Benjamin Scribner's Blog, page 9

The weeks news. Lightning, fire, and baby birds.

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

A thunderstorm rolled through earlier this week, after a day where the temperatures were in the 90’s. I watched the clouds building up in the west and the lighting was pretty intense. Fire is a major concern up here, and with the lack of sufficient rain, lighting is a real threat. The storm moved in shortly after we had gone to bed, and the first roll of thunder seemed to be right above the cabin. I got up then and watched the storm, and the tiny bit of rain that fell. I called my son, making sure he was dressed and ready to leave if lighting started a fire too close. At one point during the storm, thunder rolled continually for twenty to thirty seconds, meaning the lighting was also continual. The lovely wife was up and dressed by that point and getting important things together if we had to leave. I even brought the cat carrier in from the shed in case we had to bug out quickly. The cats wouldn’t be happy about it, but there is no way we would leave them behind.

Soon after the storm moved off to the northeast, I noticed a glow from a fire through the trees, somewhere north of my sons’ cabin. I called him, asking if he could see the flames, then jumped in the pickup and headed to his place. Yes, there was a fire, though it was hard to tell how far away it was, or just where it was in the dark. It turned out to be a barn full of hay north of us, and across the river, that had been struck by lightning. The fire department got on it quickly, but the barn appears to be a total loss.  I love a good thunderstorm, but with lots of rain. What we had, and have been having more of in recent years, has added more gray to my head as well as a few sleepless nights.

The lovely wife has not wanted to pick huckleberries this year. Her back has been bothering her of late, and the thought of bending over to pick them wasn’t a pleasant one.  She finally broke down and instead, cut the bushes near the ground and brought them to the porch, where she could pick the berries off while sitting comfortably in a chair. She got about a half-gallon before calling it good. She might get more later, but even cutting them requires bending over, so she might not. The bushes will grow back, and since we have hundreds of them, if not thousands, cutting a few won’t hurt next year’s crop.  Pruning them might actually benefit the bushes and their fruit.

The lovely wife and I took a ride around the mountain Friday on the ATV and ATC, looking for ripe service berries. There are a couple of big bushes near Allen’s cabin, and we thought they might be ripe enough to pick. They normally are ripe around the same time as the huckleberries, but this year, they are still not yet ready. I think it might be due to the lack of rain and the cooler temperatures. Even the thimbleberries are looking more brown than red this summer, drying up before getting fully ripe.

Yesterday, we went looking for the fourth property marker. I have known where three of them are for years, but the fourth, the one for the southwest corner, has eluded me since I bought this land. The brush around here is so thick in places, it makes it hard to just walk through the forest.  However, we wanted to know where that last marker was, so we pushed through. There are drop offs that you cannot see because of the brush, so we had to be careful. We found it finally, and clearly marked it so I can go back later and put in a T post. (A T post is a metal post used for fencing; they also make good solid markers for property lines.) The northeast and northwest markers are only short pieces of PVC pipe with ribbons tied around them stuck in the ground, so I will install T posts in those locations as well. It was a nice hike, but for the thick foliage.  We came back a little scratched up and the lovely wife found several thorns in her clothing, though where she got them is a mystery, since I didn’t have any.

The baby birds are growing fast, often we can see their heads poking out of the small nest, while they wait for the parents to bring food to them. The lovely wife even watched one flapping its wings, an indication they will be learning to fly soon and forage for themselves. Momma bird sat on the nest the other night during the lightning storm, refusing to leave as we went in and out just feet from her. She is often not on the nest during the day, but will be there at night.  She will then often fly off when we come out and wait to return until we have gone back inside. However, she did not budge during this storm, just watched us constantly when we were nearby.  We are very much enjoying watching these little critters grow up and will be sad once they are grown and have left the nest for good.

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

 

 

 

 

The weeks news. The moon landing, berries, birds, and the diner changes hands.

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

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and Neal Armstrong’s now famous quote: “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”  Some have said his first words were “That’s one step for A man” but it got lost in the transmission. Either way, it was a great quote.

I was eight at the time of the landing, living in a small house on Green Street in the small town of Castine, Maine. My mother woke my sister and I up, sat us in front of the small television set, and blurry eyed, we watched Mr. Armstrong take that first step. Time and age have caused the details to fade, but I remember that night as if it were just the other day. It was a moment in history, a time for hope that we would someday travel among the stars like the TV show Star Trek. I’m still hopeful this will happen, though it seems unlikely to be within my lifetime.

To put things in perspective, the first manned flight took place at Kittyhawk in 1903, the year before my grandmother was born. Passenger flights didn’t start until after the first world war in 1914. My grandmother watched that first moon landing, and lived to see the space shuttle launch. Those were historical times. Many innovations happened during the first part of the last century. My grandmother’s generation went from viewing automobiles as toys and flight as a novelty, to cars as almost a necessity, air travel as common place, and space flight.  When you think back on it, that’s a lot of advancement in a relatively short period of time.  Truly amazing.

Up here on the mountain, huckleberries are ripe, bringing locals up from town. A gallon of berries sells for around $50, so there’s a lot of people hustling before the berry season ends next month. 4 wheelers, pickups, jeeps and all manner of vehicle have been up this mountain road at all times of the day. Some start in the early morning before the heat sets in, others wait until after work, while still others can be found along the main road at noon.   The lovely wife isn’t picking this year, her hips and back have been bothering her of late, so she has decided to forgo picking. But I think she might pick some service berries when they come into season, as they are high up in bushes, meaning she won’t need to bend, or kneel.

We are in the process of building a buck and rail fence down near the stone wall that I built a few years ago. There’s a section of ground there between the stone wall and the driveway we want to landscape, so the fence will help keep our St. Bernard, as well as the wildlife out, so as not to destroy our work.

The eggs in the nest right outside our back door have hatched. With the help of the camera on the phone, we have been able to see three chicks in there, though there were four eggs last time we looked. One chick might be buried under the others, or that egg, laid later hasn’t hatched yet, or it might not at all. Both parents have been bringing food to the chicks, and mother bird has been sitting on the nest nights and chilly mornings, ignoring us as we go about our daily routine. I don’t think it will be much longer before we see them learning to fly.

My Kitchen has changed hands, the new owner renaming it the Timber Lodge Café. The owner changed out the two tables put together that the old loggers used with a round table, more reminiscent of what was at Buds diner when it was open. The staff is the same, with a few new faces, and the menu is the same and they haven’t gotten around to changing the name on it yet. I stopped in the other day for some coffee while the lovely wife was driving the summer school bus. It was good to sit down and catch up on the local gossip and goings on in town, as I have been too busy of late to spend much time in town.

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

 

The weeks news. Hummingbirds, dogs, and other things.

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

The major part of the work in the kitchen is finished, and everything has been moved back in. I still have some trim to put up, shelves to apply polyurethane to, and eventually caulking to put between the floor boards, but for the most part, those can be done without disrupting our lives. My next project will be the bathroom, though I don’t know if I will be able to start it until next summer.  I’ve also been making some headway on getting my lumber piles organized, and at the same time, clearing out the wood pellet side of the shed to make room for the several tons of pellets we will need to stock up on before winter hits again.  I will be organizing my workshop, too, shortly.  I am getting tired of not being able to find a tool when I need it.

The bird nesting just outside our back door has laid another egg, bringing the total to four eggs. Evenings have been chilly, and she hasn’t been leaving the nest when we go outside after dark, choosing instead to (In her mind) risk her life, rather than leave her eggs to get chilled. She will often fly off during the day if we look at her for too long, make loud noise, or get too close to the nest, but lately, she seems more comfortable with our comings and goings. We hope to hear the sounds of baby birds soon, and watch them grow.

Hummingbirds have been in aerial dog fights over the feeder lately, some have ganged up to run off a bully that has monopolized the feeder, and then chase each other off. The lovely wife has talked about getting another feeder so they won’t have to fight over the one, but for now, things don’t seem to be life threating. They will have to share the one.

We’ve had bats flying around in the evenings, and are thinking about putting up a bat house to attract more. They are great at keeping insect populations down.  A bat house could mean a whole colony, if we buy a big enough one.   From the lovely wife’s research online, a three-chambered bat house would be big enough to encourage female bats to start a nursery and the house could wind up housing up to 200 bats!  That would be an awesome thing to have up here!

My faithful traveling companion Kiyo, has shown signs of getting some feeling back in his hind quarters. He wagged his tail a few times this last week, and his legs seem to react when we mess with them. He has purposely pulled his legs away from us a time or two when we have been cleaning him up, and the lovely wife even saw him move one leg in his sleep while he was dreaming.  He’s pretty much resigned himself to the almost daily baths we have to give him, though the look he gives us could curdle milk. He also wasn’t happy when we shaved him, but that is a necessity now. This breed is long-haired, and keeping it clean and un-matted, particularly now that he is disabled, is impossible.  Therefore, shaving him close, or as I call it, a Marine Corps high and tight, is the best way to insure proper hygiene.

Jade, our rescue St. Bernard is shedding, badly. No matter how many times the lovely wife brushes her, the cabin is still covered in dog hair. Sweeping is fast becoming a daily chore and the hair gets into everything. We would shave her as well, but it would ruin her undercoat, necessary for her to stay warm in the winter. So, we brush, bathe her, and put up with the dog hair that makes the floor look like shag carpet.

My son has been working on getting the second floor of his cabin ready for the coming winter. He has been insulating it and putting plywood on the walls, hoping to get his family moved off the first floor so they can start unpacking and getting things in order.

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

The weeks news. Broken truck, VA, and birds eggs.

It’s been a busy week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest (which is why I’m a day late)

The lovely wife and I started the task of finishing the kitchen this week, something I have wanted to do since I built that room my first year here. Everything from the kitchen is currently sitting in our living room, making navigating around difficult, and causing Jade, our St. Bernard, quite the headache.  Cleaning four years of dirt off the floor was another challenge. I laid the floor four years ago and never had the time to finish it.  The boards had further dried after being laid causing gaps to form between them.  So, I spent a day digging and vacuuming out as much of the four years’ worth of accumulated crud as possible and then scrubbing the boards with a steel pad and soap and water.  I just put down the fourth coat of polyurethane this morning leaving one more coat to go before I will call it done. I also put up trim and crown molding around the window, closing in the exposed rafter ends from the main (original cabin) cabin. Everything on the ceiling, window, and trim, has been done using repurposed wood from a one-hundred-year-old barn.

This week, I also started getting set up to use the Veterans Hospital, instead of the local hospital.  We are tired of the screw-ups with billing and the substandard care we have been receiving from the local hospital, so I decided to give the VA a shot. After all, there’s no cost to me, where here I have to pay a high deductible.   I also found out that because I am considered unemployable due to my disability, the VA could raise my percentage from the 70% it is now to 100%, doubling my monthly check. There will be lots of paperwork to fill out, and hoops to jump through, but it will be worth it in the end.

Updates on our vehicles and equipment: the 3-wheeler that I said last week had a leaking carburetor is now fixed.  I had ordered a Chinese knock-off carburetor but it turned out to be defective.  I decided to use the rebuildable parts from the new carburetor and put them into the old one with no change in the leaking issue.  Therefore, I took the old carburetor into town and consulted with the shop we take our equipment too.  Turns out, the air valve on the thing was plugged up and all we had to do was blow it out.  I brought it home, installed it, and it works like a charm now!  When it comes time to replace the carburetor in the 4-wheeler, you can bet I won’t be going with the cheaper Chinese one.  While we were up in the city for the VA medical new patient orientation, our pickup started leaking coolant.  It appeared minor at first, but by the time we stopped for fuel, half way home, it was noticeably worse. I was able to make it to the next town, barely, where there’s a satellite shop to the one I use closer to home. They took a look and told us the water pump had gone out. My son had to come pick us up, while the shop had our pickup towed to the place here in town. We should have it back today or tomorrow.

There’s a road that runs just to the west of my cabin.  It was part of the logging operations up here years ago. This road is almost grown over now, but occasionally, someone on a four-wheeler who remembers it will come up or down. A small part of it runs across my property fairly close to the side of my cabin, and not only does the “main” road already cause enough privacy issues, but I also want to use that area for other things. So, this coming week, we are fencing it off at both ends of my property line. Later, I plan to put a storage shed there, big enough to house the pop-up camper and the all-terrain vehicles during the winter, and our snowmobiles during the summer, keeping them out of the weather.

A small bird had built a nest right near our back door, up in the rafters of the porch. I didn’t think this was smart, since it fly’s away every time we go outside, but it was persistent. This morning, the lovely wife stuck her phone up there to see if it had laid any eggs. Sure enough, there are three eggs resting in the nest. I suspect that before too much longer, we will hear the sounds of chicks there

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

The weeks news. Huckleberries,Blueberries, and Raspberries, oh my! Along with the VA.

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

My faithful traveling companion Kiyo had his stitches out this week, and the vet gave him a clean bill of health once again. For now, we will be keeping him out of the wheelchair until we can get a few answers to prevent him from having surgery again. We have modified his wheelchair three times now, but to no avail.

I started the process of getting my medical needs taken care of at the VA this week. Our local hospital is a mess; botched billing, messed up emergency room visits, and a general lack of fixing the problems by the staff have made me decide on this move to the VA. There, due to the percentage of my disability, my care is cost free, so it makes sense for me to switch. While I was there going through the paperwork to use the VA, I was offered a class to help me better understand how to navigate the VA hospitals and clinics. The lovely wife and I will be attending that class this coming week.

Here at the cabin, I have started work on the kitchen and plan to have it finished soon.  Unfortunately, when I get to the floor, I will have to move everything out so I can finish it.   This will take a few days because it needs sanding, cleaning, calking and five coats of polyurethane, with each coat requiring a twenty-four-hour drying time. This will mean we will be keeping the refrigerator and stove out on the porch, along with most of our cooking utensils and dry goods. Some things will be in our living room, making an already crowded cabin feel claustrophobic. I will be glad when it’s finished.

While waiting for coats of Polyurethane to dry on woodwork already in place, I have been building a fence down near the stone wall I built a few years ago. The lovely wife and I want to landscape the ground between the stone wall and the driveway, so I am building the fence to keep our St. Bernard, Jade, out of that area. The lovely wife had already planted a couple of blackberry bushes near the stone wall last summer, and I completed a trellis for them yesterday ago.  The frame for the trellis will also hold our house number and the name I chose for the cabin when I bought the land, Chez Walden. Earlier this week, the lovely wife picked up a couple more blackberry bushes as well as a couple of blueberry bushes. She has spent the last two days planting them along the wall. She has been complaining of back pain today, and I can understand why. She does enjoy going out and playing in the dirt though, as well as berry picking when the huckleberries are in season. I’m sure she will enjoy picking the fruits of the plants she has spent time planting next season, too.

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

The weeks news. Kiyo, 4 Wheelers, wildlife and such.

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

I apologize for missing last week’s update.  However, we have been dealing with more health problems with Kiyo, my disabled King Charles Cavalier.  We had to take him to the vet a week ago last Friday because we suspected he had a urinary tract infection.  In the process of cleaning him up for this visit, we had noticed that he had a small sore on his underside that hadn’t been there the last time we had cleaned him.  The vet confirmed that Kiyo had a bad urinary infection, prescribed antibiotics, and after looking at the small sore, told us to put silver sulfadiazine cream on it regularly and keep an eye on it.

The day following Kiyo’s trip to the vet, we had to make our monthly trip to the big city for supplies.  We chose to put Kiyo in his wheelchair while we were gone so that he would not be sitting in a mess until we got back.  We also put him in his chair the next day for a few hours since he needs the activity that being in the chair allows.  Both times, we took him out in early afternoon and put him back on the couch.  When we cleaned him up the evening and morning between the two chunks of time spent in his chair, we noticed nothing out of the ordinary and the soar looked pretty much the same.  However, the second evening we were shocked to discover that the small sore had become much worse, seemingly in just a matter of a couple of hours.  There was a blackening of some of the skin indicating that the tissue was dying and the sore was weeping what seemed to be puss.  Since this was Sunday evening, there was nothing to be done but clean him up, put on more of the cream, and hope that we had caught it early enough to take care of it ourselves.  The next day, we kept him out of the chair, diligently kept him clean, gave him his antibiotics, and put on the cream.  However, by that night, it was looking even worse, and there was an added problem: urine was exiting from the sore.  Since the lovely wife had to be at work the next day, taking Kiyo to the vet then was not feasible, but I did call and make an appointment for that Wednesday.  In the meantime, I kept him as clean and dry as possible.

When Kiyo was seen by the vet, neither of us was surprised to be told that he was going to need surgery again.  He spent two nights at the veterinary clinic.   Another antibiotic was added to the first as well as a pain pill.   We also found out that what we were dealing with were pressure sores, both this surgery and the previous one, which has us scrambling to figure out how we can prevent them in the future.  The problem is that Kiyo either lays on the couch, in the special bed we bought for him at night, or in the harness in his wheelchair, all of which mean that his undercarriage is enduring all his weight all the time.  How do we prevent these sores if pressure is always exerted on the area having the trouble?  The lovely wife will be modifying the harness in the wheelchair again to make the back of it cushioned by memory foam all the way around, even the underside of it.  Also, once Kiyo is able to get back in his wheelchair, we will not be leaving him in it for more than a couple hours at a time.  The vet offered to set Kiyo up for a wheelchair consultation with WSU College of Veterinary Medicine to see if there might be any modifications we could make to our homemade chair or if there were any commercial chairs that might be a better fit.  However, at the moment, that is something we cannot afford since the lovely wife will not be receiving an income this summer.  This next Friday, Kiyo has a follow-up visit to see how he is doing and possibly get the stitches removed.   Hopefully, the changes we are making will prevent him from having any more surgeries.

School is out for the summer and children have been on summer break a week now. The lovely wife had one more trip this past week. She had to take the football team to Montana for a summer football camp and was gone for three days. Now, her summer break has started, and I can get started on my summer projects. My son would willingly help out, but he has his own cabin to finish. I won’t be bothering him unless an extra set of hands are needed.

The mountain is hard on equipment, no matter if it’s a snowmobile, 4-wheeler, or a truck. The road washes out every spring, causing ruts in the road that can’t be avoided, no matter how slow you drive. The driver’s side window on our pickup hasn’t functioned properly for some time. Going down wasn’t an issue, but coming back up, I had to help it. I don’t know just when pickups became luxury vehicles, but I do wish the manufactures would stop. Pickups, especially up here, are workhorses and don’t need electric everything. Good old-fashioned roll up windows are just fine; leave out the carpet and return to the rubber floor mats, take out the center console/cubby and bring back the bench seat, thus getting it back to being a workhorse. At any rate, I suspected that some bolts holding the window tracks in place had come loose or fallen out. I was right; one bolt in the window track had come out, as well as the bolt holding the motor in place. I put them back in, made adjustments, and everything works fine now. If they rattle loose again, I will use lock-tight to hold them in place next time.

My son has started working on the upstairs of his cabin, hoping to have the two bedrooms insulated and sealed up before the end of summer, allowing his family to spread out a bit more. This past winter, they were confined to the first floor, beds and all, leaving little room to move about.

Chipmunks have been out in full force. A couple have gone so far as to chew a hole in a bag of cat food we had left on the porch. I have caught a couple of them as they grab a piece and run. A few have been teasing our cats, running past the windows, or even daring to climb onto the window sill, much to the aggravation of the cats who try in vain to go through the glass.

Snowshoe hares, once again wearing their brown coats, have been out and about as well. One was inside my workshop the other day, trying to stay out of the heat. It was hiding under a workbench and I didn’t see it until it bolted while I was standing there talking to my son. The hares are pretty unimpressed with us; they don’t normally run when we come outside until we are almost right on top of them.

The ATC (All Terrain Cycle) we picked up back in February is running, but the carburetor leaks badly from a worn-out needle valve and valve seat. A rebuild kit would cost me $25. A Chinese knockoff carburetor is only costs $16, so I know which way I’m going. I have no desire to keep this machine all original, though I will keep the original carburetor in case I want to sell the machine at some future time. The ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) we bought has a flat; small hole in the sidewall of the tire. It really needs new tires, but I can’t afford them right now.  Therefore, the shop in town is getting a tube for the tire. I should have it back this coming Monday. It has been really helpful having a 4-wheeler around here. If I need to run to Allen’s cabin, for example, I no longer need to take a gas-guzzling pickup. It’s also useful hauling things from my cabin to my son’s. Once the ATC is fixed, we will have two machines here. Then I will need to teach the lovely wife how to drive them both. She has never driven either one, and this 4-wheeler isn’t one of the new models where you just put a lever in high, low, or reverse, and go.  It requires shifting, which she is unfamiliar with. She did catch on with a snowmobile quickly, so I have no doubt she will handle these machines as well.

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

 

 

The weeks news. A drive in the country

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest.  I had the opportunity to visit a friend this weekend, which is why I’m a little late.

Just west and south of here, the trees start to thin out and the mountain range starts to give way to rolling hills and farmland.  Small farms dot the countryside, and the occasional ancient tractor from early in the last century, or an old pickup, is parked near an equally decrepit old barn. Farmers were out working their fields as their wives hung laundry on clothes lines; scenes seemingly from another time and place, a slice of Americana that’s been lost for most in this hurry-up age. There was a photographer traveling the same back road I was on, stopping to photograph the old barns before they, too, are lost to the slow progression of time.  Nowadays, it is cheaper, and faster, to put up a pole barn instead of building barns as they did many years ago. In a way, it made me sad to realize that, in a few more decades, those old barns will be nothing more than pictures on someone’s wall, a memory of a bygone era that no longer exists.

I passed through a small town, smaller than the one I live near.  Its main street was empty of most shops one would think to find in a small town. The local market was gone, replaced by an antique shop.  Folks now travel up to the city to bigger markets, with more variety and cheaper prices.  There was a car dealership, there since 1929 the sign said, but their selection was limited, and the building, which had been its home since the beginning, was too small to accommodate larger vehicles or a fancy up-to-date shop. I suspect most people head north to the city, where the selection is better, to purchase their cars now, leaving only a few old-timers to frequent the dealership. Pickups lined the main street as well as a few cars from a bygone era. I passed through all of this unnoticed, going about my journey; perhaps one day, I may stop and walk down that main street, remembering my childhood in a similar small town in Maine.

Up here on the mountain, things put off for warmer weather and dryer ground are starting to get done. I am almost finished with the ATC I bought back in February, just a few minor things to do before I see if it will run. My son is working on his cabin and today he is hooking up his refrigerator, hoping to stop using the coolers he has been using to keep their food cold. He is also working on the upstairs, insulating it and getting it ready to move into. I know his family will be happy once they can spread out a bit more.

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

 

The weeks news. Memorial Day weekend

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

It’s Memorial Day weekend, which is why I’m early this week. A time to remember and reflect on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, whether in a trench in France, on the beach at Normandy, a hill in Korea, rice patty in Vietnam, or in the desert in the Persian Gulf.

It is a somber time for me, so I won’t be boring you with the week’s news, but instead will leave you with this poem I wrote a couple of years ago for this day.

 

The Ghost

By Benjamin M. Scribner

Taps last note has sounded,

The mourners moved along.

Yet one young lad still stands there,

Quiet in the dawn,

Tis the ghost of him that’s buried,

Standing by his grave.

Will anyone remember me?

Or the sacrifice I gave?

Will anyone come visit here,

Now that I’ve passed away?

Yes, son, we will remember,

Those of us that live.

Your sacrifice we shan’t forget,

You gave all you had to give.

And those of us who stand here,

Will come back again each year,

To remember all you did for us,

For we hold our freedoms dear.

And those of us who served with you,

Shall remember every day,

Your laughter, love, and kindness,

Those things won’t fade away.

So rest in peace there my young lad,

You answered freedoms call,

And know that we shall not forget,

Those souls that gave their all.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weeks news. An outlaw from the mountain on the lamb, and a few other things.

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

Spring is here, the smell of damp earth is all around. Farmers are out in their fields planting, and the trees are blooming down in town.  There are a few new buds on the trees up here, but we still have snow in places, such as our driveway. It’s melting off fast and should be gone in another week. We are finally able to drive our pickups all the way in for the first time since November, and that is making life a lot easier around here. Now, we can get started on our summer projects.  We have two dead snowmobiles to drag up this coming week; one died early in the year, the other just at the end of the season. The first machine will be repaired, but the other one will be torn down and sold as parts.  The rest of our machines will be readied for storage for the summer and, once stored, will not to be seen again until fall, when we start maintenance on them, getting them ready for use over the coming winter. Up here, we are constantly looking forward to the next snowfall.  It is always a race with the clock to make sure we have the necessary equipment ready when the first signs of winter appear.

The 4-wheeler I bought will most likely be put up as well.  I will be working on the ATC (All Terrain Cycle) instead, using it when I need to run around the mountain this summer.

I have been busy with spring cleaning up here, finishing the living room yesterday.  It’s on to the kitchen next week.  The kitchen is the first room I added to this cabin, and it is the first room I want to finish. From there, I will begin completing the other rooms as I gather the materials I need. This time of the year, when we can drive in, I start haunting sites on the web where people are giving away, or selling cheaply, building materials. This practice has gotten me a lot of barn board, old weathered fencing, and many other things I have been able to repurpose around here.

My faithful traveling companion, Kiyo, is showing some signs that he can feel his hind legs. It’s not very much, but we are hopeful he might regain some of the use of his legs again. The lovely wife is still making modifications to his wheelchair in hopes he will be more comfortable. Right now, he still isn’t really happy being in it for any amount of time, and would rather lay beside me as I write. I think he is enjoying being waited on by us: bringing him water, his food and snacks, etc.  However, he still doesn’t enjoy the almost daily baths he has to endure so we can keep him clean and health; though, he does enjoy the treats he gets after each hated bath. At times, it’s a lot like having a newborn in the house again: we are changing diapers, washing his behind, feeding him, having him wake us up in the early hours of the morning, and a host of other things. In short, he is getting spoiled despite all the “torture” he must endure in the process.

There was one unusual thing that happened this last week.  Two Sheriff’s deputies appeared on my doorstep looking for an individual that had previously been in the county jail this past fall on charges of shooting at loggers and the two deputies that were with them.  This guy had bonded out over the winter but, for some reason, his bond had now been revoked and the deputies had trekked up here to see if he had come back to his property on the mountain.  They weren’t sure exactly where his land was but knew it was in this general area.  After finding out they still had a mile hike around the mountain to get to his place, they opted not to continue.  I assured them that if any of us up here saw the guy, we would let the Sheriff’s department know immediately.  Since he and his wife had moved up here, but prior to his arrest, he nearly caused a number of accidents on the road because he couldn’t keep his speed down when he was angry.  I will be happy if he never comes back.

I was in town earlier this week and ran into one of the old loggers at the local market. We chatted for a while, catching up on the goings on of some of the other old loggers. I really need to get into town early some morning and have coffee with them.

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

 

 

 

 

The weeks news. Happy days, spring at last!

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

It’s the time of year that is the most difficult up here at this elevation; rain and warmer temperatures are melting off the snow, but what is still on the roads is either too soft to run a snowmobile on,  there is too much dirt showing to run across, or the snow is still too deep in places to get a wheeled vehicle through. It’s now when I miss my UTV, the tracks will go almost anywhere, making getting around much easier. However, the UTV was costing me a fortune to keep repaired, so we make do with what we have.  I hope to have this minor problem resolved by next fall, making our lives easier.   We’re not getting any younger, and I plan on staying here a very long time. We did, just today, manage to get both 4 wheelers from where we had them parked up to our turn off, so now we don’t have quite so far to hike if we can’t get the snowmobiles through the soft snow.

To give you an idea of the amount of snow we still have in places up here, I have a 16 ft canoe that I left sitting on sawhorses last fall in our yard, about a total of three feet off the ground.  I am just now able to see a part of it poking out of the snow. So, the snow will be with us for a few more weeks, though I still think we will have the trucks a lot closer to home by the end of this month, if not in the yard yet.

The lovely wife and I have been married for a little over two years now, and we finally got around to getting her a military dependent ID card. The only place left to get one in this area is the Air Force base north of Spokane, a trip of over two hours and often a waiting time of a few hours in the ID card office depending on the day. We left early and arrived soon after the office opened. Nobody else was waiting so we got right in, leaving the base in under an hour. The reason we waited so long to get her an ID? The health insurance through her job is much better than what the military provides and we couldn’t see any good reason to waste time while she was still covered by it.  However, she recently switched jobs for a time, returning to the old job when the new one turned out to not be a good fit.  This meant that there was a break in her insurance, and we were uncertain whether her insurance would resume in time to refill her prescriptions.  To make sure that she was able to get her prescriptions refilled, we made the trek up to the base.  Also, as with most insurance, her prescriptions cost money, though not much.  With the military insurance, the cost will be even less, if not free, depending on the medication.  Anywhere we can cut costs always helps.

My faithful traveling companion, Kiyo, is doing much better.  He is healing fast, the stitches should be coming out soon, and I hope to get him back in his wheelchair shortly. There have been some movement in his hind legs, but it’s mostly random; though last night, he seemed to be trying to move them. The vet doesn’t think he will regain the use of his legs, but we are hopeful he will get some use back.  A reduction in his incontinence would be very welcome to him and us; less mess and less baths if he can actually tell when he needs to go.  We invested in a pet bed especially for incontinent pets that has a mesh panel in the bottom with padding around the edges to make the pet comfortable.  It keeps the pet laying on it dry since it allows the wet to fall through to a tray beneath the bed.  Now all I have to do is make something to raise it to the same level as our bed so that he feels he is sleeping on the bed with us again.  Since he has spent the majority of his life sleeping on the bed with me, it has been hard for him to sleep on his own bed on the floor.  Hopefully, that will change soon.

Things have settled down around here, and since there’s nothing I can do either outside, or inside until the rest of the snow melts and things dry up, I am writing. I hope to have a book finished soon and turned over to the lovely wife for her editing magic. My current work, for those interested, is a satire of those Dungeon and Dragon games that spawned books and movies, among other things. I thought I would try my hand at something funny, instead of what I have been writing. Not sure where the story is going yet, but I am having fun writing it. I’m pretty sure it will be a short story, but you never know. Things sometimes have a way of getting out of hand, and before you know it, you have a three-hundred-page book. We’ll see how it goes.

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