The Ultimate Answer to Kings

It’s funny – I’ve never cared for a dog out here that didn’t freaking love a Jeep ride. If I wanted to hurt Little Bear’s feelings to where he might need hours to forgive me, all I needed to do was go off for a Jeep ride without him. But most of the time Laddie can take it or leave it. He’s usually just as happy to stay home and continue his all-day nap.

But sometimes not – today I needed to go to D&L’s to feed their horses, and he really wanted to come along. So fine.

He’s welcome to critique my driving, but he can’t come in the barn and oversee the care of the horses. That way lies chaos.

As long as I don’t introduce my little Agent of Chaos into the mix, lunchtime for the horses is simplicity itself – all they care about is getting their food. Give them their pellets, give them their hay, then clean up the horse apples and we’re done. It’s not like last time where it was a race between cleaning the ice out of the troughs and freezing solid myself…

Glorious day! My cool indoor/outdoor thermometer says it’s 65^o in the shade, and it might be true. Pure sunshine, no wind: It’s just a lovely day. I’m having so much fun being outdoors lately I’m in danger of fraying my stump bloody. But what the hell? I ain’t got time to bleed. 🙂

…when what they always really mean is, “It’s you?”

Private to Sportsman’s Warehouse: It’s you.

I hate shopping online almost as much as I hate shopping period. Different reasons, of course. I mean, it’s me. Completely. I’m neurotic about filling out forms, I don’t deny it, and shopping online is all about filling out forms. But I’ll do it, because the alternative is weaving my own cloth and making sandals out of old tires.

Anyway, a regular and very generous reader gave me a gift card to this site called Sportsman’s Warehouse, at which I have never shopped before. Took a while for me to try using it, because at the time I was having connection problems and basically couldn’t use the site at all. But free is free and I did eventually remember to get back to it. Then it took quite a while to find something there I actually needed and could afford. That was kind of fun, to be honest. Shopping without bumping shoulders with strangers is not the part of online shopping I dislike. Finally found a pair of sandals, which met both of the above criteria. Summer is coming, and my evening sandals are falling apart.

Okay. On to the part I dislike, which I dutifully slogged through without complaint because it must be done and my neuroses are not the fault of the staff or management of Sportsman’s Warehouse. If I weren’t crazy, I wouldn’t live here.

And I hit the big red button and got…

And I thought, okay, that’s enough fun for tonight. This morning I fiddled with the dog, took a long walk, did the chicken chores, walked back, took a sink bath, washed up, refilled water bottles, then hooked the phone to the laptop and was reminded of last night’s unsuccessful shopping trip because a) I left the tab open and b) I got an email from Sportsman’s Warehouse which I genuinely wish I’d saved so I could do a screenshot. They seemed concerned about my health and welfare. “Where did you go?”

I filled out all the forms again, since I was thinking about it. Clicked the big red button. And you already know what’s coming next…

And now I’m thinking of looking to see if they sell rivet guns. Because if I had one of those I really could try my hand at making sandals out of old tires…

Not as warm as yesterday, but until just now it was hardly windy at all.

It was so nice in fact that my morning walk to see to the chickens wasn’t enough for me. It’s Monday, so I had to go to town but I parted with D&L and walked to the dollar store, then met them later at the food store. Winter isn’t over, I’m quite sure – but we’ve had four or five straight lovely days and I can’t get enough of it. Don’t wanna sit around inside anymore!

There’s been a whole long list of little chores piling up, and I’ve been ignoring it because none of the items on the list were all that important and the weather has continued to suck. Seriously: Despite appearances, the gulch is not located in North Dakota. There are usually at least a few pleasant afternoons in February in which one can work up a moderate sweat outdoors. Sometimes it’s shirtsleeve weather; sometimes it’s t-shirt weather. Not very often, not for very long, but it still happens.

But not this year. This year’s winter will be held up as proof of global warming, without the slightest shadow of a doubt. Because this winter has almost uniformly sucked.

Oh, the temperature has hit colder lows than it did this winter. In fact we only dipped below zero a couple of times, and never very far. But it has never been snowier in my experience here, and it went on and on…

Suddenly as it turned March, though, the temperature moderated and the sun came out. The wind is blowing harder than a normie might consider quite right, but that’s perfectly normal for the next couple of months. The sun is shining and it’s time to break out the sweaters and put away the long underwear.

So yesterday I baked bread then cleaned the whole kitchen, hauled firewood to Landlady’s, refilled and hauled strategic water bottles, serviced the generator and the Jeep, took the long way around to visit the chickens twice. And that was before I got so sleepy from that antihistamine. Today has been cleaning day: I hauled the bedroom rug out for a sweep, unsealed the back door so I could sweep out the addition, then mopped the main cabin floor with the front door open (and Torso Boy segregated in the bedroom, which he did not appreciate.) Went out and sorted through a bunch of fasteners, then fixed two metallic targets that got their bolts and chains shot up.

Hopefully my being out in the wind today won’t have the effect it did yesterday, getting my sinuses running so bad I don’t dare go more than 10 feet from a tissue box, because that way lies antihistamines and sleeping all afternoon. It’s still in the high fifties – give it another ten degrees and I might go completely nuts and open a window or two.

H/T Wendy McElroy, of course.

I just woke up after nearly 11 hours’ sleep, which followed being pretty much incoherent for much of the afternoon. I’m either catching a cold or the wind stirred up something that got my sinuses running, so right after chores I took an antihistamine and from then on it was a groggy race to bedtime. Resisted temptation till seven when I laid down “just for a few minutes.” Woke up at quarter to six this morning.

You know, the ones that fire of their own volition, either randomly for suppressive fire or at targets the pistol finds threatening. Those, you should never leave unattended in a bathroom.

I thought he looked kind of familiar but I only saw that one picture and he could have been almost any dog.

Also, in late January the game camera saw three dogs cavorting around the cattle waterer. Porcupine dog was one of them – and I know within two hours when he tangled with the porcupine, too, because those three dogs came back on February 15, three days before S&L found him dying. Continue reading →

It’s March 1! No further flake of snow may fall, and no outdoor temperature may be expressed by any number beginning with a figure lower than 4! I have constructed a giant bonfire in the yard to consume all heavy clothing and long underwear! I decree that shorts shall henceforth be the mandated attire! Ho ho hee hee ha ha! No more winter!

Okay…maybe not. But the temperature sure is mild. Indicated temp above 50^o before nine. I have things to do this morning but put them all aside for a long quiet walk without heavy coat.

Yesterday afternoon I saw a white line on an ash deposit on the south end of what I call the Painted Ridge, where no white line ought to be. Got a closer look at it this morning…

Looks as though the wind has carved a lip in the edge of the ash, which is really soft stuff. The snow has melted everywhere except the dent in that lip; you can see it for miles.

It dawned partly cloudy, with blue sky in the east which made me hope it was a going to be a sunny day. But the rest of the sky filled with cloud even while I was walking.

So I don’t know if it’s gonna be sunny or not today. Probably just a little sun peeking through from time to time. But it sure is pleasantly mild, and so far no wind. Spring! I decree it!

😀

h/t Borepatch

I’ve mentioned that I’m currently copy editing Ian’s new book on historic French military rifles. Inside, there are frequent references to something called a stacking rod.

I’m old enough to know what a stacking rod is, but as days went by and the subject kept coming up I had to admit to myself that I didn’t really know how they’re used. You’ve all seen an old picture of stacked rifles…

…but how did they do that? I’d never tried.

Shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Ian has a video about that, too.

“Will you stop? I’m trying to get dressed.” “I know! That’s what’s upsetting me.”

It has become a thing lately. If I’m sitting on the bed with my first cup, watching the latest Project Lightening video, Torso Boy is perfectly content to lay there quietly and not bug me. But the second I open the nightstand drawer and start fishing out stump socks, he knows the jig is up and it’s not time yet. So all of a sudden I’ve got 40+ pounds of dog in my lap, earnestly explaining the error of my ways.

I say second-pushiest because, for all that I complain about him, Laddie is really a sweetheart. Pushy and opinionated as hell, yes, but he’s not unpleasant about it. I compare that to a toy poodle inflicted by Satan on some family friends when I was much younger. The poodle, inevitably named Pierre, devoted every waking moment to ruling the entire family with an iron paw to the point where the men all took to wearing high boots – because Pierre developed the habit of going down to the back landing and pissing in the shoes of any serious rule-breaker. That dog lived for 20 seemingly endless years.

Oddball Girl has developed into a little blue egg laying machine, though it seems her product is never going to grow to a standard size…

I mostly leave these for Neighbor L. But I’ve seen references to a difference in taste, so I collected three for my lunch to see if there really was any difference.

And honestly, to me they just taste like eggs.

If anything they’re a little blander than normal. I don’t usually reach for the salt shaker but in this case I did. Eggs is eggs, as far as I can tell.

I can barely connect and can’t post pics at all so I can’t show you what I wanted, which wasn’t very important anyway. I’m fine, but nothing is going on here except chickens and walkies and me sitting at a computer editing a manuscript – and that last thing is visually indistinguishable from sleep. So I can’t really post right now.

Took a detour up the ridge on my way to chicken chores to turn on the well pump, and then impulsively decided to take the long way around. By the time I got home it was a sweaty hour out of the morning I had scheduled for editing, but I regret nothing…

A simply gorgeous morning, aside from the mud. The thermometer was scraping 40^o in the shade by the time I got home and I think it’s going to get positively warmish. We’ve lost snow fast in the past two days but there’s been a high haze that prevents the sun from evaporating much of the moisture so the mud is fairly bad at present. Probably won’t improve much today since there’s still snow left to melt. But with some direct sun maybe we can get started on converting mud back to dry dirt.

And now to learn about the 1890 Berthier!

Look what I got in my mail…

I guess I should click that link immediately, huh?

But how did I keep getting emails after receiving this one?

Regular readers know I have gone without indoor running water for the past couple of months. A week or two ago I repaired the broken valve at the base of the tank on the top of the ridge, but the identical valve in the yard is identically broken and so I have water at the yard spigot but can’t have water in the cabin until I dig up a whole bunch of plumbing. I could do that, but there are also additional improvements I want to make in plumbing insulation at the same time and I’m not doing it in February. So, having no family members to bug me about the inconvenience I’ve just been hauling water for washing and toilet flushing.

I spent all the early morning before the Monday water run and then again all afternoon working on this editing job for Ian’s book (want to know something about the 1886 Lebel?) and knocked off a couple of hours ago for a few minutes before things cooled off outdoors to fill the toilet’s tank and then refill my water bottle at the yard spigot. But to my surprise, the tank was full. It shouldn’t have been: I flushed it this morning but didn’t refill it. So I experimentally flushed again and waited to see if it refilled. It didn’t – or maybe, as I watched, just maybe the level was slooowly creeping up? Interesting. I left the top off the tank to remind me to check it later and went back to work.

Just now I checked it again – and the water level had risen about an inch. That yard valve is broken – but it’s not stuck entirely closed. Turns out it’s leaking ever so slightly. It’s not enough to get so much as a drip at the kitchen sink, but enough to fill the toilet tank over the course of several hours. So I’ve been hauling water to refill it for nothing, and didn’t know it.

It’s the little things. 😀

Dead humpback whale discovered in Brazil’s Amazon jungle puzzles researchers

Biologists were baffled to discover the body of a huge humpback whale being picked at by vultures in the midst of trees and shrubbery in Brazil’s Amazon jungle in late February.

The sea creature, which is roughly 26 feet long, was found dead about 50 feet from the shore of Araruna Beach, the Brazilian nonprofit Bicho D’água Institute says.

Authorities say there is no truth to the rumor that the whale was found clutching a thumb drive containing mysterious financial records.

h/t 90 Miles From Tyranny

Spent a little time updating the TUAK blogroll this evening, and wow have I fallen out of touch. Maybe it’s true that the blog is dead: Certainly a lot of the blogs on my list were. Some of the deletions made me sad, since the blogs might still be there but the actual blogger has died and nobody picked up the slack. Some just faded away – but what struck me is that I used to read most of these, and I don’t really read that many blogs anymore. Anyway, the blogroll is a lot shorter now but everything on it works.

Private to Claire, if you’re out there…

Does this ring any bells?

It’s one of the last pieces of two solar panel racks she and I built in 2009 or 2010. Ian and I put them up on the powershed roof where they stayed until replaced with the current ground mount in 2016. And as it turns out they’d have taken themselves down in another year or two without our help, because there was a surprising amount of rot. Also I must admit that, when I briefly considered rebuilding one of them for my own new 2016 rack, the expression “What idiot built this?” was heard in the land. Yeah, I’m a better carpenter than I was ten years ago – but they did work fine for their whole service life. It’s just a good thing their service life ended when it did.

This is the third winter for the stovewood they became, and what with various changes they got scattered all through the shed so I’m still finding pieces now and then.

With the final passing of the Morloks who did their coding, they swiftly starved into extinction.

I genuinely didn’t know whether to laugh or cry…

$350 self-lacing sneakers don’t work with Nike’s official Android app.

Nike users are experiencing some technical difficulties in the wild world of connected footwear. Nike’s $350 “Adapt BB” sneakers are the latest in the company’s line of self-lacing shoes, and they come with the “Nike Adapt” app for Android and iOS. The app pairs with the shoes and lets you adjust the tightness of the laces, customize the lights (yeah, there are lights), and see, uh, how much battery life your shoes have left. The only problem: Nike’s Android app doesn’t work.

Android users report that their new kicks aren’t pairing with the app properly, and some customers report failed firmware updates for the shoes, which render them unable to pair with the app at all. Nike’s app on Google Play has been flooded with 1-star reviews in response to the faulty update.

“My left shoe won’t even reboot” is not a sentence I ever expected to read outside a William Gibson novel.