BALA WEEKEND

Opening up a cottage for the season is a HUGE undertaking. It's no surprise to me now, that they wanted & appreciated even, having so many people & hands, to do this, thing. But now, the "Goeby Cottage" is officially opened!

It was a real cluster-f*#k trying to get out of here on Friday. Leighann, in the middle of it all, decides, she'll just stay home with the dog. And then, the "Cluster-List" just began to get longer.

So I traveled up to the Muskoka's with Donnie & his son & his son's friend. Don's wife would be a few hours behind us, with their youngest daughter & their small dog, Radar. Named so because, according to Don, it can hone right in, on the smelliest, ugliest, messiest pile of shmegma, anywhere, and then role in it.

Donnie's truck was towing 2 jet-skis. The bed was filled with, everything everyone would require, for exactly, 2 nights & 2 days. The four of us were in the extenda-cab, of course. Getting there was a two hour journey of two twelve year old boys, describing in precise detail, just how hungry they were. Descriptions included, children from other countries to fainting spells & wobbly-leg syndrome. Finally, we pulled over in Gravenhurst & ordered 4 medium pizzas. One pie each. The remaining 15 minute trip to the lake was, somewhat, much quieter.

At the lakes public boat launch closest to the island where Donnie's sister & husband have their cottage, we proceeded to unload the contents of the truck's bed & then back in to launch the 2 jet-skis. And this is where the "weekend-of-fun", really began. Donnie, had forgotten to pack life preservers & floatation devices.

It wasn't, really, too big of a deal. The sisters cottage was/is, just across the channel. You can see the cottages boat dock from the launch. But it is the first Friday after the long weekend & the O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) have big binoculars & very fast boats. All though they wouldn't be near capable of catching us riding single, on either one of these jet-skis, in an normal situation, we still can't risk riding two twelve year old boys across, that short distance, without proper life jackets on them. That is, out of the equation, totally. Plus, we have everything, everyone will require, for 2 nights & 2 days. So Donnie comes up with an idea...

He'll just putt-putt-putt across to his sisters dock (they are not up here yet, we are the first to arrive) on one of the skis, jimmy the lock on the boat docks storage locker, get several (four) life jackets, and then bring their Moomba ski boat back for the rest of us & our gear. No problem. And it wasn't. That worked out quite well in fact. He did so, returned with the boat, took the boys & the gear, and I took the other ski across. Home (cottage) free!

It was shortly after that though. Dons wife & daughter arrived earlier than expected, with their shit seeking missile, Radar, and they were now all at the launch wanting to be picked up. So, while I'm on the deck enjoying a bubbling hot beer, because we all forgot to get ice, Donnie gets back into the Moomba ski boat to go get the other half of his family, and the boat won't start, because he left the bilge pump on & now the battery is dead...We need another plan...quick...

The Goeby's (Donnie's sister & husband), have all the toys. If it's suitable to cottaging in the Muskokas, they have it. A 30 some odd foot long pontoon boat with full coverings, that seats a dozen people. Moomba ski boat with a 351 high output Ford inboard & every ski imaginable. 16 foot aluminum fishing boat with a 9.9 h.p. for the kids. Some kind of miniature row boat for two people, that's only 5 foot long & almost just as wide at the beam. Canoes, kayaks, the list goes on. If it's an expensive water toy, and one of the other islanders has one, they have one too. But we still need some kind of a plan, to now go & rescue his wife, daughter & dog, from the other side of the channel.

"I know!" he says. "I'll tie the aluminum boat to the jet ski, and you sit in it while I tow you across" The 9.9 hadn't arrived yet. This motor was in the marina for repairs, along with the pontoon boats motor, and no one had gone to get them, yet. This is, after all, opening weekend.

"That's a GREAT idea" I says back. "Welcome to the Grisswalds Cottage Vacation. The only thing missing now, is Randy Quaid smoking a cigar while wearing his old lady's house coat & emptying his RVs sewage holding tank into the lake". And that is exactly what it looked like. I wish I had had the camera at that time. Me in full camouflage gear, sitting in an aluminum boat while being towed by Donnie on the jet ski, to go get the rest of his crew. What a site.

And it didn't stop there either. His sister & brother-in-law, arrived about 20 minutes later. They had to be rescued & towed across as well

I knew Donnie couldn't do it. That he wouldn't be capable of coming up with a lame story for his sister & her husband such as; "We got here & the battery was already dead". Even though that was his plan. But I knew he wouldn't be capable of doing it...So he just confessed his errors & then we drank some beer & 2 minutes later everyone was laughing & joking & it turned out to be a GREAT WEEKEND!

Leighann showed up the next day, with my best buddy, Stanley. The sun never showed itself, not once, until we had to leave on Sunday afternoon. Go figure...

So I'm off to the acreage today. We parked our vehicle at Donnie's place on the Misquazibbi River & brought back one of his trucks & a trailer with his quad-bike on it. I'm going to load up my bike in a few minutes. But there's no rush.

Leighann needs to drive into Lindsay first & we need to wait for her to get back so she can watch his daughter. He (Don), won't even be here until late morning probably. He is not an early riser.

But I would like to get there as soon as we can. It's been several weeks since my last visit there, with Wilderness Return guy, when we videoed the Cougar tracks in the snow in front of my tent.

There has been a couple of VERY windy storms blow through since. I'm sort of anxious to see if everything has survived or if I'm going to be locating tarps, tents & sleeping bags, all across thousands of acres of wilderness...

We still have a ton of work ahead of us, here & at Donnie's house in town, before I can spend any real time at the acreage, but it does look as though that time may arrive sooner, than later. Thank goodness too. I need this. To be out there, soon. Life is good...

GARDENING DISASTER

My vegetable plants that I started from seed some two month's ago now, are in very poor health. Many of them, I think, may not make it. In the loft area grow room I've created, is an small window. So to acclimatize the plants, I figured I could just open this window & allow them to cool down during the nights, for a while, before putting them outside for planting into my raised beds.

At first, the tomato plants began to turn a bit yellow on some of the leaves, so I closed the window up & thought to myself, this must be a sign that they are acclimatized & ready. It didn't take too long to get them all down from the loft & out to the back deck, but it was a bit of a chore. Having the greenhouse for next season will be a BIG help though!

I left all of the plants out on the back deck for the night & they appeared a bit withered looking by morning. Again, I attributed this to, acclimatization. So I then moved them over to the raised beds & left them there all of yesterday & last night. And this is what I have at 7 A.M. this morning...

peppers

tomato

tomato

tomato

cabbage & peppers

watermelon

cabbage

peppers

It's been so wet & raining the past couple of days & nights. Some of these seedlings still appear a bit " green" looking in colour, so I'm really, really, really, hoping that, we'll get a bit of sun today & they'll begin to perk up again to that same healthy state that they were just days ago.

It's not that this has been an expensive garden to get started, at all. The costs, financially, have been as cheap as I could afford to do so. In fact, if I had had more money at my disposal, while creating the raised beds, I could have ordered the top soil in bulk & saved even more. But I didn't. So it cost what it did.

The thing is, the time involved. I put a lot of time into doing this, from seed. And this is what has me more concerned than anything else. What a disaster!!!!


I'm suppose to go to Bala today to price out building a cottage for my asshole buddies sister. We're going to spend the weekend there getting his sisters present cottage set-up for the summer, hook up their water & then install a new dock for them, all while going over the blue-prints for their new cottage. And, they want the basement of their home in Barrie renovated into another living area, A.S.A.P. This could prove to be a bit of a profitable adventure for me & I really could use the $.

But, at the same time, all of this "extra curricular work", is cutting into my " desired plans" for the acreage. The new cottage wouldn't require me until early autumn & I enjoy that type of work. They own their own island in the Muskoka's. All materials & manpower has to be boated or barged in. I've done this, once before, up on Eagle Lake in the Haliburtons. It was so interesting & a welcome break from the "assembly line" McMansions, 48" away from one another, I was accustomed to framing at the time. So I may take it on...?

But we may not even get there this weekend. I'll know more by this morning. If the weather is going to continue being wet, all weekend long, we may very well plan it for the next...

The sky outside my home at 7 A.M.
It's still raining steady!

GETTING STARTED - UPDATE

All winter long, both, my bike & truck, have sat idle while needing repair. The day before yesterday, I was able to get the bike running again. Today, I replaced the batteries in my truck, the wiring, I had finished some time ago but wasn't able to check out, because both batteries were entirely dead & not rechargeable. Now, the truck is back in running condition, temporarily.

I still have to take it out on a short road tour. A module which controls diesel fuel flow, may yet have to be replaced & it's a costly item. But at least for now, all of our vehicles are, once again, getting started.

GETTING STARTED - AGAIN

I've finally got our bike running once again. This gives me an entire, new, appreciation for, Yamaha engines. They really are a good, quality bike engine!
After only a few hours of some basic prep work & then replacing the throttle housing & cable, our bike fired right up & ran like a champ.

Leighann had never driven this bike (or any bike for that matter) before. When we bought it for use at the acreage, it just became another, "tool" of mine, she never paid it any attention. But that's all changed now!

As soon as I had the bike together again, I fired it up & took it for an hour long excursion, up & down the trail close to our home in town. I needed to be certain that if it did quit or break down, the bike wouldn't be too difficult to retrieve & I wouldn't have too far of a walk to get back to the house. Everything worked great. There were no problems & so I parked it as soon as I returned.

Yesterday, I spent the day felling trees at my buddies place, here in town. It was hot, miserable work & I was looking forward to just lazing on the couch at home, when I was finished. But when I did get home, Leigh was in need of a distraction. The daughter has called & she & the baby will be staying in Sudbury where, she's found an apartment, apparently. Leighann is distraught & heart broken.

So I tell her to get dressed up into some old clothes because, I'm going to teach her how to drive the bike!
Operating one of these quad-bikes is as close to an "No-Minder" as one can get. Of course there are several safety precautions, trail use regulations & just plain old, common sense usage, required to do this without harming the bike, ourselves & others on the trail, but what the Hell, she was sad & I, I had already had a few beers throughout the course of the long, hot, hard working day. Common sense be damned! Let's ride!

She did great! She got us to the trail without, too much difficulty & then, once there, I was able to teach her how to shift through the 5 speeds & build up some speed, as well as some basics about control, steering, washboards, puddles & of course, safety.

We did a 3+ hour trip, from our home in Fenelon Falls to a friends home in Cameron, with her at the controls, all the way. And you couldn't wipe her smile away, no matter what. So now, I think I've lost one of my beloved, "tools", to her. But perhaps, this is how some tools, are suppose to be used.

LOOKING UP!!

The long weekend is here. For quite a while now, all of my days have blended, one into the other. Ever since being told I would never "work" again, time has just, dragged on, and usually in front of me, making it seem even, slower, without any concern as to which day was what. But now, after having gone back to "work" for a while, those old feelings of anticipation are creeping back in & I'm looking forward to times like, weekends, once again.

The "work" scenario, sure as Hell isn't the same as it use to be. There's no one cracking a whip, or looking at their wrist watch while I piss, or whatever the situation was or still is for others. I just poke along at my own pace & keep on poking until the jobs done.

Payment methods are a lot different now too. Money was always the big issue, before. Putting in as many hours as I could, if being paid by the hour, or finishing as quickly as possible if being paid by the job. Either way, it still only amounted to, peanuts. But not any longer. Now, I'm working for "wood"!

So for the first time ever, as far back as I can remember, this coming winter season will be the very first time that, I will have ALL of my winter heating wood WELL before that time of the year arrives. Donnie & I did a small landscaping job up in the Eel's Creek area & as a result, I now own 1/3 of a delivery of firewood logs.

Landscape job site.

Cottage on Eels Creek where we did
landscape work.

It's a tandem load & should contain 14 to 18 bush cord of wood total, once bucked & split, which I will also have to do. And, the logs are being delivered to a friends place in between Buckhorn & Bobcaygeon, so I will also need to transport my share, 4-1/2 to 6 bush cord, from there to here, but it's still worth it.

I even made enough $ too, to possibly put my truck back on the road. We will see!

But I've been busy with other matters as well. Finally, after so long now it seems, the pile of scrap metal I had stowed away behind the old sailboat is now loaded onto another trailer & ready for the metal recyclers.

Scrap metal pile "almost" gone...

Scrap metal into brother-in-laws trailer
& ready for removal.

There wasn't any "great amount" of this stuff out there, but it was beginning to look messy a bit & I have been trying to get rid of it all for quite a while.
Scrap metal is, a BIG deal around these parts. Everybody & their neighbor recycles this stuff for the little bit of money involved.
I've not had much to do with it before in the past because I've always been capable of earning $ in the building & construction trades, too easily so I didn't pay much attention to just, how important, this shit is to those others. But I've since learned different...
Last winter, some guy showed up at the house wanting to haul all of this away. Leighann's son had told me he would do so, but it just continued to build up & he made no effort to remove it. So I told this other guy; "Buddy, if you want it, come & get it, take it all". And then the fight was on...
When Scott found out (the other guy was one of his competitors for this stuff), he turned him away at my driveway & promised me up & down, he would remove the scrap, A.S.A.P. But it just continued to sit there...

So now I have it all loaded, myself. And, I've even spent some time, cleaning up the pieces of aluminum that were mixed in there...

Housing of old Hoover vacuum is cast aluminum.

Hoover housing all cleaned off.

Housing of old floor polisher is
all cast aluminum.

Cleaning it all up took some time, but I've got lot's of that. And I've always enjoyed taking this kind of stuff apart anyways.

Small amount of aluminum still to be cleaned.

Aluminum pile, all cleaned & ready.

I'm not separating the aluminum out of the steel & cleaning it all up, for the recyclers. This metal, has a more, interesting, destination. Click the link below to find out!

http://youtu.be/xWj6aVeN4bE

EARLIER BIRD

This morning, I'm awake before 3 A.M. & now sitting in my living room wondering what to do about it. Donnie & I are suppose to go to work today & finish off a landscape job we started last week, before the rains drowned us out of there. Well, the rains & the Black Flies, which are also out in full force up here now, too. Donnie made a joke about them being large enough this year to rape chickens. It's not funny but I laughed hysterically anyways. The hysterics being, part of the coping defence against these little bastards. If you spray yourself with "OFF", you're just adding gravy to the meat for these man eaters!

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon, crawling around his basement at his house here in town. His tenant from the back apartment of that place, had borrowed my chainsaw to help out with the clean up there & I needed it back, to finish the clean up back at my own place. When I went to get it, the tenant tells me he has no water. It's been down since yesterday.

So I run down to the pump house & sure as hell, the pumps spinning away, but there is water flowing through it. Still, it's quite hot & obviously working too hard. So I shut it down & go inspect the house. Water is pouring out everywhere, from the top of the electric water heater. And has been for a day & a half!

Usually, a burst pipe is an easy fix, however, in this case, we had relocated this particular appliance some 15 years ago, into a cubby hole off the basement with barely any room to work what so ever. This wasn't an issue then. We were younger & could contortion ourselves to weld up anything. Man, have times changed! But it is fixed now & alls working well again, regardless.


Last week, during one of the evenings while I was wondering what to do with my time, I decided to "look up" some people I once knew well for a brief period while my dad & I lived in the city of Hamilton.

During those years, I really did, only hang around with a, select few. In total, I had perhaps, half a dozen people I called, true friends. When I was a real young guy, around 10 years old, my best friend in the world was another kid my age named, Tyrone. We did everything together & were inseparable for many years. And, I kinda crushed on his sister a little. It was around that time...

And then Tyrone's family moved to Stoney Creek, and even though we did bus back & forth for a while, or had a parent drive one way or the other, the distance became too great I guess. Who knows, now.

So he was the first one of my old friends, from way back when, that I decided to search out. I used the Bell listings found on the web & looked him up, made a few phone calls & left a few messages with all of the matching names.

Last night, just as I was falling asleep, the phone rang. So I just let the machine get it. This morning, when I checked my e-mails, there was Tyrone's voice mail message & a voice I hadn't heard from for about 35+ years. It sounded, friendly.

So now, I'm wide awake. It's just after 4 A.M. The birds are waking up now, too. And I'm thinking to myself; "I wonder how Tyrone's sister is doing these days"...

UPDATE

Side view of 4 in a row raised beds.

As it turns out, I had enough lumber for more than one or two more raised garden beds. So I built 3 of them! And, I still have enough lumber yet, to build 2 more at least!

The rains have held off since the morning. It's still a little bit drizzly & moist out there, but not too, too bad. So I went outside to try & accomplish, something. After looking in on my seedlings, it was obvious I was going to have to get to work on something for them. That & I just felt like getting something done.

The 3 new gardens ready for earth.

These beds are not spaced yet. I have them down where they will go, roughly, but until I can move my tent again I can't space them out with enough room for me to walk in between them, safely.

Each raised bed is 84" X 38" approximately, due to the size of the old decking I had saved from an old tear down in the Lindsay area. The 4" X 4" posts are all different heights, depending on what I had kicking around, but I did want a bit of post sticking upwards, so that I can attach longer sections to them later & use those to wrap my chicken wire around.

Last years corn was ravished by either Skunks or Raccoons so I need to do something to prevent that from happening, again.

It's after 1:P.M. now & I've come in for a break & to have even more coffee. But just as I was on my in, I noticed something else...

Tent caterpillars in my Serviceberry bush!

These little buggers have established 4 small tents in my Serviceberry bush, already! Last season, they had their tents all over the place & I spent hours & hours trying to cut them out without damaging the trees. So now I'm researching something to use to kill these bugs, A.S.A.P!

FOR THE BIRDS

This working horse crap is too hard on my back these days!

I've been spending all of my free time helping my asshole buddy get his place ready for real estate agents to come in & take over. Whenever I do have a free hour or so, usually in the mornings while I await him to show up, I spend that time working on my "Greenhouse" project. That is moving along!

Instead of the corner which I had first thought would be an good enough area, I've built it up behind the back deck off the kitchen. This way, I'll incorporate the back wall of the greenhouse, right into the deck itself & I've done so for a few reasons;

1. I may build out the deck where I had originally intended to build the greenhouse.
2. I can create an access area from the deck, right into the back wall of the greenhouse. If I like.
3. I can use the back wall of the greenhouse which comes up higher than the deck, to build in deck storage area for the BBQ & other deck related items.

South-west exposure of greenhouse window.

As can be seen from the photo above, the back wall of this shed-roofed (eventually) greenhouse area will provide about an area 5 feet high at the deck area itself, where I can incorporate my deck storage ideas as well as an entry means right into the greenhouse itself if I so choose. There is an entry door rough framed right into the south-east wall now but un-seen in the photo.

Some of the used lumber I had to clean up first.

The used pressure treated 8"X 8"

Some more of the lumber after being cleaned up.

I spent an entire day+ removing each individual nail &/or screw out of these old boards & planks of dimensional 2"X pieces. And I made certain each & every fastener made it's way into a pail instead of into my lawn, so that the mower doesn't find them later!

My new (used) lawn mower.

The old push mower shown in the photo above, was another relic rescued from the scrap bin being used to clear shit out of Donnie's place here in town. So far, I've cut all of the back yard with it, once. After the rains end, I'll do it again & I'll cut the front as well!
What a pig. What a site. I can only imagine how I, with my shirt off & belly flopping all over, must look to the passers by as I push this antique around with a HUGE sweat stain down my ass crack. THIS IS what makes my life so worth while! I love it!

A shot of the back deck where the back
greenhouse wall will tie in.

This photo above, shows clearly how high an area I will have & that's without the shed roof gable ends which will make it even taller. That blue tarp is covering a work area I have been using & is where all of the siding blew off during last months high winds. Now (or soon I should say), I will be able to use the greenhouse as both, a planting area for starting my vegetables & as my work area during the off season.

The greenhouse itself is only 8' X 12'. Local bi-laws only allow an 100 square foot out building before I require a building permit. Another reason why I didn't build this greenhouse in the area where I had originally intended, was because it would have had to be larger than that 100 square feet allowed and, I would have had to tie into the house using pre-used lumber. Apparently, this is a big no-no. So rather than tempt fate, even though I would do so quite readily without any concern in the past mind you, I decided to re-locate this project.

Serviceberry Bush in front of Crab Apple tree.

Another view of Crab Apple tree.

Another Crab Apple tree.

Wild Plum trees behind compost area.

Another view of Wild Plum trees.

The trees that grow fruit in the back yard of my house in town are all showing signs of life. Just to the left of any one of those photos above, are Lilac bushes. We have several on this property. Pretty soon, around the end of this month I believe, all of these will begin to flower & bloom & what a beautiful site that is!
My neighbors lawns, on either side of me, are immaculate. A person could stand on either lawn & think they were on a golf course some place. It just blows me away. As soon as a Dandelion pokes up, they're on it with a spray bottle of weed killer.

I have a bit of a different attitude towards the wildness of my backyard. It provides an area for the birds & squirrels for one thing. I enjoy watching them in the early hours of a day. Plus, this reminds me of my youth & the place where I grew up. Our yard wasn't a golf course, it was an area where we kids went exploring & discovered ALL kinds of things having to do with "real life"!
This yard here, isn't anywhere near as big as our yard when I was a kid, but it does that similar "quality" to it. When my grand kids come up here & visit while I am at this house, I want for them to be able to explore & learn things like; "bees sting - dog shit stinks & worms don't taste 'all that good'", the same way I did as a kid. Not like my neighbors when they're yelling "get off the grass" to anyone who dares venture onto it.

Burn barrel & compost bins & piles.

Staghorn Sumac bushes.

Everything I own, piled as high as I can get it?

I just took the photos above, minutes ago. They show the wildness of the very back of the yard. The last photo just represents one small corner at the very back, where I've relocated a lot of "stuff" while I do the clean up around here & build my greenhouse. Once that is done, everything will have it's own "place" & my yard won't appear so cluttered. And, I'll have a lawn area where I can "tee-off" if I ever decide to begin drinking again & want to terrorize the town folk!

Blossoms beginning!

More blossoms!

And still more blossoms!

I just took these photos a few minutes ago too & yes, all of my fruit trees are beginning to blossom. As can be seen by the very bottom picture, the rain is causing the grass to grow VERY fast. I just cut it on Tuesday or Wednesday & it needs to be cut again already!
In that same photo, is one of my raised bed gardens as well. Most ALL of the soil in this garden, I made myself through the compost of my leaf litter, grass clippings & left over food stuffs.

I have enough lumber kicking around for perhaps one or two more raised beds of this size & then the remainder of my vegetables, this year, will be grown in buckets & containers of one sort or another.

Bell Telephone Tent.

Tent with "addition flaps" extended.

Inside view of my new tent.

Above, are pictures of a tent given to me that I will be using up at the acreage. I was originally suppose to receive 2 of these tents, just because my asshole buddy is good to me (that just doesn't sound right yet, there it is!) but, one of the tents disappeared. His brother-in-law still works at Bell, so there shouldn't be too much problem getting another. We'll see!
Together, the two tents would be around 10' X 26'. One tent on it's own is 10' X 10' but the flaps provide 3' each. Even by itself, we will still have a nice shelter out of any weather, while we work on our projects up there. And this brings me, finally, back to the acreage...

I have been climbing out of my own skin (almost literally because of the sun burns I've received from working outside without a shirt on) in anticipation of, getting back up to our acreage. Only now, it looks as though I may not be getting up that way, for a long enough time to do any work on it, until July some time. I am hoping early July.
I will be going up there for a quick look around nearer the end of this month or early June & we will most likely camp out for a night or two, but until I've finished with my greenhouse & yard & Donnie's house & all other bullshit in my way, long enough stays at the acreage will not be until, at least July. This is a dreadful set back, but what else can I do? The stuff here must be finished first!

There are more up-dates coming soon as well. My bucket idea for the used water bottles will be videoed shortly & I'm also working on a flame thrower for a home built furnace using the Babington Ball method.

The erect brass monolith in the center
of the photo is the vaporizer for the
flame thrower.

And my Rocket Stove as well! I now have the fire chamber partially assembled & up at assholes shop for welding. He has a portable Lincoln welder, off of it's tow trailer & on a dolly, in his shop, whereas all I have here is a portable, hobbyist's welder, which doesn't work well at all on metals over 1/8th. an inch thick. And he has cutting torches! I cut the almost 5/8 inch thick steel tube to be used as my burn chamber, with a 4 1/2" grinder. Never, never, never, will I attempt to that again. What a damn chore, that was!

So I'm off to tend my seedlings now, which are all, almost plants ready for the ground. Will have to tend to that, soon, as well...

THE EARLY BIRDS

Finally, after so, so long now, I've found a way to get up in the mornings, at the time I enjoy so much. Instead of just staying in bed at this time of the day & (pouting) sleeping, because our daughter has commandeered my living room couch & computer, we've purchased a small (very small) Notebook PC. Now, I can awake & check out the news channels early in the mornings without disturbing anyone. And Stanley appreciates the early wake-up calls as well. This is the only time of the day I allow him outside, un-tethered, all by himself.

He's become a bit more ornery as he gets older & he's always hated, "people on bicycles". His #1 Nemesis. I can't allow him to run free any other time of the day. A few years back, while he was tethered, he had frightened a woman on a bike so much, she fell & broke her arm, out front of the house we were in back then. I've seen him start to "rush" these people as they ride by, while I've had him outside with me. I can understand how that would frighten a person.

He's quite large & over a hundred pounds. While I walk him, EVERYONE who encounters us comments with, "what a nice dog"! Until they go to pet him. Then those lips flare back & his teeth flash & he snarls & growls & he wants to chew them to pieces.

I've no idea as to why he has become this way. It is not taught. I spent hour upon hour, day after day with him as puppy, walking him down the trails out back of the fair grounds here in town, teaching him to Sit, Stay & Lay Down. He knows not to touch ANY food, ANY where in our house, unless I tell him, Okay. Yet, he has an hatred for strangers, all on his own. Our paper delivery guy won't even deliver the paper to the front of the house, where Stanley can not reach from his leash, if this dog is outside.

But; once Stanley gets to know a person, that person is excepted as a friend. Of course, he still snarls & growls when people come to the door, whether the door is opened or closed, until that person is in clear view. And then he becomes all friendly & wags his entire ass until losing balance. I just don't understand his "other" ways. They don't make sense to me.

Well the birds have just started chirping outside. It's 5:13 & still plenty dark outside. I love listening to the birds start their day. Stanley has returned from doing whatever it is he does outside, un-tethered & all by himself. He's laying here at my feet & couldn't get any closer. In the dark of the room, I can feel him looking up at me. I freekin' hate Stephen Harper! Get im boy!

FROM 911 TO 2011

I was sound asleep last night when Leighann came running into the bedroom to tell me that Bin Laden was dead. So, I kinda snapped out of it, a little, sat up & listened to her for a minute. The TV was on in the sitting room off our bedroom & I could hear Obama, going on & on about how He did this & He did that & under his guidance, the troops went in to kill this idiot, Bin Laden. And then I went back to sleep thinking; "Why the hell don't they do that Bush. He's only in Texas?"

TODAYS TOTALS

First of all, tomorrow is voting day. So I will be dusting off my wallet & taking my I.D. down to the local voting station where, I will be doing my part to hopefully rid our country of Stephen Harper (that GOOF). I hate the fact that we don't have any qualified party leaders running in this election, but that still won't deter me from voting against Harper. The Green Party or the NDP are our only hope for making a change in this country. Even Ignatieff would be better than Harper. But he would surely sink us as well. I'm voting Green! Leigh's been busy doing her part,doing whatever she can, for everybody else. But she has scored a few cool items of note.

The Harper Throne

I've no idea, what-so-ever, where she found this. But THANK YOU GOD! It's everything I've ever wanted! It's like Xboxmas in May. My birthday 3 months early. Hoakey Hanukkah. We've got our very own Harper Throne for the acreage!

I'm going to paste Stephen Harper pictures ALL around the outside portion of the potty part so that he's always got a great view of whats coming his way!

My new (used) horse.

 And the gifts just keep on coming. This thing (the bike) came from a yard sale she found somewhere. I wouldn't have even thought someone would be having a yard sale this soon in the season. But she found one. And bought a bicycle. Fuel shortage solved?

Mini fold-up horse.

I already had this bicycle hanging around. It was up at Donnie's moms house on the wrap around front porch & hadn't moved from that spot, for as long as I have known that family. Almost 30 years. He was going to throw it into the scrap bin he had delivered there for clearing out the old place, but I just couldn't allow him to do it. The bike works great. I'll take it out to the acreage for recreation use by anyone who wants to go for a ride. What the heck!



Heath Marine compass.



It must be the gimble device which keeps this compass facing upright at all times that attracts me to these marine compasses. That & the size perhaps. But I've always wanted one of these as well & when we discovered this one in a back bedroom of Donnie's moms old house, he asked if I had any use for it. So I said, "okay (dummy), I'll find a use for it I suppose".

 

But most importantly (actually, the Harper Throne can't be beat), I finally got a start on cleaning out the alcove where I will build my Greenhouse.

Area where the Greenhouse will be constructed.

I used this area for hiding a bunch of "stuff" all winter. Now, I'm pulling it all out, sorting whats what & then doing whatsoever required to reduce. While my mom & Jim, the guy who built most of this old house, were here last time, he said that he had filled this corner with a lot of top soil that he had collected from out back, 30 odd years ago.

 

I will clean out as much usable soil as I can recover from this area & then order a load of stone to fill it in. The stone will act as both, the base for my concrete pads (seen at left) & as the footings for the 8" X 8" pressure treated lumber I intend to use to frame the base of the structure with. There is no concern at all about frost & heaving here. Only inches, if at all, cover the solid bedrock type stone in the back here.

10' - 8" long window.

This one window, will make up almost all of the one south/east facing wall. It is very old & it is only single pane glass, but it was free. And by installing this, I will have much less siding to have to install. The window was originally in Donnie's house, on the Misquawzibi River, before he renovated & he managed to keep it in one piece, all this time, behind his shop. I just about "free-acked it" good, the day after bringing it here. This is the window the wind caught & blew down the other day. It's braced now. I removed them for the picture.

 

But that's today's totals. It's still kinda sunny outside. I may go do a bit more. But the more I think about it, I probably will just look for an episode of the Simpson's or something & prepare my brain for tomorrows vote!

SPRUNG

It's the 1st. of  May. The trail into the acreage is finally open to ATV traffic but my truck & bike are still down for repairs. Because we've needed to use extra electrical heating more often & for longer periods of time winter & early spring, to warm new baby & mother & ourselves, those bills have left me penniless to complete "anything else".

But happy days are here again. The sun is going to be shining more, soon. And the rains will end too. And then I'll be able to get back into the bush to take up where I left off. Now, I just have to come up with a solution to higher fuel prices!

I've joined another on-line group. I've no idea, how many, this makes now. The groups I belong to, deal with everything from refrigeration to earth-sheltered homes & methane digesters to organic gardening. And everything, survivalist oriented, or off-grid related. This newest group however, is closer to home. It's based out of Waterloo & it's main goal is to educate people about bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel has always held an interest with me. Even before owning a diesel engine vehicle, I became interested with the idea of it, as soon as I discovered other people were out there making there own "fuels", from waste vegetable oils. Needless to say, all of the other methods for making fuels, such as ethanol & hydrogen, also became subjects of interest too. But bio-diesel for some reason, seemed as though it were the more obvious choice. The "better suited fuel" for powering & operating equipment. Perhaps due to my experiences with operating heavy equipment?!?!

Anyways, I've been reading the posts right off of the website pages lately, attempting to gain whatever knowledge I can, as quick as I can. And I think I'm ready to give it a shot, soon. My first batch will be a gallon or 2 made from new, unused vegetable oil, as recommended by any websites I've thought worthy, regarding bio-diesel. But that won't be until later this month or early next. I've too many, other things on the go right now, that do need to be taken care of first.

But, for anyone else interested, the group can be found at; waterloo_biofuels@yahoogroups.com  I joined the group a couple of days ago & they do have a lot of really good, quality information about bio-diesel!

Earthlings ~ The Documentary Part 7

Earthlings ~ The Documentary Part 6