Yesterday (Saturday) was opening day of this area's trout season.
Did I go fish?
No.
What did I do?
I cut down the last dead tree on the property. Still like a fire in the mornings as it's still mid-30's when I get up. Chilly enough to warrant a warm fire and a cup of coffee or two.
Bonnie and I did take a short drive to the bridge and campgrounds to see how much the population had grown overnight.
The score was three vehicles at the bridge and three vehicles in the campground. I didn't check higher up the mountain due to needing to conserve a bit of fuel in the truck.
The game warden was working hot and heavy yesterday. He was wandering into folks camps whether he saw them fishing or not. I'm certainly glad I'm not a poacher!
Pictures?
Nope.
More on the story of getting a fishing license here later...
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
OK...go to work...
Well I've been here about a month and a half more or less.
March was still pretty much a cold month. A couple few snows and a rainy day or two, otherwise it was bluebird days but certainly crisp outside.
Now when I got here I had a down tree over all three "driveways." Dead and down beetle killed trees.
The phone company pushed one tree out of the road and cleared one long drive they could lay line under. That was just fooking huge of them to do that. I got a full day of backhoe use for free which would equal (I'd guess) about 8 hours at $150.00 per hour. You do the math. I'm quite sure they will get their money back in the long run. So...we're able to actually drive right up to the house when they're done.
The second tree is blocking a small drive that's a little further from the house but a less severe slope to navigate. That tree gets cut to fire wood first, then the pushed tree, then the last tree blocking the route back out to the road. It's kinda a loop thing ya know?
In the midst of all this damn wood cutting, my neighbor Tom comes and tells me that a front is coming in and snow tonight.
What? I looked up and there isn't a cloud to be seen! He was adamant.
We drove the 35 or 50 or so miles to town (Inyokern) to a place named Herb's Hardware.
I haven't been to a real hardware store in quite sometime. The guy has everything! I mean everything! I could get lost in there for a couple of days! Isles crammed too close together, girls working the cash register who drop the money taking and actually know how to fit different gas line fittings together to make what you need, hay, horse, chicken, duck feed at your finger tips, recycled benches and desks from other peoples failed ventures, rolls of this, sheets of that, lumber, nuts and bolts, tools, etc. I just loved this place.
I ask if the guy has rolled plastic sheeting. Old Herb himself walks me back to a small area, points and turns me loose, disappears.
I come up with a 20' X 30' heavy plastic tarp (ala Harbor Freight) that will perfectly cover the living room roof. One piece, no seams. The bedroom will remain uncovered and unprotected as will the rest of the house. I can't even open the door to the bedroom because years of rain, snow, and ice have warped the floor too badly for the door to open. Fine by me. The rest of the house is simply a wood framed roof over a "mobile home." The mobile home part is still tight even if the wood roof over it isn't so I am not going to worry about it. It'll stay dry enough.
Roof on!
Then it actually did snow. Got about 6" stayed dry, have continued to stay dry!
So...onto other things! During all this wood cutting and trying to stay warm and dry, Tomtheneighbor keeps checking out all the junk laying around here. I know he wants it.
One afternoon, he walks over and tells me that his neighbor has a 45 or 50 foot single wide that he wants off his property. No charge, just get it gone.
I ask Tom what he thinks it might cost to move it here? 500-700 bucks is the reply. Tom has a dozer, backhoe, etc. I know where this is going. I tell him I'll think about it.
Now my old man had a nifty little 12 or 14 foot little travel trailer. My buds used to spend the night in it when they visited.
My original thought was to move my shop into a very small little storage shack on the premises. Once I got up there and saw just how small that shack was, I knew I was in for trouble. It was SMALL! A 50' mobile home gutted and refitted would be much easier to make happen...except for the 500-700 cost of putting it on the property...make my thinking cap go to work I tells myself...
I decided I would offer the travel trailer to Tom as partial payment. He was agreeable! Fook YES!
I asked him if he was interested in any of the crap my old man left lying around the place...this was going to happen!
My old man (who happened to be a much better man than I) was a welder by trade and was into steel decking and sheet metal for his source of income. I don't think my old man ever through away a single piece of metal. Anyway, there was quite a bit of metal decking laying around. Sheets of very heavy gauge roughly 30"X 30' pieces. All this (and much more) was buried under a collapsed shed that had been destroyed by snow and ice 20 years earlier. I never had any real reason to clean it up until now.
Tom indicated he might be interested in the trailer and decking as part of the cost of moving the singlewide over here. I indicated that I would be interested IF there was NO out of pocket expense to me. He mentions he can't see everything that's under the collapsed roof. I mention that neither could I. I told him that if he was willing to gamble a little backhoe time and clear the roof off, I would be willing to gamble on what might be under the pile of lumber.
So a deal is struck!
Next morning, Tom pushes his hoe up one of the drives and clears all the sagebrush out of it. He swings the machine around and in about two or three swipes of the bucket, the roof is pushed to one side and all the junk is more or less exposed.I tell Tom I'm going to need a day or two to clear all the stuff out of the down and dead shed. Where the shed is, is right where I want to put the new "shop." After the roof is cleared off he's hmming and humming...I ask him if he thinks it's still worthwhile on his end. He tells me the trailer will more than cover the moving and the steel will buy me about half of a new roof.
DEAL!
We hook up the old travel trailer to his truck, yank it out of the dirt and move it to his place. Then we hook up a trailer of his loaded with half of my new roof and toe it over to my place. Unload it, and then load up all of the old man's decking and haul it back to his place. That was a full damn day brothers! I don't know how my old man did that for 35 or so years everydamnday. Backbreaking!
So...since I had gotten here, I had started to clean the place up. Huge piles of pine needles and cones, scraps of roofing the wind had blown off the roof, pieces of, well, just junk, loaded onto the trailer to be hauled off to the dump, A 1950's vintage travel trailer and tons of scrap metal that Tom will put to some use removed. And in return, I get a 50 foot shop, a pad cut for it, driveways cleared, AND the shop actually moved over here! I'm ecstactic!
Moving day!
Clearing the spot and the pad cut.
Drive over to the new "shop" and get it hooked up and ready to yank over here.
So we get started on it. Pull it out from between a couple or 4 trees and try and swing it around. Wham-o! 3 popped and quite flat tires...shit.
Amazingly...within about 20 minutes spare tires and rims are found and mounted back on the shop. and off we go again!
The shop leaves the guys gate and enters the paved road. She's your problem now! That from the guy whois looking after the "previous" owner's property.
We get her moved to my road and ready to push onto the pad.
Beauty eh? Stopped to pump two tires back up before going up the hill.
Now going up the hill was smooth as butter until...we try and squeeze between a tree and the shed that was going to be the shop.
It didn't do too well. Someone who was supposed to be watching one side of the trailer wasn't and a tree just ripped a window and siding right off the damn thing. Trashed.
I ended up cutting the tree down and was quite unhappy about it.
Got past it, over it and time to push the shop down into it's spot...
March was still pretty much a cold month. A couple few snows and a rainy day or two, otherwise it was bluebird days but certainly crisp outside.
Now when I got here I had a down tree over all three "driveways." Dead and down beetle killed trees.
The phone company pushed one tree out of the road and cleared one long drive they could lay line under. That was just fooking huge of them to do that. I got a full day of backhoe use for free which would equal (I'd guess) about 8 hours at $150.00 per hour. You do the math. I'm quite sure they will get their money back in the long run. So...we're able to actually drive right up to the house when they're done.
The second tree is blocking a small drive that's a little further from the house but a less severe slope to navigate. That tree gets cut to fire wood first, then the pushed tree, then the last tree blocking the route back out to the road. It's kinda a loop thing ya know?
In the midst of all this damn wood cutting, my neighbor Tom comes and tells me that a front is coming in and snow tonight.
What? I looked up and there isn't a cloud to be seen! He was adamant.
We drove the 35 or 50 or so miles to town (Inyokern) to a place named Herb's Hardware.
I haven't been to a real hardware store in quite sometime. The guy has everything! I mean everything! I could get lost in there for a couple of days! Isles crammed too close together, girls working the cash register who drop the money taking and actually know how to fit different gas line fittings together to make what you need, hay, horse, chicken, duck feed at your finger tips, recycled benches and desks from other peoples failed ventures, rolls of this, sheets of that, lumber, nuts and bolts, tools, etc. I just loved this place.
I ask if the guy has rolled plastic sheeting. Old Herb himself walks me back to a small area, points and turns me loose, disappears.
I come up with a 20' X 30' heavy plastic tarp (ala Harbor Freight) that will perfectly cover the living room roof. One piece, no seams. The bedroom will remain uncovered and unprotected as will the rest of the house. I can't even open the door to the bedroom because years of rain, snow, and ice have warped the floor too badly for the door to open. Fine by me. The rest of the house is simply a wood framed roof over a "mobile home." The mobile home part is still tight even if the wood roof over it isn't so I am not going to worry about it. It'll stay dry enough.
Roof on!
Then it actually did snow. Got about 6" stayed dry, have continued to stay dry!
So...onto other things! During all this wood cutting and trying to stay warm and dry, Tomtheneighbor keeps checking out all the junk laying around here. I know he wants it.
One afternoon, he walks over and tells me that his neighbor has a 45 or 50 foot single wide that he wants off his property. No charge, just get it gone.
I ask Tom what he thinks it might cost to move it here? 500-700 bucks is the reply. Tom has a dozer, backhoe, etc. I know where this is going. I tell him I'll think about it.
Now my old man had a nifty little 12 or 14 foot little travel trailer. My buds used to spend the night in it when they visited.
My original thought was to move my shop into a very small little storage shack on the premises. Once I got up there and saw just how small that shack was, I knew I was in for trouble. It was SMALL! A 50' mobile home gutted and refitted would be much easier to make happen...except for the 500-700 cost of putting it on the property...make my thinking cap go to work I tells myself...
I decided I would offer the travel trailer to Tom as partial payment. He was agreeable! Fook YES!
I asked him if he was interested in any of the crap my old man left lying around the place...this was going to happen!
My old man (who happened to be a much better man than I) was a welder by trade and was into steel decking and sheet metal for his source of income. I don't think my old man ever through away a single piece of metal. Anyway, there was quite a bit of metal decking laying around. Sheets of very heavy gauge roughly 30"X 30' pieces. All this (and much more) was buried under a collapsed shed that had been destroyed by snow and ice 20 years earlier. I never had any real reason to clean it up until now.
Tom indicated he might be interested in the trailer and decking as part of the cost of moving the singlewide over here. I indicated that I would be interested IF there was NO out of pocket expense to me. He mentions he can't see everything that's under the collapsed roof. I mention that neither could I. I told him that if he was willing to gamble a little backhoe time and clear the roof off, I would be willing to gamble on what might be under the pile of lumber.
So a deal is struck!
Next morning, Tom pushes his hoe up one of the drives and clears all the sagebrush out of it. He swings the machine around and in about two or three swipes of the bucket, the roof is pushed to one side and all the junk is more or less exposed.I tell Tom I'm going to need a day or two to clear all the stuff out of the down and dead shed. Where the shed is, is right where I want to put the new "shop." After the roof is cleared off he's hmming and humming...I ask him if he thinks it's still worthwhile on his end. He tells me the trailer will more than cover the moving and the steel will buy me about half of a new roof.
DEAL!
We hook up the old travel trailer to his truck, yank it out of the dirt and move it to his place. Then we hook up a trailer of his loaded with half of my new roof and toe it over to my place. Unload it, and then load up all of the old man's decking and haul it back to his place. That was a full damn day brothers! I don't know how my old man did that for 35 or so years everydamnday. Backbreaking!
So...since I had gotten here, I had started to clean the place up. Huge piles of pine needles and cones, scraps of roofing the wind had blown off the roof, pieces of, well, just junk, loaded onto the trailer to be hauled off to the dump, A 1950's vintage travel trailer and tons of scrap metal that Tom will put to some use removed. And in return, I get a 50 foot shop, a pad cut for it, driveways cleared, AND the shop actually moved over here! I'm ecstactic!
Moving day!
Drive over to the new "shop" and get it hooked up and ready to yank over here.
So we get started on it. Pull it out from between a couple or 4 trees and try and swing it around. Wham-o! 3 popped and quite flat tires...shit.
Amazingly...within about 20 minutes spare tires and rims are found and mounted back on the shop. and off we go again!
The shop leaves the guys gate and enters the paved road. She's your problem now! That from the guy whois looking after the "previous" owner's property.
We get her moved to my road and ready to push onto the pad.
Now going up the hill was smooth as butter until...we try and squeeze between a tree and the shed that was going to be the shop.
It didn't do too well. Someone who was supposed to be watching one side of the trailer wasn't and a tree just ripped a window and siding right off the damn thing. Trashed.
I ended up cutting the tree down and was quite unhappy about it.
Got past it, over it and time to push the shop down into it's spot...
The back hoe is out of the picture now on the right. Tom's got to push the ass end down and around this tree and swing it into the pad he cut. That's about 6" of clearance at that tree. Things are ripped all to hell now and I'll just deal with whatever damage is done from here on out.
No, it's not easy moving a new shop onto it's pad AND dealing with Bonniethedog's obsession with the frisbee, but it's in it's final resting place waiting to be demo'ed and leveled.
The mean machine crew...Tom (L) Mike(R) and Jason (C). The spared shack/shed right and the cut down tree left.
Next....demo-ing and leveling...
Oh by leveling I don't mean reducing the shop to rubble ya know?
OK...Trying to catch up on two months or so of stuff makes for damn lengthy posts. I'll try and do better and make posts shorter and more frequent...
Love,
Mike
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Well, it's been two months since I've posted anything.
My bad.
Not mine entirely but I'll take at least partial blame.
The move has been made. I'm now in the southern Sierra and just freaking loving it.
The last box was packed and on the truck/trailer at 4:00 AM Saturday morning March 10. Fueled up in Congress at a price that was 50 cents a gallon more than I paid two days before. Arrived in Kennedy Meadows 9 hours later (+/- accounting for doggy pee pee breaks and fuel) Saturday afternoon.
The place was just as big a dump as it was last time I saw it. No fairies had come to tidy up before I got there. I was disappointed.
Anyway...we got there. Once there it was chilly. In the 40's I'd guess as best as I can remember.
First chore...unload live animals and get them protected and warm. No easy feat off the bat. For a lizard or snake accustomed to 80Fdegrees, warming up the shack was going to take a while. No roofing, no propane, no wood gathered. Still they had to get out of the truck or trailer or they would turn into frozen sticks shortly.
So I gather wood sticks laying around. Plenty of them to be picked up. Start a fire, move the creatures in (a bunch of them) move the very basic essentials in, deal with new nosey neighbors who need to know what's happening here, get ready for dinner (purchased at the largest Albertson's I've ever seen) fuel up the 15 something year old generator with fresh fuel, pull the cord and the foker fires right up. A light bulb burns and the microwave is ready to heat up some mac&cheese. Foking perfect!
Next day is Sunday. Day of rest? Shit NO!
The first night here was colder than any appendage hanging off a witch! I mean cold brother! I was looking up TROUGH my roof at the stars all night. Throwing sticks on the fire, not logs, sticks. Just trying to keep it burning. Sunday was spent throwing rocks at sticks, breaking them up, building a gi-normous pile of sticks to throw on the fire every fifteen minutes all night long. No help at all after all that work.
Time to fire up the chainsaw and try and put her to work! Sunday morning temp 14F. Clear as a bell. Just cold!
Mixed some fuel for the chainsaw and got her fired up. Two trees down over my "driveways." Plenty of fuel to keep the wolves away tonight.
Did we stay warm? Fook no! Colder yet this night but wood to burn and I spent a sleepless night keeping the fire stoked and blazing. I watched the same stars pass overhead through the cracks in the roof, waited for "dawn" and the sun.
Next day was Monday and by god my birthday!
Happy Fooking Birthday! You made it to 59!
Busy throwing wood on a fire that helped little if any when a knock at the door. WTF?
It's the telephone guys here to put in my phone! Contact with the outside world is minutes or hours away! LOL!
So....we meet and greet. He tells me that the line is coming right through "here" and we'll have you hooked up by noon(ish).
It was 1 PM when they were through. I blame Bonniethedog as she insisted on the guys throwing the frisbee for her instead of working. They obliged.
Now while I took pics of the process of installing the phone line, none would upload to the bucket and you'll have to take my word that laying that line four feet deep in a pile of rocks was a feat. Done and back filled new free driveway smoothed out and I fire up the generator and try and get online.
Nada,zip.
Computer did not survive the trip.
So I yak at Ahmed in India and he tries to sort out my problems. No luck.
He tells me a new disk is on the way and I'll have it in two to five working days. It shows up 3 days ago after three phone calls and three reassurances that it's "processing."
So...it's still my gotam birthday...phone is in, wood is cut, it's afternoon and I want to do something fun.
I take Bonnie for a stroll!
A quarter mile down the road is the river. I want to at least see some water and maybe a fish or two rising. Off we go. Bonnie two hundred yards ahead of me, having some fun for her own damn self.
First thing we see is this...
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0846.jpg[/IMG]
Getting there...
Next is...
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0841-1.jpg[/IMG]
Shit, get ready for winter! It's colder than all hell and almost Spring! Anyway, don't drive much further or you'll get stuck and you won't get you vehicle back until spring! Maybe.
A bit further and then a post stuck in the dirt letting you know that the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the road here. This trail has gotten quite popular in recent years apparently.
A little further on and we come to the bridge.
There is a cattle guard before the bridge and Bonnie has never dealt with on before. It's the jan-u-wine article made of railroad ties and she doesn't know how to cross it. It was really quite funny watching her try to figure out how. I had to show her the way around it. She now hates them.
After crossing the guard and approaching the river we saw this...
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0844-2.jpg[/IMG]
Downstream view...upstream view is prettier but I couldn't get it to load on the bucket.
Spent a bit of time there ,watching and hoping for fish to stick their noses out but nothing showed, but there was a river dammit! I was not in AZ anymore!
We walked back to an uneventful rest of the day and night and a couple days later this!
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0853-3.jpg[/IMG]
Lasted about a day.
Fooking awesome!
More later brothers!
Generator's running out of fuel...
My bad.
Not mine entirely but I'll take at least partial blame.
The move has been made. I'm now in the southern Sierra and just freaking loving it.
The last box was packed and on the truck/trailer at 4:00 AM Saturday morning March 10. Fueled up in Congress at a price that was 50 cents a gallon more than I paid two days before. Arrived in Kennedy Meadows 9 hours later (+/- accounting for doggy pee pee breaks and fuel) Saturday afternoon.
The place was just as big a dump as it was last time I saw it. No fairies had come to tidy up before I got there. I was disappointed.
Anyway...we got there. Once there it was chilly. In the 40's I'd guess as best as I can remember.
First chore...unload live animals and get them protected and warm. No easy feat off the bat. For a lizard or snake accustomed to 80Fdegrees, warming up the shack was going to take a while. No roofing, no propane, no wood gathered. Still they had to get out of the truck or trailer or they would turn into frozen sticks shortly.
So I gather wood sticks laying around. Plenty of them to be picked up. Start a fire, move the creatures in (a bunch of them) move the very basic essentials in, deal with new nosey neighbors who need to know what's happening here, get ready for dinner (purchased at the largest Albertson's I've ever seen) fuel up the 15 something year old generator with fresh fuel, pull the cord and the foker fires right up. A light bulb burns and the microwave is ready to heat up some mac&cheese. Foking perfect!
Next day is Sunday. Day of rest? Shit NO!
The first night here was colder than any appendage hanging off a witch! I mean cold brother! I was looking up TROUGH my roof at the stars all night. Throwing sticks on the fire, not logs, sticks. Just trying to keep it burning. Sunday was spent throwing rocks at sticks, breaking them up, building a gi-normous pile of sticks to throw on the fire every fifteen minutes all night long. No help at all after all that work.
Time to fire up the chainsaw and try and put her to work! Sunday morning temp 14F. Clear as a bell. Just cold!
Mixed some fuel for the chainsaw and got her fired up. Two trees down over my "driveways." Plenty of fuel to keep the wolves away tonight.
Did we stay warm? Fook no! Colder yet this night but wood to burn and I spent a sleepless night keeping the fire stoked and blazing. I watched the same stars pass overhead through the cracks in the roof, waited for "dawn" and the sun.
Next day was Monday and by god my birthday!
Happy Fooking Birthday! You made it to 59!
Busy throwing wood on a fire that helped little if any when a knock at the door. WTF?
It's the telephone guys here to put in my phone! Contact with the outside world is minutes or hours away! LOL!
So....we meet and greet. He tells me that the line is coming right through "here" and we'll have you hooked up by noon(ish).
It was 1 PM when they were through. I blame Bonniethedog as she insisted on the guys throwing the frisbee for her instead of working. They obliged.
Now while I took pics of the process of installing the phone line, none would upload to the bucket and you'll have to take my word that laying that line four feet deep in a pile of rocks was a feat. Done and back filled new free driveway smoothed out and I fire up the generator and try and get online.
Nada,zip.
Computer did not survive the trip.
So I yak at Ahmed in India and he tries to sort out my problems. No luck.
He tells me a new disk is on the way and I'll have it in two to five working days. It shows up 3 days ago after three phone calls and three reassurances that it's "processing."
So...it's still my gotam birthday...phone is in, wood is cut, it's afternoon and I want to do something fun.
I take Bonnie for a stroll!
A quarter mile down the road is the river. I want to at least see some water and maybe a fish or two rising. Off we go. Bonnie two hundred yards ahead of me, having some fun for her own damn self.
First thing we see is this...
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0846.jpg[/IMG]
Getting there...
Next is...
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0841-1.jpg[/IMG]
Shit, get ready for winter! It's colder than all hell and almost Spring! Anyway, don't drive much further or you'll get stuck and you won't get you vehicle back until spring! Maybe.
A bit further and then a post stuck in the dirt letting you know that the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the road here. This trail has gotten quite popular in recent years apparently.
A little further on and we come to the bridge.
There is a cattle guard before the bridge and Bonnie has never dealt with on before. It's the jan-u-wine article made of railroad ties and she doesn't know how to cross it. It was really quite funny watching her try to figure out how. I had to show her the way around it. She now hates them.
After crossing the guard and approaching the river we saw this...
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0844-2.jpg[/IMG]
Downstream view...upstream view is prettier but I couldn't get it to load on the bucket.
Spent a bit of time there ,watching and hoping for fish to stick their noses out but nothing showed, but there was a river dammit! I was not in AZ anymore!
We walked back to an uneventful rest of the day and night and a couple days later this!
[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Troutgetter/IMGP0853-3.jpg[/IMG]
Lasted about a day.
Fooking awesome!
More later brothers!
Generator's running out of fuel...
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Stuff and more stuff...
Well...
When last we left off...I was hoping that the brother would come pick up the mini-lathes and tools before I left.
That happened yesterday and it was good to see him one last time before I leave. One day he may show up at my door a State away and catch a boat load of little Golden's, but for now I have to expect I might never see him in my lifetime. Crap goes that way sometimes eh? If I ever see him again, it will only be a bonus for me. I loves the brother.
Today, a bench and numerous power tools are being loaded onto the truck.
Drill press, Tormek, disk sander, sewing machine, attachments for all these tools, etc. I hope to make at least two runs to the shed to drop stuff off but I don't know how that is going to play out.
After those loads are dropped off, I'll hook up the trailer again and pack the stuff around the propane tank, fill the back of the truck and get ready to make the first load up the mountain tomorrow morning. Stuff going tomorrow will be stuff that has to be there before we are. Toilet paper, etc ya know? It will also be the first time I've seen the place in almost ten years.
I really don't know what I will be in for until then. At best...it's quite an adventure.
I called my propane dealer gyrl, Janine, yesterday and asked about if they got my app and was everything OK. It wasn't.
No where on their credit app did they ask for my social. She told me I didn't exist. I gave her my social and in about five seconds she told me all deliveries to me would be COD.
I'm quite sure she thought this would be derogatory as I detected a slight smirk over the phone.
In fact it is exactly what I wanted.
There will be no routine propane delivery to the cabin unless I call and pay for what they deliver. That's just fooking perfect! NO monthly bill, propane when I want and need it. Perfect! I mean...just fooking PERFECT!
So I'm off to the dump (storage unit) and then I'll be gone for a couple days. Seven hours up, seven hours back and a little time to smell wood smoke in between...again...fooking perfect...
When last we left off...I was hoping that the brother would come pick up the mini-lathes and tools before I left.
That happened yesterday and it was good to see him one last time before I leave. One day he may show up at my door a State away and catch a boat load of little Golden's, but for now I have to expect I might never see him in my lifetime. Crap goes that way sometimes eh? If I ever see him again, it will only be a bonus for me. I loves the brother.
Today, a bench and numerous power tools are being loaded onto the truck.
Drill press, Tormek, disk sander, sewing machine, attachments for all these tools, etc. I hope to make at least two runs to the shed to drop stuff off but I don't know how that is going to play out.
After those loads are dropped off, I'll hook up the trailer again and pack the stuff around the propane tank, fill the back of the truck and get ready to make the first load up the mountain tomorrow morning. Stuff going tomorrow will be stuff that has to be there before we are. Toilet paper, etc ya know? It will also be the first time I've seen the place in almost ten years.
I really don't know what I will be in for until then. At best...it's quite an adventure.
I called my propane dealer gyrl, Janine, yesterday and asked about if they got my app and was everything OK. It wasn't.
No where on their credit app did they ask for my social. She told me I didn't exist. I gave her my social and in about five seconds she told me all deliveries to me would be COD.
I'm quite sure she thought this would be derogatory as I detected a slight smirk over the phone.
In fact it is exactly what I wanted.
There will be no routine propane delivery to the cabin unless I call and pay for what they deliver. That's just fooking perfect! NO monthly bill, propane when I want and need it. Perfect! I mean...just fooking PERFECT!
So I'm off to the dump (storage unit) and then I'll be gone for a couple days. Seven hours up, seven hours back and a little time to smell wood smoke in between...again...fooking perfect...
Thursday, February 16, 2012
water, gas, phone.
Well, I'm elated and depressed. Does that make me manic/depressive? I'm not sure. Quite possibly.
Yesterday I got some long distance stuff accomplished.
First off...I reached a brother who kindly bought my mini-lathes and tools and put some cash in my pocket. He didn't show up for two appointments to pick it up. No big, but now I'm worrying he won't get here before I have to be out. I called him, let him know that either he comes and gets them soon or they get stuck in storage with me seven hours drive and $350 bucks in fuel from there to get him what he rightfully owns. Makes me worry a bit. I tried to express this to him. I don't know if it got through. If he's a smart as I know he is...he'll show up soon.
Second...I gave the go ahead to Ducor Telephone to install the phone line. Had a wonderful (as always) conversation with Melany (the customer service girl) and am getting hooked up. I like Melany. She sounds like she is on a constant caffiene high and can't wait to do something...anything. I also called Bill (the lone employee who works for Ducor and is in KM) and asked if he had word on when it could happen. Bill told me that there is currently 4" of snow on the ground and don't hold my breath. I asked if he thought it could be installed by the first of March. He sounded relieved and said he would get on it when he could. I told him that I probably wouldn't be there when he hooked it up and if he would please install it the best I could describe. Gave me a positive answer. I always get positive answers from folks employed by Ducor. Really a quite wonderful company to do biddness with so far.
Third...the last post had me elated that a water company might deliver water AND beer to my door step.
That fell through...pisser. No, really. They did recommend Sparkletts.
I called Sparkletts Water and let them make friends.
They will deliver 60 gallons of water to my porch for 75 bucks a month. Now that is still some pricey water ($1.25 a gallon) but there is going to be 30 gallons of water sitting on my porch on March 2 with a dispenser. I will be a big customer as far as they are concerned. 12-5 gallon bottles a month delivered every two weeks. A base price changeable due to requirements on my end without changing per bottle price.
I gave the customer service rep every chance to back out including calling or emailing me if the local guy doesn't want to drive up that ungodly grade to deliver water. She sounded quite positive as well.
A day later, no call or email so I'm thinking I'm good to go without having to drive to the river to fill water bottles I don't have.
I tried to explain that my zip code was based on a small town 25 mountain miles away plus and additional 25 desert miles, gave them the name of the "community" and asked them to be certain, make sure. She went through all the data base for that zip code and assured me that the water will be there. We'll see. Also since the weather report yesterday indicated the the high temp was 19 degrees (with a 47 mph wind and 83% humidity making the temp feel like -3F), hopefully I won't have 30 gallons of water frozen solid waiting for me...we'll see about that as well.
Fourth...I sent in my "credit" app for propane. Not happy about doing that, not that my credit is horrible. I just hate making aggreements like the one I had to sign. Not much was working in my favor in that aggreement but they are the only game in town and I need the fuel.
I am considering making a trip up quite soon. I need to see what shape the cabin is actually in, drop off my 'new' propane tank and get ready for the propane guy to drive up and fill the tank ( $270.00 ) and run a system check, fill the tank (at a slightly discounted rate) so when I get there I can light a couple of pilots and lamps and make soup for dinner, coffee for the morning and not eat in the dark. Then beat it back to Congress and continue moving on with getting the fuck out.
Still...the most important thing for me right now is to get my gotam truck fixed. I gotta come up with a chunk of change for that to happen...I'm stymied and yet have no choice. I need my truck to make this move and I need 500 bucks more than I have and even after getting the truck fixed I will still need dollars to buy fuel. I might well be camping in the middle of the sonoran desert for a while until I can manage this but all the critters here are not going to be able to deal with this. I NEED to make the move happen and it has to happen now.
So...this is the latest update...still wordy as all hell, but I'm not Hemingway and I can't spend a month trying to come up with a four word sentence that conveys all this crap ya know?
Maybe I can...let's see.."I'm broke, I'm fucked." That sums it up pretty much in four words. Yes, two of the words are contractions so I 'spose that might be considered six words...I don't know. I shoud spend another week and see if I can get that down to a true four word sentence.
Oh wait I can!
Me broke, me fucked.
Yesterday I got some long distance stuff accomplished.
First off...I reached a brother who kindly bought my mini-lathes and tools and put some cash in my pocket. He didn't show up for two appointments to pick it up. No big, but now I'm worrying he won't get here before I have to be out. I called him, let him know that either he comes and gets them soon or they get stuck in storage with me seven hours drive and $350 bucks in fuel from there to get him what he rightfully owns. Makes me worry a bit. I tried to express this to him. I don't know if it got through. If he's a smart as I know he is...he'll show up soon.
Second...I gave the go ahead to Ducor Telephone to install the phone line. Had a wonderful (as always) conversation with Melany (the customer service girl) and am getting hooked up. I like Melany. She sounds like she is on a constant caffiene high and can't wait to do something...anything. I also called Bill (the lone employee who works for Ducor and is in KM) and asked if he had word on when it could happen. Bill told me that there is currently 4" of snow on the ground and don't hold my breath. I asked if he thought it could be installed by the first of March. He sounded relieved and said he would get on it when he could. I told him that I probably wouldn't be there when he hooked it up and if he would please install it the best I could describe. Gave me a positive answer. I always get positive answers from folks employed by Ducor. Really a quite wonderful company to do biddness with so far.
Third...the last post had me elated that a water company might deliver water AND beer to my door step.
That fell through...pisser. No, really. They did recommend Sparkletts.
I called Sparkletts Water and let them make friends.
They will deliver 60 gallons of water to my porch for 75 bucks a month. Now that is still some pricey water ($1.25 a gallon) but there is going to be 30 gallons of water sitting on my porch on March 2 with a dispenser. I will be a big customer as far as they are concerned. 12-5 gallon bottles a month delivered every two weeks. A base price changeable due to requirements on my end without changing per bottle price.
I gave the customer service rep every chance to back out including calling or emailing me if the local guy doesn't want to drive up that ungodly grade to deliver water. She sounded quite positive as well.
A day later, no call or email so I'm thinking I'm good to go without having to drive to the river to fill water bottles I don't have.
I tried to explain that my zip code was based on a small town 25 mountain miles away plus and additional 25 desert miles, gave them the name of the "community" and asked them to be certain, make sure. She went through all the data base for that zip code and assured me that the water will be there. We'll see. Also since the weather report yesterday indicated the the high temp was 19 degrees (with a 47 mph wind and 83% humidity making the temp feel like -3F), hopefully I won't have 30 gallons of water frozen solid waiting for me...we'll see about that as well.
Fourth...I sent in my "credit" app for propane. Not happy about doing that, not that my credit is horrible. I just hate making aggreements like the one I had to sign. Not much was working in my favor in that aggreement but they are the only game in town and I need the fuel.
I am considering making a trip up quite soon. I need to see what shape the cabin is actually in, drop off my 'new' propane tank and get ready for the propane guy to drive up and fill the tank ( $270.00 ) and run a system check, fill the tank (at a slightly discounted rate) so when I get there I can light a couple of pilots and lamps and make soup for dinner, coffee for the morning and not eat in the dark. Then beat it back to Congress and continue moving on with getting the fuck out.
Still...the most important thing for me right now is to get my gotam truck fixed. I gotta come up with a chunk of change for that to happen...I'm stymied and yet have no choice. I need my truck to make this move and I need 500 bucks more than I have and even after getting the truck fixed I will still need dollars to buy fuel. I might well be camping in the middle of the sonoran desert for a while until I can manage this but all the critters here are not going to be able to deal with this. I NEED to make the move happen and it has to happen now.
So...this is the latest update...still wordy as all hell, but I'm not Hemingway and I can't spend a month trying to come up with a four word sentence that conveys all this crap ya know?
Maybe I can...let's see.."I'm broke, I'm fucked." That sums it up pretty much in four words. Yes, two of the words are contractions so I 'spose that might be considered six words...I don't know. I shoud spend another week and see if I can get that down to a true four word sentence.
Oh wait I can!
Me broke, me fucked.
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