Benjamin Scribner's Blog, page 3

The weeks news. Change, a buyer for the cabin (maybe) and life, or the end of life.

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

Change, it’s inevitable, whether it occurs on a global scale, or on a more personnel level, it happens. In the case of the planet, change takes many millennia, so slowly we don’t notice, because it doesn’t happen in our lifetime (if we’re lucky). Whereas, on a personal level, change starts from the moment we are born, and continues until we no longer exist.

Things are changing around here. People are once again moving up on the mountain and determined to fight the mountain for superiority. The mountain will once again win because it doesn’t care one wit what you want. However, people have to learn this lesson the hard way. It’s better to live with the mountain than to fight it. You only wear yourself out trying to beat it into submission, and the mountain carves another notch in it’s history belt. If it could.

We are changing, moving from my beloved mountain home to the state of Maine. My disability is getting much worse, there are things I can no longer do that I could just a few short months ago. We won’t be leaving until around this time next year because the lovely wife got a substantial raise in pay, and I should be moved up to 100% by the VA very soon, giving me a hefty raise as well. We want to pay off a few small bills, then put as much money in the savings account as we can before we leave. This will give us enough for the move as well as the expenses that come with moving into the new home once we arrive.

We may already have a buyer for our cabin. The son of the gal that owns the land next to ours wants to buy it. He is coming back from the east coast next month and wants to sit down and discuss a deal. Right now, the market around here for bare land is high, much of it listing for close to $300,000. I have buildings on my piece, and could, most likely get a high price for it. But, one thing I do know about the market is that it will go down, leaving many people upside down in what they owe compared to what it is now worth. This has happened many times in the last thirty years. I intend to give him a reasonable price, and we can go from there. I do not need to make a huge profit, nor do I want to upset a friend. As long as we make enough to put a sizable amount on the next house, we will be happy.

The lovely wife and I headed to town the other day, and stopped by the dumpsters near the main highway to toss our trash. There near the top of the bin were pictures, mostly black and white, some were the old Polaroid ones, in those photo album pages that people put pictures in. This was someone’s life, a history of their family, their relatives and friends, now tossed unceremoniously in the trash. It was sad to think that this is where we will end up, metaphorically speaking, sometime after we are long gone from this world. To think that that’s all there is; someone, probably a relative, has tossed you away like trash. I suppose that it will always be like that. Henry David Thoreau wrote that man lives a life of quiet desperation, and goes to the grave with a song still in his heart, or something close to that. To us, and our closest kin, we are somebody, but to distant relations, we are nothing more than pictures in a dumpster, nothing to concern themselves with as they move on with their lives of quiet desperation, to the sad end that they left another in.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. Trying to dry out, one more year, and model railroading.

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

It’s May, and normally we would be having warm weather and some rain. Instead, we’re getting cold and snow, though, the road is now clear enough to drive all the way into the yard once again thanks to the rains a couple of days ago.

We have decided to stay here one more year so we might put as much money in our savings account as we can for our move. The lovely wife just got a great raise in her pay, now getting paid her full driver pay for the entire activity trip, no matter if she’s driving or waiting for the team; previously, she had received a significantly smaller amount for non-driving hours. This has meant a sizable jump in her paycheck, and a boon for us to be able to put money aside. Meanwhile, I am waiting for the VA to make their determination on raising my disability rating from 90% to 100%. That will also mean more money every month, so more money to put into savings. We intend to put this cabin on the market this fall, possibly in October, that way, we can leave when the road is clear next spring, around this time of the month, and the real estate agent can start showing it without us being here.

The lovely wife has been busy with teams competing for districts, and then maybe on to state. She has been getting home late at night, then going in the next day to clean her bus for the next run. Later this month, she will be gone for at least three days down in the southern part of the state for the state track competitions. I won’t see much of her until sports ends for the summer.

I have been finding things to keep myself busy while I wait for the weather to warm up. Many years ago, when I was 14, I had a model railroad. It wasn’t much, back then I didn’t know how to do a lot of detailing and other things. When I joined the Navy, I got rid of everything. Then after I got out and started driving a rig, I had no time for the hobby. After all these years, I decided to start one again. I don’t have any track laid down yet, or room to even start a layout, but I have been building a lot of buildings. I love the wooden kits I see, but they are way beyond my price range. So, I find the old plastic kits from the 70’s. I can usually buy them cheap online, and am learning how to make them look real, and also how to take a few kits and combine them into one. It’s a lot of fun, and I am keeping my small motor skills working. I figure, by the time we move, I will have almost all of the buildings I need for a decent layout. Packing them up will be a chore, but worth it.

I have also discovered paper kit buildings, where you print off the building on card stock and cut it out, fold them, and you have a very detailed building. They look really good, and there are people online who make them look even better, so I am learning how to do that. My first attempt was less than stellar, but that’s what it’s all about, learning something new. I am having fun with it. Hopefully, when we get settled into our new home back east, I can get started on a real layout, and start placing all of these buildings I am having so much fun constructing.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. Another trip around the sun, the seasons can’t make up their mind which one is happening now, and of course, moose

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

I turned 61 this past week, and not quit sure how to take it. For someone who wasn’t supposed to live past the age of 3, and then faced more during my years on this rock, I’m kinda surprised I’m still here.

Our weather can’t seem to settle; one day it’s in the 60’s, the next, we’re getting snow. April is supposed to be rain, and flowers blooming, yet, here we are. We have had a few inches fall, and more on the way this week. So much for April showers bringing May flowers; maybe April snows bring May woes.

Our very pregnant moose has been hanging around quite a bit lately. Two days in a row , she was in our yard, driving the dogs crazy. She has also been down in the lower lot, and I will often check to see if she’s there before going down to the other building for something.

This past winter my disability surged to the point that I can no longer do things I was capable of just a few months ago. I can no longer hold a chainsaw for more than a few minutes before it tries slipping from my fingers. That’s not something you want happening with a running saw. So, this week, I took both of my big chainsaws into a local shop to have them sell them. One I just purchased last summer and only used three or four times before putting it away, the other one was one I bought when I first moved here, and my son was using it until he left. I kept our small chainsaw; the lovely wife can handle it if the need arises, and I probably could in a pinch since it’s light.

Now, we are making plans to sell our beloved cabin on the mountain. Being from New England, I want to move back there somewhere, as does the lovely wife. Even though she is from Iowa, she doesn’t want to live there. We were looking at homes in Vermont, because I just like that state and have never actually lived there. However, everything there is a bit more expensive than we’re looking for. Therefore, we started looking in Maine. I think that’s where we will end up. I lived there once before, in Penobscott, then in Castine, until my family moved back to New Hampshire. I don’t think that this time we will move to the coast, since homes are way out of our price range there. Further inland there are nice affordable homes, a couple are even near the Canadian border.

Nothing is set in stone yet, as we need to finish a few things here first, but moving is in the not-too-distant future, possibly even this coming fall. I will miss the moose here, though. Many have grown accustomed to our presence, and don’t mind us around. I can only hope the next owner of this cabin feels the same way about the moose as we do. But that seems unlikely.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. 2 moose, some work around the cabin, and Ukraine

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

Spring showed up for a time, then today it started snowing, a typical March in the northwest. It’s supposed to warm up and turn to rain, but I’m not counting on it, at least not up here. Last spring, one of the moose that hangs around here gave birth not far from the cabin. She is one of twins that have come around here a lot over the last few years. Then, this week, a young moose started coming around. We spooked it as we were coming home; it had been in our driveway, and ran out as we approached. Later on, another moose showed up, this one pregnant and very likely the same one who had given birth near us last spring. Calves normally stay with their mother for up to two years, unless mamma gets pregnant again, then mamma will run the calf off. I believe that is what happened, since the young moose seems familiar with our place, and even knows were the mineral lick was. There has been a moose or two down where we put the lick in the fall, digging up the snow looking for it. The lovely wife and I picked up a new one last time we went to town and set it where the old one had been. We dropped a few carrots near it as well. Hopefully, the moose will return soon looking for it again.

While my son was here, he was given quite a bit of white cedar that had been polyurethaned and had intended to use it in his cabin. He moved before he got around to it. Since our weather was nice, I set up my table and chop saws on the deck, and the lovely wife and I spent two days cutting and nailing it up on the last two walls in the bedroom. I had wanted to rent a planer and take off the old finish first, but after closer inspection with a wet rag, found all of it to be in really good shape as it was. Now the only thing left to do in the bedroom is the ceiling, a job I don’t know if I really want to tackle.

I had the misfortune to look in our cistern a few days ago, and discovered about two inches of sediment on the bottom from the snow we have been putting into it. It’s that time of year when the snow is very dirty. This time of the season, we end up hauling in water jugs to keep the cistern full, a job that keeps the lovely wife very busy, since she’s normally the one in town. We emptied the remaining water in the cistern, then took it to town to the self-serve car wash for a good cleaning. Now, we have fresh water, sans sediment.

I normally shy away from world events here, but I cannot live in a vacuum. I cannot not be heartbroken by people on the other side of the world losing everything to a foolish war. I am deeply saddened by the events unfolding in Ukraine, and can only hope Ukraine, and its people, remain strong, survive, and that those souls who are currently displaced by the war can return home once again to pick up their shattered lives. I know nothing will be the same for the people there, and that saddens me the most. “War is an ugly beast, a nasty thing, and no one comes away unscathed. The closer you were, the deeper the scars,” a quote from my first book. May their scars be not so deep that they cut clean through, severing any hope of recovery.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. Winter, we hardly knew ye.

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

In anticipation of more snow, I added a plow to the UTV last week, and after trying to use the headlights, added a light bar to the roof as well. It seemed no matter where the plow was sitting, the headlights were shinning on the back of it and being directed back into our eyes. The light bar is much better, as it’s brighter and shines further out. So much further, in fact, that this morning on the way down, we spotted a young moose in the road much sooner then we normally would have, giving us time to slow down and let it get off the road. The only benefit to having the plow on now is, come spring when the snow gets mushy and bare spots start showing up, I can plow the deeper snow into the bare spots, so it will melt faster, instead of our usual method of driving the pickup into the snow until it stops moving, backing out until the snow in the tire tracks melts, and repeating the process until we can drive all the way into the driveway.

Snows on the mountain this season were not well suited to snowmobile use, therefore, we have not used either one of our snowmobiles this winter. With little prospect of more snow that will change our need for them, shortly, I will make them ready for their long summer sleep.

After a month of snow pretty much every day, now, we have sunny and warm weather. It’s been up in the 50’s and 60’s around the northwest this past week, and the forecast is looking like a warm March with rain. There have been a couple of days when we have shut the pellet stove down during the day as it’s been so warm, no sense wasting pellets. I’m not looking forward to fire season this summer. We really could use more snow.

My shoulder is healing, though slowly. The VA recommends physical therapy, which would be either at their clinic up in the city or at a clinic 16 miles away. I opted to wait for now. Last time I talked to the clinic, almost everyone was out sick with the virus, and I really don’t want another risk right now. We have talked about looking online for exercises I can do at home and I like that option better.

The logging company had been plowing the road after every storm, then they stopped, leaving a thin sheet of snow over ice, which after the warm temperatures, left us with a road covered with ice. This has made getting the UTV in and out difficult at best, though I have managed it. The lovely wife has started taking the four-wheeler down when she has to go to work, since it has tire chains on the rear tires, and it can stay closer to the edge of the road where there’s more snow. She has had some trouble, but nothing like the trouble I have had with the UTV. I can often get up on the ice, but going down I have gone sideways a few times. Where the sun hits, there’s a lot more dirt showing, making travel easier, but in shaded areas, the ice is still thick. I’m hoping that warmer temperatures will help melt it faster. Either that, or I will have to go down with a pickax and start breaking some of it up in the hopes that poking a few holes in the thicker parts, the rest will break up and melt.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye, for now.

The weeks news. A short story

I’m still recovering from that dislocated shoulder, so enjoy this short story I wrote.

Spell of the Sea

Call it fate, luck, or whatever phrase you choose, but it all started the day a young mother boarded a plane bound for New Orleans with her nine-month-old son. The elevation of the aircraft caused the infant to become fussy, making the young mother nervous, as she didn’t want to disturb the other passengers. Enter two sailors, heading for Mardi Gras. They were wearing their Dress Blues, what we refer to as Cracker Jacks, their covers are commonly known as Dixie Cups. They started entertaining the infant, letting him hold their Dixie Cups, and doing other things to keep the infant from fussing. From that day forward, the sea was in my blood. Yes, I was that fussy babe all those years ago.

Later, we would live on the coast of Maine, near the Maine Maritime Academy, a college that prepares men for life as Naval officers or as sailors in the Merchant Marines. I would often fish on the wharf near the training ship, The State of Maine, and would watch it head for the open sea, wishing I was with them, or see it return from a training exercise, the men on the weather deck working the lines as the ship was pushed to the pier. Some years later, at the age of seventeen, I would join the Navy, thus fulfilling some weird prophecy that had been foretold all those years ago.

There is nothing that can compare to being on the ocean, the calm, glass smooth sea to the distant horizon, or the angry sea, waves tossing a mighty warship around as if it were nothing more than a cork. I have been on the bridge of a destroyer as it was submerged briefly, the bow disappearing, followed by the 5-inch 54-gun mount vanishing beneath the water, then the ASROC launcher on the deck above, and then the bridge, the wave finally passing down the weather deck as we emerged out the other side, only to meet the next one and repeat the procession. Those are the times when you feel most alive.

Years later, I reenlisted during a war, and instead of being at sea, I was stationed near it, serving on a gun mount protecting a harbor that our ships used for offloading needed equipment for the front line further north. I felt the connection even there, a binding that cannot easily be broken.

However, there eventually comes a time when every old salt leaves the sea for good. As an old adage goes: the old seaman would grab an oar, putting it on their shoulder, and head inland until some landlubber asked what that funny stick was they were carrying. It was there that the sailor would settle down for the remainder of his years. I do not believe one can truly leave the sea, or at least the sea never truly leaves them. There is a bond with her that can’t be broken by mere distance. The mystery, the majesty, that holds its secrets deep enthralls the sailor for eternity; there is no escaping the hold the sea has on you.

I have often thought that I was born in the wrong century. I have longed for the days of wooden ships and iron men, the thunder of canon, the slap of the canvas sails, the smell of the oakum and tar. But, those days are long gone, and one must live in the time they are born into. Yet, there is another sea, not one of this earth, but one of stars, a sea of new worlds, new galaxies, new adventures. To live in this new age, sailing among the very stars the seaman of old used to navigate by would truly be something to see. I will often stand out on the deck and gaze towards the Milky Way above me, identifying those constellations I remember from my days at sea. The wonder, mystery, and majesty, are there, awaiting the bold explorer, the new seaman of the stars, who will take our race to the next level. How I long to be one of them, though that is not to be. My time is long past, my adventures only a memory now to be relived in tales old sailors tell each other when we gather together. If reincarnation exists, I can only hope to return as a sailor once again, starting life as a squalling babe in his mothers arms, two sailors doing their best to calm my tantrums, as the craft navigates the stars to some distant destination far distant from this world.

A dream of mine:

I stand on the deck, staring out at the stars blanketing the night sky. My ship rocks gently in the current as it travels. In this age of sail, I have exchanged canvas for solar as my ship and I glide through the cosmos, heading for ports unknown.

The weeks news. snow, lots of snow, and an injury

It’s been a crazy week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

I had intended to write a Christmas blog, then a New Year’s one, but it hadn’t stopped snowing for very long since before Christmas, and until yesterday, we hadn’t seen a day without at least a snow flurry. We have more snow then we had all last winter, and as of this writing, all four of the mountain passes that connect the coast of Washington to the rest of the country are closed because of record snowfall. One, the interstate highway, is supposed to open later today. Our insulated coveralls, winter coats, and other winter gear, have been damp to the point that we took them to town yesterday to throw them all in a commercial washer to get the mildew smell out of them. The lovely wife’s winter coat was so threadbare, we stopped and got her a new one. Mine isn’t far behind, but it wasn’t near as bad as hers.

I spent Friday in the ER. I managed to dislocate my right shoulder dealing with the lovely wife’s snowmobile. The less said about that, the better as it was a stupid accident that, in retrospect, might not have been the best idea ever. So, for the next week or so, I get to wear a sling, even when sleeping. Unfortunately this means the lovely wife has to do more. She already was doing most of the shoveling off of the roofs, since my left shoulder is damaged, and I am awaiting surgery on it next month. I am trying to do what I can with one arm, but it isn’t enough to take the load off her. The weather service is calling for a week of warmer temperatures and sun, so we can get a break, and catch up. I’m hoping winter slows down a bit, we need the snow, but not all at once. At least fire season should be less of a threat this coming summer.

Amaroq and Shikoba have been enjoying the snow, and even Jade acts like a puppy at times when she’s outside. The puppies sneak in chunks of ice when they can, and play keep away for the other one until it melts or is eaten.

The moose have moved, we haven’t seen any sign of them around here, but that’s not unusual. I have seen sign near the internet tower I service during the winter, so they’re still around, just not near the cabin.

We’re waiting to see what the logging company does this year. So far, they have plowed the road twice, using a skidder, and the guy running it said he will be plowing it with a dozer sometime soon. For now, we haven’t been using the snowmobiles, because we don’t want to get trapped at the bottom if they plow while we’re gone.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. Ready or not, winter is here. (We’re ready)

It’s been a snowy week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

This past week, we have had snow reminiscent of storms I remember when I first moved here. After nothing for weeks, it hit and really hasn’t let up since. I had covered my snowmobile while it was still sitting on the ground. Today, the lovely wife and I spent a while digging it out, then towing it up out of the deep hole it was in. Then, we had to fill in that hole so as not to tip one of the machines into it when coming into the yard. I won’t let it get covered by that much snow again.

We spent the rest of today digging out and snow-blowing paths. I also started getting some of the snow off the cabin roof, and the lovely wife started on the shed roof. While up on the west side of the roof, I was trying to knock enough snow off to get at the ice that dams up along the edge of the roof. My goal was to hopefully knock enough of the ice off that the rest of the snow that has built up would slide off on its own without us having to shovel it off. I had just moved to a new spot, and started, when a whole section of the ice and snow came off next to me. The lovely wife was inside, heard it, and came running outside, thinking it was me coming off with it. I decided it was time to quit (with insistence from the lovely wife). There’s still more to do, but it will have to wait, we both have appointments this week, and the lovely wife will be going into work, even though it’s Christmas break, because she needs to repair seats on a few of the buses. It’s extra money, so no worries. I will do what I can while she’s gone to town.

It seems the moose have put the word out that there’s a salt lick, carrots, and other goodies to be had on the lower lot, because there are fresh tracks almost every morning across the end of our driveway, and the twin sister has been caught bedding down near the lick a few times. Others have been seen around as well.

Our newest resident up here, Joe, isn’t as prepared as he should be, though he has two four-wheelers and a small tracked vehicle that looks like a miniature of a snow cat used at ski areas. He has a tendency to procrastinate, and has been caught with only his snowmobile for transportation. He isn’t experienced with it, and managed to bury it a few times this week. I have told him I would be willing to help him get his other machines in working order, just let me know. As of yet, he hasn’t. I won’t pester him but I also don’t want to end up as his taxi. We did manage to convince him that his pickup needed to be at the bottom of the mountain, and he was thinking he could drive one of his other vehicles in and out using only tire chains. He figured out real quick that didn’t work. He buried a small SUV in his driveway, and that ended that, for which we are thankful. It seems every newcomer to the mountain wants advice, then has to learn the hard way that I know what I’m talking about. Some have caused no end of trouble before getting it through their heads. Others have left. I think Joe will learn.

We are hoping for a good winter, with lots of snow, as it will make fire season less of a danger to us up here. But, I’m not holding my breath. January could just as easily bring warm temperatures and rain, as it could more snow.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. Thanksgiving, moose, and no snow.

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

It’s thanksgiving week, a four day weekend for the school district, which I’m sure some kids are loving. We had around eight inches of snow at the start of the week, and today, I drove the pickup all the way into our driveway. Normally, we would have a couple of feet by now, but these are not normal times. Over the last few years, I have watched the depth of the snow drop significantly, from well over eight feet when I first moved up here, to only three feet this past winter. It starts later, and melts off earlier, every year. When the lovely wife first moved up, there were deep snowdrifts down below in the clear cut areas, now there’s mostly ice and dirt down there. It might snow enough to get a snowmobile all the way down to the bottom, but it only lasts a few days before it’s gone.

Earlier in the week, a rather large chunk of ice came off the roof over the propane tanks, snapping off both of the regulators for the stove and the fridge. I had one replacement, so hooked it up to the fridge, the other regulator I had was for a different type of tank, the five gallon ones, so we had to hook up one of those for the stove. Yesterday and today, we went to work putting a roof over the tanks. Over the summer, lumber was too expensive, but now, since my son and his family are gone, I went down and took a wall down that he had started framing upstairs last summer. We used the lumber, and some plywood scraps he had, and put up the roof. I have one more small piece of plywood to grab, and it will be finished. It’s only a temporary solution, as the plywood is ½ inch, and the rafters are only 2X4’s. I want 2X6’s and 5/8 inch plywood up there for a stronger roof, and will also add metal roofing. But, for now, it will keep ice chunks from causing anymore damage.

The lovely wife’s snowmobile is finished. I was the one who figured out what was wrong, saving us the expense of a “new” stator. It turns out, and I found the answer in the owners manual of all places, that the throttle safety switch went bad, and in order for it to run, it has to be unplugged. After I told the shop, they tried it, and it’s now running. The bill, though, is still a bit high, and I won’t be bringing her machine home until the first of January. Chances are, we won’t need it until then, anyway, the way things are going so far. But, we still have my machine, and my son’s, if needed.

Some of you know that we have a lot of moose around here; they often come right into the yard. We have a mineral lick for them down near the other cabin, and we will often put a 25lb bag of carrots, and other greens, down there for them during the winter months. We rarely see any bull moose around though, mostly cows and calves. That changed the other day when the lovely wife was coming home. She turned into the driveway for the other cabin (my shop now) and spotted a huge bull moose munching on the carrots. She stopped, took a picture, and backed out, coming up the road and turning into our driveway instead. We have been going through the lower lot to pack the snow so we don’t have such a hard turn into our driveway. She thought it was better not to risk the big bull deciding she was challenging it by driving by him.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. A death, no snow, and high winds piss me off.

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

I have written about Allen, another long time resident up here, previously. He had,in the past, helped me, as we have helped him. He was found dead in his cabin last week, by a new resident, a guy named Joe. Joe had bought a piece of land above and to the west of us three years ago. He had, until this year, only been coming up during the summer months, leaving around October for his home state of Arizona. This past summer, he sold his home down there and moved up here permanently. He soon became friends with Allen, and was learning the “rules” for living up here. Joe hadn’t seen Allen for a few days, and went to check on him. According to the coroner, Allen died of a heart attack, likely 48 hours prior to being found. The sheriffs office is trying to find his next of kin. With Allen gone, we will be making sure that Joe has what he needs to get through his first winter on the mountain. It’s the neighborly thing to do up here.

We had some snow earlier in the week, around three inches, enough to make travel up and down a bit slippery, but nothing more. Then, the last two days, we have had nothing but rain, washing away the snow. In a normal winter, we would have close to a foot up here by now, and be parking the pickup at the bottom. This year, it’s looking like we may get far less snow than in the past. At least, as it stands now.

The lovely wife’s snowmobile is still in town at the shop. They cleaned the carburetors, and tried to start it. It won’t fire and is getting no spark. They thought it might be the CDI, but couldn’t find a new one for a machine that old (I still don’t think of the 90’s as old). They did find a used one, put it on, but the machine still won’t fire. They are now thinking it’s the stator, an electrical part that supplies power to everything on the snowmobile. How this piece went bad while it was sitting doing nothing is a mystery to me. Again, they are having trouble locating the part, though I have found three online. This week, I plan on pointing them out so the shop can finish up, and we can have our snowmobile back again. Now, normally ,I wouldn’t waste time on a machine this old, but this one is different. It has electric start and reverse. It also seats two people comfortably and has very low mileage; it’s hardly broken in. It didn’t cost us that much, and will be a machine we will have around for many years. That’s the only reason I want it fixed. They are getting harder to find in good shape, as most of them are bought and used by tour groups, then end up junk from such abuse. As it stands now, we might not even need it, but I want it ready if we do.

We had rain and very high winds overnight, high enough to tear part of the roof off two of our outbuildings. The lovely wife and I spent most of the morning making repairs. I plan on taking one of the buildings down next year, after we build the new addition, so I didn’t waste to much time and energy on that roof, only what was needed to keep the rain and snow out. We then took a trip around the mountain to take care of any downed trees that the wind might have laid across the road. Surprisingly, we didn’t find any that needed the chainsaw we brought with us. We did note some damage to a building on the site of the internet tower we help maintain in the winter and let our contact at the internet company know so he could inform the owners. Tomorrow, I will go check out another property up here that I have been asked to keep an eye on so that I can let that owner know if the winds have done anything he needs to tend to before winter makes it difficult to get in there.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.