Pb4ugo

Bird Cam

2011-03-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

Water

2011-03-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

Gratitude

2011-03-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

O.k. so you've heard me complain about the snow, the rain, the cold. Ive whined about unemployment..
I forget...
It's all in the viewpoint, I tend to be a glass half empty sort of a person, so it comes out negatively.
Sometimes a few moments of reflection can change what seems to be a totally bad situation to a relatively positive one.
Without a rehash of the details I can say my life is a little better off than those in Japan, or on the coast, or one of the countless families who have someone in the military. For those people times are tough!!
Let's face it times are challenging, either you will step up or crumble and fold. A lot of the time I feel like folding but somehow I always find one foot moving forward on the other. I've heard folks say that they're tired, I am, my wife is, aren't we all? Yet when I lay my head down to sleep I can't, they call it nervous energy. My mind just spins looking for options, a better, a easier way. Know what that means? It means I still Hope...
And for that I thank God..

Bulldogs

2011-03-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

To be exact, they are American Bulldogs. Lizzy with her sweater on and Ms. Trinity on the right.
I've shared photos of my other bullies, but never told how we got into bullies.
Not a long story, My daughter Britt started asking for a dog when she was about 4. Sometime around the time she turned 6 we finally got a place where we could have a dog, so we went to the Humane Society. They had a litter of 12 of these little brown and white dogs that were solidly built, Britt instantly fell in love. Only one of them wasn't definitely spoken for, so we left our name and number and the next day they called and said the puppy was ours. So Britt got her pup! The papers the H.S. gave us on her had her as a mix between a Australian shepherd and a bull dog, hmmm..
At the vets for a puppy check, the receptionist said, "wow, that's a really nice American Bulldog pup you have." What? I'd never heard of a American. She was very healthy, however, I was going to need to socialize her because Americans are fighters. Well that's a different story, suffice it to say Lizzy turned into A very sweet family dog, so long as you didn't let any of the other family dogs around her. I still loved her!!! So years later when one of our other dogs had to go, Ms. Lea asked me what kind of dog we wanted to get to replace it with, I said " A bull dog", and so started this families love affair with our bullies. When Lizzy died about 5 years ago, we had 2 Olde English Bulldogges, so decided to get another American and socialize her with them, thus, Ms. Trinity! She's 100 lbs of rambunctiousness, so much so that the smaller OEB's get mad at her and get on her, but I'll tell you right now, 100 lbs of big old tough American bull dog or not she's the sweetest dog anyone could ever own!!
I LOVE ALL OF MY BULLIES!!
MR. FREEWAY, MS.MAZY, MS.TRINITY.

They're the best!!!

Hen House

2011-03-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

I build chicken coops. I build lots of chicken coops.
For many years when the weather got really bad or I had to spend all day tying rebar with my hands at my feet, (back pain) I would swear that I would someday find something I could do at home in a nice warm comfy garage. Well I found something to do at home, only I don't have a nice warm comfy garage, I still freeze when it's cold. Now don't get me wrong, I've found something to do that I'm very good at and for the most part I enjoy, I thank god everyday for the money that gets us by, but... well at times I get tired of building the same coops over and over. It has to be done that way in order to be cost effective but it gets boring doing my designs over and over, so sometimes I take on a coop that's a little different.
About 6 months ago I was contacted by a guy from Crescent City Ca.. Yep, the very same CC that was just hit by the tsunami last Saturday, any way he wanted one of my smaller coops but with some alterations to the original design. Treated 4x4's, expensive plywood, drop out ladder, corner trim, etc.
It was fun to build and to be perfectly honest with you I'm pretty damn proud of the finished product!! What do you think?

Driveway?

2011-03-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

This used to be the back drive way to the back door of the garage, and access to the wood shed. It seems to have turned into a creek this year! Last year it was merely a little wet out here, if you drove in it the vehicles tires would spin, I think now if you drove in it you'd probably need a tow truck to get you out, if it didn't just wash you down stream into the river.

Yellow

2011-03-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here's another one of the wildflower photos I took yesterday. This was the only little yellow flower I could find in the whole yard.
I like yellow!
It makes me happy!

Wildflowers

2011-03-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

Ha, Told you so, told you so, told you
so!!!
Spring is too on it's way!!!

Thunderstorm

2011-03-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry the vid is sideways! I spent 4 hours trying to get it turned right side up and up loaded. The software provided by flip doesn't allow my to do that.
I'm sure there's a way to do it in the html, however, after hours of messing with it and trying to get other stuff done today, I gave up.
The little squall that blew thru was absolutely the strongest I've ever seen here! The little valley we live in is so isolated on sheltered that the wind hardly reaches the ground, so the severity of this was amazing. Even the sound conveys the message...

Sales

2011-03-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

I suck at it!!!

spring?

2011-03-11T22:31:00.000-08:00

Hey, Maybe Phil was right. Amidst dire news of tsunamis and earthquakes, flooding and fires, I took a few moments of contemplation and meditation, cogitating on calamity and adversity. The master bathroom happens to be 50' from the chicken coop. My reverie became disturbed by the rowdy agitation of one or more of my 6 guinea fowl. I looked up and toward the general direction of the noise and realized I was gazing on small blue flowers blossoming on the rosemary bush which grows so fragrantly right outside the bathroom window.
A small moment of happiness and hope... Maybe spring is on it's way...

Baffled

2011-03-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

It's a word I like the sound of, it's fun to use in a everyday conversation. I use it presently, as I have questions on the sheer perversity of the universe.
My wife asked me why life goes on but sometimes your wallet stops short! I make my living by building and selling chicken coops through my wives business, advertised by Craigslist. That's not easy! You've got scammers all over c/l, trying to find ways to steal your account or get into your personal info. Isn't there a flaw in that reasoning? I sell coops off of Craiglist, I'm 50 years old, NOBODY, not even my family will loan me a dime anymore, my credit score is in the negatives!!! and someone is going to the effort to try to steal my identity. Here's my word..BAFFLED!!!
Someone else is selling their coops at the local farm and garden for $350, but I've got people trying to haggle me down from $150...BAFFLED!!!
I've gone a week with ZERO bites, none, nada, zip, all of a sudden I've sold 2 coops to be finished in 2 days, that will be hard, but thank god!!! It's stressful and worrisome to go for a week with no orders, come to find out the email link was broken and I had people trying to contact me that couldn't reach me. How does this happen? Baffled..
Why does the font color for the title of my daily posts have to be orange.
Baffled...

Lonely

2011-03-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

Ms. Lea left home at 9am.
She was supposed to be home by 7:30. However, since nobody will show up to do their job, she's filling in until.. she just called it's 9:24. Another 40 minutes 'till she's home.
Amazes me that people have jobs, and don't bother to show, when I couldn't get a job to save my life! I show up!
Home alone all day, no wheels, no job, no life...
Will it ever change?

Indecision

2011-03-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

What if I can't decide which word to comment on?
It seems to me, more and more these days that every decision made is of utmost importance. I find myself terrified into indecision because I'm afraid to make the wrong one.
Maybe I'm blowing the whole situation out of proportion due to over thinking...
I don't know.
I can't decide...

Rant

2011-03-07T22:31:00.000-08:00

I'll spare you....

Rowdy

2011-03-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

Rest in peace, buddy.
Miss you!!!

Relieved

2011-03-05T21:07:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure why, but now that I'm without wheels and can't deliver the coops myself, I worry about people blowing me off and not coming to pick up their coop.
Most of this is probably due to the fact that I have absolutely no control over my life anymore. I am totally dependent on my wife for a car to get someplace.
From one coop to the next most of the time wondering where my next job is coming from.
I'm supposed to go to my parents to help them with some closure on their new metal roof, I can't do that as trying to work out a time when I both have wheels and don't have to get a coop out is impossible.
No control!!
I'm coming to terms with it, however, I just finished a coop and the lady has to come about 100 miles to pick it up, so when I didn't hear from her right away,
I panicked...
I just got the email,
she'll be here between 10 & 11 am.

I'm relieved...

Serenity

2011-03-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

Most folks have heard the Serenity prayer, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".
Personally, it's one of my favorites! Something that I continually focus on. However, I don't really think I've ever really achieved it. How would you know? Would one find themselves in nirvana or something?
As a card carrying member of AA, It's a matter we discuss extensively. It seems to be a consensus though that there are no hard and fast rules, serenity is for each individual what they perceive it to be. That's too bad.. for me I need concrete... I like it spelled out.
I don't know if I will ever find "serenity". Occasionally I have enjoyed serene moments. I feel like I've reached a kind of peace with the way the economy has changed my role in the family. I think I'm finally getting comfortable with month to month, week by week, insecurity. It is teaching me a faith and reliance on god that I have never had.
Myself.. I'm happy with that. For me that represents a huge improvement.
One day at a time. One moment of serenity at a time. I'll take it.....

Hopeful

2011-03-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

I'm looking back at yesterdays post thinking that I forgot to mention that while I strive to be contented and I pray for contentment it doesn't always happen. So.. If I want to be contented...
Well I'm hopeful that I haven't confused you.
Talked to a good friend of mine tonight at the supermarket, he was telling me that another friend of ours that we used to work with is now a big time superintendent with a company that does bridges. He's going to work for him. Sounds like there may be a opportunity there for me as well.
It would mean relocating but an opportunity is worth it's weight in gold these days. I'm hoping between these things and the changes being made to the carpenters union, that I may find more than a few months of work this summer.
Gas prices are skyrocketing, cheese prices are insane! The country, Oregon especially, is doing it's damnedest to rally and get on top of this economy. It just seems insane the uphill battle we're faced with..
And yet, I remain Hopeful...

Contented

2011-03-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

Another word that appears frequently in my prayers. What really is life about? A collection of material goods? a gathering of people to call friend? a daily search for that one great moment to tag "legacy". Immortality? I don't know!

My goal, personally, is to get thru each day with as much joy as can be mustered for that day.
Trying not want or desire anything more than what I have.

Is this contented?

Patience

2011-03-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

For 3 years now, Patience has been a favorite prayer, a watchword, a mantra if you will. I've been so long without structure that I'm not sure I will be able to abide it when it does come. Patience! Should that word go hand in hand with waiting? Seems to me waiting implies impatience?

Post by Andriod

2010-11-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

They're complicated, they're a pain! What have we gotten ourselves into? Gadgets!!
A couple of months ago Ms. Lea bought me a new Droid phone by HTC. It looks really cool. When you turn it on it says "Driod" in a cylon tone just like you see on the commercials. Very Very cool!
However....
Now, I'll admit I'm not on the Geek squad or anything, but I am fairly savvy when it comes to working the camera or a computer, hooking up the cable, or setting up the stereo. I've done a lot of that stuff, but this phone... wow! It took me a whole day to figure out how to make a call!
I wanted a smart phone, because the last job I ran, my superintendent wound up having to go back to his home town to start another job, so I had to communicate with him some how. Not all construction sites have phone and power capabilities and although this one did, I don't have a laptop to carry to work. having a phone that I could send him photos to his email and exchange emails, text and voice, was, to say the least, invaluable!!!
So, I felt that a smart phone was the way to go. It has a touch screen that I swear I live in fear of.. A person can go a long way in the wrong direction with those if you're not paying attention. I'm sure I've mentioned on several occasions that I'm missing a few of my digits, so holding the phone without touching the screen can be a challenge, god forbid you accidentally touch that screen, you could wind up watching Cindy Lauper on you tube that way... or maybe on a conference call with Timbucktoo.
At first I was very unimpressed with the camera in the phone, it seemed like all the photo's came out blurry when compared with the Nikon Coolpix. So in my frustration I decided to do a little fiddling, instead of the ole' point and shoot, Low and behold, it actually does a lot more than just taking your run of the mill baby photo.
Here's one of my experiments...

Fall Already?

2010-11-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

Wow, April? Really? Where has the time gone? I actually got to go back to work for a few months, can't even begin to tell you how good that felt!
I built a whole lotta coops between then and now, cutting firewood, clearing the yard. We actually got to go camping last summer.
That was AWESOME!

We finally, set the stepson free...
I guess we have mixed feelings on that.
Anyway, here we are November, they're forecasting snow for this weekend and I'm so not ready for snow!!!
I got to reconnect with my daughter, Baili, this summer. Missed her a lot and am sooo thankful to have her part of our lives again.
Ms. Lea has been reconnecting with a lot of her family back east lately. It seems they are really really fine bunch of folks! They sure sound very caring!!
A friend of mine recently asked why I Facebooked, he didn't see the value in a social network, I tried to explain to him, how sometimes we lose friends and family due to a lack of proximity, time or sometimes simply not caring enough to maintain the relationship. Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with a lot of my family that I figured were lost to me, the same with my wife and her family. In this crazy time that we live in, I think there are huge advantages in gathering your loved ones to you, figuratively, for friendship and emotional support. I for one thank god everyday for the people who are in my life who help me keep my head screwed on, just by being there and giving me a simple baseline of normality to help me keep things in perspective! Otherwise I soon start to think it's all about me, LOL!!!
Nope,
fall is over,
it's time for winter,
thanks for being there, friends and family!!!

Three B's

2010-04-11T22:50:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's busy, busy, busy. No rest,
they say, for the wicked.
I beg to differ, that is about the wicked part!
Whatya' think of the company logo? It really doesn't matter what you think, cause I've thought long and hard about what I'd do for a logo, the name we've had for a long time, and this is it.
How's it that I can come up with lot's of different ways to put together a hen house and I don't have the imagination to design a decent logo?
Well, this fits. Sooooo..

THIS.. IS A DOG

2010-02-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

As we do every year my wife and I recorded
the Eukaneuba dog show and sat down to watch it.
I swear after watching 20 minutes, no kidding, the first two groups of the show, who wins top honors?
Poodles! Toy group- Toy poodle, Non sporting group, incidentally the group which enjoys the membership of the Bulldog, Standard Poodle wins.
If they could figure out how to get a poodle into the Hound group and the working group I'm sure the Judges would choose poodles for those too.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe the Bully should win the Non Sporting group every time, as a matter of fact the A.K.C. Bulldog is a inferior creature anyway, over bred! Can't breath, skin issues.
Just not really the best, I love them though! All Bulldogs! In addition to our two O.E.B.s, we have a very large and sweet American bulldog, and a Pit bull cross, boxer, I think.
As a kid I had lots of dogs. My folks tell stories of Sam who was my protector and constant companion when I was 4 or 5, he was a Black Lab. We had a German shepherd named Tara. Still in all I'd never had such an awesome dog as this one, he is my constant companion. However, Freeway would never win a dog show, in fact, the A.K.C. doesn't even recognize the O.E.B. as a breed. Shame!
No wonder their judges choose poodles any time they can. That doesn't change the fact that my wife and I feel cheated by these shows that choose the Poodles time after time after time!
I QUIT! I refuse to watch anymore!

AS PROMISED

2010-02-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

Oregon Coast

2010-02-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

We took this picture at Simpson Reef on the Oregon coast. The reef( can't be seen here) is always covered with sea lions. The first thing you hear when the car door opens is the sound of sea lions and seals barking in the distance, over the crash of the surf on the rocks below.
That is a sound that drives Freeway nuts, he doesn't like sea lions! I guess it's a sort of barking, not quite barking, and that aggravates him. It's funny to watch him. He just gets frantic to see who's making the racket.
Headed to the coast tomorrow, maybe I'll take a pic or two and post 'em. We'll see.

Fuzzy

2010-02-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

I'm not so sure about our Nikon Coolpix camera anymore. I'm not saying Suki is the sharpest tack in the drawer but I didn't think she was quite so fuzzy.
Oh I guess by the very fact that she is a kitten she would be fuzzy, but she seems a little out of focus to me, or maybe it's me I don't know.
We've been dieting lately, I'm trying not to get too fanatical about it, but I'm having some stomach problems that make it risky to eat so I find myself going for long periods of time without eating. Long segue. I get kind of fuzzy! Get it?
Oh well.

Getting Serious

2010-01-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

It looks like this year we're going to get truly serious with the chicken coops. I've worked out about 10 different designs, including the full size walk in at right. I'm delivering as far away as Eugene and northern Ca. I've already started to book orders for February, so it looks like it's going to be all hands on deck 24-7 come the end of February, beginning of March.
I'm looking forward to it.

12/29/2009

2010-01-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Snow is a pain. I, however, did not need to drive in it or even go out side.
In fact, I sat on the couch and watched tv while it snowed. That was fun.
The sad part of the whole thing is that
Ms. Lea was at work this day and I was a little worried about her getting home. Starting the following day she was to have four days off in a row, so I hoped that after she got home it would continue, as where we live now we'd have an awesome place to slide.
No such luck! This is probably the last snow we'll see this season so there goes our chance. Oh well, it was pretty while it lasted.

Prosperous new year

2010-01-03T18:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile. I just wanted to take a moment though to wish all a Prosperous new year. Prayers, best wishes, keeping our fingers crossed, hoping for a prosperous new year.

GALESVILLE RESERVIOR

2009-11-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

In all the years I've lived in the area, I've never been to the Galesvillereservoir.
If I was a true sort of a blogger I'd read all of the signs around the reservoir and had some history and statistics to quote. Sorry, that's not me. I like pretty pics.
Once you pass the lake the road turns into this as it crosses a small set of mountains and falls down into the South Umpqua watershed where it eventually comes out on hiway 227, also called the Trail- Tiller hiway.
If you've got a day its a very nice drive and really not all that far to go .

OCTOBER BLUE

2009-10-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Sunset beach again.
Look at that blue sky, in October no less, can't beat that!

SUNSET

2009-10-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

A photo from our daytrip to Coos Bay.
Sunset State Park.

2009-10-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Road trip today, not really a pleasure trip, but we'll enjoy it anyway.
We gotta go to Coos Bay to get grandma some groceries. Her fridge died and everything spoiled, altho the oldest stepson is over there he's unavailable to grandma. It's a shame, I'd say we raised him better than that, except that we really didn't raise him, his dad did.
Actually, both boys seem to have forgotten that they even have family, that is until they need money or some other help. I may sound upset with them, I'm not, I remember being exactly the same way. It seems to be part of growing up.
Anyway, YEAH, for day trips!

Drive

2009-10-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed both Ms.Lea and my blogs have motive names, guess why? Yep, we like to go for a ride.
Last Tuesday we went up to a local lookout that I had never been up to, it's called Onion, Mountain. I was rather disappointed, albeit unsurprised to find out that they close the gate at the top of the road so you can't get there by car. Normally not a PROBLEM. This time it was. It was 6 p.m. by the time we got there and getting ready to be dark, so we didn't want to hike up. I didn't get to see the view from the top, nothing new for me!
I did get to see some other vistas tho. If you'll look for the white smudge of buildings in the distance. That's Merlin, home to Ms. Lea and myself and the menagerie. Kind of a cool sunset view, I think.

BABY IN A DISH

2009-10-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

Oh oh, Baby in a dish.
We blew it! When you moved here, we'd had the males fixed, but being that the females are a lot more to have spayed, we put that off. We got here and in a months time it was apparent that there was a male somewhere around, as a couple of the females began to fill out.
So here we are six months later rehoming kittens.
It's not all bad, we only have four left to go, and they've been a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
For instance here's a photo of a kitten trying to alert me to the fact that they're water dish was empty.
Communication!

2009-09-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

We took a break from building coops!
Pretended I was listening and being a good dog!! Went for a long ride to the Redwoods and Played in the Water!!

Life is Good........

WHAT TO SAY... WHAT TO SAY...

2009-07-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

So what I want to know is, is messing around with my playlist .. does it count as a posting? Probably not. Oh well, guess I'll have to write a little sumpin', huh?
O.k. but don't blame me cause you heard it all before. Actually I'm fascinated by the evolution of the chicken coops, every one is different and they just seem to get more sophisticated as they progress.
I sold two today. I'm enjoying this. Maybe I could do this for a living. wouldn't that be nice?

FIRE SEASON

2009-07-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Here we go again, ladies and gentlemen.
Fourth of July and the fireworks have started. According to the local news there are two fires going, one near the freeway between Medford and Ashland, and one at the biomass one facility in White city.
Here in Merlin we are some ways away yet it's smoky and overcast, unpleasant for those with breathing problems and just plain an annoyance for those of us who don't.
That's my bitch for the day!

ROCKY POINT REMEMBRANCE

2009-07-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Bridge to the future

GOLD HILL — The Rock Point Bridge will be closed for five months beginning late this summer or early fall when the historic structure undergoes intensive refurbishing,...
Photo and headline courtesy of the Medford Mail Tribune.
Whatever you do, do not repeat this story to your children, I'd rather not be responsible.

I was 13, and had gotten myself a job at the horse farm down the road. Arabians, meaner'n hell, as we rancher folk would say. Anyhow, it was a after school job, so I'd ride the bus to work, muck out stalls for two hours, $1.65 an hour as I recall. A nasty dirty smelly job, someone had to do it though and I wanted my Levi 501's, my mom wouldn't buy them for me, to expensive, so I took the job. After work, the river was right there, so I'd generally take a short dip to cool off before I started off on my 4 mile walk home.
Now all the big kids, everyone knew jumped off the bridges in town, not me though, I was a good boy and my mom did not approve of children jumping from bridges. In truth I was afraid of heights, but the mom excuse was easier on the pride. Peer pressure. It finally got me. Although I tried to stay away from the older boys who worked at the ranch because they chewed tobacco and drank stolen beer( they'd already gotten me sick with the chew and laughed while I threw up) I got trapped into going with them to Rocky Point to swim instead of the usual spot at the Ben Hur park, where I usually went.
Needless to say, within probably 5 minutes they had me standing outside the guard rail looking down over 35 feet at the surface of the water. I use the word surface because that's what it looked like to me, a hard surface. Turns out, it can be a very hard surface. You see you're just supposed to step away, not push away. If you push away there's a chance your upper body could begin to fall forward, which means that your chest and face will feel some impact on arriving at the water, impact enough to leave some pretty nasty bruises, telltale bruises. Mother was aghast. Father was appalled. I was grounded and lost my job. So unfair. In fact, it was so unfair, that by the time I was 18, I'd already jumped a few times from the railway trestle, 80 feet.

The union newsletter says that a union company was awarded the contract to refurbish the old bridge. I SURE WOULD LIKE TO WORK ON THAT ONE!!!

2009-07-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

The coming Eclipse, all in all, is a most productive eclipse. Now the coming Solar Eclipse is another story entirely, since it puts the Grand Irrationality in play in a major way while shutting down elements of our past we've been trying to perpetuate that no longer give us the nourishment we want or need. Family systems and other elements of our past will disintegrate as we fulfill the promise of whatever personality integration we're striving for. More on that in a week or so!
from the Aquarius Papers

2009-07-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

AFRAID OF THE DARK?

2009-07-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Do you know an American? Bulldog that is? Well by all means meet Ms. Trinity. She's 110 pounds of spit and vinegar, right? Wrong! ms. Trinity has a routine. Every evening just at sunset my big tough American Bulldog starts to bark shrilly to be put to bed, why?
She's afraid of the dark!

WHERE I'VE BEEN !

2009-06-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

So, nearly every night I watch Ms. Lea, taking care
of her nightly communication fix with her peeps,
then nearly every night she does a little something
with her blog, FOUR MILES TO NOWHERE.
Then there's me. Home all day long. Nothin' to do, you would think that I'd have posted everyday, right? Boring! It's just so... Boring!
Actually, the deal with the chicken coops has turned into a full time job, between posting the ads on Craigslist and replying to emails, then of course silly stuff like actually building and delivering them,well, what was a fun little side line is tiring me out!

Anyway, here are some pics of some of my products.
First is a photo of my large coop. For some reason it's the one that everyone likes.
The bottom picture is of a rabbit hutch that some people requested of me around the first of May. The design part takes me a while to figure out, so it took me a couple of months to build. The guy came and picked it up today, he was very pleased. That pleases me, and that's why I do it.....

Lucky Moth

2009-05-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

Don't quite know how I missed it, but I must have walked over this moth on the front porch stoop a dozen times before I finally noticed it. Glad it wasn't a rattlesnake!

DEPRESSED? TAKE 5 KITTENS AND CALL ME

2009-05-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

I don't care how much you hate cats, nobody can resist kittens. There's nothing quite as entertaining as a litter of kittens to brighten your day.
However, if you're trying to get something done, forget it! They're under foot, into everything, pestering the dog and getting him upset, a general nuisance!
Anyway, the real question is, do you want 'em?

IT'S A HARD LIFE!

2009-04-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

Yep, It's a daily thing. I wake up in the a.m. with my jaw already clenched. The gentle tap tap tap at the back of my head that is the beginning of a tension headache. Where's it all gonna' end? Who knows?
What I do know, is that when things get truly overwhelming all I have to do is look at the dog.

NOW THAT'S A TOUGH LIFE !!!

THE FINAL ANALYSIS

2009-04-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

So here's the final product on the way to it's home. What do you think for a hundred bucks? I calculated it out and figured that I made about three dollars an hour. Oh well, it actually got me at least one more job, so I guess, aside from the fact that, that hundred bucks came in handy, it was worth it!

The other part of this puzzle is that, having not worked in so long I had really begun to feel like I was some sort of a bum. Consequently, when the landlord came down to pick on me, I was a lot more bothered by it than I would normally have been. Having finished that small project, gotten it delivered, and getting more work off it though word of mouth, I'm feeling much more like my old self. Got some of the old pride back. Feels good! In the end Ms. Lea and I just decided that come hell or high water we are just going to have to move. Of course, it didn't hurt that the property manager found us another place. It's maybe not in as quite as nice an area, but it's still out in the woods, and the landlord is in California. YEAH!!!
Say a prayer for us though, cause it's not a done deal yet! Whatever the case we're done here!
And that's the FINAL ANALYSIS!!!

FENDING FOR OURSELVES

2009-04-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

So Wednesday I get a call from the union hall, the heart begins to speed up, blood pressure rises, adrenaline starts to tickle my brain, but wait, it's Wednesday, job calls are almost always on Thursday or Friday, hmmm.
There's a forklift training class being offered for Friday and Saturday, do you want to come? Well, my card is good for another year, but, the classes are from 7 am. to 3:30 pm., that means I'm out of the house and away from the prying eyes of the landlord for at least 10 hours, when you figure in the drive. Hell yeah I'm coming!!
Unfortunately, I got out a little early Saturday and got home at 1 pm, and was immediately heartattacked.
Now the spell check says that heartattacked is not a word. I beg to differ, it's just a word that most people don't hear used. It's a construction site word. What happens is this, you'll be working along on a wall form or some thing and you're two days from completion, when the Foreman comes around and says, " I just ordered concrete for that wall, it'll be here right after lunch." That's being heartattacked!!
The concrete is not really on it's way, it's just his way of saying that you're taking longer than he thinks you should.
My landlord is playing the same game. He's been here to inspect the property 3 times already this month and now I get another notice that he wants to come look around the 13th, again. The issue is fire season starts in June and he gave me a long list of things that need to be done before that comes about.
I'm not getting them done fast enough for him, the funny thing is, I can't remember seeing his name on a paycheck anywhere. In fact, I'm paying him for the privilege of being driven insane by his bullshit!!!
I guess there are those who are unfamiliar with the concept of commerce. What ever happened to the adage that the customer is always right. Me, being the renter, being the customer? Shouldn't he be working for me? not the other way around?
I've got my own stuff to do, I actually got about 6 orders off of Craigslist for chicken coops, and even though I'm actually making cents for the labor I'm putting in, it feels good to be doing some thing worthwhile, and making a few dollars to boot. Besides that, I think when these coops are done and I post pictures on C/L, I'll probably get even more orders. Although, at some point the price is going to have to go up, due to the fact that I'm running out of the scrounged materials that I had on hand.
As for the landlord, I read the rental contract, all I'm required to do, to to mow and water the lawn and maintain the yard within reason. I'm betting that the court won't see weed eating 5 acres as, "within reason." So he can go ahead and show up the 13th, and evict me if he wants, I'm done jumping through his stupid hoops. In fact, I'm gonna start calling the property manager every time I see him standing at the end of my driveway watching what I'm doing. I pay him to rent the place for myself and my family not to share it with him.
I'm going to have to be very careful now as I step down off my soapbox, so's I don't sprain an ankle or break a leg, that would make it very hard to continue fending for myself, eh?

WORK WORK WORK

2009-04-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

This is what I did today.

This is what I wanted to do today!!!

FREEWAYS DOG BLOG

2009-03-30T18:48:00.001-07:00

Freeway is deep deep in thought. He's considering doing NaBloPoMo for April.

Growing up, hmmm, let me think....

OF JOY AND SPRING

2009-03-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Now really how can you even think of separating the terms joy and spring. I do though, because although, it was warm and mostly sunny yesterday, I didn't make it out of the house.
It was just another bad bad week for me.
We took our little day trip to Eugene last Sunday and like the little spoiled baby I can sometimes be, I insisted on staying in the truck the whole day.
Well, actually, I did get out to take Freeway for a walk with Ms. Lea on the trail in the lower pic that I posted on Monday. Unfortunately, I was in such a rotten mood that I even forgot to get the camera out of the truck to take pictures on our little walk and had to resort to finding a similar
bridge in the same park we walked
in, from the Internet. Which is a shame as the
bridge that we actually crossed was much
prettier.

Anyway, don't ask why, 'cause I really couldn't say, but I had a lousy week! Today though?
BETTER, MUCH BETTER!

Some really good stuff has been happening lately that really has made me feel better.
Ms.Lea and I went into the feed store last week for chicken, dog and cat food, and when we walked past their chicken display, which was all set up for chicks, it was empty. So we asked what had happened, they said they had received 700 chicks and sold out in 2 days.
That started me thinking that it seems like a lot of people are thinking that maybe a little bit more self sufficiency might be a good thing.
We've been thinking so for a few years now.
Then I got on craigslist and was looking in the wanted section and found 3 different adds for folks looking for chicken coops. Turns out that I have a bit of experience at building very cheap chicken coops. The Grange wants big bucks for theirs, I mean, like hundreds of dollars for them. I'm figuring that folks are trying to find a way to save some money, not spend hundreds just for eggs, right? So I took some pictures of some of the ones I've built and wrote up a little add to that effect and posted it on craigslist and I'll be damned if I didn't get 5 emails inside of a day. I suddenly went from being a man of leisure, to a very busy puppy indeed! YIPEE!!!

I think I've mentioned that I'm an alcoholic in recovery. Well, quitting smoking has brought back a few of the issues that I had when I first quit drinking. I always had certain rituals, with both my drinking and smoking, that they call triggers. One of those triggers, is that if I am out doors, say in the garage, or working in the yard, I'd want to be drinking
or smoking. So, what happens then, is that when I go to do those things, I get cravings for either the alcohol or
tobacco. With the case of the tobacco,
I'm finding getting past that stage, to
be very hard. So, last night I got my
shit together and went to my local
AA meeting. I'm ashamed to say, that, that is not usually my first response when I'm having a hard time coping.
What can I say, I'm an independent bastard. However, there are those times when just getting together to curse the fates that gave us our proclivities, really seems to help! That was certainly the case last night! I like to go to the local men's meeting, where the guys feel free to cuss and swear, and maybe, we'll even get around to talking about some of the issues that we all share. In truth, it's been probobly more than a year since I went to that particular meeting, and although it had been that long, all the same guys were there and they treated me like I'd never missed a meeting at all. VERY VERY COOL! I enjoyed it to say the least.
Of course, the fact that it's 70 degrees and beautiful out side doesn't hurt either. It's so gorgeous that I had to take some time to take some pics of some of the wild flowers we've got coming up all over the yard. Before the landlord comes down and points out that they're over 4 inches tall and must be mowed down so that they're not a fire hazard. DEEP SIGH!!!
Oh well. For now all is good. There is joy!! It's finally SPRING!!

ROAD TRIP

2009-03-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday

ONE WEEK

2009-03-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

O.k. so it's been a week, I'm certainly ready for a break from the craving, and am extremely tired of chewing this stupid gum.
It doesn't seem to matter which brand or flavor you buy, it's all nasty. Ohhh I hear you all saying,"Not as nasty as cigarettes!". Be that as it may, I still miss 'em.
I ran out of gum day before yesterday, well, actually it was a bad day altogether, what with being out of work for so long, with the landlord standing at the end of the driveway watching everything I do, and in general the uncaring state of the cosmos, it was a bad day. I really wanted a smoke. I didn't though, I roughed it out with my NICCORETTE. I made it completely through the day until about 11:00 pm, when I discovered that I was out of gum. OOH- NOOO!!!! Not good at all. One of my habits was to go out on the porch and have a cig right before turning in. It's just a habit right? wrong!!! I was not able to sleep that night. Now you're asking "Why not go to the store and get some more?" The simple answer is, I had no money, but, my unemployment checks are direct deposited and usually hit the bank about4 or 5 am. So I watched the bank account all night and when the money showed up at 4:30, I got dressed, and drove the 10 miles into town to the 24 hour Walgreen's and bought...
Ya. On the way in I was determined to end this misery and buy cigarettes. Imagine my surprise when I found myself at the counter with another box of gum in my hand. WOW!! I also had a diet Pepsi and some sleep support caps. I finally managed to get to sleep at around 6:30 am. Ms. Lea got up at 7, and I moved from the couch to the bed. ( on sleepless nights I occupy the couch in the hopes that I won't keep her up all night as well) On finally, painfully, slowly rising, at about 9:30, Ms. Lea informed me that she had called off our day trip to Eugene, and she wasn't happy about it. It seems that, in my agitation, I had kept her up as well. oops...
How's that for obsessed? Anyhow, trips rescheduled for Lea's next day off, Sunday. In the meantime I shouldn't be so whiney, it isobviously getting easier, otherwise, I think I would have come home with cigarettes instead of this infernal gum. Does that sound like Gratitude? My Angel card was gratitude today, maybe I need to spend some more time in contemplation...

2009-03-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

380 miles, round trip. It's a road trip tomorrow.
Destination: Eugene, Oregon.
Purpose: look 4 work. Relaxation.
Bye Bye..

LAP OF LUXURY

2009-03-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's a horrible rainy windy day outside, I'm chewing mint flavored NICORETTE, we're out of coffee and tea, and this is what I have to contend with........

TRANSFORMATION

2009-03-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

TRANSFORMATION. What the hell does that mean? While I find the processes of spirituality intriguing, it's also extremely baffling.
In rehab they encourage you to reach for your spiritual side, to pray and rely on your higher power. Touchy feely stuff to individuals who for the most part have come face to face with the harder side of life.
I'm a very pragmatic person, to believe is not a natural part of my nature, yet, whether it's my wives influence, or some buried part of my persona, there is a part of me that wants to believe. That's why even though I scoff, I look at things like the Angel cards and horoscopes,etc..
I guess, basically, what it boils down to, is looking for hope! It's tough times, turn on the news on the t.v.( if you still have it, I don't) Read the headlines on the internet, it'll all drag you down!
I think that's why a majority of the U.S.A. voted for change, they wanted hope, someone sincere that they could believe in. Yet the media has pretty much destroyed that for most of us. You'd definitely be a diehard believer to be hanging on to any hope from that quarter. Which is not to say that it's not possible, it's just that whatever happens the media will always put a bad spin on it. We would not want Americans to be getting their heads above water, would we?
O.k. I'm ranting!
Anyway when I had a real job, what I always wanted to do, was to start a business in my garage making things like the little Myrtle wood mantle clock you see to the right. This particular little project actually took me about two weeks to finish. It's made from three pieces of 1/2 inch Myrtle wood that I glued together, then used the bandsaw to cut out the shape, then sanded, sanded, sanded until I got the final shape exactly what I wanted. Finally, I applied several coats of Carnuba wax and buffed it in order to achieve a natural satin finish.
The final product is about 7 inches long, 4 1/2 inches high and 2 inches deep. I'd like to sell this style of clock for $35.00 plus shipping. If you'd like one leave a comment on my blog or send me a email at ddgalinas@gmail.com
It's kinda funny, I feel bad about advertising my stuff on my blog, because it almost feels sacreligious turning Pb4ugo into a commercial site, but that's not going to happen. I think what I'll do is create another blog for my woodworking. How's that? I feel better.
Adventure. Purification. Transformation. Those were my Angel cards for the last three days. I've quit drinking, am quitting smoking, have been off work longer than I ever have before, maybe the cards are right? Maybe, it is time to transform myself, huh?

OF ADDICTION AND PURIFICATION

2009-03-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

I know a little something about it. The 26th day of March will be 30 months in recovery from alcoholism, for me. This is the 3rd time I've quit drinking, the 1st time lasted for 5 years. Last time it was maybe a little over a year. It was my choice the 1st time and this last time, The middle time, well curiously enough, that was enforced by the state of Oregon.

DON'T! drink and drive! they will catch you!

It does seem to stick better when its your own decision. However, its not really that much easier, you still have the cravings, you still have your triggers. All that having been said, I still feel like quitting drinking is much easier than quitting smoking. A lot of my friends feel the same way.
With alcohol, after the first 10 or so days the craving is really reduced, actually even after the first day. The hardest part with alcoholism, for me, is the thought that I can never ever drink again. I know that it must seem weird to you normies, you never give it a second thought, but to an alcoholic, that thought engenders panic, yes, even after 30 months.
That's why an alcoholic has to take life, one day at a time! Smoking seems to be different,though, you have to be able to look forward to the health benefits, you've got to look forward to a diminished craving, or you'll go nuts and never make it.
With alcohol, you'll probably have 10 or 20 cravings the first day, tapering down with each successive day that you remain sober. Tobacco? Constant!
This is my third time for cigarettes. The first time I lasted ten days, then three weeks. In both previous cases, I don't remember any appreciable relief in those time periods. Now, I could not tell you, if that's because of addiction to nicotine or the veracity of habit. I'm just not sure. I do know that its damned uncomfortable and there is absolutely.... NO RELIEF!!!
So, my Angel card for the day? PURIFICATION
Wha'd'ya think?

2009-03-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

For anybody unfamiliar with them, these are Angel cards. Ms. Lea introduced them to me shortly after we started dating.
As I understand it, the way it works is, keeping your eyes closed or blindfolded or something or the other, you draw a card, without looking to see which one you're choosing, they're all supposed to be face down so you won't know. But I, not wanting to leave any thing to chance, have marked the back of a few of the more choice ones, like power and riches, just to make sure that I get a good one once in a while.
Anyway, the way it work is you draw a card, then you sit down in a quiet place, preferably, with some incense burning( we prefer Nagchampa) and you contemplate the thought on the card, therefore, placing that thought foremost in your mind for the day. In this manner, hopefully, influencing the Fates that you should have, say, a inspirational, playful, delightful day.
The post I wrote on March 8th was titled Healing. That was the Angel card, that I drew that a.m., I'm pretty sure, that I probably wouldn't have called Sunday a healing day. I was still very angry from all the stuff that's been going on, so... Although, I guess it coulda been worse ....

Adventure. For two days in a row, I've drawn the adventure card.
Now, let me see if I can figure out how to apply adventure to yesterday. The first thing we did yesterday a.m. was run 4 yards of garbage to the dump, Adventuresome?
Then I ran stepson to his job and dropped him off, headed home , picked up Ms. Lea, headed to town so she could get her nails done. Went to the bread outlet for stale bread for livestock, went to Kinko's to fax a w2 request form off to one of last years employers. Adventuresome?
My big adventure yesterday? Buying cigarettes! They went up a whole dollar all at once! wow!
I didn't buy them, I decided to quit!

So, I bet you can guess what the big Adventure for today is. My first day of quitting!
( my god that was a long way to go just to get to that last line)
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!
WISH ME LUCK!!!

HEALING

2009-03-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've had several very very stressful days, and am seriously in need of some down time.
Profound potatoes and a glissade or two sounds like just my thing!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/travel/08Explorer.html

LETTER TO THE LANDLORD

2009-03-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

Ms. Lea and I really like the place we live. You've seen some of the pictures, its a very pretty area in a quiet little valley. At night, when the traffic on the road below us slows down, we can hear the sound of the river running on the other side of the road, we can hear coyotes, owls, foxes and frogs.
Its peaceful.
But, we rent!
Whats more is the property manager is, to say the least, extremely by the book!
Lea and I have owned two homes in the last ten years. However, when we sold the last one in 2003-2004, even though we actually made $35,000 on the sale, most of the money went to pay off
bills. We did not have enough left to make the kind of down payment that we wanted to. We knew we wanted to be out here in the Applegate valley. We also knew that we'd have to have fairly low house payments in order to get by when I was laid off. It just wasn't feasible, so we opted to rent.
Neither of us have ever had a problem renting. Never saw the landlord or the property manager. When it came time to move on we cleaned and left the place spotless. Everyone was happy!
Here, the landlord is not happy, the property manager is not happy. You see since I was laid off, we have not been able to put together the rent money until the second week of the month. In all of the places I've lived before it was not and issue. It is here. Its become a big issue, they want us out! We have tried working with them, but the conversations have become increasingly personal.
Ms. Lea has been a executive assistant for years, she is all about the business. So when the landlord makes comments about what time the garage door opens as a reference to what time I get out of bed, she is offended and incensed. She feels that is an invasion of her privacy. Like in the 1st house we lived in, where the neighbor would stand at the fence and peep through the bushes at us. I'm going to have to go with her on this one.(naturally) Not only is the garage door not a good indicator of when I got up, ( I usually spend a couple of hours every morning on the computer, checking email, looking for a job, silly stuff. You know?!) but, how dare you make comment on it? what bearing does that have on our business relationship?
Lea asked me what is it with people today,? It seems like more and more of our personal lives are under scrutiny on a daily basis. I can understand late rent, what I can't understand is, comments about how late I sleep, comments about why I don't go hang drywall for a living, comments about whether I think I should of turned down the job that was offered to me last June, that was three hours away. What bearing does this all have on the business at hand? Its all a little too personal! It seems to me that they are trying to get Lea angry with me, on the mistaken assumption that I'm lazy.
I'll tell you kids, not going to happen!!!
Ms. Lea and I have been though a hell of a lot in our ten tears together. Ms. Lea was there when I worked 7-12's and hour and a half away from our home, for three months solid. We even moved during that time. She watched me tear the porch roof off our 1st house and rebuild a beautiful veranda like structure, from the ground up, in one weekend. Lea and I have moved ourselves 5 times in 10 years, without a whole lot of help, Clampat ( sp. as in ole Jed) style. Truck and trailer. One load at a time. Thick and thin. We've been there, DONE THAT!
Landlords, property managers, its business! Use your internal dialog. Keep the disparaging and personal remarks to yourselves!
To you kinder hearted souls, PRAY FOR US! Maybe not this month or next, but here soon,
we'll be back on the road, Clampat style, and we'll need a roof.
B.T.W. If you could say a few words about a job, that would be appreciated too!
There, I'm done venting.
Thank you ever so much!!!!!!!!!!!

ORPINGTON HEN

2009-03-03T22:39:00.000-08:00

It rained today. It was a cold cold rain. The kind of rain that tells a guy that we're not through with winter yet. In fact, the snow level is only a couple hundred feet above the house and the snow line clings to the hills like a bathtub ring. I hate the rain and I'm sick of winter.
I had high hopes for March this year, but, I can already tell that it's going to be one of those years. Here in the rolling hills of Southern Oregon, we have those years when it snows one last time, usually the fist week of April. So...
In order to keep from hanging myself from the living room light fixture, I have to look at the small things to get a laugh.

When we first got chickens we thought we were getting them for eggs. Nope, it seems our animal husbandry is not up to snuff, because, we just don't seem to get that many. They are however good for a few laughs.
Turns out that the chickens don't much appreciate the rain either. This one resourceful little Orpington hen discovered that not only is it dry on the porch, but, there's little scraps of cat food and birdseed on the porch, as well.
Later when we thought we'd got them all in, this is what we found.
Awesome!! I've lived and laughed through another day. Let's keep our hopes high for tomorrow!!!

LABOR AND MORE LABOR

2009-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

The garage is a mess. So after trying to do some very trying clerical work, and being totally ineffective at it, I decided Stepson ( B.T.W. Stepson is meant, by no means, as a derogative term, its just to preserve his anonymity) and I would do something we know how to do, that is, get in and work like dogs. What you see here is sort of a after, before type picture.
We'd already picked up the garbage and swept when this pic was taken.
The objective is, beside helping us feel that we did something worthwhile, to provide Other ( this may be taken disparagingly, if you choose) with a room of his own. Yes, it may be in the garage but its a dry roof and as far as I'm concerned it'll be just fine for him.
The lower picture is a shot of what will become his room. I know it looks kind of small but we'll be adding another two feet on it which will give him approximately 96 square feet, not a lot, however, when you figure that both boys are crammed into probably less than 120 sq. ft. right now, it will give them both a great deal more elbow room.
Tomorrow will be another moving day for us. A friend, who has been living in a 23 ft. motor home, with his two school age sons, has finally been able to get into a house. They're totally stoked and although I'm sick to death of moving other peoples stuff, we're really really happy for them!!
The stuff we're moving is stuff that we've been storing for them for a while now and should only take two trips with the pickup truck. Not too bad.
Time to cook Ms. Lea's dinner...

FRUSTRATED

2009-02-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

This is me today!!!

DOG TRAINING

2009-02-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

We had a long day helping a friend move. I got home and collapsed on the couch, while Ms.Lea posted for the day. In doing research for her post, she came across something that made her smile. However, when she related it to me, I made a negative comment, as is fairly common of me when I'm pooped. So Ms. Lea tells me, "Honey, if you want good things to happen to you, you have to think positively." My reply was, "I don't know how." Her answer?
She said,"you have to tame your mind.
I can't help it. I immediately thought,
"I can't even tame the dog, much less my mind."
This photo is to illustrate my point.
If you look closely there, on the lower left hand corner of the couch, you'll see the back of Freeways head. Now there are a number of things wrong with this picture.
I'll enumerate:
1) The dog is not even supposed to be in the house.
2) He's not supposed to be on the furniture.
3) He's in my seat.
4) He's watching DIALOGUE on CCTV 9. ( Chinese television)
5) I don't like DIALOGUE, it's too political for me. ( I like TRAVELOGUE and CULTURE EXPRESS)

Obviously, we need some help with the doggy training. He's ruthlessly spoiled.

TRAIN THE DOG

TAME YOUR MIND

THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS
then
MAY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN..........

17/P HOLMES

2009-02-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture taken by astrophotogragher Alan Daly. Its the comet 17/P Holmes, which has amazed astronomers by suddenly flashing us.
Oh, don't worry, its not aliens, apparently its a natural phenomenon caused by its proximity to the sun. Its just that its way brighter than they thought it was going to be, some say, brighter that a supernova.
The cool thing is that, unlike Lulin, Holmes has been visible to the naked eye since July and with the flareup is very bright and still visible on the full moon.
If you are in the northern hemisphere look for Holmes in the Persues constellation. Happy hunting...

FLOCKING

2009-02-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

Interesting flock, huh?
Ms. Lea and I were out on the porch on morning and the guinea hens had come running over to see if we had bread or bird seed for them. Most of the time we feed them the same layer crumbles that the chickens get, but sometimes, when we can, we'll go to the bread outlet store and get stale bread to feed chicken and ducks and, of course the guinea hens with.
Lea went in and got them some bread and like clock work here come the wild turkey and the cats. You see, some of the cats have figured out that when were throwing food to the guineas, that it's bread and have developed quite a taste for it.
At first there were about five cats there, and lea and I were laughing so hard that I didn't even think of getting out the camera. When it finally occurred to me, I ran into get it but by the time I got set up to take the picture, the turkeys had run most of the cats away, only Tiger, our big tom and Pookie, our big bread eater, were left.
I took about five snaps, then tried to upload them to the desktop so I could share with you, and discovered that the software for the camera had gone faulty. It took us a while but Lea finally found the disk to reload the software. So I reloaded it, it still didn't work right. It took me half the day fiddling with it to finally get it to upload, so now we can share some of the amazing stuff that happens here on the farm. L.O.L....

THE CAMERA'S FIXED. YEAH!!!

2009-02-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well now, it's been a long arduous task, but I finally got the digital camera back up and functioning.
Of course, you aren't going to get the awesome pictures of comets and such with a Vivitar digital camera, at least, not the one we have!

Ms. Lea and I realized, hey, it's almost March, it's about time for some flowers. Now I realize we might have been a tad ahead of the game, but....
We had the same problem last year, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of flowers we plant, this is what we grow!!!

MORE SCIENCE

2009-02-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

While I'm waiting for that call.. I read. I clean house. I look up stuff, like astronomy on the internet.
You may have noticed my interest in the stars by some of my recent posts.

I got the reading bug at about 8 years old. I think it was when my third grade teacher read to the class, A Wrinkle In Time. Remember that book? I guess that I don't really even remember any of the story, otherwise I'd give you a short synopsis just to whet your appetite. Anyway, that got me started. Of course, after that my favorite genre would have to be scifi. Right now I'm reading a fantasy series by Stephen R Donaldson called THE SECOND CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT. I'm on the last book and really enjoying it. Mr. Donaldson is a very descriptive writer. I don't really enjoy wordy books, I get bored with them very quickly! Although the writing in these books is very dense the story is very easy for me to follow. There is one issue though, I have to have the dictionary close when I'm reading because there are a lot of words in these books that I've never read before. I thought that I had a pretty good vocabulary before this.

Anyway, my reading scifi gets me interestd in things like astronomy and other sciences, so I tend to read a lot of scientific articles online, and because I find it fascinating, I like to share.

Last week I posted a little something on the comet Lulin, I found some more stuff on it today.
Monday night will be the best time to see it, however, they're still saying that you'll need to be in a very dark place to see it and will need at least, binoculars.

I'm pretty sure that I won't get to see it, as we're supposed to have some really bad storms coming in, starting tonight thru Tuesday. So I'm posting another picture.

There is another comet that you can see with the naked eye, its called Holmes. Apparently its going thru a offgassing phaze that makes it visible. but that's another story for tomarrow....

2009-02-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

STILL waiting for the phone to ring.......................for me!

NORTHERN LIGHTS AND SUNSPOTS

2009-02-19T19:01:00.000-08:00

I was reading in WIRED magazine a very eye catching article about the increased activity of sunspots. Among other things the writer mentioned that things are really going to heat up in the next 3 years and that by 2012 things could become very ugly.

WIRED;

Every 11 years or so, the sun gets a little pissy. It breaks out in a rash of planet-sized sunspots that spew superhot gas, hurling clouds of electrons, protons, and heavier ions toward Earth at nearly the speed of light. These solar windstorms have been known to knock out power grids and TV broadcasts, and our growing reliance on space-based technology makes us more vulnerable than ever to their effects. On January 3, scientists discovered a reverse-polarity sunspot, signaling the start of a new cycle — and some are predicting that at its peak (in about four years) things are gonna get nasty. Here's a forecast for 2012.
The forecast is for falling satellites, failure of GPS, radio black outs which may interfere with airlines or air traffic control. NOT good!
However, there is a bright side to this, the Northern Lights. It seems the increase in solar energy causes the earths magnetic field to stretch, then to snap back into place, creating sort of a magnetic explosion. Then those charged particles hit the atmosphere creating the light show.
In one article I read it said that those light may reach as far south as the Florida Keys. That would be something to see, except I don't know how we'll get there. No GPS, no airlines, I guess you might be able be able to get there using one of those foldy paper things, I think they call them maps?

HAPPY THOUGHTS

2009-02-18T18:52:00.000-08:00

It was one of those days where the sky is covered by that thin layer of gray clouds that let through just enough sunshine to give you a hint of spring.
Not enough, mind you to satisfy those of us with S.A.D.. Therefore, I've been in such a blue mood all day, I didn't really think I'd write any thing today, but that NaBloPoMo thing bit me again, so this is what you get.
Ms. Lea, always the dreamer, always with the positive attitude, was looking at housing, probably more accurately, housing prices, in sunny climes.
She found a 4 bedroom home for lease to own for $900 a month in Sedona, Arizona.
When Lea mentioned it, I told her I'de been there. My dad loves deserts. Arizona was, being a desert on of my dads favorite family vacation spots. I think I was probably 15 or so the last time we went there. I remember it being very pretty and very warm. As the Stepson would say,"GOOD TIMES"!! Of course the chances of us actually moving to Arizona are slim to nil. Still when I feel like I'm freezing to death here....
HAPPY THOUGHTS!!!

HITTING THE GYM

2009-02-17T20:56:00.000-08:00

I just keep getting fatter and fatter.
I've been of work so long now, that I think I've gained 25 lbs.
When Ms. Lea and I met, I was a bodybuilder, competing in one or two contests a year. Which by necessity made me keep my weight somewhere within 30 lbs. of my competitive weight, of 195 at 3% body fat. Which at 6'2 put me looking more like a male clothing model than a bodybuilder. Anyway, after doing that for 5 years, I began to have severe back troubles,
and had to taper off of the weight training to save my back for work.
I have found, though, that if you don't use it, you lose it. So, after probably 4 years of not training at all, I've made the decision to go back to it. I started several months ago, trying to get back, but found, at 47, I don't heal nearly as well or quickly as I did at 37. So after a month of nearly constant pain, I decided to give it a rest. It didn't rest, it stopped.
Last week Ms. Lea and I went and saw our LMT, who is also an old friend, it had been awhile.
She was appalled at my physical condition! I tried the old "I'm conditioning my mind" gambit.
It didn't work. She told my that's not a holistic approach, she's right. Not only do I feel better, but my brain works better when I'm getting regular exercise. It just hurts me that, at 47, I can't train the way I used to. I want to start out with 300 lb dead lifts and 200 lb bench presses and I want to see the difference tomorrow! No, I have to start with 90 and 90. I have to start with one workout a week or maybe two, and instead of concentrating on the weights, I'm supposed to walk or at least do more of the dreaded cardio. I hate that cardio crap, but they tell me that, that is the only way I'm going to be able to get my weight down to where my back doesn't hurt and will eventually allow me to get back to lifting heavy, Which is what I like to do.
I won't ever go back to competitive bodybuilding again, but I would like to get down to the point where my back doesn't bother me all the time. Maybe somewhere around 210-220.
WISH ME LUCK !!!

2009-02-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Here in the rurals of Oregon, we have lots and lots of trees. No duh, huh? Trees are nice I love trees, the five acres we live on is very treed. However, there are also drawbacks to trees. For instance trees die then they have to be cut down and cut up into little chunks that will fit into the wood stove, then they must be packed to the wood shed and stacked neatly so the wood will dry out and can be burned to heat the house. Yep thats right here in Oregon we sometimes still use wood to heat with, especially if your as poor as we are right now!
The other draw back to trees is that some types of trees shed thier leaves in the fall. Now that creates a very pretty phenomenon called the changing of the leaves wwhich is just beautiful.
AND THEN THEY FALL! Hence the name for this time of year, fall. Thats when a guy like myself usually becomes intimately aquainted with the implement of pain that you see in the photo.
Now I know it's not fall, fall would be the easiest time to rake those dreaded fallen leaves. But no, not me, oh no, I'm too stupid to rake up my leaves in the fall before they get all soggy and heavy.
If you are the industrious type and get to your leaves actually in the fall while they're still nice and dry and light you may use the nifty implement in the photo on the right.
Ms. Lea, my beloved wife, doesn't like leaf blowers, as they are noisy and shatter the silence, making it impossible to hear the sigh of the wind though the trees. On principle I firmly agree with her, in practice? Sorry, nope it's just too much of a pain to rake.
In truth it wasn't my intention to rake or blow at all. I mean here we are ten miles out in the woods, it's all natural landscape, right? Wrong! You see, I got a letter from the county, providing my with all sorts of rules for rural living, among them, any combustable items, wood, tall grass, weeds, and yes leaves must be kept 200 feet from any building on the property. It's a fire thing!
SO. Guess what I did all day, yep, got it in one, raked. I was so industrious that I managed to get 50 feet from one building. One building, one building out of four. By the time I get it all done it'll be time to start all over again. bummer!!!!

IT'S THERAPEUTIC!

2009-02-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

I asked the question a while back, why blog? I expressed many different ideas on the subject. All of them rather fuzzy and meaningless, I thought. The closest I think I came to any real sense was that putting things down on paper helped me to put them in perspective. Well now I've found the clinical proof for that. While reading the banner on my gmail page I came across a headline that sent me to a article in Wired Mag. that I thought was very interesting!

Quoting:

"Naming feelings takes some of the emotional impact out of them by engaging a brain region that aids self-control, according to new research.
"Putting feelings into words activates this region that's capable of producing emotional regulatory outcomes, which could explain why putting feelings into words dampens them down," Lieberman said in a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting on Saturday." Here's the link. Check it out. blog.wired.com"

MY VDAY PHILOSOPHY

2009-02-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

O.k. so I agree yesterdays post was lame. Gratuitous and just plain lazy, far too easy.
Here we are though, February 14th and I just have to ask, How did it go?
I am not a big fan of the holidays, myself. Any holidays. Especially this one, I just can't seem to get it right!
I guess it starts with the attitude. In order to have a good Valentines day, it seems that you have to put a lot of effort and forethought into if, which is an issue for me, because I usually can't even remember what day of the week it is, much less which day of the month it is!
Before meeting Ms. Lea I never even bothered with any of the holidays, just seemed like a whole lot of effort with a whole lotta heartache for the return. However, after we got together it became quickly apparent that, that attitude was not gonna fly. You see kids need their Christmas and birthdays, it gives them something to look forward to and teaches them that it's better to give than receive. Ya right! I've got quite the story to tell on that subject, but that's for another post, maybe next Christmas.
I guess for me, everything about Vday seems so cliched and by extension I feel like anything I get her is going to be blase. I would really really like for just once to actually surprise her. You know what I'm saying? I'd just like to blow her mind! Like maybe plan a trip to someplace sunny and sandy. She's the apple of my eye, my heart and soul. I love her soooo much and really wouldn't want to consider what life would be like without her. So to me, candy and flowers just don't cut it, they're like my post yesterday, phoning it in. But, because we're penniless at this point she got flowers and candy. She even acted happy about it. I felt bad!
The story is;
We were in walmart getting groceries and I kinda slipped off into the candy isle and grabbed a bag of chocolate hearts, but when we got to the register she had to pay for them as I had no money. Good, are'nt I? I wasn't feeling good about that, so in all of my running around yesterday, I went and got her some flowers, when I got home and put them in the vase I realized that there was just going to be no place to put them where they would look good because the house was a mess. Now normally I keep the house fairly nice for her so she doesn't have to come home from work to a big mess, but the last few days I've been outside cutting wood so I'd gotten a little bit behind. Well on realizing that, that wasn't going to fly, I jumped in, washed the dishes, cleaned and mopped floors and in general just spiffed at least the front half of the house up so my flowers would present well.
She got off of work, after a 12 hour day at FTD, at 7:30 pm. I picked her up and we had to drove an hour and a half to Roseburg to drop of the Stepson so he could spend the weekend with his brother. At 10 pm we started the return trip home and finally got home around 11:30. She walked thru the door and saw the flowers and made pleased sounds. I, however, was not pleased, as "OTHER", my stepsons friend who is staying with us had apparently made himself dinner and left his dishes on the counter by the sink. This is how holidays turn out bad for me, I was upset, it kinda ruined the mood. Know what I'm sayin'?
So, my philosphy is this;

CHERISH HER, LOVE HER, TAKE THE BEST CARE OF HER THAT YOU ABSOLUTLY CAN.

MAKE HER EVERY SINGLE DAY VALENTINES DAY

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY HONEY.

I LOVE YOU!!!

2009-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Ok guys, here we go.
It's that time.
GOT IT?

or else!!!

IN SCIENCE TODAY

2009-02-12T07:54:00.001-08:00

While having my coffee in the morning I like to check the email, horoscopes weather, etc. A lot of the time I will check out the news items from the Google news banner at the top of my gmail page. This one really caught my attention. http://dsc.discovery.com/
Discovered by a meteorology undergraduate student at China's Sun Yat-Sen University, Comet Lulin is on a fast track toward Earth. Quanzhi Ye made the find in July 2007 while studying a picture taken by a Taiwanese astronomer working at the Lulin Observatory, for which the comet was named. It became visible this month.

The article said that comet Lulin will make its closest approach to us on February 24th. However, it said that unless you live somewhere without a whole lot of background light that you probably won't be able to see it with out the aid of binoculars or a telescope.

We, here in southern Oregon, probably won't be able be able to see it due to over cast skies. We had several very nice weeks there, at the end of January, but it seems to have gone back to winter on us. According to NOAA there's a storm warning in effect for tonight thru tomarrow. They are forecasting up to 15 inches of snow in the higher elevations, which actually means we'll probably see maybe 1 or 2 where we're at. I'm hoping that it will hold off until late tonight as Ms. Lea has to work a 12 hour day today and won't be home until 9:30 or 10 pm.

2009-02-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

Whew, it was along day! I feel like kicking back and just lookin' at the scenery....

THANK YOU SWEETHEART!!!

2009-02-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

Kinda hard to see I guess but those are some monster snow flakes there! It snowed hard until about 3 pm when it turned to rain. It probably would have built up to about three inches if it hadn't been like two degrees too warm. Just three days ago I was outside cutting trees down ( you can see them out there next to the service road) and it was so warm that I actually took my shirt off (not pretty) for a little bit, at least until the boys made so much fun of my fat stomach that it was either turn into Leatherface on them or put my shirt back on. I opted to be gentle for a day.

I was really quite under the weather yesterday and really didn't feel like posting, so I didn't.
You may, however note that there is a post for yesterday and that is thanks to my sweetheart of a wife, Ms. Lea, who started this whole blogging thing with her blog, Four Miles To Nowhere.

THANK YOU SWEETHEART!!!

2009-02-09T22:24:00.000-08:00

If this guy....................................

Had been more like this guy.....................
Would we still be having this?

2009-02-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

THERE IT IS. I hate it, every minute of it! cats are all up on the porch, dogs are stuck in their kennels and I'm stuck in the house.

AND WE ALL FALL DOWN!

2009-02-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is me and the boys today. We went out to the west 40 and cut down 5 Madrone trees today. It took us about 4 hours to buck up 3 trees and load them into the truck. while doing so we picked up and piled brush and started it burning. Burn days around here are few and far between because this area seems to be prone to air inversions. Most of the neighbors don't seem to care about that, it seems like they just burn whenever they want.

I guess they figure that we live so far out that nobody will catch them.
Anyway, we worked about half the day and by that time we were all falling down tired. Even the chainsaw was a little tired. I had brought the dog down there so he wouldn't sit on the porch and bark at us and when I told the boys it was time to head back up, the dog kept trying to get in the truck. He was tired too!
Any how thats my day, now it's time to fix dinner for Ms Lea. I like to have dinner ready for her when she gets home so she can just sit down and relax for the evening. How does a salmon quiche sound?

HOLE IN ONE?

2009-02-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

In addition to the Crater lake Lodge, I've already mentioned having started out my career with the carpenters union on the job at the Oregon Shakespearian Theaters, Allen Pavilion in 1992.
Heretofore I had never been on such a huge job, having been a residential carpenter on Whidbey Island, Washington.
To say the least, it was quite an eye opener to me. The need for safety is paramount on huge construction sites like this, especially when you have the general public standing right out side the Chautauqau wall.
I made several blunders on this job that could certainly have ended rather badly, don't worry I'm still here, so it wasn't too bad.
One of my jobs as an apprentice was to make sure that the holes for the caisons were covered up every time one was finished. For those of you who don't know, basically a caison is a column, only it's in the ground. The Allen Pavilion has about 60 of them, if I recall correctly. The deepest one was over 60 feet deep, while the shallowest one was probably less than 10 feet. They have to be drilled until they hit bed rock, because, once drilled they are filled with rebar and concrete and once the concrete has cured, they drill all the way down thru all of it and put a giant bolt in it, called a rock anchor. In this manner they take a big 'ole top heavy building like the pavilion and tie it right down into the ground so it won't tip over or have the wind blow it over.
The next morning I had to pick up some of the covers to get ready to instal the rebar. The covers were labeled "DANGER HOLE BELOW". So I picked up a couple of those sheets. It was about the third one I came to that wasn't labeled, being in the hurry that I was. I assumed that it was just a peice of plywood somebody had dropped on the ground. So when I went to pick it up I lifted one corner of it and stepped foreward to lift it and stepped right into a 17 foot hole in the ground. What a surprise to find yourself 17 feet down in the ground. When I looked up, guess what? The plywood had fallen back over the hole. Well, what do I do now? No way to climb out. There's equipment running all over the jobsite, so nobody will be able to hear me yell, What do I do?
It seemed like I pondered that question for at least 10 minutes, when I heard the operator of the drilling rig, yell"man in a hole!". He'd been watching me because they drilled that hole the night before after I had gone home and he knew that I didn't know, that, that hole was there.
It took them maybe 10 minutes to swing the crane over to the hole and hoist me out. My heels were a little sore, other than that, I was fine and went right back to work. You talk about embarassing tho, I got teased for the duration of that job.

OF WANT AND ASTROLOGY

2009-02-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you saw it or not, the little NaBloPoMo button down there in the middle of the page, but I signed on to post something on Pb4ugo everyday for the month of February. now nobody is twisting my arm to do this, however, on days like today it gets pretty hard to sit down and put some words down on the page without making it sound like I'm a total whiner.
Years ago someone that I worked with explained to me the difference between whining and bitching. You see, supposedly, it's all right for a guy to bitch but not all right to whine. The way it was explained to me, was, whining is done in a high nasally tone of voice and bitching is done in a somewhat deeper tone of voice. Frankly tho, I've always had a tendency to let the tone of my voice rise a octave or so when I'm upset, so, since I'm not quite sure how to convey the lower registers while I'm sitting at a keyboard, you're just going to have to take my word for it.

I'm not whining!!!

The theme of this months NaBloPoMo is, "WANT".
I don't know if you can tell from my previous posts or not, but I really like to do, what I do, namely, build buildings, actually build anything!!The upshot?

I "WANT" A JOB!!!!!!

Especially, on a day like today, when one of the first things on the agenda is to call the creditors and explain to them why I don't have their money. The other thing I was supposed to do is take the two 19 yearolds I have living under my roof, for free I might add, to their college bowling class. (bowling? that's not college!) Maybe I shouldn't rush through this, 'cuase that may sound like whining.

Some facts you need to know:
1. My wife has my truck because, unlike the men in the household, she has a full time job.
2. The clutch is out in her 4runner.
3. I don't have the measly $150.00 that it costs to put a new clutch disc in it.
4. My stepson only took 2 credits this semester. guess. Got it in one! Bowling!
5. He needed at least 6 to qualify for the student discount with the insurance co.
6. I can't afford to pay the difference.
7. No insurance= no driving.

I repeat I am not whining!!!

8. Things being what they are, we needed to take stepsons truck.
9. With me driving.
10. Every where I go, so Freeway goes, Freeway is a four year old Victorian Bulldog. Guess how he got his name? Because he goes everywhere with us!

Okay, now back to the narrative.
I got all ready to go take the boys bowling, including grabbing my cigarettes and a cup of coffee. Mind you, I'm not allowed to smoke in Stepsons truck, a rule that I adhere to. It is after all his truck and I don't even like the way cig. smoke makes my truck smell. The issue begins here when I get Freeway ready to go, I'm getting the feeling that Stepson doesn't want the dog in his truck. Tough shit! So I put the coffee cup down on the hump between the seats, the dog climbs in and of course spills the coffee. Any of you that have teenagers know the "HUFF"! Yup, that's right I got the "HUFF". OOOOk I'm irritated now. Finally, we get the dog in the back, it's an xtra cab and the other teenager insists he's going to ride in front with us.
The truck is a 1986 Ford Ranger 4x4, it's small!! I'm 6'2 265, Stepson is 6'2 165, Other is 6'0 186-190. We don't all fit in front. We can't get our seat belts on, I'm getting more irritated!!!
Deeeep breath.... count to ten, don't loose it big fella( internally of course, and in a lower octave also I might add)
Zoom zoom away we go! Before we get to the bottom of the driveway the bulldog finds a nice tennis ball on the back on the floor board. Another big fuss!!!!
You probably don't know much about bulldogs, but you don't play fetch with bulldogs, they don't let go, they were bred that way, that's what makes them bulldogs. What's more, they will pop a tennis ball in one chomp. That ball is toast, another "HUFF". I'm done, I'm soooo Dooone! I turned the truck around drove back up the driveway, got out, got the dog out, and told the boys, you're on your own, I'm not going! No sooner had the door shut and away they go, sans insurance and all.
I just received a call tho from Stepson, he'd drove a mile down the road to where Others aunt lives and talked her into driving them to college. (bowling!!!)

Now, as I explained to you b4, I'm a big man, 6'2 265 is nothing to sneeze at, admittedly I'm fat. 40 pounds over weight, but still heavily muscled. You don't compete as a bodybuilder AND work in construction without putting on some muscle. I'm ugly! I shave my head, my hair (facial) isn't even gray anymore, it's white! I'm tattoed and pierced. Let me put it this way, if I came to your door, say to borrow a cup of sugar, most likely, you wouldn't even open your door to me!
I pose now to you this question:

HOW DID THESE BOYS FIGURE OUT I'M A PUSHOVER???

I know what the problem is, I'm a Gemini, what is more I'm a double Gemini. My sun sign is Gemini and I was born under a Gemini moon. I was cursed with the ability to almost always be able to see both sides of the situation. I empathize. When I'm in a good mood I'm a nice guy, too nice. However, being a twin means that there's the other side......

And some times I whine!!!

I WANT A JOB, PLEEEZE?

ON THE JOB AT CRATER LAKE PT.3

2009-02-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a nice picture to illustrate just how deep the snow gets in the winter at Crater Lake! the end of the building you see there is the lodge and it is actually 4 stories tall.
One time in the spring probably of'94 the labor foreman parked one of the company trucks on the far side of the building that you see there. Actually I guess you can"t quite see where the truck was parked, it's just out of the picture, but there was still some snow on the roof, not for long though, as it warmed up that day the snow began to melt and finally cut loose like an avalanche slid off of the roof and landed on the truck. Woops! The company had gone out and bought two bran new ford ranger xlt's just for this job, they were now down to one, as the snow crushed the cab of the truck and blew out all of the windows.
Oh but don't worry it wasn't the fist time some thing had happened to one of those trucks.
The fall before the foreman and superintendant showed up in the other truck minus the windsheild. It seems they had hit a patch of ice on the way up and rolled it over in the middle of the road. nobody was hurt though so the two of them managed to get the truck back up on it's tired and commence on their way to work. Had to have been a very cold ride the rest of the way without the windsheild!!!
I couldn't laugh though, just about all of us eventually had minor mishaps on the way up due to copious amounts of ice and snow. Even me. Iwas all by myself one morning when I hit a really bad section of black ice in my 4x4 Toyota and the right front tire caught a little bit of crusty snow and spun me right around180. I was stuck in the snow bank and the truck wasn't going any where, fortunatly more of the crew were on thier way up and it was no time before we had the truck out headed back the right way and on our way to the lodge. fun fun fun!!!!!

ON THE JOB AT CRATERLAKE PT.2 ?

2009-02-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

The question mark is there in the heading just as a warning that I may get a little side tracked in my narrative today. You see we had a visitor today, someone that we haven't seen in a few years.
I'm shamed to say it but it was my dad. My folks only live about 30 miles from our house in Murphy Oregon. So it's appalling to admit that it"s been that long since we last spoke. I guess what it boils down to, is the fact that dad and I are actually quite a bit alike, probably more than we'd like to admit. Which means that whenever we have a "miscommunication", neither one of us are willing to be the 1st one to step forward to resolve the issue. As is usual, again dad proved to be the bigger man, that's why I love him! God bless you dad!!
However, all of this fits in very well with the Crater Lake thing, because dad was on that job also.

At Crater Lake, dads job title was "quality control".
Since our commute was an hour and a half one way, we rode together most of the time. Being of different generations, we didn't agree very well on what was on the radio, so we both made some compromises . The music I put on my playlist, Jethro Tull, was one of the tapes that we listened to the most, I think. At least that's the one I remember most. Dad was also a big fan of Foreigner, believe it or not.. Hot blooded check it and see, hot blooded......... Oh well, I don't sing so good.

I mentioned that one of our first projects when we started was to tear the roof off of the lodge, well once the roof was off, of course a new roof had to go back on, as quickly as possible! At least before it snowed on us. The way that happened, was that dad had gone up, even before the crew got there and took very detailed measurements. Then took those measurements, made a drawing of the roof lines and sent them to a company in Brooks Oregon that prefabricated the whole roof system in northern Oregon. So just about the time that we had finished with the demo and shoring, the roof started showing up on trucks in the form of prefabricated panels. With the help of a crane we were able to immediately begin assembling the roof.
Know what?
It went together perfectly, that's how good dad is!
By time time the snow flew we had the roof on, the exterior walls sheathed and the whole building wrapped in plastic. That's not to say it was nice and warm and cozy or any thing. No once winter hit, I doubt that the temperature ever really got above 35. It was cold!! The management had their offices on the 3rd floor on the north face of the building. Between the snowfall and the snow constantly sliding off of the plastic on the roof, before we were done for the season, the snow actually covered up their windows.
One day, that 1st season, I happened to be in the office when the snow plow operator came in and asked "what the hell are you guys still here for, the snow is blowing up over the tops of your trucks out there?" Well as I recall, that was about noon and we were there until 5:30 pm. Not really believing him we just kind of laughed him off. Nobody even checked to see if he was joking! Well.... At 5:30 guess what we found, not our trucks.... because they were completely buried!!
It took us about 2 hours to dig out and drag some of the smaller vehicles out to the plowed portion of the parking lot. After that someone always went and checked every once in a while to make sure we didn't get snowed in again. GOOD TIMES!!!

ON THE JOB AT CRATER LAKE

2009-02-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

1992

Spring

Contract for phase two of the Lodge reconstruction project is awarded to a Portland Company for a bid of $8.9 million. The new lodge will have 71 rooms when completed. Each room will be enlarged over the old ones. The project should take two to three years. Landscaping and outside restoration will be a third phase. The Park Service is still “studying” the erosion problem behind the Lodge. One scientist says the slippage is great, while two others colleges say the rate of sliding is virtually nonexistent...”at least during the life of the new lodge.”

There is a picture of the crater lake lodge for you to see
Of course the first thing we did was a whole lot of demo. By the time we were done with the domo work the whole roof system was gone as were the exterior siding and sheathing. We removed all of the old windows, The masons, believe it or not, even took down the rock walls one rock at a time, labeling each and every rock so that they could put them back in exactly the same place that they came out.
The first season one of my jobs was shoring the floors up from the basement to the roof. We hauled 1 ton iron beams into the building by hand, supported them with 6x6 wood posts and jacked and leveled until we had everything well leveled. Then the work of removing old and rotten framing
started. However the Historical Society wouldn't let us just remove and dispose of the old lumber
no, we had to reuse anything that was even remotely usable, consequently there was probably twice as much lumber in the new building as there was to begin with.
See all of those windows? The last year I was there my primary job was to install windows, so almost every one of those windows you see there I put in! Boy do I have some stories to tell about that job, but seeing that I'm such a slow typist I'm tired of typing for today, so I'll save some of those for tomorrow and the rest of the month.
Until then..........

2009-02-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

So where was I? Going crazy, huh? Yep that's me, bored to tears and stressed out! However I do have big hopes that the Obama administration is trying to fix things for me and everybody else like me who has been out of work or is looking forward to being laid-off. His plan to overhall our infrastructure is work that is right up my alley, schools, hospitals, bridges that is predominantly the work that union carpenters do, so I have my fingers crossed that some of that will come our way.
In 1991 when I moved back from Whidbey Island Wa. I signed on with the union and was lucky enough to get put to work on the Allen Pavillion at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, which was a huge job. We remodeled the outdoor Elizabethan theatre and put a state of the art dome over it. It was such a high profile job that it was covered in Time magazine and the picture that they published just happened to be some of the work I'd done in reassembling the wings to the stage. Nothing really fancy, nevertheless.
From Shakespeare I got to follow the same company to the Crater Lake Lodge, and worked on that remodel, which was very involved, for 3 years. While there I was interviewed by a tv station from Portland Oregon and shared my views on the importance of restoring and saving those old historical buildings. I also expressed my astonishment that such a building could be built with only hand tools. Quite impressive!

2009-01-31T23:01:00.000-08:00

2009-01-31T17:37:00.000-08:00

So my wife got me to sign up for NaBloPoMo, I guess that means that you get to hear from me every day for a month.
As it says in my profile I am currently unemployed and have been since the middle of September, while I've always hated working outside in the middle of the winter this is getting old and a little ridiculous. The job I worked on in September was just a 2 week job, before that I'd been out of work since the end of June so it's basically been about 7 months that I've been out of work. Like I said before the winters here aren't fun to work in. It's cold rainy snowy foggy, you name it, It's mostly miserable. However, I always wanted to be a carpenter, my father was, his father was and as I understand it my great grandfather was also. It seems to run in the blood.
For me there is just something that thrills me about putting in a hard days work and at the of the day to look at back what I did that day with my own 2 little hands , I guess you would call it a sense of accomplishment.
I remember being around ten when driving around town my dad would point out some building he had built and say"I built that." To me that was so cool! Now I can say the same things to my kids, although I don't get the feeling that they're nearly as impressed as I was. I have even had the opportunity to remodel or even replace some of the buildings my dad built. The old man says that's how you know that you're getting old, when they start tearing down the buildings you've built!
In 20 years of doing this, this is the longest time I've ever been off work. I miss it and I'm going crazy!!!

2009-01-25T19:55:00.000-08:00

Why blog then? Hmmmmm you tell me. Boredom? Maybe..... Possibly. I just thought it might be kinda fun, certainly better than washing dishes eh?
Actually I figured that it might be a good and entertaining way to teach myself more about using the computer, call it motivating to actually sit down and spend some time learning to do something more with the computer than browsing the web or just checking email. I get to practice my typing and writing skills too. Then there's looking for widgets and fun stuff like that, so why not blog?

2009-01-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Done? I hope so 'cuase I found that really cool Neocounter and decided it wasn't quite so noisy and irritating. They didn't seem to work well on the same page tho(at least not with our isp) so I op
ted for the less annoying of the two. Enjoy the neoplanet.
About the blog, in advance warning, please excuse grammatical, punctuation and typing errors as this year marks 30 years of being away from any formal schooling and I don't really remember a lot about that stuff. Actually to be perfectly truthful I was never really good with my english classes anyway, thats why I became a carpenter. Addition subtraction multiplication sometimes a little trigonometry, thats what a carpenter has to know, so I'm a little rusty. (understatement) As for my typing skills, don't even ask. When I was 15 I shortened one of the fingers on my left hand on a table saw in my grandpas shop, I thought at the time that was pretty cool as both my dad and my grandfather had missing fingers, I'd joined the club. Howevwr my shop teacher in school didn't think that was quite so cool! He kicked me out of shop class and failed me for that semester!
Then almost 3 years ago I managed to pass one of the fingers on my right a hand through a jointer at home in my own garage, I lost the tip of my right forefinger. In 23 years of working on construction sites and I've never had a lost time injury on the job, and I cut my damn finger off at home and have to take two weeks off work without any income. Nice!! If thats not bed enough, anybody who uses power tools on a regular basis knows that once a power tool tastes blood they develop a desire for more, there nothing you can do but throw them away at that point. I had a hell of a time getting that 6 inch jointer into the garbage can!!! L.O.L.!!!!!
The upshot of all of this being, typing sucks!!! at least for me!!
Why blog then?

2009-01-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, now that I've blown your speakers out and possibly done minor damage to ear drums, Maybe I should explain how the fireworks gadget works. If you'd like to turn off the explosions scroll the bar on the right down and click on select city then click off on the auto selection that'll turn the noise off.

Now if you want to play with that gadget you can create your own fireworks by clicking on the numbers and the colors, trust me it's really a lot of fun. Go ahead and play I'll wait.........