Deer on the Line

This is rather shocking and no pun is intended. It took place in Manitoba, Canada. A deer got hit by a tram and the force threw it up high enough that it landed on the power line!

Bald on the Inside

That's right, three of my truck tires are wearing badly on the inside. The tread everywhere else is fine. At one point both of the front bearings had gone bad, so driving under those circumstances didn't do the tires any good, but who know what that sound was? Now I'm told it is probably the alignment and the tires will be no good soon. Wonderful. I can only imagine how much tires cost nowadays. I haven't confirmed that inside wear is definitely a bad alignment issue so feel free to chime in here folks with your thoughts.

Fall Happenings

The weather was very mild this weekend which was a nice surprise even though it rained cats and dogs. The leaves are changing and I snapped a few pics on my drive to town. The fields are so green right now in contrast to the lovely reds and oranges of the leaves.

It's time to put away the swimsuit and bring in the diving board from the pond. Cleaning out the sheep pen will be the next big project. Dan worked the Green Apple Festival and brought home twelve gallons of cider along with three pies, bags of apples and lots of dinner rolls and leftovers. What are we going to do with all that cider you ask? We play cards once a month at various friends' homes and one of the gals said you can freeze the cider.

Just remove an inch or so from the top and stick 'em in the freezer. So that's what we did. That gorgeous sky shot was taken in Norwich at the house of one of the card players. (click to enlarge photos)

Keeping Snow Off Vehicles

Does anyone know of inexpensive carports that actually stand up to the Central New York winters? Any that I have seen after a New York winter are usually missing either pieces of their covering or sections of the support structure. I am not talking about a small pole barn or garage but rather an inexpensive area to keep snow off an outside vehicle. Our garage is full and no one wants to clean off a foot of snow from a vehicle at 6am! Does such a structure exist?

His New Old Bow

Mike inherited Dan's bow and we had it set up for him at the archery store. He has been practicing on a target in the front yard. New York State just recently lowered the hunting age limit to 14, so Mike will be able to carry a gun this year. This state had the most restrictive hunting laws in the nation. My kids have been shooting shot guns and rifles since they were 10 years old. They should be able to hunt with them. Of course Rascal is supervising. There isn't a thing that goes on at this farm that he does not oversee! Meanwhile Mike noticed that he has an Adam's Apple. Puberty is definitely on the move in this household. His voice is lower still and his acne has even cleared up although it was never really that bad for him. Can shaving be far behind? This is me in 2006. I'm not sure if I will bow hunt this year as my arm and shoulder have not been conditioned although with all the pickleball playing I've been doing, perhaps my arm is already in shape?

Fox Tales Close To Home!

click to enlarge photos

Look at him sitting there as calm as can be. Please excuse the bluriness, as these were taken through a screened window.


By now my regular readers have heard what a fox scream sounds like and have seen a few photos of our furry neighbors. This morning I would have sworn the fox was tame. I have been seeing them close to the house and I guess they are comfortable with the comings and goings of our family by now. But we all had a bit of a fright. You see our black cat, Midnight, the one featured in A Case Of Cat, was found dead several days ago of what looked like natural causes. She was old. Cistero, her spayed male friend has been very lonely since, sitting on the front porch meowing into the dark night. So I decided we need another kitteh and fast. But where will I find a spayed female? I decided to call the vet and lucky for me, they had the perfect kitty. This kitty hated being indoors and would be well suited to barn life. She is a year old and a spayed female. Puuuuuuuurfect.

So we picked her up yesterday and tried to acclimate her by keeping her inside overnight. We named her Samantha. The dog would chase her when he saw her so we locked him up for awhile, but not before creating havoc, galloping all over the house trying to find her and knocking over the kids' textbooks . Vlad just wanted to be friends but she was having none of it.

But we all had some cuddle time and she loved Mike's rats. She's very loving to people and practically rolls over when petted. So last night she spent most of it meowing to get outside. I wasn't ready to let her out yet. Then, very early this morning when Tom was heading off to work, she shot out the door when Rascal was being let out and to make matters worse he chased her through the yard. I was asleep through all this but I was awoken by a loud fox scream. I looked out the back window and there he/she was, bold as brass, looking right at me in the window. I thought, Oh boy, I hope he didn't eat her! I couldn't find her when I was doing chores and had to leave. However when I returned, as I called for her, I heard some meows and thankfully she came running. I spent some time acclimating her to the barn and the food and Cistero. As of this moment they tolerate each other, but barely. I hope they warm to each other as Cistero used to sleep on the front porch wrapped around Midnite. They were pals for 10 years.

Foxes and Turkeys Oh My!

This has been a banner week for random wildlife sightings but the past few days at home were especially rewarding. I was walking over to my desk and there he was.....a rather large gobbler, ambling along by the garden. GARDEN!? Oh no I thought, but I was enthralled with this big boy being so close to the house. He just kept walking though, so all was well. Then later that very same day, Tom was gazing out the front door when he shouted under his breath, "Loren! Come Quick!" I dropped what I was doing and had a look. I just caught two young foxes playing together, chasing each other around and then they shot right through the front lawn no more than 20 yards away. Wow that was a fun sight. If you recall I wrote about a fox den nearby and these fellas may have been from there. I wonder if my life insurance rates would go up if I told them we lived so near bears and coyotes as well? Anyway, of course I have no photos of my own because these were lightening fast sightings. The pic above is a coyote, typical of the kind we find around here. They have been particulalrly active, howling loudly at night nearby.

For the fox den pic and a link to a recording of the shriek that foxes make, go to my other blog: The Other Side of New York.

All-In-One

I'm a heavy user of multimedia software and I'd like to find one program that does it all. I am looking at Blaze media Pro because it does AVI to MPEG, conversions, burning, recording, ripping and all the functions I need. Right now I use several different programs depending on what I am doing, so an all in one program would be nice.

The Change

Someone is going through "the change". The voice and laugh is occasionally hoarse and an acne treatment is needed. Mood swings are rampant. If you are thinking it's me and menopause you would be mistaken. It's my second son! The hoarse part is amusing and over the course of the past few weeks the voice has been lowering. My little boy is no longer little. Sooner than we think, the nest will be empty.

Brass Faucets and Water Don't Jive

We have brass bathroom fixtures in the master bathroom and this is what happens. This is the faucet for the hot tub bath. Does anyone know how to deal with this? Brass cleaner does not work. If our water is that corrosive I'd hate to see my insides! If you have brass, please tell me what you know. We had a brass bar sink in the kitchen and we replaced it with stainless steel, because it looked so horrible.

Save at the Pump and On Credit

Changing the way you drive will save at the pump. We coast the last two miles to our house. It's become sort of a game, too see how much we can eek out of one tank of gas. And to our delight, instead of the paltry 15-16 miles per gallon we generally get in our V6 car (that weighs 4,000 pounds I might add), we got 20mpg this last fill up! So not being a hot foot helps. We also coast to red traffic lights, and any time we are going down hills. We also appear to be the only car on I-81 on our way up to the cabin going 55 mph! But hey, it saves a bundle. Those suckers in their huge trucks going 80 are sucking down gas like nobody's business. But the downside is it's no fun.

The other thing we do, rather than taking out debt consolidation loans is snag any 0% balance transfer checks that we are offered that have at least a year before payup and then pay it off monthly for a year. And anything we buy that has that ability to delay payment at 0% interest we take. Let's keep the money in our account making interest, I say. But there is a very important caveat here. If you miss a payment or don't have the balance paid in full when it is due you will be whacked with huge interest rates and a penalty. Write down the date when the final payment is due and don't lose it. Because, surprise, surprise; they make it very hard for you to find out when the final payemnt is due! In general we either do this or pay off any credit card purcahse in full each bill. We rarely pay interest.

And don't forget the Hess card. This is what we use. You get 30% of all gas purchases for the first 90 days followed by 5% always after that. It just can't be beat. Kwik fill is the next best gas card.

And any of you looking at future student loans, your credit now has to be nothing short of fantastic to get a loan, so get your free reports and look them over. Close accounts that are idle as too many of these can actually work against you.

Computers, Oregon and Fire Trucks

I am getting ready to purchase a computer for someone and I am wondering what y'all have and if you like what you have? Any of you used Vista yet? I hear good and bad about it but I am specifically interested in details. I will be setting up the computer when it arrives. She doesn't need anything fancy but I do know Vista is a resource hog and needs 2G minimum of RAM. Whew! I am thinking a basic Dell will work. I like Dell because it's what I have and I like the on site next day service (even if it isn't really "next day").

My mom is moving to Portland, Oregon at the end of August. Anyone ever been there? It's the number one spot to retire and seems to have great public transportation and is relatively inexpensive accommodation wise. I wonder if she should take out travel health insurance on the way across the great US of A.

I leave you with pics of the fire department checking our pond hydrant. Pretty neat isn't it? They attach to the hydrant which we had installed when we built the pond and periodically the fire department comes over and tests it. It would come in handy for spraying a smooth ice surface for skating in the winter, wouldn't it?

View from driveway

Mike, Rascal and a few fire personnel on Stage Road

See the house in the mist?

The hydrant

Wonder Dog?

Vlad is an indoor kitty and because of his urinary tract infections we have to keep him from the food that the two outdoor cats eat. His food is rather expensive and can only be bought directly from the vet. In our family room we have a sliding door which is perpetually open once the cold weather abates. Lately we have noticed that at various times of the day the screen door is open by a few feet and somehow I get blamed for letting the cat out.


Even tho' Vlad is an indoor kitty, he doesn't like it and takes every opportunity to bolt. He doesn't go anywhere he just likes to sniff the outside fauna and eat the other cat food. (for a cute video of Vlad slapping the dog go here.)

The other day I was sitting in front of my computer in the other room reading my friend's site about candles, when I heard the screen door slide open. I knew no open was home but figured maybe someone came home early. I called "who is there?" No one answered. Hmm I thought, let's take a look. Sure enough the screen door was open by a few feet and the dog who had been inside was gone! "It can't be," I thought. Rascal can't open that door. It's impossible. Fast forward to yesterday when Mike was wathcing TV and Rascal was outside. "Mom," he said. "I just watched Rascal let himself into the house." I wish he had a camera handy when that happened.

Who ever said Labradors aren't smart? Ours herds sheep and comes and goes as he pleases.

Rascal and Vlad chatting

The outdoor kitties, Midnite and Cistero

GPS

An invaluable asset to any outdoor enthusiast's gear is the gps tracking devices they have nowadays. There are so many different types to choose from and they are useful for so many activities from boating to hiking to flying. A friend of mine's son just drove 600 miles through the Alps and simply used his GPS to navigate his way. I want one so that I never get lost again!

At Least Some Things Go Down in Price

I cannot believe how the price of computer memory has come down and now we have affordable terabyte hard drives from $130 and flash drives that are 30 gigs! It's amazing. Now if only the price of computers would crash. I am itching to get my hands on a fast, big, laptop with an excellent audio and video card. I wonder when the price of gas will start affecting them too.

So what else has gone down in price? Make my day will ya?

Stain Recommendations

Back in the days when we owned a wood siding house we decided to paint it ourselves, exterior shutters and all. Thats why I am glad that as I was taking note of what maintenance items need to be done around this house, I was grateful for vinyl siding. However the back deck and front porch need staining. I am looking for recommendations on a good stain that lasts. So far we have yet to find one we are happy with. Any advice anyone?

Natural Treatments

My kids are at that age where they and their friends are prone to acne and so we are always on the lookout for an acne treatment that works. I wrote about one natural remedy over at The Other Side of New York but we can't always find that particular one. Does anyone have any suggestions? We prefer less chemicals and more natural formulations.

The Challenge of the Dock

We put the boat into the water finally up at the cabin in Black Lake. If you remember last year, the dock was all set up for us when we bought it. This was to be our first time putting it in, and getting it to the water was going to be the challenge. It was stored on the side of the hill all winter. The steep slope and weight of the dock, we knew, would be obstacles to overcome. But overcome them we did, even if it did take a few hours! Next year we will either rent a winch capable of handling all that weight or get come-alongs with longer cables. OR we may just trailer it down to the nearby launch and float it up which is what the guy who sold us the dock did. There is no market research out there on this particular set of circumstances.

We didn't choose the floating option because we didn't have another trailer. Now we do because we bought another boat! It was too good a deal to pass up. We bought it from our neighbor and we can store it there over the winter. It is a small fishing boat with a 10 horse 4 stroke (good on gas like the pontoon boat motor) and won't need a dock and can be launched off the shore. This is good for lots of reasons. The kids now have a boat and when the water gets too cold to be putting docks in and out of the water, we can still go boating on the lake with this little boat. We had been looking for something like this for awhile. I will have pics next week when we do the deed. In the meantime check out the dock lowering photos.

Dock was stored tied to this tree all winter having winched it up last Labor Day

Attaching come-alongs and s l o w l y lowering it down

lower

Lower still with boards at the ends to aid slippage

Almost there

Yay! paddling a few yards to dock area and we are done!

We got the ceramic firelogs going. Boy did they do the job. The cabin warmed up in a few minutes and it looks pretty too.

Did I mention a few water lines were broken? Yep so we replaced them with PEX which is much better because it expands, decreasing the chances of broken lines next year.

All in all it was a good weekend. The weather could have been about 10 degrees warmer though.

Use Your Imagination

And speaking of knitting, I had this crazy idea. Anyone ever knit wind chimes? They are often so pretty but I can't stand that chiming noise. Is this a totally ridiculous idea? I know some people hang them because they look pretty but the noise would drive me batty.


This is close but not quite what I had in mind. I found this over at KnitWriteCookGo.

My Headphones Bit The Dust

Our wireless headphones bit the dust. Those are the ones pictured with the cat in this photo. They were working just fine and then all of a sudden nada. Does anyone have a good recommendation for wireless headphones that last a little more than a few years? The quality has to be excellent. The lighter the better, kind of like those you use with MP3 players. I think these were only a three years old. Maybe that's a long life?