My Sky Color

2012-01-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

The First Person I Met...
when we moved to Corbett was Woody Davis and his son Clint. We were doing something something around our new little farm and could hear a Detroit diesel running over yonder. I thought maybe it was an old skidder. I kept hearing it so I gathered up the lads and we went walking up the road to see what it was. We found some guys putting in a 1/4 mile long driveway. This wasn't a simple flat ground gravel track it was over a hill with a 20 foot fill and cut to make it reasonable to drive. The diesel engine belonged to a Terex bull dozer. It was a big dozer between a D8 and D9 in size and large for a two man dirt operation. We stood and watched awhile. After just a few minutes they stopped their work and introduced themselves and offered the boys a ride on the big machine. We were friends from then on. The Davis had dealings with Kroenig tractor so that was another thing in common. This link hits very close to home in lots of ways.

Giving thanks to the community angel

2011-12-16T23:01:00.000-08:00

The Sweetest and Most Heart Wrenching Thing You'll See All Week

Baby Boy

2011-12-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

The Farm Vermin Saga Goes On

In the past the racoons have been the bane to our chicken's existence. Over the past few years we have gradually cleaned out the racoons in the area. Lately I have found that screaming at them like a crazy person keeps them away for an indefinite period of time.

We always have a couple times a year when we smell skunks checking out the place. They never stick around to our relief. This year I have opossums. Once in a while when I go to feed the animals at night there will be a opossum in the barn. By the time I can get armed they escape.

The other night an interesting thing happened. When I close the chickens in the coop for the night I count them. As can be seen in the pictures below there are always two on the ladder type roost and eight on or in the nesting boxes. I am wearing a head lamp with a narrow beam so I turn toward the two chickens then the other way for the 8. When I counted the two then swung around to tally the others something in the back of my mind triggered. "Wait, something didn't look right with the two chickens." So I swing the light back around and there is a tail sticking straight out next to the wall right next to the chicken. There right next to the chicken is a opossum tail.

So I ran out to the wood shed next to the barn and grabbed a small piece of firewood. When I got back in the coop it was still there. The chicken next to it didn't look right. I feared the worst. I shoved the chicken to the side and it was okay. I gave the opossum a whack with the stick. It hit the ground and lay still. The oldest trick in the opossum play book is to play dead. I gave him a couple more to the cranium. He did the running in place like I'm dying. I carefully carried him to the dead varmint disposal place. I didn't want the playing dead, that is hopefully really dead opossum to swing around and bite me while carrying it by the tail.

I am hoping that this rid us of another free loading varmint. A couple nights ago, when I went to feed the animals, there was a opossum in the barn... Was it really dead or just using the old trick? I think we're going to have to start using the live animal trap to be sure of the ultimate demise. Dang chickens.

2011-10-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Frog's for Dinner

Part of our annual deer hunting adventure is shooting frogs at the pond. The pond has thousands of small frogs and hundreds of big frogs. This year little C built up a new toy for the frog slaying. We were told of a frog stalking trick, stay on the four wheeler. That is how we got some pictures of the big ones.

We had a great time camping and hunting. We saw elk, deer and a good size bear. The bear was going 40 mph about 300 yards away and into the brush. We saw him for just a quick second. Later we did get to walk his trail and check out the tracks.

This year little C wanted to do the deer shooting all on his own, on my tag under the mentoring program. He had several chances but had a hard time connecting. Hunting is a little more exciting, compared to shooting cans! As always we learned lots.

2011-10-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

A Goat's Life - Somebody's Got to do It

This is Gibson, a striking little fellow but the fraidy-cat of the goat herd. He reminds me of an African antelope. I'd think he was wanting us to do some shooting from the bench, if I didn't know hit true nature.

2011-09-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

A Change to the Reading Area of Interest

For several years my main area of interest for casual reading has been African Safari true stories mainly in the 20th century. The last few months I have started reading about the United States Special Forces and some other clandestine organizations. I have read a couple documentary type books by persons involved in the early days of the Afghanistan conflict.

The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Fought for a New Afghanistan (P.S.) by Eric Blehm - Really good read

The Night Stalkers by Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov

- Good author and a good read

Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander by Gary Berntsen and Ralph Pezzullo - Pretty good read

Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda by Sean Naylor

If you are interested in military doings and special operations. These are some pretty good ones covering recent times.

2011-08-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

Pig Farming After Action Report

The week of the fair was a busy fun educational experience. On Wednesday, I came home from work around lunch time, changed clothes and headed out to load the show pig, Disney. I explained to everyone that we needed to be patient and it would all work out. After Disney figured out that we wanted her to get in the trailer, she did everything she could to avoid that trailer. It has been awhile since I have helped load horses into a trailer so I had to do some thinking to remember the trick for uncooperative critters. I wanted to be careful so Disney didn't look like she had come through a battle getting to the fair. I retreived some nylon webbing tied it up front in the trailer and ran it back out the door. We got her up to the trailer, looped the webbing around her butt and yarded her in. We gave her a bath in the trailer as it was a clean piece of ground. Then we threw in some clean straw and hit the road. It took 45 minutes to load the pig. I have some ideas for next year. We had to all change clothes again before we left.

Everyone at the fair was really nice and helpful. The 4-H people's mentality is that its all for the young people. Having fun is a big part of it too. After arriving and getting her unloaded, we let things settle down then headed for the official final wash job. Disney just puts on the brakes when she doesn't want to do something. Both front legs are braced up solid and the only way to move her is to push.

Thursday morning start early is "weigh-in." In April there was a weigh-in and the pigs got their ear tags with a certain number. This weigh-in for showing required the ear tag number correlate to the previous weigh-in. The pigs have to weigh between 230 and 280 pounds. This is so they are competitive against each other. We watch close to 100 pigs get weighed and it was really hard to predict what one might weigh. If the pig is outside the weight limits a guy pulls out a pair of wire cutters and clips off the ear tag and you are disqualified from showing... It is pretty rough on the youth. So Disney was looking like she would be on the high end of the boundaries. She maxed out the scale at over 300 pounds.

There were some tears and angry words. The Mrs. and I felt badly but really didn't know what we could have done differently. We had searched for a scale about 3 weeks before the fair because we didn't know where we were for weight. After the weighing we found out that he still would get to show conformation but in a heavy weight class. Remember this is out first time at all this. We met some people that had a pig that looked very similar to ours, they are sisters. She was overweight too. So it is a family trait.

We learned from some pig farmers that these were just fast growing stock. The birthdate was right to make weight. So junior got to show against his pig's sister. There were only two 4-H pigs in the heavy weight class.

So she got second against her sis. She did have a bum leg so that didn't help. Junior had a huge fan club show up to see him show, family and friends came from all over.

On Friday, he was in a showmanship class with 7 others and took 3rd place. I think that is pretty good for his first time. He really did look confident. He had worked with one of the two pigs almost everyday for about 5 weeks. The second showing was better for Disney too. We had learned from some new 4-H friends to give her asprin for some relief from here leg injury.

Due to the overweight thing, he didn't get to praticipate in the auction on Saturday. This was a big part of the disappointment with the weight problem. Typically the pigs sell for at least $3 per pound with the high this year being $12.50. There was an $8 but most were in the $3.50-$4.50 range. The market price is $0.75. Many businesses and family push the price up as a money maker for the youths. He had arranged a buyer up front with a price that was better than break even but not like the auction prices.

Junior helped show a yearling nubian goat for a friend and had fun doing that, winning a reserve grand champion ribbon.

He didn't come away from the fair without a big award. He had woven a scarf on mom's loom and entered it in the 4-H textile division. It won champion and is headed for State competition.

All-in-all it was a good experience and everyone learned a lot. Next year we will have a scale of some sort.

2011-07-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Frank Talks Critters

4-H and the Heat

We will be headed for the fair next week.

Where food comes from.

The real perspective is the best perspective.

2011-07-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Tree Farming

The photo doesn't do justice to the amount of effort expended for the wood. There are over 100 pieces in this load. The wood came from a piece of property in Washington State that was planted in the late 1980s. The tree growth is actually pretty poor for their age. I am learning that stands of planted trees should be thinned at about age 12-15 years.

It can be seen in the photo below from the growth rings that the trees are growing very slowly. The rings toward the outside of the tree are very small, 1/16". In the center the growth rings are much larger (1/8"-1/4") this growth occurred when the trees were all happily growing up together. In more recent years the trees limbs have crowded into one another and are competing for the same sunshine and soil. To improve the growing situation for the trees they need to be thinned. This involves selecting the healthiest trees on spacing between 8 and 12 feet apart and cutting out everything else. Some of the cuttings are in the truck.

Getting started was the hardest part. When the trees to be removed are cut, they don't fall down. They stay standing straight up on the stump and have to be pulled down. I don't have a trailer right now so I couldn't haul the 4-wheeler out with us. If we hauled it in the back of the truck we we wouldn't have any space for wood. So we either pulled the trees down by hand or we set up a little yarding rig and used the truck to pull the trees out to the roadside. We just rigged a block (pulley) to a tree at the roadside and ran the truck up and down the road. This allowed us to pull at a right angle to the road.

The last picture is of an alder tree that was growing on the roadside under more ideal conditions as its growth rings show. In ideal growing conditions the fir trees should or could have growth rings up to 1/2" wide. If we get things thinned properly the fir trees should be very happy and put on wood efficiently.

I'm no forester but when I was in the business of designing forestry equipment I worked on a machine built up specifically for thinning. The contractor that we built the machine for was contracting to Weyerhaeuser for first entry thinning. The idea in those days was to make small saw logs (5" dia. minimum) and make the rest into pulpwood chips. Typically the first thinning is done by hand with chainsaws and the cut trees are just left to rot. I need firewood and the trees need thinned so it is a win-win.

It is a hard way to make firewood due to the number of pieces required to make a cord. The price is right though.

2011-06-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday's Victim

The victim being conquered.

The victim still has it's head.

The headless victim.

Our friend only wants to make one trip. He believes in getting his money's worth.

This was the third of three trees. Oddly enough they were Cedars of Lebanon. I had quite a day. I took down this tree, cut it into firewood and split the big pieces in half using a weld and sledge hammer. Then I trimmed two other trees. On can be seen in the second to the last picture.

It was a day of really hard work but very satisfying.

2011-06-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

A Look at Farming

I ran across a mid-west farmer that is a gun writer on the side a couple years ago. He is a second or third generation farmer and a level headed fellow. Periodically he writes about the farm commodity prices and what is happening in that world that most of us pretty much ignore. In the past few months there have been some trends that are concerning. Give Frank James a read. Too Much of a Good Thing

I bought a 55 gallon drum with a removable top and have been adding to it with the monthly COSTCO run some basic commodities that could be affected in the near future. If it doesn't happen we can just use them up with normal consumption. "Be Prepared" - it is some big organizations motto.

2011-06-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

Author Larry Rants on Reality

Click this text to link to his rant: Irresponsible Americans showing their intelligence covered by Larry. If you read his earlier article it makes even more sense.

2011-06-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

To Blog or Not to Blog

I have creative ideas on things to write but the gumption to stop and do it is not there. There is a problem in my one computer house, four people want to use it. During the school year the evenings are filled with people in line to get on the computer. With summer being here the boys typically have used up their electronics time by the time evening rolls around.

Blogging is like having different kinds of pets. I once had a hedge hog. He was really cute but very prickly to play with. There wasn't a lot of touchy feely feed back just a prickly back. A dog on the other hand, gives lots of feedback. They meet you at the door ready to say, "Hi" after a long day. Blogging is fun when there is feedback in the form of comments bacause you know someone is actually reading your creations. When there are no comments it is hard to know if it's worth the effort.

With the home computer being more accesible during the summer I'll have to blog a few things and see if it is a puppy or a headge hog.

2011-04-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

What does it mean?

What does it mean when you happen on two wheat pennies in one day? The first was found on the ground in a parking lot, a 1944. Later I got change at Home Depot and got a 1941. I haven't seen a wheat penny in a long time then bam!

2011-04-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

More and More People are Waking Up

Have a read:

Larry gets up on the box

2011-03-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

A Good Read

Veteran's Day

2011-02-16T15:52:00.000-08:00

Common sense and hard work are rare commodities.

2011-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

Dad's Got a New Truck!

I guess I am a patient person or a realist when it comes to making big purchases. I have to weigh the value to the family against the expenditure, etc. For the past few years I have wanted a real truck. A truck that can pull a car trailer or equipment trailer with the 12,000 pound excavator from the rental place. Or we can load up all the camping equipment, the dogs and maybe the 4-wheeler and head out for adventures.

I have researched gas versus diesel, manual versus automatic, older versus newer and Ford versus Dodge. The 1994 Ford farm truck we have right now has an electronically controlled automatic transmission. As near as I can tell, after driving it some component reaches a certain temperature then the transmission shifts into neutral a couple times to make things interesting. I read up on what could be the trouble and the information convinced me a manual transmission is a better way to go.

So I got a blend of old and new with simple and complex mixed together. My Uncle has a business that requires him to out of his his truck for long hours on construction sites. He has figured out a combination of options that make for a more reliable truck than the average city dweller has. About every three years he gets a new truck. On this cycle we bought his old one.

It is a 2008 Dodge 3500 6.7L Cummins diesel with a six speed manual transmission. It has just a few options that make it a great work truck and a reduction of things that can go wrong. Four doors are nice with the whole family getting their own door.

We have hauled building supplies and animal feed, driven up Larch Mountain and driven the truck home. Running errands in town is interesting. One definitely has to plan ahead in parking lots. It will take some getting used to. We are all loving it so far.

2010-12-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

You Know You're in the South When

You see bumper stickers like these:

The most telling is the Yank-B-Gon.

The local classic rock radio station makes fun of gays and Obama on a daily basis.

You see stores like this:

The people of the South has some very nice traits. Anyone black or white will say hello to you in a store, on the sidewalk and in the workplace.

Farmers out West will wave to anyone when passing on a country road. I've always liked that.

Boy they like to eat down here.

2010-11-27T12:19:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day Project

Little C is on the skate board band wagon right now. He has some spare parts from an old board and wanted to create one of his own design. So here we go. We used a piece of 3/4 plywood. It is 26 inches long by 10 inches wide so it is really stiff as far as skate boards go. The shape of from a 40 plus inch "long board" by is in a short board format.

To strengthen and water proof the piece of wood I got the idea to coat it with polyester fiber glass resin. This is our first try at building a skate board so we will see what we learn as junior works it over.

2010-11-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

WAR

I just finished reading War by Sebastian Junger. He has a movie out as well called Restrepo.

There is a living MOH story that comes from the time covered in the book. It is captured in this video - Sal Giunta Story (Don't watch it if you can't handle some swearing.)

This is some powerful stuff. We enjoy safety and freedom at a very heavy price being born by these young men.

2010-10-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

Guide Dogs

The youngest has joined the 4-H group where we live. One of their first activities was this weekend. Unknown to us we have a Guide Dogs for the Blind facility near by. Saturday we went and attended a "graduation" and a tour of the facility. It was really amazing!

This is an amazing organization. This started in 1942. They only have two facilities and provide dogs to people all over North America. No public money is involved! Everything is funded by private donations. The organization has operating philosophies that are completely unique.

They actually have their own breeding program. They claim responsibility for the dogs from birth to death. The dogs go to normal families for their first year then to training at one of the facilities for their second year. When the dogs are about two years old they are paired with sight impaired person. We got to see 5 dogs paired up with someone.

The people get two weeks of training with the dog at one of the facilities. All the expenses for flights, meals and training are taken care of. The care of the dog is taken care of for its whole life as required.

The campus was really nice. There are around 150 dogs at the facility in training at any one time. There was no smell. None. No dog smell and no dog poop smell. It was pretty amazing.

Graduations are held every two weeks with about 5 people and dogs graduating. There are somewhere around 2500 dogs active in the system. When dogs are too old to be guides they are placed with families for their retirement years.

This was one charitable organization that I felt really good about. They have a small number of full time employees and a huge number of volunteers. Really top notch volunteers!

Check it out. Guide Dogs

2010-09-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

A Little Humor

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

This may get a few smiles, a snicker and possibly a couple laughs.

DMP

2010-08-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Trip to the Beach

We took a weekend trip to Pacific City for some fun time. Dad has gotton his CJ2A so it is pretty reliable. We took a Jeep ride down the beach to where the Nestucca River runs into the sea. This area is always changing and is off the normal visitor path. On the beach there was a group of fur seals. We started taking pictures and gradually walking closer. We got to within about 15 feet of them. A few awkwardly flopped into the water as we worked our way close but it was pretty neat checking them out so close.

We took another Jeep ride up a road that runs along a ridge that is adjacent to the beach and Cape Kiwanda. As we were motoring slowly along this black creature bounded across the road. It didn't compute at first what it was..."that's a bear!" It was a cub about the side of a lab.

I immediately started looking for momma bear. She was on the slope above us to our left and she had another cub with her! I told Dad he'd better back up and give here a little space. Once we did she ran across the road with junior on her heels.

You can see momma bear was bigger than a great dane. As we proceeded up the road/trail the first cub (maybe a yearling) was up a tree as the first bear picture shows. We had passed houses getting to the trail and there were houses in sight across a small gully when we saw the bear up the tree.

Seeing a bear in the wild is a once in a life time experience for most people. This summer we saw a black bear up a tree in Yellow Stone and now we see one close to home at the beach. It gave us something to talk about.

2010-08-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Summer's Project Complete - Yahoo!

In the spring the goats get all goofy and they get out on all sides. There is no reason to, it's just spring. You know how every person has "the thing" that bugs them. For my dad it was the outside dog barking at night. For me it is lots of things. Things like children fighting on either side of a door because eventually someone's fingers are going to get smashed. I could tell that for Ralph it was our goofy goats getting on his side of the fence. Generally they just eat the brush but once in a while they get close to his flower beds.

This spring the neighbors asked if they could go halves on putting in new fence. I started figuring and shooting lines trying to figure out how to straighten out the line and make the fence better. After taking out 4 trees that fell right where the fence should go we were ready to replace the fence. Any good fence requires sturdy corners and ends posts. I just happen to have some substantial I beam pieces around the place so we put in three of these with 180 pounds of concrete. They turned out fairly substantial...

I welded lock washers on to have something to tie the wire to. We put about 24 inches in the ground with the concrete and have about five and a half feet above ground.

Taking out the old fence is a job and pulling out the old posts is the hardest part. I started looking around for ideas and materials and made a post puller.

The post puller works great! We even pulled some round wooden posts out with it.

Three quarters of one Saturday and half of another were required to remove the old and put in the new fence. We bought taller "hog" wire which we hope will deter the goats come next spring.

I don't have a good picture of the new fence. (maybe I'll add that later)

It is nice to have this summer's major project done and I don't have to worry about Ralph stressing out over the dumb goats.... No we just have to fill the woodshed.

2010-07-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Feline Saga

As part of the farm menagerie we have some barn cats. We put food in a bowl for them, we catch fleeting glances of them and that is about the level of affection we have with them. They do serve a purpose that offsets the food cost. We have no mice.

The problem with cats is they multiply at about 50% of the full "breeding like rabbits" rate. So a couple months ago I went to feed the animals and there in plain sight is a momma cat with a squirming mass of new born kittens. Junior started trying to spend time with them daily so the offspring wouldn't be as wild as the parents and he could find homes for them. After about a week of this the wild mother got nervous and moved the kittens. We could not find them...

On a Friday, about a week later, the boys found the cat family on a high shelf back in the barn. Their mother had the kittens in a new home in an old bird cage stored in the barn. Give or take a couple days I chased a raccoon away from the barn one evening. So on Saturday we were working out in the pasture near the barn and the kittens were making all kinds of racket. The boys checked on them and the mother was no where to be found. We gave them a day and still no mother and the little things were starting to get weak. We think the raccoon got them mom.

So we hauled them in the house, tried to get them warm and to drink some milk from a saucer. They were plenty hungry but didn't know how to lap up the milk. We dug around and found a syringe (without a needle) to try to squirt some milk in their mouths. The neighbor had a little bottle and some kitty formula so we tried that. It worked and they were a crazy crate of kittens after a couple feedings. The kits were feeling so good that a cardboard box wouldn't contain them. So they went back in the bird cage in the house.

So every two hours on Sunday the little things were fed. The problem was, what are we going to do with them come Monday when everyone goes back to school and work? No feeding every two hours...

In the past we have taken care of these sort of things in an "out on the farm" way. Due to the close care of these guys we couldn't just take care of the problem. So off to the "humane" society with them.

The experts said they were sick and too weak and they all need to be euthanized. That was a little rough on the troops. Especially after little C had been lining up homes for them with his friends at school.

Dang cats-

2010-06-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Talk with a Soldier

I am in NC for work. I am learning that a lot of the men around here were in the military at some point in there lives. Today I was working with a QA inspector and he mentioned that he had to go "drill" this weekend. He is in the Army Reserves. We got to talking and I was able to ask him questions about when, what and where. He was regular Army for 4 years out of high school then he's been in reserves ever since. This year it will be 20 years total time.

He has been deployed to Iraq two times, once in 1991 and again in 2003. It was interesting talking to him about his experiences. He said that the majority of the people in Iraq are happy that the Americans came and kicked out the dictator. Only a very small part of the population were living the good life and the rest were barely surviving. He emphasized how good we have it in the USA.

Old people in Iraq were walking around with no shoes in the sand. He picked up some sand to see how hot it was and got 1st degree burns. Many of the people now have a chance for their basic needs to be met.

It causes one to reflect seriously on how flippantly we live the good life. We need to be grateful for our prosperity and freedom to have, go, do and say most anything we want. We also need to be thankful for the men and women who are fighting in inhospitiable lands to protect our home land.

The home land will not be safe forever. There are too many that wish to disrupt and kill the priviledges we have. Just be grateful and count your blessings. DMP

2010-05-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Junior's Got Wheels

So little C got the idea in his head about 6 or 8 months ago that he wanted to build a go-kart. I steered him in the direction of starting with an old fashion down hill coaster type to start out. Finally I got tired of hearing about it and just stopped everything and built one with him. He has had the wheels and tires from Harbor freight since before Christmas. They require 5/8" axles and of course I don't have an 5/8 round stock. I we started digging through the wide array of cans of bolts and found some 5/8 socket head capscrews that would do the job. So we welded 5/8 nuts to some flat bar. Luckily a couple of the nuts were lock nuts to keep the front wheels from falling off.

We cut a piece of 2 by 12 from the scrap lumber pile and some 1 by 4's as axle crossbars. A little drilling, a little welding and some assembly and now every incline has potential.

This vehicle is simple, alas no brakes and you have to tighten the nut for the front axle steering before each run. It is fun and keeps him busy.

2010-04-20T07:30:00.001-07:00

To Till the Earth

My Dad picked up a Craftsman rear tine rototiller when he bought a farm in Hermiston, OR in the mid 1990's. Through the years we have used it back and forth for whatever needed tilling. Once in Tualatin I was working in the backyard and hit a big buried rock. The tiller lost that battle. A couple gears lost a tooth in the fight. I dove into fixing it due to the cost of an equivalent replacement machine.

I learned about cost efficient designs. To get at the gears the machine had to be completely torn apart. The frame/gear box were two stamped pieces of 11 gauge. Almost every bolt had to be removed to get at the gears. At that time the parts to fix it were not too much money and it had many good years after the repair. One strange feature was the lubrication of the gear train was like cosmoline, non serviceable.

Recently Dad went to use the tiller and it wouldn't shift gears. He looked up getting parts for it and found out that many of them have been discontinued. He offered the engine to junior for a go-kart. The Mrs., however, had other ideas and wanted me to see if I could fix it. So once again every bolt had to come out.

The failure was due to the lube system. Over time the goo had migrated down in the gear box and condensation had gathered at the top of the box. You guessed it, the shifting mechanism shaft is at the top. The sliding mechanism seized on the shaft and the shaft is all cancerous with rust. Of course these parts are on the discontinued list.

The boss has had some veggie gardens and wants to expand the square footage this year. Recently I had spotted a real rototiller sitting in a field near our house. I thought, "what the heck I'll see if he wants to sell." The owner had been given two of them and put it there as a yard ornament.

Now I am the proud owner of a late 1940's Graham-Paige B1-6 rototiller. This is a real rototiller. This company actually trademarked the name, Rototiller. This machine was built like a real machine. All gears, cast iron housings, levers for all functions, a magneto and a two-stroke engine. Yup that is right a two stroke engine. If you are interested here are a couple links to sites that have info about this machine.

http://www.zucksrototillers.com/B1-6.html

http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/guam/288/page6.html

2010-04-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm Kinda Proud of That Thing

A couple years ago a friend stopped by because he was headed across the state and the load he had on his trailer was way too heavy. He had bought some industrial surplus items. He had 5 of these jib cranes on and they probably weighed about 1 ton each and several other hefty pieces. So he needed to lose some weight. We helped him unload 3 of the cranes.

After a few months it became obvious that we were the proud owners of three 30 foot jib cranes. Without a big piece of equipment there was no way I was going to move these things. They sat next to the driveway adding to the classy nature of the farm. After two years I started getting hints that they needed to go.

So one day when I was feeling ambitious I drug the cutting torch down the driveway and proceeded to cut them up. They are made of 10 inch I-beam with an 8 inch channel welded on top, plus some ears and guy supports out of 1/2 by 3 flat bar. I cut the beam part up into 8 and 10 foot pieces so they could be moved. They still weighed about 3oo pounds each. Now moving these posed a problem...

Recently I scrapped out a rototiller that we couldn't get parts to repair. I took some scrap metal from the jibs, the wheels and tires from the tiller and a trailer hitch to create the heavy object skidding device (HOSD).

The hardest part of using them is lifting the one end up and having junior back up while holding it. We moved three of them to the shop for alterations into some serious fence posts. We then skidded those to their perspective resting places. Last Saturday we moved all of the other pieces to a less visible storage spot. Boy those 10 foot pieces are heavy!

2010-04-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

One Too Many

I came to the realization yesterday that I have too many projects. I found myself acting like a labrador in a meat market. If I could focus on any one thing, some level of satisfaction could be achieved. Here's how the list looks right now:

- Reload ammo for - 300 Whisper Super and Sub sonic, 223 for varmints and the on going 44 mag.

- Repair free high quality lawn mower to replace 15 year old one that I keep tacked together.

- Diagnose and repair "new" 1940's model roto tiller.

- Complete wiring in the shop.

- Build reloading room in the shop.

- Clean all of the non-shop items out of the shop.

- Move all my stuff from the garage to the shop.

- Build 300+ feet of fence along the west side of the property to keep the neighbor from having goat barbeque.

- Mount antlers for youngest from last season and for Mrs. from season 10 years ago.

- Complete running water and power to the barn that was started 3 years ago.

- Finish getting rid of scrap from job cranes that sat next to the driveway for 2 years.

- Complete inspection signoff on the shop project.

- Do tree removal jobs for 3 different people not counting my brother.

- Be a good dad and husband.

There are more, I know there is but I'm to distracted to remember.

2010-03-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Spring has Sprung... Well Maybe Not

Harvey is soaking up the spring sunshine and thinking life as a pig isn't so bad after all. He always has hay on his back. His bed is like a big pack-rat nest.

The next day it snowed... Ole ground hog had it right this year. It has been a very cold spring. We were one degree away from setting a cold record today.

I sheared the goats last Saturday and they are freezing. I hate to let them go too long because they are an itchy mess.

Well we need the water.

2010-03-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

Dr. Doolittle Lives at My House

Due to our high mortality rate on the farm each spring the Mrs. gets a batch of chicks to replenish the flock of layer hens. It looks like my racoon hunting efforts have finally gotten their population under control. The racoons. One year we got a pair of gosslings and another year we got ducklings.

So Little C has seen and been a part of raising the chicks each spring. Right now he has two guinea pigs and a leopard gecko in his room. About once a month he starts a campaign to get another animal of some sort. Sometimes its a third dog, another guinea pig, a ferret, a fish tank and on and on.

This spring our chicken total is at 9, goats at 4, one pig and some wild cats. So we (the parents) had decided we didn't need any additional farm critters this spring. Last Friday the latest new animal campaign started. A trip to the farm store to get feed started the wheels turning.

Somehow between Friday morning and Saturday a pair of ducklings needed to come live at our house. On Friday Mom and Little C went all over checking duck options at the various farm stores. Saturday after talking to Dad they knew where they were going to get the new fowl. Saturday afternoon a newpaper lined recycling bin with water, food and light was set up in the middle of the kitchen counter. And just to show how much control I have over what goes on at my house, we have three ducklings...

PS - you know spring is here, all the goats are at the neighbors.

2010-02-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

South of the Border

I came back on Friday from a week in Mexico City. It was for work. When asked how was my trip I'm not sure what to say. A city of 22 million people is a little hard to encompass in a short answer. In an airplane the city goes on for a long time. The traffic is insane. Stop lights are fairly rare and the rules are a bit confusing.

The food and sanitary conditions are actually pretty good. The people are nice and hard working of course. Everyone is just trying to make some money to survive. There are zillions of little businesses. When you park your car at a store there are guys that wipe it down while you are gone. At a cost of a dollar or two, that's 20 pesos to you and me.

Part of my work was at a restarting Ford plant. Ford refurbished this 20 acre facility, refit everything, built new assembly lines and are going to start building 36 cars an hour on March 26th. It is pretty amazing the amount of money... They purchased 46 forklifts from Yale so I went with some other guys from our company to get things going.

I learned lots and reconfirmed my aversion to cities and large quantities of people. I like the country.

2010-02-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

Monster Jam 2010

For years I have known that the Monster Truck Jam is Valentines Day weekend in Portland. I have thought it would be fun to go. Well Little C loves to watch trucks, RC, kayaking, unicycles and Monster Trucks on YouTube. So this year we bought Monster jam tickets. We went Saturday afternoon at the Rose Garden. Once we got our ear plugs in and found our seats it brought a tear to my eye to see the look on junior's face. It really was a lot of fun. Between the truck runs they had Jeep barrel racing, quad wars and some other little kids entertainment.

If you ever think about going, it is loud! Ear plugs are not optional. Most of the trucks just have straight pipes off each cylinder and these are 1500 hp engines. I have to say seeing a 10-12000 lb truck go from zero to 20 feet in the air in about 15 feet is really something to behold.

I'll add pictures when I have a minute.

2010-02-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

15 Minutes of Fame (Maybe 30 seconds)

I came across a request for applicants for a TV show to aire on the History Channel. Now I am not one for stumbling in the spot light thing but it sounded interesting. It is called, "Top Shot." It is to be a series of episodes that recreate historical shooting situations and the participants in the show compete against each other.

I thought that it sounded fun so I sent in a brief paragraph and a photo of me. The photo was a real quality item. I handed the camera to the youngest C and had him snap a photo. After sending it I thought that would be the end of that venture.

One day at work the phone rang and it was the casting person for the show and they wanted me to complete an application and send a video. I was surprised to say the least. So the application was pretty simple to complete but the video was another thing. I had to borrow a video camera for starters then find a place in our house that was light enough and finally, figure out what to say. So I got everyting completed and shipped off before the cutoff date of Jan. 18th.

I haven't heard a thing. The whole thing has me a little worried as the filming requires that I am available for 4-5 weeks straight. Last time I checked I don't have 4 weeks of vacation on tap. If I was selected I would miss a Southern Utah man trip with all the guys in my family. We'll see what happens.

I only told a few people that I was applying. They all ask me regularly if I am going into show biz and if I have heard anything... I'm not holding my breath. Plus I need to sleep at night.

2010-02-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

Borrowed from TheGunSource.

2010-01-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

Blogging on a Regular Basis

I have ideas for things to blog about all the time. For some reason they never make it to paper. I want to do better, we'll see how that works out.

A couple years ago I didn't concern myself with what was going on in the world of politics. I think the sad state of affairs has gotten my attention. I am regularly amazed at the under handed tactics of the people involved.

Right now in Oregon there are two measure for vote that involve raising taxes. So why is it that every time there is a shortage of revenue education is the first to get cut? Generally the voting base in a State are families with children that need educating. So instead of cutting other state programs that are of questionable usefulness they cut education. So when they want to raise taxes it only makes sense that the measure passes because the schools are the ones taking the hit and the voter base doesn't want that to happen.

Besides education is rarely a pet project of the politicians, it is a service that government is obligated to provide. So the pet projects' dollars are closely guarded and education is the common target because they know the people will pony up the funds.

One the measures attachs corporate taxes. Last time I checked large companies inject huge amount of money into a state's economy through wages and commerce. If a state makes the economic climate unattractive companies will move elsewhere...

The hidden agenda is pretty low...

2009-12-31T18:35:00.000-08:00

A Helping Hand

I like to help people. I figure that I need to share my talents. They are a blessing. I have boundaries to my charity. I won't help the worthless.

I remove trees. I climb them and bring them down in pieces. Due to the legal climate in this country I do most tree work gratis. I was once asked to take down some cedar trees as part of a church related service project. The people didn't even come out of their house while we were there doing the work! This has happened twice. If the tree owner is willing to help out and clean up the mess then I am more than happy to help out.

One thing I have noticed is people have a tendency to keep score. Meaning if I help them then they feel obligated to do something for me. I don't operate that way. If I help you, I seek no pay-back, unless it was a pay job in the first place.

Matthew chapter 6 gives some insight and guidance on this subject. Check it out. It makes one think.

As I have gotten older the the list of people that I have to buy gifts for has actually gotten shorter. My family set down the rule a few years back that we would have a rotating assignment of a sibling to buy for. Sometimes I will be shopping and will see something that is a perfect match for a family member. I buy it and give it. It drives me nuts when they think or assume that they need to reciprocate with a gift. The joy is in the giving.

2009-12-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

A Few pictures of the Farm Critters

What a nice physique Harvey has. The ever present straw on his back from his bed/nest. Every time we clean out the barn and put in new straw, Harvey pushes most of it into his bed.

Harvey is growing up. Those are tusks at the back of his mouth. Luckily he hasn't learned that they can be used for defensive or offensive purposes. The white at the front of his mouth is slobber. Hey, he's a pig.

Our two newest goats from last spring are dwarf Nigerians. They have lots of personality. As most goats go, they like to climb. The little ones really like to climb. This is Gibson. He reminds me of an African antelope. He is very shy and runs out of reach whenever we try to approach him. He is standing on the woodshed overflow. We have plenty of wood this year.

2009-12-31T18:07:00.000-08:00

Nice Cockerel!

As most of you know my wife has layer hens. Due to the high mortality rate around our place she has to get a few chicks each spring at the local farm store. When we get the chicks the store maintains that the sex of the hens is 90+% accurate. Almost every year we have gotten at least one rooster. Generally the roosters are not nice. They can be a little rough on the hens. Often they are aggressive and come after us with their spurs slashing. They become targets for the boys.

This past spring we had a nice batch of chicks and of course we got the obligatory rooster. He's nice! He doesn't crow incessantly and is quite handsome. This rooster is the picture of the perfect rooster. The Mrs. want me to butcher it to save on feed. I don't want to because he is such a nice fellow.

2009-12-31T17:56:00.000-08:00

You Know the Wind's Blowing When:

- The level in the toilet is 30% lower due to the wind blowing across the plumbing vent pipe causing a vacuum.

- The goose doesn't want to be outside.

- The pig doesn't even get out of bed.

- The kiddie pool for the goose only stays on the property due to the 3 inches of solid ice.

- The wood stove burns 24 hours a day and the house never gets to 65 degrees inside.

2009-12-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Wolves Who Needs Them?

Oregon is now the reported proud owners of a pack of wolves. Now I admit that the settlers didn't always do things right when it came to "taming" a land but there were a few they got right. Wolves were killed of during the 1800's and earlt 1900's because they like to kill. Most predators kill what they need to survive.

I think the reintroduction of the wolf was a case of "the squeaky wheel" getting greased. It is a neat idea when you live in the city and make your living pushing meaningless paper around a desk. When your livelyhood relies on your herd being successful the whole picture changes.

Don't tell me they are a necessary part of the food chain. They weren't part of it for what? Fifty years and the chain seemed to be doing fine. Millions of dollars have been spent on this science experiment with what benefit?

http://www.fourcornersfreepress.com/news/2009/020904.htm

The big game populations are the hardest hit. So the State Fish and Game departments are killing their golden egg laying goose. Hunting and hunters inject a huge amount of money into the state economies. Introducing something that depleats the game populations is counter productive...

Whoever said governmental decisions had to make business sense.

http://www.huntwolves.com/how-to-hunt-wolves

Okay I feel better now.

2009-12-04T13:14:00.001-08:00

Winter Decided to Show Up Finally

We had 3 days of east wind with the temperature around 40 degrees. That got our attention. This morning was the first day I had to scrape the icey windows. I'm fine with it. Bring on the white Christmas.

2009-11-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

So How Smart Do You Really Think You Are?

Here is a site that you can spend a few hours seeing how smart you really are on. http://www.funtrivia.com/

Or if you need some questions for a party or class...

2009-11-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

Update of Random Items in My Head

I haven't blogged in awhile but of course have had several things bouncing around in my cranium.

If you are going to sign you child up to play on a sports team be committed to the cause. You are teaching the child dedication to a team. You are teaching responsibility. This soccer season has taught this volunteer coach a few things...

Fall is my favorite season of the year. The cool clear air is ideal for working outside. Saturday I marshalled the troops and we took care of a few dead standing trees that were just waiting for a good wind storm to make a mess. This way I could kind of control where they fell. I have plenty of firewood. The shed is full and we are stacking the over-run behind it.

There is a place near home we call "Thousand Acres." It has been an undeveloped place where people can take their dogs without a leash. It is more than 1000 acres. Years ago it was used as range land for cattle. It is north of I-84 and east of the Sandy River. Over a year ago I noticed some construction going on there. I had heard that some public entity was in control of the land and "making improvements." We take our dogs there about once a year just cause. We've been there twice lately as a Sunday afternoon hike with the canines. The US Forest Service is the controlling entity we've discovered. Now there are signs, maps, rules and tax dollars being tossed around freely. There are gravel trails, an elevated platform with plastic wood decking and stainless steel accessories and of course outhouses.

The platform is in a spot that would be a nice view point on the Columbia River but it is behind a bunch of trees blocking the view. The other odd thing is that the platform is circular and there are 10 foot 2x6's standing verically radiating outward around the perimeter with the edge of each board embossed with the name of a plant or animal that Lewis & Clark observed or discovered. So you can't really see out from this platform. Mind you this thing is about a mile and a half from the parking lot...

Of course there are small plastic bags and strategically placed trash cans for the doggie owners to pick up the warm mushy poo of their dogs... I won't. I can't.

The majority of the trees in this area are cottom wood trees. So the USFS has taken if upon themselves to plant more cotton wood trees in the grassy meadows as "reparian restoration." I say, "If trees needed to grow there they would have due to the millions of seeds produced each year by the mature trees." What a bunch of non-sense! I'm done.

2009-10-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

An interesting letter in the Australian Shooter Magazine this week, which I quote:

"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington,DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period.

That means you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S., than you are in Iraq."

Conclusion: The U.S.should pull out of Washington.

(Borrowed from http://hollys-hystrionics.blogspot.com/)

2009-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Deer Camp 2009

The younger C love shooting and hunting. He always wants to be able to participate in activities that he isn't old enough for. We figured out this year that as a 9 year old he could fill my tag under the Youth Mentoring program. So we have been working on shooting rifle bigger than a 22 LR. He used a .243 with a 3-9x Leupold scope. We did some shooting with it so he wouldn't be worried about the recoil and would be confident on hitting his target.

We hunted at our favorite place that is 2000 acres of private land in Eastern Oregon. We camped out this year. When we were driving home there was 2 inches of snow on the ground in some places. This is the coldest it has ever been in around 12 years of hunting here. Of course it is the year we camp out.

Our hunting buddies had spotted a group of about 10 deer when they can in before day light to our camp so we headed there first to see what we could find. We spotted this buck in the bunch. He and I crossed a fence and snuck to a rock pile for him to have a good shot. The buck was between 50 and 75 yards away. He started by sitting down and resting his elbows on his knees for a steady aim. He realized he was too wobbly so we set up the bipod and had him sitting on the ground. His first shot was a hit but a little low. As you can see in the photo it hit low but broke the sholder on the off side. The deer took off on a three legged run. He laid down a short distance away and C shot again but missed. I led him to a better vantage point for a finishing shot. In the mean time the buck had moved to a fence line. Our friend had been watching us and had his rifle ready. He had a shot and took it, as we didn't want the deer to cross onto the neighbor's property. Even though he had a little help Little C was ecstatic with his success.

He and I did all of the gutting and skinning work together. He gagged at one point due to the body cavity guts smell and almost lost breakfast. It was the cleanest gutting job I think I've ever had so that was good. I told him I gagged on my first one too. Little C likes to do the skinning so he did a good job on that.

It started raining and snowing and didn't quit until midnight on Saturday. We spent some afternoon time reading Tom Brown Jr. stories and taking naps. We had hoped to do some frog shooting after the hunting was over but the cold and rain drove them all into hiding. It was a good time. DMP

2009-10-05T13:58:00.001-07:00

Dizzing Heights

The boys and I have found a spot on the Columbia River Gorge that is really an amazing view point. It is a sharp ridge of rock that juts out from the cliff. My estimates are that it is about 300 feet high. I am estimating based on how high we are from the tops of the tress in the valley below.

If you look closely there are 17 elk down in the grassy area below. They are probably a mile away. We watched them for a while through 10x binoculars. There were two or three bulls and they were chasing the cows around. It was pretty neat to observe them and they weren't headed for the next county.

Here's the youngest on top of the world. I will say that this is not a place to stumble or hang out at during a high wind. It is a pretty neat spot to visit and observe without fighting the crowd.

DMP

2009-09-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

Doggie Goes Hoggie

At Pacific City over Labor Day we observed the big dog doing something a little odd. It got us laughing! We think she was missing Harvey the pig...

2009-09-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

If You Aren't Reading it You Should Be

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

Good writing and excellent photos.

2009-08-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Pretty Boys

I have noticed the last couple years the pretty boy trend. There are males out there spending more time and money on their appearance than their girlsfriends. The way to spot them is to watch out for the perfect tan, expensive tattoos, designer clothes, designer sun glasses and a shiny automobile. If it is a truck it is exceptionally clean and lifted by some 4x4 shop. Generally the truck or wheels will have oversized wheels that would make any hispanic green with envy.

A good Hollywood example would be the boyfriend at the beginnning of the first Transformers movie. He is more worried about his vehicle, his appearance and his male friends.

The great part of being a guy is you are ready to go at a minutes notice. You can wear yesterday's clothes and think nothing of it. You have a tool box full of tools and know how to use them. A real man is secure with himself he doesn't need fluff to help his self image.

2009-08-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

Life

So things have been just moving along. The lads are picking and selling black berries for $7 per gallon. They have delivered 8 gallons so far to my co-workers and about 3 more gallons to the Mrs.'s friends.

We went on a cruise to Alaska for 7 days. The trip was in celebration of my parents 50th wedding anniversary. This is the first cruise I have ever been on. It was great! It is a way to get a quick over-view of an area. You don't get the in-depth experience like you would staying in a town for a few days. The weather was great and I say all the things I wanted to see: whales, eagles, bears and glaciers.

Fall soccer season is starting up. I am coaching as the youngest is playing.

I can't decide what to think about this whole "social networking" thing. Facebook can take up a person's tme. It is fun to find old friends and see what they are up to.

I just finished reading an Iraq war book called House to House by David Bellavia. Whoa that is a serious read. Very real war and full of internal feelings and emotion. I read another Iraq war book previous to this that was good but more of a documentary.

2009-07-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

A Site for All You Motor Heads Out There

http://www.animatedengines.com/index.shtml

You can educate the kids if they will sit still long enough to absorb the information.

2009-07-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

You Just Can't Fix Stupid

So the other night we were trying to drive to town. We left our place and went down the road about 1 mile and the road was closed. There were lots of "blue light specials" and they had their surveying instrument out. We figured it was a fatal accident. So we had to turn around and go up past our house to take another route. The other route was blocked off as well. So we had to take another route to get to town. Good thing there are several routes.

So today I did a little investigating to see what the heck was going on in our quiet neck of the country.

http://www.flashalert.net/news.html?id=1276

Motorcycle Crash on E Bell Road Results in Fatal Injuries - 07/14/09

Serious Crash Closes Historic East Columbia River Highway - 07/14/09

If the observant reader looks at the incident times, the second accident listed had occurred and they had closed the HCRH. So traffic was taking Bell Rd to get around it when the second accident occurred on the detour road, resulting in a fatality.

So if the LE folks hadn't shut down the road to play surveyor and investigate the injury accident, maybe they wouldn't have caused the fatality...

2009-07-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

What are you looking at?

2009-06-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Stories That Make You Smile

http://growingbolder.com/media/uncategorized/gun-totin-flag-wavin-298781.html

2009-06-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

The Quarry

The Hunter

The Successful Happy Hunter

The youngest gets ideas in his head and he won't let them go. One of his buddies wanted frog's legs so frog's legs he got. He decided that he needed a bow fishing reel setup on his bow. This gave Dad something to apply his creative engineering brain to and presto he has a fishing setup on his bow.

We went on our second annual spring vermin hunt. We spent a day and a half shooting ground squirrels around wheat fields and a half day after the frogs that eat the fish eggs in the pond.

As you can see it is a beautiful place. We really enjoy the remoteness and the beauty. It is hard to come back to suburbia. DMP

2009-06-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

Scientific Discover

Subject: Science has discovered a new element!

An Interesting Discovery. Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected by its retarded (even completely absent under some conditions) ability to react. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium' s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with large injections of fiscal elements, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

2009-05-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Status

Web site that will provide hours of reading on emerging technolgy. The military is definitely developing some Buck Rogers type weapons.
http://www.gizmag.com/

Off to a Father and Sons campout this weekend. There is nothing like a bad nights sleep for making Dad happy. DMP

2009-05-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

Bragging Rights

I am coaching a 9 and 10 year old boys soccer team. We are about 3 games from the end of the season. We practice twice a week for 1-1/2 hours. The range of abilities and sizes is full spectrum with this team. I feel that the team is pretty good. I work them hard.

Last night we had a game. Unbeknownest to me the team we played was un-defeated, has a couple all-star team players and a coach that is supposed to be big stuff. We beat them!

I was really frustrated how my guys were playing by not covering where the pass can go etc. After the game when I learned that we had just knocked off the honor guard, I was really pleased. I am anxious to have practice so I can tell the boys what they did. We are off for a few days due to Memorial Day weekend, so it will have to wait.

Looking back on the game, I can now identify what the other team did wrong. They had all the talent in the front and the flunkies as goalie and defense. Luckily I can play anyone anywhere. So if defense is having a hard time I can move a hot shot back there or if we are doing really good I can put my star player in as goalie to even up the odds.

I am having fun coaching but if I am not careful I can stress myself out. DMP

2009-04-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Out with the Alpacas and in with some New Kids

Meet Clara (front and center) and Gibson in the background. The alpacas, Sur and Randall ate too much for our little farm. It looked like we were going to have to feed them hay year around. Our two new kids are Nigerian Dwarfs. We had one before, Sarah. She died rather suddenly. We really enjoyed her with her abandant personality. So with the alpaca money we got two Nigerians. Gibson is a wether, a castrated boy. Clara is fully operational. So we could have kids some day if we decided to pursued that adventure.

Already they have started showing there cute personalities. They are a little shy but warming up to us more and more every day. Spring fun at the farm. DMP

2009-04-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

There's Got to be a Comfortable Place Around Here Somewhere

2009-04-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

That is a Face Only a Mother Could Love

Or Her Master

2009-04-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

What's to Eat 1

So Monday lunch was at McAlister's Deli. A New York sandwich was the order, pastrami, corned beef, swiss on Rye with Sun Chips on the side. It was a nice modern place with not enough seating. A went in circles for a couple minutes looking for a table. One opened up that seated four. I took it. Across from me was a six place table with two blue collar guys sitting at it. AS I got settled I noticed two housewife frumpy women with two pre-school kids each looking for a place to sit. I signaled to them to take my table and I moved to the 6 spot with the two anti-social young men wolking down their lunch. The Moms couldn't say thank you enough. Finally I had to look away and say it was fine. The food was fine but nothing to get excited about.

For dinner on Monday I cruised around Greenville looking for something interesting. I saw a place I'd eaten at about three years ago and decided to give it a go. I drove around the block like three times trying to find a place to part. I didn't want to be too far way as run was threatening and had finished an earlier storm. It rained, hailed with thunder and lightning before I left the Plant. I had pork fajita tacos with beans and rice. It was pretty good fare but definitely not even close to authentic mexican food.

Tuesday lunch was a Wendy's taco salad hardly worth mentioning.

A couple different vendors that I work with are in town this week so we set out to have dinner on Tuesday evening. We drove out of Greenville about 5 miles to Winterville to Wimpy's. From the outdside one didn't know what to expect. It is part Oyster Bar. An actual bar with troughs to the inside to dump your shells in. That was a first for me. I had SS&C a Wimpy's original. It was shrimp, sausage and chicken in a white jalapeno sauce. It was good and not real hot. I also had the Tuxedo Cake for dessert. It was good. Four layers of white cake, German chocolate moose, German cream, and German dark chocolate about 1/4 inch thick on top. It was good.

We had a nice time talking together telling stories and politics. Two more days of cullinary adventures. I am hoping to find some originals. DMP

2009-04-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Where in the World is DMP?

I will admit to being a negligent blogger. Life has gotten a little busier lately. The youngest has started playing Spring Soccer and the team needed a coach. I volunteered. So we have practices a couple evenings per week, Boy Scouts one evening per week and the weather is improving so the farm calls. My duties at my day job have changed to supporting the production start up of the fork lifts designs I have been working on for the last couple years.

I am sitting in a hotel in Greenville, NC near one of the Hyster/Yale manufacturing facilities. I am to be here all week and fly home on Friday. I will try to post some creative things from my adventures here. DMP

2009-04-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Honesty Isn't a Factor

With the changing of the government administration we have seen a dramatic shift in the agenda. These people will say anything.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

The assault weapons ban of the Clinton era didn't change crime rates, it only limited the law abiding citizen freedom. Laws don't fix behaivor.

As we see in countries with stringent gun control laws, the person intent on hurting someone will use whatever is handy. It might be a kitchen knife, golf club, baseball bat, cricket bat, rock, brick, screw driver, hammer, tire iron... DMP

2009-03-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

I've Been Sick

February 28th I finally got sick. Everyone around me has or had the crud. A co-worker even had pneumonia. It started in the evening and I missed work Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday. On Saturday the 7th I ended up at Urgent Care with an ear infection on the left side. I missed Church the 1st and only went to the first third of Church on the eighth. I worked all last week, caught some naps both days last weekend and it looks like I have it beat. The worst part has been my ear is plugged so I feel like half of my head is under water. The first week was really lousy as my head felt like it would explode from the pressure. Enough of that.

I have been working on a new mail box. It is shaped like a traditional barn, made of steel (of course) and will be mounted on a 10 inch I-beam for the post. The flag will be an alpaca or goat head and the latch for the door will be a rooster. I'll post pix when it is complete. DMP

2009-02-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

Growing Like a Weed

So when we moved to the country over 4 years ago I just knew the clean air and open spaces would be good for the boys. Early on we discovered that slipping a few goat droppings into there shoes now and then really gave them a growth spurt. Both of them have grown about a foot in height since we have lived here. What really made the difference was getting the alpacas. Their manure can be put directly on the flower beds and really makes the plants happy and it not to hot. During the last year of have the alpaca droppings available the boys have really shot up.

It is like a secret weapon. It has the potiental for secret military Super Soldier programs. The on-line business potential is staggering. Where this could take us is hard to image. I'll bet more money can be made selling small vials of alpaca poo than selling their 10x warmer fleece. Keep this one on the hush hush. DMP

2009-02-08T20:53:00.001-08:00

Life

Life has just been happening. The weekdays are busy with work and youth activities. We've spent Saturdays cleaning up all the debris from the natural pruning.

This past Saturday my first born, my Dad and I went to the Sportsman's Show at the expo center. It was huge with lots of humanity. We talked to several African Safari companies. That sure is a rich man's adventure. We went as a bit of a birthday activity. February 1967 was the time of my birth. You do the math.

We hired an out-of-work local carpenter to fix the corner of the house. We got some insurance money so it can't hurt to help someone else out.

I am looking at an engineering side job. It is a new idea in building construction using plastic materials. It is a very interesting and challenging project. It comes at a good time financially. I need to make sure it is right for the family.

Things are going fine. We're just living life. DMP

2009-01-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

One of those Weeks

All day Tuesday I had it in my mind that is was Wednesday. I went home at lunch time and got back to work around 1:20. I have a Wednesday conference call at 1 PM every week. I called into the conference late but no one was there, so I assumed it had finished up quickly. I dated all my work as the 14th. Only until I was on my way home did I get it through my head that it was Tuesday.

Due to the windy conditions in Corbett we lose power frequently. It ofter flickers once or twice every 24 hours. So Thursday night I woke up and my clock radio was flashing the time so the power had gone out. I keep a watch on my night stand due to this happening so often. So in my sleepy frame of mind I studied the backup clock closely and reset the clock radio and alarm. After sleeping the rest of the night my alarm went off and I started my daily routine. After I had showered, dressed and was making breakfast the Mrs. appeared to inform me that I was an hour ahead of schedule. I am a morning person and was fully functional so I just went to work anyway. I got there at 6:15 AM...

With the world economic conditions my employer has been cutting back on expenses. Domestic travel has to be approved by VP's and international travel by the CEO. All contract people were laid off. The bottled water service was discontinued. On Thursday we got an email out of the blue anouncing another round of cuts. Cuts like 10% of everyone's salary. Tighten your belt family the spending fun is over. DMP

2009-01-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

To Those of You Born 1930 - 1979

At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, read what he said.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY? Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no person al computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of them?

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ? ~

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this. For the rest of us...pass this on

2008-12-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

Chain Up Tips

I am no expert but I know some obvious tips:

- Front wheel drive, 2 wheel drive car - Chains go on the front. The weight of the engine is in the front so the most traction is in the front. Point the wheels the direction you want to go and goose the throttle lightly.

- Rear wheel drive, 2 wheel drive vehicle - Chains go on the rear. Hope for the best. I had a 2wd Toyota PU that traveled thousands of miles on snow.

- Four wheel drive anything - Chains go on the front. The weight of the engine is in the front so the most traction is in the front. Point the wheels the direction you want to go and goose the throttle.

- Generally speaking chains are most useful on ice. Snow and cold temperatures have nice traction.

- Only deep snow requires chains on your 4x4.

Take your time, don't be in a hurry and don't do anything sudden. Wheel spin is generally bad. Wheel spin is only useful in deep snow. Watch the people around you they are probably the biggest danger. DMP

If you are running a dually pickup without a load, take off the outside duals to have better weight on the rear tires for traction.

2008-12-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

That tree in the distance looks like it has a growth... a tumor? Hey guys that camera has 10x zoom so use it.

Oh - that is your crazy Dad up in that tree. For entertainment on the side I remove problem trees. I don't really pursue the work. Once a few people know that I do this sort of thing the jobs pop up. I don't do much of it, maybe a handful of trees a year.

It is the most physically demanding sport I know of. I wear a rolled up bandana around my head like a 60's hippie to keep the sweat out of my eyes. It is somewhat mentally challenging too with figuring where, how much and how to cut each piece. Once in awhile some cash is involved, maybe 50% of the time. Bartering is best. DMP

2008-11-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

A Good Medicine Moment

The Native Americans spoke of Good Medicine or things that occurred that were very meaningful. In my life time I have had a few of those occur while spending time outdoors. In my life the most worthwhile thing I have is my family and children. Recently Little C and I were elk hunting near Wallowa, Oregon. We spent a long day hiking through all the areas that will have elk. It was a rough weekend to be hunting due to it being a full moon, a spike hunt and the second weekend of the hunt. Most of the hunters had gone home so no one was pushing the animals around. It was a sunshine day and we hiked our legs off. Even though we didn't connect with a critter we had a nice visit with our friends and got to spend time outdoors.

I haven't been up to Wallowa Lake in a few years and I wanted to show it to Little C. I hoped that there would be some of the big bucks hanging around the park like usual.

There weren't many deer that day but we found one guy that liked our apple slices. It was pretty neat to see the look of wonderment on my son's face with that big buck picking up the apple pieces off the ground right next to the car. He wouldn't take them from his hand but almost. So we got to see this buck standing within three feet of the car munching up the pieces of apple. There was a doe there too but he had chased her off a short ditance. C threw her some pieces too.

She actually would take the pieces out of his hand before the buck came over and chased her off. I would venture to say that Little C won't forget this moment the rest of his life.

We hope to go back in the middle of winter when the snow is deep and there are more bigger bucks hanging around. We can also go to a place where the Game Comission feeds the elk. There we can usually see some monster bulls hiding in the timber close to the feeding area. DMP

2008-11-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

Winter has arrived. The photo is the last sunshine of fall being soaked up by Harvey. He was all stretched out but the camera wasn't cooperating and as soon as he knew I was there he sat up in hopes of something to eat.

The goats are too friendly and are in the middle of everything and everyone elses' business. They will sneak into the chicken coop and eat their food if you don't mind the door. They will open the door to Harvey's area of the barn an steal his food. They will put their font feet on the inside walls of the barn so they can reach the alpaca's feeders and clean up their grain. So the feeding ritual morning and night involves feeding the goats first and locking them in the head stanchions. That way everyone else can eat in peace. DMP

2008-11-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

DMP's Political Statement

I generally don't talk politics. I let people have their own opinions and keep my mouth shut. This really sums up what I think. Not everyone will agree but I've had it!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HliWiZ0TUx0/SQysW2REhQI/AAAAAAAAC8w/Vv_JS_dtLF0/s1600-h/stuff.jpeg

DMP

2008-10-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Website Find for Hours of Entertainment

http://www.oddee.com/

2008-10-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

So after the last post my faithful readers (all 3 of them) are wondering what the heck is going on. I had applied for a job that had a lot of appeal, but alas I didn't get it. I wanted to get paid for my experience level and not take a cut in pay... Overall it was a good experience by showing me a few things. Like being grateful for what you have. Finish up all the projects that are half done. Enjoy where you are. Besides I hate moving so I don't have to move to Carson City, NV.

I kept the whole thing on the hush hush so as to not set family to worrying and friends to questioning my sanity. I guess the few friends I do have constantly question my sanity...DMP

2008-09-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

Anticipation Is Making Me Wait (sing it)

Did you ever check something out, pray about it and it all seemed right? But the process of obtaining it took a long time? So you couldn't sleep at night, you're all preoccupied that your children laugh at you like an absent minded prefossor because they have to repeat thing to get them to sink in?

It is kinda like waiting for the millennium. Do you change everything or just keep plodding along with the daily routines of life. My worry side goes right to my stomach. I have to keep the anti-acid close at hand and make sure to have regular meals.

I guess I'll just have to be patient. I have lots of projects to keep me occupied. DMP

2008-09-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Only in America

- Do people have a long box, 4-door pickup with a bike rack on top of the cab and nothing in the bed.

- Are you served a meal in a resturant that can feed 2 or 3 people nicely.

- Are endangered predators re-introduced into the wild when our ancestors clean them out because they loved to kill and were hard on business.

- Do hotdogs come in packages with a quantity different from the number of buns in a package.

- People drive to church when they live with in walking distance.

- Do people hire someone to do the things they are completely capable of doing but too lazy to do.

- People commute to work in a Suburban alone.

- People choose to live on the opposite side of town from their work.

- Get drunk every weekend because it is the weekend.

- Two people live in a house that has more than two bedrooms.

- The thermostat for the AC is set at 68 degrees in the summer because that is what the heat is at in the winter.

- Fast food meals can be super sized.

- People that can't afford a loan payment, apply for and are giving loans.

- People water their lawn that live in the desert.

- People build cities below sea level that are right next to the sea.

- People get upset when they are injure during extreme sports.

- Sue others for their own mistakes.

- Managers of companies are paid over a million dollars a year...

- Illegal immigrants have rights.

- Political leaders believe more laws will create a better people.

- Teachers are paid less that entertainers.

There are many more. Feel free to add yours to the comments section. DMP

2008-09-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

The full moon has been fabulous this time around. Is it the fall air? Or is it the end of summer mentality? DMP

2008-08-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Ma, Something Doesn't Smell Right

Sunday evening when I fed the critters and shut the birds in the coop for the night it smelled a little like skunk in the barn. Every summer we have a skunk cruise through the place. We usually smell them in the night pass by. Overall we haven't had any problems with them staying.

Monday the Mrs. took care of the animals so I didn't know anything was amiss. Tuesday morning at work I received an email that said there was a skunk in the barn, for sure. So I responded back to root it out and kill it. I didn't find out until much later that the lads had thumped it a few times with their Red Rider BB guns. Much to the dislike of the odor maker.

So Tuesday evening eldest lad and I got a .22 rifle and a flash light to go deal with the skunk. We found the skunk and it was tangled up in an old fishing net that we had used for catching chickens and wild cats. It was in a small space between the hay stack and the feed bins. While we were observing M. Le Pew it worked itself around until its backside was in our direction and ready for smelly action. We departed quickly!

We had to round up the camera and get a picture for the blog. As you can see the skunk was a bit camera shy. After a couple pix eldest lad exited. Dad had to take care of it...

Now shooting a skunk and not making it dead instantly could be a smelly situation. I took the cautious man's route with a point blank to the head lead injection. I gingerly made sure it had expired before I hauled it and the net out of the barn. I carefully untangled it and disposed of it. The air in the barn was heavy with the odor. I never got sprayed but just being in there had made my clothes skunky. My minor contact with two fingers at arms length had my hands stinking. I washed with soap, I washed with rubbing alcohol and I still had the faint essence of skunk the next day on my hands.

That is some serious stank! It was a young fellow by the size of it. I can't image what it would be like to have one several years old with lots of ammo. As usual there is never a dull moment around the farm. DMP

2008-08-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

You Know It's Hot When the Chickens are Panting

I don't have any great blog stories but a few little tid bits that are amusingly insteresting. Hot weather showed up in Oregon for 4 days. Around the farm making sure all the critters have water all the time is a bit of a chore. One after noon while filling up the various height water recepticles I looked over and there was a chicken with its beak open pretty wide panting. So alas there is your title.

Harvey the pig and the pair of geese are buddies now. They hang out together and mainly the geese follow Harv around. A couple times we have see come pretty funny interactions. I can never get a picture due to the geese being imprinted on people and running over to you when you go outside with the camera. One time the hen was pecking at Harvey's tail like it was a worm or something. Another time they were pulling the hair on his back. He didn't appreciate the hair pulling.

The geese now have an bizzar behavior. When I go out at dark to put them in the coop at night they will often run up the pasture honking and flapping their wings. It is goofy as heck! The wierd thing is they do want to go in at night and chow on the chicken feed.

We made an electric fence enclosure for the alpacas so they could have more grazing. After 2-3 weeks they had it cleaned up. Youngest lad and I expanded their fence saturday morning before it was too hot. We pull the wire out of one end of the old area so they could use the new area. Oh no. They wouldn't go into the new area. After a couple days we had to entice them into the new area with grain. After the revelation they were back in business grazing. Funny creatures.

The black berry picker has surpassed the 20 gallon mark. With the hot weather the cans and bottles business has been very productive. The people are really nice when Big C explains what he is doing. DMP

2008-08-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Summer Blues

I haven't blogged a awhile due to a lack of creativity and exciting happenings. We have learned that alpacas eat a lot more than goats. We made a electric fence enclosure in the lower pasture area. The fences are bad down there so that is why the electric fence.

The track loader radiator is bad so I bartered with the neighbor. He did the tractor work I needed on the driveway and I am taking down the tallest tree on his property. Of course it is a cotton wood. I would like to get started but the weather has turned out to be hot. Like the hottest of the summer.

Oldest lad is earning money for a trip to Europe next June with the Middle School. They will be learning about the renaissance. They will travel to London, Paris and Rome. He is working for a farmer on Saturdays and picking blackberries. I advertised for him at my work place and he got orders for about 20 gallons of berries.

As indicated in my previous post my job is not very rewarding. I am looking at my options. With the economy on a weird streak I will play it very cautious.

I've been having fun with the critters by sitting down in the pasture and feeding them little biscuit crackers. I'm trying to get Harvey to be a little a little more personable. Keeping the goats out of the way with food is a constant pushing match. DMP

2008-07-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

Farm On!

We found a resonable price on hay so we went and picked up 20 bales for the winter. Of course, it was an adventure for the lads. The Mrs. talked to a local farmer and we went for Family night.

Now these are some teeth that would get a dentist excited. Due to our inexperience in the alpaca world we are trying to get some expert advise on the teeth. I think they are long, which is a common problem, and I need to find some one to help in the trimming.

This is Sur before he got his hair cut. He was less than pleased to be wrestled to the ground and stretched out between two trees. He made mad noises the drooled green slime most of the time. The green slime really smells.

This is from when we sheared Randal earlier in the summer but it is shown here so you can see how they get hog-tied.

It looks worse than it is. They just have to be fully restrained or they jump around a bunch. Some people say they can shear them standing but I don't think that would work in our case.

Down on the funny farm we have lots of adventures. DMP

2008-07-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Blog Reader Input Required

I need input from my readers. This will require that you comment. Tell me what you think are the top 5 or 10 jobs that would be the great. Really the only criteria would be that a person would have to make a living, around $70k per year or better.

I think this might be part of my mid life crisis. I have to find a job that is a tiny bit rewarding. I'm even thinking that I will have to take some classes to get educated to pursue this new occupation. Your help is appreciated. DMP

2008-07-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

I am a Negligent Blogger

We arrived home from a Montana and Idaho vacation Sunday night at 9 PM. We drove from Idaho Falls that day. We Left Monday the 7th and went to Helena. Then on Thursday we headed south to Idaho Falls. We traveled through Ennis, MT and Island Park, ID. We took a side trip to Mesa Falls near Ashton, ID. It is a really spectactular series of falls.

We stayed at my wife's little brother's place in IF. It was a reunion of her siblings and parents. It was a fun time. The boys enjoyed getting to know their cousins that they don't see very often. There were lots of laughs and too much food.

We had a young couple stay at the farm to care for the critters while we were away. Everything held together and the big dog about hyperventilated when we came home. I think even the geese and pig were happy to see us.

The Mrs. worked out a place to get some hay for the winter. So we spent Monday night bucking and hauling a small load of hay home. The summer is relatively calm here on out with Scout Camps being the other big events. DMP

2008-06-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

New Experiences

With the odd assortment of critters on the farm. I have had a few new experiences in the last while. When herding the geese into the chicken coop last night I picked one up to help the process. So here I am holding a calm goose, that is almost full size and fully feathered, with its neck and head going over my left shoulder like a baby. That is not something you will not experience every day or even in a lifetime.

About 3 weeks ago while trying to catch Sur, the wilder or the two alpaca, he and I did a full hit the ground and roll over once. That was pretty exciting and unique. I am getting pretty good at alpaca wrestling.

While on safari last week I killed a rattle snake. I cut the head off and buried it. I never thought that it would be so tough to get that head off. By the way, rattle snakes retain their nerve pulses for a long time. When I started skinning it, it was still flinching an hour and a half after losing its head. This was the first time I've ever skinned a snake. FYI - the skin comes off pretty easily except when you get close to the rattles.

I have trimmed pig and alpaca hooves now. I think I have the alpaca figured out. The pig is still a learning experience. The squealing while trying to do it quickly is a little distracting.

While shearing the relatively tame alpaca, Randall, the wiley one laid down about 10 feet away to make sure his friend came through it okay. They make a sympathetic noise to each other as well.

So the farm menagerie is pretty fun and educational. DMP

2008-06-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

I Had a Vacation

The boys and I had a great time! We had cool nights and sunny days that weren't too hot. We busted so many caps that it was starting to become commonplace. We spent one evening and half of a day shooting ground squirrels. We used .22 rifles and the shooting was from 15 to over 50 yards.

Before our trip I got a wild hair to make "shooting pads." I had seen several shooting supply places selling them and thought they might be handy. They can be used for sleeping pads at night then employed for shooting during the day, on this trip at least. I got 1000 denier olive and digital camo nylon material, some olive drab upholstery thread, heavy duty snaps and 3/4" closed cell foam. They are about 28 inches wide and 6 feet long with a large pocket. The pads are the most useful when shooting prone. Sometimes we would use one and all three of us would sit next to each other shooting.

We got to see my old boss from Pierce, Tom, who is now working for Henderson Logging. We had the dogs with us which made for another level of complexity in managing the troops and logistics. The little dog doesn't like the shooting so we had to give him a place to go when the fireworks started. The big dog doesn't care either way.

When we got to Promise where we spent 3 nights and 4 days we set up can and got all comfy. We spent a lot of time shooting bull frog polly wogs. The theory is that the big polly-wogs are eating the fish eggs so the resident brook trout population is declining. We had to contain ourselves a bit due to three pairs of Canadian geese with goslings were around the pond.

We did one or two hikes each day. In the evenings after dinner we would move out of our camp under the pine trees and sit on the edge of a big meadow with a view of a canyon and read John Brown Jr. books. We read about plants and survuval skills relating to the area we were in.

We saw 4 rattle snakes. We killed one and kept his skin and rattle. It was a first for me to skin a snake so that was interesting. One of the snakes we saw was a Grand-daddy. He was about three-and-a-half feet long and had a bout 4 inch rattles. The locals and the lads wanted me to kill them all but we only took one.

On Sunday the rule is no killing. We spent time padlling around the pond in my Father's Day, trail boat. It worked great. We found a floating nest with 8 eggs in it. I think it belongs to the coots we saw around the pond. I did a shooting drill with the boys by setting up a target (rock) and starting shooting at it at 25 yards. After being able to consistently hit it we would move back 5 yards. Their limit is about 50 yards. We worked clear out to 75 yards but that was too far. They were shooting prone with a bi-pod using their 10/22's.

One day we were shooting at the pond and the little dog, Chewie had headed back to camp. After awhile the big dog made a growl toward camp but we couldn't see anything. A few minutes later the big do jumped up and barked. This time here came Chewie with the doe chasing him. The were both trotting along. It was pretty funny. We saw a few deer. We saw three or four bucks. They are growing new antlers so they are just fuzzy stumps.

Where we were camped the whole area was carpeted with wild flowers. It was pretty idyllic. We drove to the metropolis of Troy Oregon one day to get ice cream and see the sights. It is a town of about 30-50 people.

I got my 300 Whisper sighted in while we were there. It is a fun shooter. The youngest and I worked on figuring the elevations at about 100 and 200 yards. It shoots a 200 grain HPBT bullet at less than 1000 FPS. After I found the hold over at approx 100 yards I shot two shots within 3/4 inch of each other.

I took the guys to a place I had run across a den of coyotes once a few years back. There was some digging around it and looked like maybe it was active. No one was home though. We hiked through a gully and sat under a tree on the other side. I spotted something that looked out of place back in the field by the coyote den. I got out the binoculars and it was a half size coyote. I only had my 3" 44 mag. Hey what the heck, why not sling some lead. It was over 100 yards and I haven't shot that gun at longer ranges so I did a little hold over and shot right over him. He didn't move. Obviously a young one. I held right on for elevation and shot right next too him. That got his attention and he skiddadled.

Sunday we went to town visit with our friends and spend the night. Monday morning we ran back out to see if we could get a few more squirrels. It was turning out to be a hot day and the lads wilted. I think it was more from being tired than hot. We got out of town and on the road at noon. We can make the trip in 5 hours with a little lunch stop in there. It was really tough to come back to work. DMP

2008-06-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Is there a Tunnel and a Light at the End?

If I was on a roller coaster I believe it would be on the down hill slide. Regular unleaded is over 4 bucks now and diesel is pushing 5. Work has been the downer of late. I have been devloping a very economical manual control levers system for the last year and some folks uninvolved with the project have tanked the thing. So now I have to pursue 3 solutions instead on one and get it done in an extremely short amount of time.

The one bright thing on the horizon is the boys and I are heading out on Safari to Eastern Oregon next week. We will be camping, fishing and shooting varmints. What could be better than that?

I have the shop as done as it can be. I have to order a few pieces of metal to finish it up. Electrical is the next major hurdle.

The geese are 2/3 of full grown size now. They are starting to have their voices change. Peep, Peep, Peep, Little honk, Peep, Peep. It is pretty funny. I have a 12 year old that is experiencing the same thing. He does say, "Peep" much though.

Speaking of the 12 year old, he completed and passed his Hunter's Safety course. So that is a milestone for him. The 8 year old wishes it was him instead.

I am going to build a small room in the shop that will become the reloading room. I will make the roof structure real strong so it can be used for storage on top. Now I'll can have a room with male decore. DMP

2008-05-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Recent Crud

Regular Unleaded - $3.83

Auto Diesel - $4.79

Recent website find: http://www.varmintal.com/ahunt.htm

Varmint hunting, shooting, etc. Smart guy. Very well done site.

Tried to shear Randall last Saturday. Getting him hog tied and strung out was no problem. The shears after a few passes didn't want to cut. I am going to see my local contact to see what the trouble is today. If the weather is decent maybe we will have another go at finishing the other half of his haircut.

No big plans for the three day weekend. Don't like crowds or traffic so we stay close to home. DMP

2008-05-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Managerie in the Sunshine

This is Sur (Sir). He is a Suri alpaca. He has straight wavy wool. He has unique blue eyes that are pretty cool but a little creepy. Sur is greedy with the grain but more jumpy that his cousin below.

This is Randall. He is the standard puffy sheep's wool type. He is not so jumpy but not a buddy yet. Alpaca's have a nice toilet trait of going in one spot. It is easy to clean up that way...

This is Marshall the pygora goat. He has psoriasis or some kind of skin mites. He is almost too friendly.

This is Harvey the pot bellied pig. He is very shy. We are trying to teach him to play ball with us. We just started. It could be a long process. He's a little afraid of the ball.

These are the goslings. They don't have names yet. They are very endearing. They are growing so fast! DMP

2008-05-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

Of Dog's and Fowl

The big dog, Remy, has been known to eat chickens that stray into her yard. While having the goslings in the house it is interesting to watch her. She goes into the bathroom with us at any opportunity and studies those birds. She rests her muzzle on the edge of the tube and just stares. The lads think she is naming them Lunch and Dinner.

The goslings have at least doubled in size and have over doubled in weight. The eldest lad takes them outside in the front yard almost daily. He gets a kick out of them following him around. If they get a little behind they stretch their heads forward and run, while holding their little wings out. I'll have to try for a pix or video. It's pretty funny.

We've had 3 days of sunshine and now I remember why we live here.

Gas is around $3.55 and diesel is around $4.20. We are trying to make every trip count. DMP

2008-04-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

Honda Elements are Awesome

So when you need to haul something and a pickup really won't do. You really need a small moving van. Hey just use the Element. Oh and by the way, we got two alpacas.

The one with the soft fuzzy fleece walked to the car and got in without a fight. The straight wavy haired one gave a fight the whole way. We had a small rodeo a few times. They aren't that strong so I could control it. We tied their heads on a short lead to the bars in the floor that normally secure the rear seats. As soon as the car started moving they laid down and were almost falling asleep by the time we got home. Of course the one that fought all the way to and into the car, wouldn't get out of the car.

They are very interesting critters. Their personality is different than any other. They are very cautious. They can make a variety of noises; alarm, mad, content, etc. We don't know a ton about them so we will be reading lots.

We got them for a smoking deal and they have pretty good fleece. They are about ready for a shearing so that will be interesting. I have the goat shearing pretty well figured out. These new miniature giraffe's might be a little challenging.

The goslings are doing good and growing. We are keeping them close so they will imprint on us and hopefully by nice to us. The funniest thing is that they will follow you around. The other thing they do is stretch their head forward and low and run holding their little wings out.

Things just keep getting more interesting around the Paul farm. DMP

2008-04-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

A New Experience in Animal Husbandry

Saw some of these at the farm store awhile back and got to thinking. They are goslings. You know, baby geese. They are supposed to be a pair. I can see really large eggs in my future.

The funnest thing to do with baby water fowl is let them have a bath/swim. They dive under and do the whole show. We had baby ducks before and they were fun to watch dive. Geese have some serious propulsion. We had water all over the kitchen after a few dives.

These guys are a lot more interactive with the humans. We let them on the kitchen floor to dry off. Have to be careful as the bird dog has a thing for birds. It is a bad thing. It should be interesting raising a new kind of critter.

I'll have to start patroling the place after dark again. Every time we get lazy and don't shut in the fowl, their numbers diminish. I never thought we would have such a high mortality rate! DMP

2008-04-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fuel Price Report:
Car diesel $4.15 per gallon
Gasoline $3.35-3.39 per gallon (regular unleaded)

2008-04-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Spring has Sprung

On Friday I scraped the ice off of the car windows before driving to work. On Saturday it was 70 degrees. The goats have been itching to have a hair cut but it has been too cold. So the rolly polly goats were transformed into skinny funny looking critters.

This is Double-Stuff after a hair cut. The really funny thing is they act all goofy to go along with the new look. They make weird noises in their throats and have their tongues hanging out and butt heads a ton.

The spring shearing is the most dramatic change. It is nice to have warm weather but the blood is a bit thick for the big change to occur in a day.

Youngest son spotted an inexpensive snow board toy and had to get it. We drove up Larch Mountain to see if there is any snow left. There is plenty! The dogs loved it too. DMP

2008-04-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

We've Embraced Communism

It is interesting how the United States can go from abhorring Communism to depending on it for a majority of our products. The cheapest price and the quickest buck. It is the American way.

We have lost nearly all of our heavy industry to foreign producers because they do it so much cheaper. I wonder what the environmental cost to the earth is so we get these lower costs? I work eveyday with Engineers from India. I am learning how India was the low cost option for quite awhile but the country was a mess. Only now are they starting to clean up the pollution output, etc. This comes at a cost. The cost of products and labor out of India is gradually rising.

The same will happen with China. The people will desire Western things and a Western lifestyle and gradually things won't be so cheap anymore. They will want clean air and water so the low cost to produce eveything will go away.

Where will the United States be then? All of the industrial infastructure will be gone and the cheap imports will not exist any more. The competitive business culture will be turned upside-down. I am no prophet or economist but it seems rather obvious.

Another thing that is interesting is the crazy price of fuel. We are starting to have to pay what a lot of the world has been paying for years. Hmmmm. DMP

2008-04-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

If Only I had Known

Most of you know I have a thing for the firearms. When I was young and single and didn't have much money, I would save up to buy a new gun for like a year or more. I remember that Uzi carbines were $435 dollars for several years. Several years later, in college, I shot one in 9 mm with cast round nose bullets and that thing was super accurrate. You could hit rock chuck sized targets all day long at 100 yards. This was with the 16" barrel. If only I had known...

Another gun of note that I had pondered over was this modern looking pistol called a Bren Ten. The 10 mm cartridge was introduced in this gun. At that time the 10 mm ballistics matched a full house 357 mag load. Those pistols are worth thousands now... If only I had known.

Some bemoan certain automobiles. Others property or homes. At the beginning of this post I mentioned being single and not having much money. Now I am middle aged, married and still don't have much money... Problem now is I have up and coming shooters that need outfitted. DMP