiences with this?