The Ultimate Answer to Kings

I’m playing with something here – Mark M. sent four of these radio-controlled rats in the belief that dogs would find them entertaining. Landlady immediately wanted one, and sent me a video of Dharma’s reaction. I never tried a smartphone video here, and the results were not what I hoped for. I guess you have to click on it.

IMG_6838

Both dogs wish it to be known that, whatever that thing is, it isn’t a rat. And if we think they’re coming close to it, we’re crazy.

Still working on the full care package post, but it’s coming. Connection is in and out.

The weather has turned beautiful again and I’ve been out since 10 digging up the yard valve.

I had this great elaborate plan that required rebuilding that whole bunch of plumbing, I’m now not sure why. At last, having gotten it all cleared of dirt and visible, I said “screw it,” made one cut, and just unscrewed the broken valve. First I used the faucet to drain most of the water from the more than 300′ of pipe coming down the ridge, so the whole trench didn’t fill up. I dug a little pit under the valve both to allow it to rotate and to contain what little water came out of the pipe when I cut it, and it looks as though that part will be no bother at all. Don’t know what all the fuss was about.

The riser should be much more of a bother, since it involves crawling around under the cabin and I really hate that.

ETA:

That part’s done. I need to get more pipe insulation tomorrow, then I’ll rebuild the riser and open the valve. For now I have water in the yard.

I’m writing this from the driver’s seat of the Jeep on my phone up on a ridgetop high enough to be more or less line-of-sight to the town, unable to get any useful signal at the cabin or yard down in my hollow. The wind is blasting and it’s cooler than it’s been for more than a week, though not at all cold. Basically, exactly what was forecast.

The upshot of all this is that I’m effectively unable to blog right now, not that there’s really anything to say except that I’m sitting out the wind. Landlady is due this evening, so there might be a care package post in the near future but not until the signal improves to the point where I can post pictures. So all’s well, but TUAK might remain quiet for a while.

She always said she never did. Guess it’s so, because…

If I’m sitting there watching a video or movie and a dog barks in the recording? Torso Boy, who hates all dogs not himself, wants an immediate explanation. No other sound gets his attention at all. 🙂

Seriously, not a parody.

At the risk of exposing the innate sexism of my white cis male privilege, I’d like to point out that Scarlett Johansson was easily the best thing about Iron Man II. Because nobody does a mediocre superhero movie like Robert Downey Jr.

Warmest day so far this year, and I’m out of excuses…

I’m going to wait until Sunday to tear up the plumbing because the weather is going to get colder and besides it’s virtually certain I’ll be missing something essential I’ll need to get during the Monday morning water run. But I didn’t know how long it would take to dig up the trench, so there was no harm in going ahead and doing that. Even if I don’t replace the pipe, I’ll still need the flexibility of having it above the ground. And it’ll probably be simplest to replace the pipe. I’ll need to rebuild the plumbing around the valve and possibly the faucet, and I intend to tear out and rebuild the riser with more rat-resistant insulation at the same time. With more under-floor insulation, the plan is to stop worrying about my pipes during every damned cold snap.

I expected it to take a while to dig up the trench, but I didn’t expect it to be so damned hard. Yeah, it’s packed clay and needed to be hammered out with a mattock and I hate using my mattock. But it’s only 18 inches at its deepest and less than 10 feet long, and not as though I haven’t done it before, so why was I having to stop every five minutes to catch my breath? Well, there’s building season and sitting season. At the end of building season, I’m typically in pretty good physical shape. At the end of sitting season, I’m a marshmallow. And marshmallows aren’t natural digging machines. So I’m going to go ahead and cut myself some slack over this.

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!