Smoky picnic tables

I've noticed something interesting about myself lately.  There are times when a casual statement delivered in my direction is instantly transformed by my brain into an order, something that MUST be done, the sooner the better. 

Sadly, it happens more and more often with Sarah.  Just the other day all she said was, "I get splinters in my butt every time I sit on the picnic table." 

Well then.  That's simply unacceptable!  I must dismantle the picnic table!!

Fortunately a buddy saved me a bunch of money when I told him I was going to buy some cedar boards to redo it, he said, "why not just try to turn them over first?  They probably won't be bad on the other side."  Turns out he was right! 

After a bunch of sanding and then a good oiling, it doesn't look too darn bad!



Darn near new again!

And like everyone else, we've been having some pretty smoky days, weeks, what feels like months, around here.  Yesterday I was filling my "water transfer buckets" at the lake and this was the view.

After it cleared out a little bit..
 

It was DEAD calm

See the boat??

Look what I can do

Wow, perusing through the camera that I pack around everywhere got me here.  I need to start posting more often!

Okay, try and get past the "stupid" that was getting a cat off a flimsy branch in the middle of the night and look at the background behind the truck.

After a couple months of happy yet sporadic work involving clearing brush, pulling roots, digging out rocks, leveling the site with a Pulaski and a shovel, numerous trips to the hardware store, playing with concrete for the first time, and making sure components were even and level...that spot turned into something that looks like an exercise area.



Finally everything up and level and landscape fabric put down!

Yes, there is still a slight slope...especially in the corner closest here...don't like that one much, but the rest is for drainage.

This is only ONE yard of bark.  I have to drive the highway (didn't want it above the bed) so it took a total of two trips..

It finally got done!

Not too shabby!
 

 There is a granite slab also occupying this site.  It's about 19 - 21 inches down and covers the ENTIRE area because believe me, I checked.  Fortunately, I'm pretty sure these posts all have enough concrete to hold them in place until the treated wood rots out.  One hole got VERY large because of a misfortunately placed boulder that had to come out. That corner of the dip bar is, let's just say, SOLID.

I've learned quite a bit the last year of living here / owning a home.  Apparently, one thing I can now do is build my own window screens.  I guess they don't sell pre-built screens in the one big-box home improvement store up here...I think they should change their motto to, "YOU do this."  Again, all it took was a couple happy hours of work and two trips to town (screwed up the first screen material and didn't have enough) and we have two custom screens.  The windows are side by side, I don't understand how they aren't identical in size.

Yep, looks like a screen.

Another thing I was able to figure out is a drip line for the garden.  We've been having water issues on our shared well (running out when the dude down the hill waters his football field - sized garden all day) and I wanted to be able to use our rain barrel instead of relying on the spigot.  So that's what we use for the tomatoes and zucchini!  And all I have to do is keep the rain barrel filled using five gallon buckets out of the lake.  Not much of a problem around here.  It's a nice backup if nothing else.

Okay, I'm ready

I'm assigned to a fire team this year doing GIS.  The current schedule is to head out in the next week or two.  I think I finally have my head wrapped around it and I'm ready to go.

The ankle sock is my clever grease application tool

Spring 2015

Wow.  Again?  I'll tell ya, there's something about writing here anymore that isn't my main focus.  I think it's this new location and having a place to work on / play with.  But that's neither here nor there.

This spring has gone by quick and it certainly hasn't been easy for me.  I can't remember being quite that down in the dumps in a looong time.  BUT, I haven't been idle.  Morel season kept me busy for a while, but I'm still having a heck of a time finding a spot up here.  I finally had my best day (so far) by running down to my old haunts near CDA.

Overall, I have one gallon dried so far.  Honestly not as much as I'd like so I'm hoping for some kind of late season score here pretty quick.

I did take one solo trip to the Selway to look for them and really all I found was rain, a lot of rain.  BUT, I came out with a small bag full of them.  It was going to be a longer trip but I cut it down to two nights since I burned most of my wood by that time due to the cold weather and WET conditions.

This was the nicest one I found

Nice little spot

 

This was an intriguing view from the tent...I had a hard time catching it correctly on a photo

Did I mention it was raining?

After that, I did join Butch on another trip down there to check out a burn that ate up a couple thousand acres last summer.  Not 10 minutes out of the pickup I heard him talking to someone and so wandered over to investigate.  Turns out it was a FS law dog who proceeded to inform us that we needed a free permit to pick mushrooms.  "Oh" I said, "do you have any on you?"  He said no and that we would have to go to the District office to get one, but it was Saturday and they were closed.  "Uhm, really?  You can cite us but we don't have any way to BECOME legal?"  Then, I guess since we were cooperating, he said there was someone down there for just this purpose and we should go talk to her and get a permit.  So we did after he almost stepped on a morel..."don't pick it or I'll have to confiscate it and cite you!"  Are you effing kidding me??

Well, we went to the office and, of course, the database was down so the gal couldn't get us our free permit to pick mushrooms.  *sigh*  Overall it left a really bad taste in my mouth.  Not to mention we drove all that way only to get shut down.  But, I was talking to a buddy who was walking around in there and he said he walked over five miles and got only two bags...the commercial pickers were just swarming over the area.  One guy told us that there was one guy using a headlamp and working at night as well!! 

Anywho...

I spent part of the spring building / digging up a new garden, building tools to use in it, and then put up fences around both of them just the other weekend.

I put together a trellis for the zucchini and cucumbers...trying to maximize space...they kind of took over the garden last year.

Earlier I had built a cold frame...I'm going to try and keep something growing into the fall on the south side of the house. 

In the meantime, it helped me start some peas (in the pots), kale, and chard

I put this fence up solo...that's six foot rabbit / deer fence...that was a PAIN.  (I had to brace all of the posts since I didn't cement them in, when tightening the wire they leaned in.)

And, just last week Butch and I drove down to Vancouver, WA to see his son Matt and do some salmon fishing!  We went with a guide / friend of Matt's who was, a little intense.  We met him on the river at five in the morning and the very first thing he said was, "Are we on the boat yet?"  Wow.  (By the way, that's a 3 a.m. wake up call...I pretty much didn't sleep that night so I was exhausted!)  We loaded on the boat and went upriver to a place where only bank fishing was allowed.  What folks did was set up on the shore, then rig three lines from three, 3-way swivels on the main line, and the whole shebang weighted down with a rock.  The guy driving the boat would take this setup out in the middle of the Columbia while you free-spooled on the shore, he'd drop the rock, you'd take up slack and wait.  The idea was that you would get a hit, grab the rod and run back up the bank to break that rock off (which was tied on with a lighter line than the main line) and then hopefully you still had a fish on.

Well, I know that all sound terribly simple (ha!) but it turned out there's some finesse involved that none of us had.  The guys next to us limited out, but we had a heck up a time even getting a fish to stay on the hook!  We fished for 12 hours, had about 30 hits, and no fish landed between Butch, Matt, and I.  At one point our "guide" grabbed a rod and managed to catch a fish...so that was nice for him.  Then his friend managed to get one.  At one point the guys below us ran over my line, so while we're trying to deal with that tangle, I had a fish take one of the baits but since we were tangled up it got off!!  Then a little later, me and this other fella had lines crossed and one of my baits was taken by a sturgeon (according to the guide.)  It felt like a log dragging me into the river!  That finally broke the 40 lb braided line we had on there and I lost about 450 feet of line!

Matt hooked up with a sturgeon that he and I saw breach out in the middle of the river...it was at least nine feet long and wore him out!  They almost got it to shore, but then it slipped the hook.  That was pretty fun for a while!

Anywho, it was an interesting trip.  The guide ended up giving me his fish, so that was nice, but I still wanted to catch my first salmon myself.  I don't have too many photos as we were pretty busy the whole time staring at the rods waiting for a hit.

Our transportation and guide.  Notice the rod bent over...the lines had to be kept whistling tight!

There was a bit of this that happened



Matt and Butch rigging rocks for weights.  By the way, notice the rocks we had to try and run on...those things were just waiting to twist your ankle.

Odd to see the size of some of the boats going by!  This is deceptive, but that's a huge yacht!

It was a tough way to fish, I think next time I'll try and go with someone who's trolling!  Needless to say, we all slept like rocks that night! 

Well, that brings us to now.  This weekend Sarah and I are going to plant the garden...it'll be nice to have that done for a while.  I will continue my war on dandelions and hopefully get my boat in the water a time or two!

Never trust a map!!

Christmas 2014 Snowstorm - Sarah's photos

Sarah sent me some photos from her camera so I figured I'd make a new post of just those.  It sure does look like we were having a bit of fun...we've both wanted snow for a while.

On a related note, I wanted cold weather to make the way for ice fishing...looks like we got it.  I had 4 degrees at the house this morning and my truck wouldn't start without a jumper battery assist... I could even feel my fingers trying to stick to my truck hood when scraping the windows!  The windchill is something else entirely...

I'm sure I'll regret saying this later, but for now the snowblower is entertaining to use.  I've never had one before!

Sarah taming the beast



It's a big machine....28" mouth and it can buck a bit when you get going



Last little bit coming off the roof

 

I like this photo

 

It was heavy, dense snow.  Coulda been perfect for making a snow cave!

 

Always rockin' the wool

First Christmas in Cocolalla

I was excited going into the Christmas holiday this year.  We had made the decision not to travel and to have our first Christmas in our new home.  That plus a day and a half off (totaling 4.5 days off) would be a very welcome break! 

Christmas morning arrived and we took it very slow...which was fine with me because my gut was plagued by shooting pains, here there everywhere.  I hadn't mentioned it before but I had taken something the night before to "aid in relief" and I think that just did NOT sit well with me.  Consequently, I had those pains for most of the day...which basically ruined my plan to pig out with a ham dinner.  We eventually made the ham but just snacked on it.  We opened gifts...for the first time it was just the two of us, which I have to say was quite a shock to our "systems" as it harbored the continual feeling of something being wrong.  It was, in all honesty, a little lackluster.  We got very nice things from people and then felt guilty that we didn't do MORE for them.  So we commiserated, took the dog on a walk, and I think I figured something out about the guilt.  It really is more fun to watch people open gifts that you got for them (or better yet, made for them) than to receive them.    That was Christmas day.

Friday got me to looking into cleaning clothes dryers.  Ours has been taking a long time to dry clothes and, what we think, to be the main culprit in our high energy bills.  The internet can be a truly wonderful thing as I learned a lot.  The fact that it wasn't drying fast was more likely do to an airflow issue rather than an element going bad and my first look in to where the heat enters the drum showed a LOT of lint build-up.  (Did you know those things need periodic cleanings?  Like taking it apart to do just that?  I didn't...and it didn't look like the folks before us knew it either.)  So there I was, behind this machine with my headlamp on, a vacuum hose, and a garbage bag...taking the back off and proceeding to disassemble the whole thing.  It was a mess!  I filled a total of about one grocery bag with lint that was covering things and generally just stuck everywhere.  That done, I put it all back together (successfully!) and am now hoping I see a difference in our energy bill.  Then we headed to town.

This is what I could see from the inside

 

This is the bottom of the blower shoot...(the thing that basically feeds the lint screen)

We ran some errands and headed home around 4:30.  One of Sarah's friends texted her and told her there was a bad wreck on the highway home...but that was at 2:30 and we didn't think much of it.  Well, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam as they were still clearing the accident site and I sweated as I watched my battery gauge slowly go down.  By the time we got home the headlights were having a helluva time keeping the road illuminated and progressively getting dimmer.  (Now, this is a brand new battery....this SHOULDN'T be happening.)  Once home I broke out the tools and looked at my battery connections....hoping this was just a bad connection and the movement of the truck was shaking the wire so it didn't have as good of contact with the terminal.  I noticed a lot of corrosion on the positive cable connection so I cleaned that off and believed I had solved the problem.  I jumped in and took off down the road, determined to charge the battery back up.  Unfortunately, after a mile or so the lights began to dim QUICKLY.  I rapidly turned around and headed back as they continued to get weaker...then my dashboard lights went out, then the radio went black...uh oh.  The truck was bucking and snorting but I was able to coax her to within 10 yards of our driveway before she gave out completely.  My plan had been to coast into the neighbor's big driveway (to make towing easier if it came to that.)  So I went over there and he offered to help me push it in there...but when I got in it the lights came on and she turned over!  Hurriedly I got it to where he indicated and learned that the alternator went completely out.  (Turns out he has been building cars since he was about 12...good guy to know!!)  Luckily he said, "it's an easy fix, come over in the morning and I'll help you take this one out so you can go to town and get a new one...then I'll help you put it in."  Awesome awesome awesome!  (Oh, by the way, I also learned that new batteries...less than a year old...can regenerate themselves...which I never thought about before and never even knew was possible.)

Saturday morning had me messing with that.  I learned a lot and was able to successfully replace the alternator with not too much more than a teacher there to instruct me.  Like most things, it's more about confidence than the extent of knowledge that makes the most difference.  I was most worried about the belt and getting that back on than anything and I told him, his simple reply was, "why?"  Turns out the only answer was "lack of confidence" but I kept that to myself.



It started snowing gently in the morning and just got heavier and heavier towards the evening.

 

That done around midday, I went down the hill to the house...almost getting stuck on the wet snow that was falling...which turned to instant ice once compacted....BUT I made it back up the hill to where I stopped.  And made a mistake.  I pushed the parking brake!!!  Quickly realizing my error, I popped it and headed down the road to make sure I hadn't frozen it up...which I had, on one side.  Son of a BITCH!  Come...ON!  I want ONE day to relax!  I headed home and proceeded to crawl around under the back tires...the snow clinging to the truck slowly melting and dripping off (because of the heat from the exhaust pipe) and soaking me.  I needed help so I recruited Sarah to come up and press the brake and release it (with me underneath) so I could observe what things "should" look like.  Then came a hammer.  Then the brake pedal got REALLY stuck.  Out of frustration I pushed it to the floor and pulled the release again and BINGO!  (I think the heat from the exhaust slowly melted the ice that must be in the wire's sheath.  It still worries me though, ever get like that?  Your mind telling you, "I don't think the rpms were that high before, but I can't remember because I never paid attention."

Then we watched the snow fall into the night.  In the morning there was nine new inches of heavy snow.  Time to figure out the snow clearing.  We have a roof that's been damaged in the past by letting compacted snow sit for too long...so our first order of business was shoveling off the roof!  With the two of us, that only took an hour...but then we  probably spent another hour on the deck / porch getting the compacted snow that came from the roof, off.  Following that was probably over another hour learning how to use the big ass snowblower I bought last summer and clearing the driveway.  (But honestly, that was kinda fun.  The thing can chew through snow like no one's business AND toss it up to 50 feet!)  All this followed by a quick trip to the dump and we were done. 

Looking up the driveway.

 

Before

 

After

 

Looking down the driveway after it was cleared

 

I was having enough fun that I cleared the turnaround too

 

We did hold pretty darn good attitudes all day, which was good

 

Overall, not really any days to relax but I sure did learn a lot and definitely got some exercise!