Springtime

The trees are budding, the flowers are up and I'm at least a month and a half behind on everything. I rented a skidsteer to clean out the sheep pen and now I have to repair the walls. I have started some plants but I haven't tilled a scrap of land. I've changed oil in my little tractor but haven't put the bush hog on it and cleaned the back of the farm for plowing. I've been cleaning up the trash in the yard but I've only got about half of it mowed. I've helped another guy set up his hives but haven't looked at ours. I have 6 new lambs on the ground but not one sheep sheared. This year, I couldn't coordinate an orgy in a whorehouse with a crew of submariners. I just keep slogging on. There is a real possibility that we may be able to sleep in a real bed by the end of the week. The wallpaper is up and the carpet is down. All they have to do is put up the ceiling fan and we can move the furniture back in and have the mattress delivered. There's a little work to be done in the upstairs bathroom yet but that won't matter for a while. The big job will be going through all the boxes and deciding what to throw out. We have a lot of crap. I've got to find time somehow to get the chicken area together so we can get some chicks started. Sure, we have a freezer full of beef but what about chicken? It's a bit short but I've got to go.

The Florida Vacation

One of the problems of keeping up a blog is making everyday life interesting enough to keep the readers from passing out from boredom. Finally, I have something to write about. The Florida Vacation We finally got another vacation. We left out of here on the 27th of February at -9F and drove to Winston-Salem, NC to pick up a friend. This was hardly an instantaneous thing as there's a lot of Ohio to drive through. Let me introduce our friend Janet. She was the only female attending our avionics classes at Piedmont Aerospace and became a good friend. When Stacey and I were looking for furniture, we went to N.C. and I suggested we stop in. Stacey was worried about meeting my old “ girlfriend” but 15 seconds after meeting, they slammed together like a pair of magnets. That's when her husband John and I knew we were in trouble. It was like mixing fire and gasoline. What one doesn't think of, the other does. Janet has had some rough times in the last couple of years starting with the loss of her husband. We decided that a Florida vacation might cheer her up so we shoehorned her into the back of the Focus and took off. It's a long drive to St.Petersburg so we stayed in Savannah, Georgia overnight. We greatly enjoyed the town and plan to go back for a longer stay. We ate in a place called The Shrimp Factory and had a superb meal. We each had our own appetizers and split an order of Pinebark Stew. Stacey loved the raw oysters ( she can have them), Janet had their version of coconut shrimp and I had seared scallops. The Pinebark Stew is a form of bouillabaisse loaded with shrimp, scallops and meaty fish. We had an excellent waitress. We walked the river, bought candy and took a historical carriage ride through town. It's beautiful, even in the rain at night. Don't stay in the Quality Inn. The drunks come off the riverwalk yelling and screaming half the night. The next day got us to a St. Pete's resort called the Tradewinds. We had the afternoon to discover that walking in the white sand of the Gulf is darned tiring to someone who has been cooped up all winter. The 80 something degrees and sunny sky did help somewhat. We looked over the facilities and hit the sack. I got a cabana , walked in the sand, walked in the water and sunned my feet for a while. I prudently put my white cotton socks on before napping out of the sun in the cabana. My legs were covered as well while I napped . Did you know that white cotton socks don't block the sun very well? I didn't know that. Red feet look strange. Janet wanted a palm for her mom. The next day,we found a palm arboretum. Man, there's a lot of different palms. We picked up palm seeds and talked to the staff about the best places to buy palms. We sat under the palms and watched Janet try to get a picture of the front end of an ibis. About that time, my Uncle Willys schedule opened up so we went off to visit him. Uncle Willys is almost 91 and spends a lot of time in a wheelchair these days. His daughter Mame looks after him quite well, driving him to card playing , bingo and other activities. We had a good visit and then off to Tarpon Springs where it was my privilege to buy dinner for Uncle Willys and all. I don't know the name of the Greek restaurant, just that their emblem is an H and they have an attached bakery. They make a superb baked whole Red Snapper. It took a while but that just gave us a longer visit. The waiter was classic Old World where service is an important job and not just slopping the customers. The entertainment portion of our meal was watching him debone the fish with a pair of spoons. When he was done, it kind of looked like an exploded diagram of a fish. I actually felt good about giving him a tip. We parted ways with Uncle Willys and Mame and returned to the resort. Staceys knee was bothering her so she rested while Janet and I walked the beach. I sat and watched Janet take a hundred pictures of bird butts and multiple sunset shots. Stacey came out and we watched the sunset. I was hoping to see a green flash but no joy there. It was a good night. Wednesday, we started with a croissant from Cafe Soliel back in a corner by the Publix market. If you get to St.Pete, go there. It's cheaper than going to Paris. On to palm shopping. As it turns out, it's hard to buy a baby palm tree. The first place we went didn't have any but Janet and Stacey both bought desert roses. These are succulents that look like mutant kohlrabi. They are alleged to bloom. The next place did have a small 4 foot palm for $4. We dropped the plants off and headed to the Dali Museum. There seem to be Dali Museums everywhere. I think there are two in Cleveland. Dali must have painted in his sleep to turn out so many pictures and sculptures. The one in Tampa was most enjoyable. There was a good mix of his works from early to late. We all enjoyed them. The museum itself was worth a good look. I've been in many museums holding priceless art and none of the others had more cameras than a Las Vegas casino. There appeared to be two guards per room plus rovers. The guards looked ex-military and not cooks or electronics techs. They looked like guys who killed people and regretted their present job choice. They weren't sleepy old guys. Lean in to look at a picture, there's a guard. Point out a detail, there's a guard. Bend down to tie your shoe, there's a guard. I was afraid to go to the restroom there. We had a snack, bought souvenirs and moseyed back to the resort. Janet bought Stacey and I massages for our anniversary. I've never had a professional massage before but I'm going to have another. I recommend them. Thursday, Janet went to the spa, Stacey played in the pool and I did laundry. It was the first chance I had to read. We packed all unneeded clothes up and UPS'd them home. This left more room for souvenirs. Off to the cafe for a sandwich and then to the Florida Aquarium. Nice aquarium. The exhibits are set up as slices of Florida ecology, complete with mangrove trees and birds. We closed the place up and went looking for food. We went to a small steak joint near the resort that one of the other quests had said was great. He had low standards. The salad was tasty and the bread was good. I've had better beef. It must have been some type of Florida cattle. I could chew it but I was definitely getting my fiber ration for the day. Friday, we started back. Not having enough souvenirs, we stopped at Hancock Grove outside of Dade City. We bought oranges, jams and Janet bought an orange tree. We look like a mobile greenhouse. About that time, my cousin Matt called and said “ The food in your upstairs freezer is thawed.” Darn, the door has a tendency to get stuck open a bit so I told him to clean out the freezer so it wouldn't stink. Then he says “ It's 37 degrees in the house and there's water dripping on your bed through the ceiling fan.” Ah Crap. I called my insurance company to see what our coverage was and they had a disaster clean-up crew in the house in under an hour. We had to stop again to buy strawberries, tomatoes and onions. We slept at Janet's that night. Saturday, we had breakfast at the K&W with Janet and her sister Lucy, then hit the road. Good roads all the way with a meal in Charleston, WV. We arrived home to our mattress in the back yard, the bedroom ceiling torn down and the upstairs sink turned off. I slept upstairs but Stacey slept on the couch to stay close to a working bathroom. Sunday, I decided to catch up on the work around the farm. The cow pen really needed to be cleaned so I pitched out the unfrozen part, watered the cows and sheep and headed into the house where I dissolved into an unmoving, whimpering little boy. I seem to have strained my back muscles. A Lot. It's now the next Saturday, repairs are proceeding at a rapid pace and I can walk mostly upright with the occasional use of a cane. I need a vacation. Some odds and ends: We ate at an Italian place called Gigi's one night where I had Shrimp St. Tropez. It was very good but of special note was the busboy. Either he suffers from OCD or is unusually dedicated to doing his job to the best of human ability. Either way, I honor him. Given all the noise on the news about homosexual marriage, throuples , polygamy, and such, I decided to refer to Janet as our sister-wife in casual conversation. This provided considerable entertainment for me. When a man overheard that, I usually got a thoughtful look. When a woman overheard, I got a look that would flay a squirrel. I haven't had such fun tweaking the Mundanes for years. Even Stacey got into it after a while. Once I get a sd to usb convertor, I'll try to upload random pictures which will have little meaning to anyone but us. Have fun. I'm going to lay back down now.

Still Alive

It's been quite a while. I could make excuses like computers dying and work but it would be a lie. I just didn't want to for a while. I've been reminded that there are folks who like to read this and I should get back to work. Last winter was a bitch. I like winter but my joints locked up bad. I couldn't get out to do anything. I had to save everything for work. I can't remember ever enjoying winter less. Spring was wet and kept me from getting my corn in early. I tried but it was a total failure. The garden did all right but not really what I wanted. The sheep did very well and the steers as well. We only had one beehive make it to harvest. If it doesn't survive the winter, we may take a break for a year to rebuild equipment. It's been a year of death. Myrtle the cat was about 18 when I had to put her down. Little Grey Kitty was about 14 when we put him down. He had cancer so bad and was in constant pain. We lost humans too. One of Stacey's cousins, two good friends and now a sister-in-law. Worst of all, they were all people we liked. The last one was Kim. She never actually married Mike but she was a fine sister-in-law anyway. She died in Panama in the cardiologists office and they couldn't do a thing to save her. She had a funeral down there then her ashes came back for a memorial up here. This last weekend, we had a Wake for her. It turns out that she had written out precisely how she wanted that done. It was not, however, held outside since it was killing cold out. The caterers did a magnificent job on the dishes she specified. It was definitely Kim. Take some baby spinach, add some red onion slivers, some ripe mango bits and toasted pecan pieces, then serve with poppy seed dressing. Think of Kim. It hasn't been all death and disaster. There have been occasional bright bits. Early in 2014, we had too many kittens and they've hung around. Our outside male cats, Bootsie and Samson, took off. I really missed them. The day after I buried Myrtle, I was walking back from the barn, looked down and found Bootsie walking alongside me. He was starved nearly to death. He came in that day and is back to health now. He's become my permanent lap cat. Now, when you open an outside door, he runs the other way. He's never going outside again. I've been informed that I'll have a job for a while. Our contract has been renewed and the customer made a point of telling our bosses that we're doing a great job. The new year does bring more paperwork but I've got less than 2 years to retirement so I'll have to suck it up and do it. The winter of 2014-15 hasn't been near the problem the last one was. My joints are doing good and I'm able to work outside most of the time. We just got the house foam insulated and that worked out well. There was probably other good stuff but I'm going to wrap this up. I hope to buy a cheap tablet soon to replace my little computer. I hope that will increase my written output. Adios for now.

Laziness and sloth have become part of my life. Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone but I'm just getting around to writing. I'd like to blame this on our dull and boring life but it's just sloth. Thanksgiving was very good. My brother-in-law Mike was up from Panama and his daughter Samantha with her significant other Heather were able to join us as well. Much food was eaten and some good visiting was had. Christmas Eve was held at my sister-in-law Sue's. It's held so the cousins can get together and visit. It's starting to divide into the young marrieds and us old fogies. That's right and proper but a little sad as well. The cousins have married well and I like their spouses but they are from another time. Their concerns and triumphs are not ours. It's still good to see them. I wonder how long before they take over Christmas Eve. Christmas was at the mother-in-laws. I got to visit more with the nieces including Mike's daughter Stephanie who was in from Denver. Another good dinner was had. New Year's Eve was a wild one for us. We went to the 1812 restaurant in the Island House Hotel in Port Clinton. The food was very good, better than we've had in this area in a while. We were home by 9pm, napping on the couch and waiting for the ball to drop. It did and we went to bed. New Year's Day and we played tiles at the Mother-in-laws. Wild times folks, wild times. I found myself short of breath far too often and after some farm work had some pains in my arms. After extensive and expensive tests, my heart is fine. Evidently, I suffer from OFOOS. I'm Old, Fat and Out Of Shape. I'm trying to do something about 2 of those. I'm suffering from food fatigue from the holidays anyway. I can do with a much simpler diet. I've used this diagnosis to justify buying a set of bike rollers. Biking is the only other form of useless exercise that I've enjoyed other than fencing. Fencing is out now. It takes too long to heal my joints up after a fencing session. Biking is easier on my joints. I should have bought a unicycle instead. People expect you to be unable to ride a unicycle. All the Youtube videos show guys jumping on a set of bike rollers and riding fine in 8 minutes or so. I'm at about an hour so far and still can't stay upright. I really hoped to do better than this. I wanted to be in good biking shape by the time weather gets good. I do go for a walk around town from time to time at lunch. The farm and garden are on hold. I’ve done some mechanical work on equipment but nothing major. I need to cut brush on the one ditch and bring in a tracked excavator to clean it. I’ve got to improve the drainage or I’ll never be able to grow anything worthwhile. I may try to put together some primitive raised beds this year. I’d like to insure against tomato drowning. I suppose this will be a drought year. Who really knows? We were trapped in the house for about 5 days thanks to the weather. The county went to a condition 3 snow emergency which is: Stay off the roads unless you are an emergency vehicle or we’ll arrest you. I took some time to rearrange the attic and upstairs rooms. You would never be able to tell. It’s now possible to walk several steps in the rooms. In the process, I found several books that I haven’t read in a while. One was volume 2 of The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I found myself reading passages about zeks (slaves) stealing bread from other starving zeks to try and live another day while eating a Lunch of sautéed bay scallops and zucchini over angel hair pasta. Should I be thankful of my good fortune? Should I feel sorrow and horror at the treatment of the Soviet prisoners? It gives me something to ponder while enjoying the Fukinese Sea Treasure Soup that Stacey just made. She uses bay scallops instead of fish maw. They go well with the Alaskan King Crab and shrimp. I’ll leave you with 2 more things. First, I hope to include pictures of my corn crop and my niece and friend. I trust you’ll be able to tell the difference. Second a passage from August 1914 by A. Solzhenitsyn that I have laminated and keep in my wallet: “Who is conceited enough to imagine that he can actually devise ideal institutions? The only people who think they can are those who believe that nothing significant was ever done before their own time, that their generation will be the first to achieve something worthwhile, people who are convinced that only they and their current idols possess the truth, and that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is a fool and a knave.”

Too many cats

I've been reminded that I need to blog once and a while. Things have actually happened so I should report them. We have far too many barn cats. I've always maintained a feeder in the barn for our official barn cats and never worried about the occasional stray passing through. Unfortunately, some fertile queens moved in and rapidly filled the barn with feral cats. I tried to end the welfare entitlement and feed the authorized cats under supervision. This did clear out some of the cats but not all. One of the kittens managed to get an eye damaged, Stacey saw it and now we have a $300 one eyed kitten living on the porch who will be moving in when he's healthy enough. His name is Jack. I'll try and include pictures. We had a birthday party of some note. Stacey and I both have birthdays in August so we invited a lot of folks out for food and firearms. Stacey entertained the folks in the house and I had built a small range in back. We shot skeet and everyone's favorite firearms. It's been a while since I shot my T/C Cherokee and I really enjoyed it. It's lightweight and with the .32 caliber barrel , there's no kick. It was good to see old friends again. With our vet expenses this year, our ability to enjoy the area fairs was limited. We had to miss Wood Co. and Sandusky, both good fairs. We did make the Fulton Co. fair and enjoyed it very much. Their ag display this year was farm trucks which didn't interest me greatly. Everything else was great as expected. Our garden is total crap this year. I have to weed whack large portions just to find the veggies I planted. The tomatoes are producing a handful of poor fruit and the peppers are doing ok. I don't know where the onions and leeks even are. I've got to use more mulch but I've got to hill the dirt up as well. The Farmer's Almanac for next year says it will be a repeat of this year. The upside of all the rain is that I have more apples than I can pick and store. I've discovered a tree in the back of the orchard with magnificent tasting apples. I don't remember planting one in that location. It's too close to a peach, for one thing. I'm going to try to actually take care of it. I hope that doesn't kill it. I'm not good at orchards. The animals are doing well. I had to put up some electric fence to keep the adult steers from walking down the fence to get to all that good stuff on the other side. It doesn't matter that they have perfectly good grass on their side. The stuff on the other side always looks better. Work is a mixed bag. The job is easy on thinking as I'm replacing the batteries in the sirens . My aging body, however, is not happy with the physical labor involved. The muscles seem ok with it but my joints are very unhappy. I hope to be retired by the next battery change. We're supposed to be upgrading the radios in the sirens but it keeps getting pushed back. We'll be doing it in the snow. I know how these things work. No job is ever done on time. That's about it for now. Hopefully, everything stays boring. Take care.

A Lessor Death

I regret to report that our cat Kah-Li ( commonly know as Callie) has died from pancreatitus. She wasn't much of a lap kitty. She seemed to prefer to sit next to us rather than on us. The exception was when she grabbed on to Stacey, climbed up to her shoulder and slobbered in her hair. She had a magnificient purr. She purred until she died. She had the personality of a dumpy maiden aunt most of the time. When she thought no one was watching, she played like a kitten. She was a good kitty and we miss her. Before you start lining up spare kittens for us, let me remind you that we already have 2 others in the house and 2 others outside. We have plenty. The lamb crop is good this year. We have somewhere around 15 that made it. They have formed their lamb flock and spend there days running and playing. I wish I had more time to watch them. I had to pull Anna, the dog out for a while. She had some type of allergic attack that had her pulling her flank hair out. She seems fine now but I'm checking her. We brought in the hay this Friday. My cousin Matt and his girls helped put it in the barn. The girls hold up better than boys. The boys mostly fade out too fast but the girls keep going. I had a bad winter spending too much time indoors. I've been worried that I'd never make it back to health like I was. The fact that I'm writing this means that I survived and if I can do that, I'm ok. Mind you, there were 3 times I was doubting that I'd make it but I did. I remember that Stacey prepared a feast for us and it was good but I started to fall asleep after that and things get fuzzy. What garden I managed to plant is doing well except for beans. The dang things just won't sprout this year. I've planted from 2 different seed sources and nothing. A friend gave me his excess tomato plants and I put them in early. They caught the last frost and died to mthe ground. They came back, they're 3 foot high and forming tomatos. Not bad. I planted Bloody Butcher field corn in a small field in back. I'm told that it's up but I haven't made it back lately. I'm going to have to cultivate it soon. That will be a trick since I don't have a cultivator. One problem at a time. I have some bantam chickens setting. It will be interesting to see how they do. Somehow, I have to get a field of timothy hay started, mow a good part of the farm and shovel out the manure from the sheep pen. I'm tired. See ya later.

Degeneration

I was going through some of my old blog posts and realize that I've been a much better writer. I was happier, funnier, my view of the world was rosier. I was searching for the cause of all this and I've come to the conclusion that it's Obama's fault. He just sucks the life right out of me. Even the antics of Shotgun Joe Biden aren't enough to cheer me up. Eventually, I'll get used to the increasing inflation, stagnant economy and high bullshit levels and be fine. There are meds for that and very few people become mass murderers because of them. I've got a good chance of avoiding that. Stacey and I went to the Tri-County Beekeepers meeting on the 2nd of March. We needed a few tools and a refresher course. The bees haven't been very well kept these last couple of years. Stacey has to do more work with them since I've been using up my spare time trying to grain farm. We had a good and useful time, discovered the box lunch is better than the hot lunch and Stacey got to eat out for a SECOND time in one day at Cracker Barrel on the way home. Since the box lunch constituted our anniversary dinner, I gave Stacey a turtle as an anniversary gift.This turtle is gold with ruby eyes and diamond chips outlining the shell instead of the usual kind that we'd cook. She was quite surprised even though she was the one that picked it out in the jewelery store. I've been cutting brush on the farm but the next major task is shearing the sheep. I need to get them done by April if possible so that they can go back on pasture. I'd list all the other things I need to do in the meantime but it's impossible anyway so why bother? I do need to get a seed order out. I've got to get more of those bush beans we had last year. They were really good. I need to finish prepping the garden and maybe start working the soil if it thaws enough. I have to go. Stacey's home and I'll probably have to unload groceries and prep the brussel sprouts.