Benjamin Scribner's Blog, page 6

The weeks news. Ernest T and Sherylee, a tale.

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

     A few things happen over time, and if I don’t deem them news worthy, I don’t include them in my updates. Such is what has gone on the last few weeks. Ernest T and Sherylee, whom I wrote about in my first book, moved back to the area. First, they were just outside of town, living in a camping trailer parked in a local business’s parking lot. Then, shortly before it snowed, they moved back up on the mountain to the cabin he had built their first year here (this was also my first year). From talking to them, their sojourn to Chili didn’t pan out as planned, and they only stayed in Idaho a month before moving to Texas.  Two years later, they sold their home there, moving elsewhere, and eventually ending up back here this past summer.  They remind me of the poem by Robert Service, “The Men That Don’t fit In.”   It begins: “There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,/A race that can’t sit still;/So they break the hearts of kith and kin,/And they roam the world at will.” (You can find the entire poem at http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_william_service/poems/12384 )  Sounds like a poem that explains my life, until you read further and discover that they are men who cannot ever make headway, because of their own shortcomings. They rail at the world, crying “why?”, and failing to realize they are their own downfall. Ernest T and Sherylee are the same way, never settling anywhere long enough to get ahead, before they think the grass is greener somewhere else.   True to form, it wasn’t long before they decided that living up here again wasn’t going to work, and they decided to move yet again, this time, to Arizona.  That decided, this week, they packed a storage trailer, loaded it and a car onto his flatbed, and left on Friday.

     The tale of them getting the trailer off the mountain is one only my son can know for sure, I got the information second hand from him.  I was in town doing laundry, waiting on the lovely wife to finish cleaning her bus from the last activity run she had driven. My son had also been in town and had headed home before us. He made it to our road to discover that Ernest T had been backing their trailer down from their cabin and had managed to bury it right there where our road met the main logging road. My son was able to get around it, and went home to drop off the items he had picked up in town before heading back down to watch the show. This time, Ernest T had his second pickup hooked to the front of the one attached to the trailer and was attempting to, once again, back down the mountain road. I will stop here for a moment to say that he is a truck driver, as I was, with possibly more miles driven than I have.  He should have known better than to back a trailer without any brakes down a snow- and ice-covered mountain road. A half mile down, the trailer, having a mind of its own, buried itself once again. It should be noted that it’s amazing it didn’t end up over the side where it would have dropped off about 80 feet, dragging both pickups with it. My son had to force them to agree to put one truck in front, as it should have been, and the other in back as an anchor. Now, Sherylee is a high-strung gal, prone to panicking easily, and she really wanted my son to drive the anchor truck, which he wisely refused to do.  Instead, he drove alongside her on his four-wheeler, instructing her when to turn and when to brake.  Meanwhile, the lovely wife and I are waiting at the bottom, not knowing what is going on because I can’t get in touch with my son. We kept expecting to see a pile of trucks and trailer, in a massive ball of wreckage, rolling past us as we waited.   Instead, they managed to make it down, Sherylee a nervous wreck, and get everything unhooked.  To say I’m sad to see them leave would be an overstatement. Though nice folks, I am glad they’re gone. Hopefully, it’s for good.

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

The weeks news. Of moose, and Thanksgiving past.

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

     The calendar says autumn, but up here, it says winter, complete with around three inches of fresh snow on the ground. When I went out earlier, there were fresh rabbit tracks around the sheds. They make their winter home under the sheds, and come out at night in search of food.  The lovely wife and I have talked about picking up some food to put out for them during the winter when their food is scarce.

     We recently had two young moose wander into our yard. They were checking things out, and seemed unconcerned about the lovely wife and I stepping out on the porch to snap a few pictures. They stayed around, moving up onto the bank behind the cabin, then going to the end of the driveway before crossing the road to my son’s cabin for the mineral licks we have there for them. They were enjoying it when last I walked down the driveway to check.

     The Thanksgiving break was not due to begin until the day before the holiday.  However, due to a rapid rise in Covid cases in ours and surrounding counties, the Panhandle Health District went to red status on Thursday last week.  This meant that the schools here shut down after school on Thursday until they figured out how to proceed.  The lovely wife has since heard that school will resume on the 30th with a mask requirement for all students and staff.

     I am reminded of a Thanksgiving tale from my younger days; it has become a kind of family tale, told around the table when we all sit down to eat.  I was probably 16 at the time, and if memory serves, we were living in a little house in Ossipee Village in the foothills of the White mountains. Every year, my uncle and his family would come by for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a long table, and food covered it from one end to the other.   It was easier to pass your plate, rather than having a dish passed to you, since so many people were trying to fill their own plates. I had added some things from the serving dishes right in front of me and handed my plate to a cousin who, in turn, handed it off to another down the table so food from other dishes could be added to it.  The idea being that they would then continue to pass it on further until it was filled and passed back to me. Well, I never saw that plate again. In the rush to fill plates, others thought it was a plate to take things off of, so as it was added to, something else was removed.

     After a while, I asked where my plate was. It was then that everyone realized what had happened. Everyone had a good laugh, I was given a fresh plate, and this time it was returned to me after passing it down the table. My mother will often bring it up at this time of year and we laugh about it still. Sadly, my favorite uncle is no longer with us, and I lost my father a few years ago. However, the memories of that holiday will live on as long as I live.

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

The weeks news. Our first snow, and a tale from my trucking days.

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

     We got our first real snow this week. It was supposed to be around six inches, so we moved the pickups to the bottom of the mountain, then put tire chains on the 4 wheelers. The storm wound up dumping a foot of powder on us, not easy to drive a 4-wheeler through, as my son found out when he went to pick up his wife after she got off work. Therefore, last night, he got his snowmobile ready for today’s trip to the pickup so his wife could get to work. I got the battery in mine today, started it, and then moved it around a bit to make sure everything still worked. Later this coming week, the temperatures are supposed to rise again, and hopefully, much of the snow will melt off, allowing us to get the trucks back in again.  

     Allen hasn’t been seen yet and his truck wasn’t at the bottom, so he won’t be going anywhere until it warms up enough to melt the snow. I hope that won’t be next spring.  I heard that part of town lost power for much of last night, with some still not having power yet today. A few have wood stoves, at least, so they will stay warm. The storm caught the county off guard as well, they hadn’t prepared the roads with whatever it is that keeps ice from building up, and as a result, there was a wreck on the highway that stopped everything for a while until it was cleared. I don’t know if there were any injuries yet, and I may not know.

      I realized the other day that I haven’t written much about my early days in the trucking industry. So, here’s a short tale for you.

     I was a new driver, driving the oldest rig at a company by the name of Yarmouth Lumber.  I was somewhere in Virginia on some back road, just having delivered a load, and in bad need of a shower and a hot meal. Well, there was this little truck-stop I happened to see up ahead, one of the now long-gone Union 76 stations. It wasn’t big, it had a dirt parking lot, and the restaurant was only a few tables. I asked about showers, dreading having to wait until I could get to one of the larger truck-stops along the interstate.  I was told the showers were in the basement. I quickly grabbed clean clothes and my shaving kit, paid $5 for the shower, and headed downstairs.

     Imagine my shock to find that the showers were in one room, with no door, and there was a washer and dryer there as well.  There were six shower stalls, none with any form of privacy, and a few sinks for shaving or brushing teeth. Well, I needed a shower, because unloading a 48-foot trailer is very dirty work, and in the summer heat, you sweat buckets. I was not about to go another day without bathing.  I quickly stripped down and jumped in, the water was at least hot, and that being all that mattered to me as I washed the grime off.

     I had just finished my hair, when I felt something on my foot. Looking down, I spotted a rather large cockroach using my big toe as an island from the torrent of water cascading down upon it.  I finished quickly after that, got dressed, and headed back to the front counter to have a word with the clerk there about their facilities.  The upshot is that I was refunded my $5 for the shower.  From there, I had a so-so meal and went to bed for eight hours.

     I don’t remember where that truck stop was after all these years, and even if I did, Union 76 truck-stops are long gone now, swallowed up by larger, more modern travel plazas with every modern convenience travelers might desire.  There are more tales from my time over the road, and I will share more of them in future writings.

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

The weeks news. Fall has arrived, and my favorite season. The lovely wife canning.

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

     The change of the seasons is upon us, a time to reflect on the past year as we button up the cabin and prepare for the coming snows. Fall is, and always has been, my favorite time of the year.  I remember well the colors of my New Hampshire home, and the crisp morning air. A time for apple picking, warm fires, hot tea, and good conversation.  It’s this time of year when I miss my New England home the most.  Now the holidays will come in quick succession: Halloween, then Thanksgiving, followed by every child’s favorite, Christmas. Then, we ring in a new year, and hope it treats us better than this past year has. 

     The fall rains have moved in, and with them, cooler temperatures. I have had the stove lit for a week now. The colder weather gives urgency to outside projects, as well as making sure all rakes and other gardening tools are stashed away in the workshop before the snow flies.  Snowmobiles are being readied, the dogsled has a new set of hinges for the lid, and the 4-wheeler will get tire chains put on before much longer. All five tons of pellets are stowed away in the woodshed, the yard has been raked, and anything that resembles scrap has been thrown away. The lovely wife’s garden has been stripped of any plants, and will be made ready for next spring. Though, I think next spring we are going to concentrate on building a greenhouse instead of planting. That way, the following spring, the lovely wife can start her plants early and continue them in the greenhouse.

The lovely wife has been making good use of the apples we picked a couple of weeks ago. today she tried her hand at making apple butter, and I must say, it came out just right. now we will have homemade apple butter for our morning toast this winter.

     Amaroq and Shikoba are a year old now and finished growing, we hope.  They are currently playing keep-a-way with a toy bone.  Even though there are three of them, there’s one they seem to both prefer, and are always playing keep-a-way with it. Sometimes, it will end in a fight, and we will have to get involved before one of them hurts the other, or one of us. Most times, they will get bored and find something else to do. Jade, at seven years old, would rather be left alone now that the weather is colder. We think she might have arthritis, and is in pain. Often, she wants to play with the puppies, but lately she’s been more irritated with them, often growling and snapping at them until they leave her alone.

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

The weeks news. A new pickup, and picking apples

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

     It’s October, and our fall rains have moved in, though not as bad as a normal year. I lit the stove last night for only the third or fourth time this fall as the days are still warm for the most part.  Last year by this time, we had been running the stove since early September and had already had one snow fall.  I’m hoping this rain helps the fires over in Washington state.

     Our pickup was getting tired.  It also had a few major issues that I could no longer work on, and since winter will be upon us soon, I also don’t have the time. So, the lovely wife and I went north to the city for our bi-monthly supply run and decided to also go looking for a newer pickup. We found one, and though it isn’t exactly what we wanted (a three-quarter ton or a one ton), it does have a canopy and is also much newer – a 2017 with very low miles and some of the warrantee left. It seems the last two owners didn’t drive it very much, as it only had 44,000 miles on it. It was a bit more than we wanted to spend, and we almost didn’t go through with it due to the lovely wife’s fears over the possibility of Covid-19 causing a shutdown at her job.  However, the salespeople at the dealership listened and made adjustments to the financing that we could work with and we drove it home that day.  It is definitely a noticeable improvement from our old truck and we both enjoy driving it.

     The new truck has more places to put things than any other vehicle I have ever owned. There are cubbyholes and USB ports everywhere. It’s a bit overwhelming.  Trucks used to be strictly utilitarian: rubber floor mats you could hose off, instead of carpet that gets packed with mud and dirt; simple gages to tell you speed, RPM’s, gas level, coolant temp, and very little else. This new one has an owner’s manual three inches thick, and a separate one just for the radio. I feel like I need a pilot’s license just to drive it. How far technology has come since the first model T rolled off the assembly line a little over a hundred years ago.

     We didn’t have the time last month to go apple picking, something we both enjoy doing, and the lovely wife likes to can them. However, last Sunday we had nothing else to do, so we grabbed the grandson and went picking. It was his first time, and he really enjoyed it. When we got home, the lovely wife and the grandson washed and sorted the apples and he was able to pick out some to take home to his family.  Yesterday, the lovely wife was able to process some of the apples we all gathered so we will have apples over the winter and spring.

     This month I will be getting the snowmobiles ready, as well as putting tire chains on the four-wheelers in preparation for the first snowfall, though with the warm temperatures right now, that may not be until next month. Last year in December, we were driving the pickups all the way in.  It’s too early to tell yet what this winter will be like, but I suspect it will be another mild one. Only time will tell.

That’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news. Moving the garden inside, a good score, and where there’s smoke.

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

     School is in session, though we don’t know for how long. Only time will tell if we end up with cases of the virus, and how many get infected. The lovely wife drove a route the first day, and though she was wearing a mask, none of the kids were. She will be driving the activities bus again this year.  From what the superintendent has said, the teams are required to wear masks when they are on the bus, as well as when they are in close proximity to others, so there might not be any issues there. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

     Smoke from nearby fires is thick this weekend, worse than in 2015 when I started building the addition on the cabin. We cannot see the valley; the smell outside and the ash in the air makes it hard to breathe whenever we go outside, though it isn’t much better inside. My lungs, damaged from necrotizing phenomena last fall, are making it an absolute hell for me. I have been taking it easy, though some things are getting done. I installed new stovepipe and cleaned the pellet stove this morning, and have been puttering around with a few other things.

     I often peruse sale sites on social media, looking for anything we can use up here that’s either cheap, or even better, free. I scored big time this week.  Composite decking that had been clipped down and was hardly faded. was listed for free, almost 800 square feet of it.  There is enough to redo our deck next summer as well as do my son’s deck when he builds one. I managed to rent a large enough trailer from the owner of the local shop I use for repairing my snowmobiles when I can’t.  He rented me his biggest trailer for only $40.   My son, who owns the bigger pickup, a 1 ton, followed us up to Spokane to help load and haul the decking home. We unloaded it yesterday, then loaded up our spare 4-wheeler which has an issue I can’t figure out, my son’s snowmobile which needs work I can’t do, and one of our machines that I think needs an engine rebuild, and dropped the whole mess off back at the shop. I hope to have word on our snowmobile soon so I can make a decision as to whether or not to rebuild it, or whether I need to find another one. I do like the machine, and hope that it’s nothing too serious to fix but I will get rid of it if I have to.

     The lovely wife has been making plant hangers for the plants she wants to keep over the winter: four kinds of mint, catnip and a few other herbs are now hanging from a couple of improvised shelves my son and I put up across the log beams in the living room. We are getting used to navigating around them, though they are near the walls, and we still bump into the plants hanging near the kitchen door from time to time.  It’s a double hanger she made; the plants will swing gently for a bit before settling down – until one of us bumps into it again. 

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

The weeks news. Labor Day weekend

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

     It’s Labor Day weekend, the last hurrah of summer. Kids will be returning to school this coming Tuesday, and I am sure many parents are looking forward to it.  Paul Bunyan Days were canceled this year due to Covid-19, and town was very much quieter today when we went for water, though I am sure many merchants are missing the surge in income this weekend.

     The metal roof is on our log shed, though I still need to finish screwing it down.  However, I am waiting for cooler temperatures before I climb up there to finish the job. No sense burning my hands on the hot metal.

     We have wanted a canopy for our pickup ever since we bought it. It just makes sense during the winter to keep the snow out of the bed of the truck.  Then, when we go up to the city for supplies, we do not have to shovel it out first, and anything we have to leave in the bed overnight stays dry and doesn’t get buried if we get more snow. The only problem, we have had trouble finding one that will fit our truck. Every used one I have found is either too badly damaged to use, or not the right size. So, I built one. We have lumber left over from building my son’s cabin; not a lot, but enough to build a decent canopy. It’s a bit heavier than the fiberglass ones, but cheaper. I will probably take it off during the summer months, but it sure will come in handy during the winter.

     We had an issue with the heater core on the truck this past week. Somewhere along the way, the designers thought that adding some sort of plastic collar to the junction of the aluminum heater core and the heater hose was a good idea. The plastic got brittle over the years, and broke off, dumping the coolant all over the ground and overheating the truck.  I broke off the rest of the brittle plastic and shoved the hose directly onto the heater core line, clamped it down with a pipe clamp, and it’s fine.  I don’t understand changing something to a fragile piece of plastic, when the old-fashioned way works best. I guess that’s progress.

     We’ve had a few things from the lovely wife’s garden this year, but the harvest isn’t what we were hoping for. I hope next year we can start sooner, and get better results. What we really need is a green house. Maybe next summer, I will have the time to build her one. The lovely wife enjoys gardening, and I don’t mind it so much either. She wants to plant in the ground, but I think raised beds are better, due to the poor quality of the soil up here. Either way, we will need better soil, either by hauling in a few truckloads of topsoil, and tilling it into the dirt here, or building raised beds and putting the topsoil in them. No matter what we do, a greenhouse will help get things growing sooner up here, since the snow isn’t gone until mid-May.

    The pups are putting on weight, they are finished growing now, and are 11 months old this month. They are becoming pretty good dogs overall, though some nights Amaroq will wake us up late at night wanting to go out, or he’s thirsty. Shikoba is becoming quite the cuddle bug, often climbing up beside me on the couch looking for attention when the lovely wife is at work. They eat a lot, and we have to go to the city twice a month now for dog food, since we cannot get 50 lb bags of it here in town. I never thought I would end up going through 100 lbs of dogfood a month, but here we are. 

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

The weeks news. Sheds, tea, and cooler weather.

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

As I write this, I am watching four hummingbirds chase each other around the feeder we keep out on the deck. At times, their antics attract the attention of Amaroq and Shikoba, who will watch for a time before moving on to other things of more interest to puppies.

It’s August and the days are starting to get noticeably shorter now, with everyone looking forward to fall. Labor Day is right around the corner, and normally, town would be gearing up for Paul Bunyan days, an annual event featuring a parade and logging-themed events for the whole family; one last hurrah to mark the end of summer freedom. This year, however, due to the pandemic, it has been “postponed,” until next year.  The county fair, which takes place later this month, is still happening, albeit on a smaller scale.

It’s looking like children will be in class this year, though we still don’t know if any sporting events will take place.   They hinge on other school districts participating as well, and nobody knows yet who is doing what.  This is causing concern with the lovely wife, since she is the primary activity driver. We will see what happens.

I had, at one time, four chainsaws – two big ones with 26-inch bars, and two small ones with 13-inch bars. When my son and his family moved up here, I gave him one of each, figuring if I needed a backup, I would know where they were. Well, my big saw, the newer of the two, is now gone. It needed an entire rebuild, at the cost of almost $400.  It would be worth it if I still needed to bring in a winter’s supply of firewood, but is a waste of money to just have it sitting most of the time.  The rest of the saws are back now, and running fine; though, I did have to take one back for an adjustment.

Now, we have been able to get the log shed up, and the only thing left to do as of this writing, is four more rafter logs and installing the metal roofing. I might build a shelf over where the pop-up camper will be parked to store the hoods for my antique snowmobiles and a few other things, but other than that, it will be ready for the winter.

Huckleberry pickers have been up here, gathering berries before they dry up, even the lovely wife picked almost half a gallon, and made a huckleberry crisp we enjoyed for a week. Now, she’s going after fireweed leaves since they make a nice tea.  (We won’t know if that’s true or not for about a week, while the leaves go through the process of becoming tea leaves) The lovely wife tells me this tea is called Ivan Chai and apparently originates from Russia where it was used to treat a number of different ailments in addition to being enjoyed for its flavor.  If the leaves make a good tea, I see the lovely wife picking our property clean of fireweed next summer, as the plants grow everywhere up here.  She was going to pick the flowers and make fireweed jelly as well, but she couldn’t bring herself to deprive the bumble bees and hummingbirds of their pollen and nectar.

The garden is coming along, though I think we needed to start it much sooner, and I have thought of a way to accomplish that inside, keeping the cats and puppies away from the starts until they can be moved outside. We are not sure what the garden will yield this year, but everything is growing fast and tall. The tomato plants have lots of small, green fruit on them, and hopefully, they will ripen before the frost.

We had rain this past week, not normal for this time of year, and it has brought cooler temperatures with it, making it much easier to work outside longer.  I still like to get an early start, because, with my disability, I work for short periods of time, rest for a time, and possibly work a bit more after that time off my feet, depending on how I feel.

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

 

 

The weeks news.Huckleberries, sheds, and dogs.

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

It’s July, the huckleberries are ripe, and pickers are all over the place up here once again. Most respect the no trespassing sign we have up where our road meets the “main” road, but there are always a few who seem to think that since they have picked up here for years, they can continue, even though the property they are picking on now belongs to someone.  Most haul their trash out when they go, but others have no regard for the land they pick on.  We often find drink bottles and other trash near the roads when we leave the mountain during this time.  There are only a handful of people I have given permission to pick on my land.  They usually come up early in the mornings, picking until it’s too hot, then collect their trash and depart.

With the help of my son, I have started building another storage shed from logs.  Last year, on the other side of a close-by neighbor’s land, a logging operation left several piles of wood that was either unsuitable for their purposes or were cut from the trees they hauled out.  With many usable logs left behind, and my neighbor’s permission, I, Allen, and another guy who has purchased land close to Allen, have been dragging out what we need – me for my shed and they for next winter’s firewood. There are enough logs lying about out there for a couple winters’ worth of firewood.  My neighbor is also scavenging from the wood piles so that she can build her own shed and asked Allen to drag some out for her of a certain size while he is gathering his.

My shed will house the pop-up camper and my antique snowmobile. We don’t want to risk any more damage to the camper from sitting under deep snow, and I need a safe place to store the snowmobile as well as my ATC and 4-wheeler during the winter months.  During the summer months, it will house our working snowmobiles, keeping them out of the weather until needed.

I am glad I started building when I did, since all four of my chainsaws decided to quit running within a few days of each other.   This left me with nothing to make the necessary cuts with except a Sawzall, which isn’t the easiest power tool to use on thick logs.  All chainsaws are in the shop, and I should have them back by the first week of August, leaving me plenty of time gather the last needed logs and finish the shed before the fall rains begin.

At least three people have tested positive for COVID 19 in town recently, and one of them works at the coffee shop the lovely wife and I had been going for lattes.  Fortunately, we had not visited there in a while.  As a result, the shop is closed for cleaning, workers and customers who went there frequently are being tested.  Other businesses may have to shut down as well, depending on where the infected had recently been prior to testing positive. Myself and the lovely wife are taking every precaution, only going into town when absolutely necessary. When we do, we wear masks and use a lot of hand sanitizer.

Amaroq and Shikoba are finished growing we think. The kennel we put them in at night had gotten too small to hold them both comfortably.  Luckily, we had a larger one we bought with the intention of them each having their own.  However, two kennels in this tiny cabin wasn’t going to work, so they still sleep in one.   Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have a tray like the smaller one did.  We looked for one in stores when we went for a supply run but could not find one the correct size.  Instead, we got a soft dog bed and stuck it in there.  This turned out to be a mistake.  The dogs chewed it up after one of them threw-up on it while I was out working on the shed.  We both look forward to the day when they stop chewing everything so that maybe we won’t have to put them in a kennel at all, though Shikoba seems to enjoy it.  She will often nose open the door and lay down for a nap.

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

The weeks news. Cooler temps, the lovely wife, and thoughts on what’s gong on in the country.

 

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

It’s mid-June now, and it feels more like fall than spring.  The temperatures are all over the place, from the 90’s one day, to the 50’s a few short days later, and it has been rainy quite a bit. Five years ago, this month, I started the addition on this cabin. That June, the temperatures were already in the triple digits, no rain, the state of Washington seemed to be on fire, and the smoke up here from those fires made doing anything difficult. The last three summers have been mostly chilly and damp, and last summer we maybe had a week of hot temps before dropping back into the 50’s.

A few thunderstorms have rolled through over the last few weeks, giving us really nice light shows, as well as some much-needed rain.  Though it’s been rainy, it has mostly been light rain rather than downpours, so we still need the moisture.  I just wish it was a bit warmer out, so we could sit on the porch and enjoy them more. At least we have the larger windows now, so we can still enjoy them, though the lovely wife has to turn her favorite chair around to face the windows first.

It was also five years ago when I met the lovely wife, and if I had known how things would play out, I would have built a larger addition on the cabin. It was only supposed to be myself and my faithful traveling companion Kiyo.  Now, it is me, my lovely wife, two cats, and three dogs. Some days it feels crowded in here, but we are happy.

We set a post and added cable for a dog run this week as the puppies need to run off some energy.  Since we can’t let them out unfettered because they still haven’t learned to stay close to the cabin, they will be let loose on a cable run until they get a bit older and learn to stay close. It took Jade a while before she stopped wandering off, now the furthest she will go is down to my son’s cabin for a “visit.”

With everything going on in the country right now, I have been trying to stay informed.  There are so many things happening that sometimes it feels overwhelming. We try not to let it effect our lives up here. We do take precautions still, wearing masks when we leave, washing our hands often, or using hand sanitizer. Nobody here wants to bring anything home to me, and I leave the mountain only when it’s necessary. We will weather this storm as we always do, and hopefully come out of this in much better shape. As for the protests, I grew up during desegregation in the 60’s, served in the Navy in the deep south in the 80’s and saw racial inequality first hand in those southern states.  I have seen with my own eyes the Klan marching down a main road in Mobile, AL, just to intimidate people of color. I have seen many other things that were racially motivated, as well, while stationed down there.  So, let’s just say that I side with the protesters, and leave it at that.

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