Most of my Netfix selections have been documentarys. One I found particularly good was called “Country Boys”. It follows the lives of two Appalachian teens from the age of 15. After watching it, I went to the PBS/Frontline website for it and found the entire, 6+ hour, documentary available online for free. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/countryboys/
Category: General
Turkeys!
The turkeys are back. Last year they came almost every day to my cabin, but this is the first time I have seen them this year. It was a flock of about twenty turkeys and they were making a lot of noise.
The cost of civilization seems high.
I saw people, today.
Today a neighbor called and asked me to go to town with her. In town, the roads had great piles of snow in the middle of them.
My neighbor needed to drop cookies off at house in town. The woman that lived at the house was inviting people in to see her Christmas decorations. She lead us through her home and
showed us her seven Christmas trees. We were told to take our time and look at everything while she pointed out things she wanted us to notice. One tree was hanging upside down from the ceiling. She then asked us to guess the name of each tree; each tree sported a different theme. Then her husband asked me to vote on which one I liked the best. She gave me her business card which said “good conversation and 7 Christmas trees”.
The cookies dropped off, we headed to the grocery store. At the grocery store I saw an old woman wearing a blond fur coat and driving a full size pick up.
With a full backpack of food, we headed back to the hills and our respective cabins. The roads are really icy, even in town. My neighbor has a four wheel drive with snow tires and she didn’t spin or slide a bit. I wouldn’t want to try going in with my rear wheel drive pickup.
Rags
Because half of a bandana cut diagonally will do every thing a whole bandana does, I cut my bandana in two. I, however, end up bringing both halfs because I have incompatible uses for them. I cut or make a button hole in one end so that I can loop it to the outside of my pack, or around my neck. This system works a lot better than tying it on. I haven’t lost a bandana since getting the
button hole put in it. If you don’t hem it, it will get pretty ratty looking.
And because a bandana makes a lousy wash cloth and a terry wash cloth makes a lousy bandana, I cut a small light terry wash cloth diagonally, and put a button hole in it too.
Note: I don’t like the look of the standard bandanna, so I made my own out of a scarf.
new snow ice cream.
A lot of new snow fell today. I scooped some up in a bowl and poured some canned milk, vanilla syrup and some caramel syrup on it and mixed it all up. It tasted a little like ice cream. My favorite snow topping is lemon juice and sugar, but I don’t have any more lemon juice. For awhile I was putting instant ice tea mix on the snow. I liked that but I’m out of that too. When on the trail I have flavored my snow with lemonade mix or Jello mix (both of which make excellent hot beverages as well).
The secret, dogs don’t want you to know.
Bali is plagued with annoying, aggressive, barking dogs that act like they are going to attack you. I was walking with a German tourist, there, and some dogs started to bark and snap at us. He reached down to pick up a rock and the dogs turned and ran. Since then , when ever a dog runs out and acts like it’s going to attack me I reach down, pick up a rock and start to throw it at it. I’ve never not had a dog run away. It’s like magic. Some kind of world wide knowledge embedded in dog’s genes make them run when it looks like a human is going to throw something at them.
Slushy down pour
It’s been raining slush all day and the forecast is calling for it all week. I went down to mail movies this morning and came back soaked. Days like this make me really appreciate having a cabin to come home to; all warm and cozy with a couch to lie on. I have to go down again, soon, to pick up a new movie. When the weather is like this I don’t like doing my 10 miles a day to mail and get my movies. My clothes haven’t even dried and it’s time to go out again.
Alternative Christmas tree.
Once, while living in Portland, Oregon, a big wind storm came up. The next day at my work place on the river I saw all these tumbleweeds that must have blown all the way from the Eastern Oregon. There was one that was particularly big. I opened up my hatchback of my Justy and tried to shove it in. I could just about get it all in if I left the hatchback open but I was afraid that it would blow out as soon as I started driving. I went home and got my son to come back with me and he sat in the front seat and reached back and held the big tumble weed in. Getting it in the door, of my house ,was sort of hard and the floor was littered with tumble weed remains. Finally I got it in the living room where it took up a great deal of real estate. I wove red Christmas lights all through the branches and then hung it up on the wall. It was beautiful.
After it had been up for about 6 months someone talked me in to getting rid of it. I took off the lights and kicked it out the door, thinking that I would be able to find another, come Christmas time. I never saw another tumble weed in Portland, again.
White weasel
On my walk, today, I saw a white weasel. It was completely white except the tip of it’s tail, which was black. It ran down the road and then turned into it’s home and stood up and looked at me. It was the first white one I had ever seen. In the summer it’s coat will turn brown.
Bad idea.
It’s a film festival!
Because anything worth doing, is worth doing to excess, I signed up for the 8 movies at a time plan with Netflix, for this month. I hope to spread them out a little better so that I’m getting 2-3 movies everyday. Netflix – Rent, watch and return DVDs from home – Try free for two weeks
Warming up.
The weather is warming up; in the twentys F during the day, and sunny.
When the moon light hits the snow it makes it almost like day outside and lights up the cabin so well that I don’t need a candle going.
I can remember when I couldn’t understand why anyone would live on the east side of the Cascades. I know now; it’s beautiful and sunny so much of the time. Quiet, sparsely populated, and long views. Winter, here, is as good as summer.
weather
It got down to -12 F(-24) yesterday and a strange haze covered the entire sky and blocked out the sun. I had to bring the generator inside to let it warm up before I could start it. It was 11 degrees F this morning ; I think things will start warming up.
My wood stove is very small but so is my cabin; my cabin is 19′ X 11′(6 X 3.5 meters). Most of the time it heats the cabin fine but when it gets really cold it has some problems, mostly because in my small cabin are 11 large single pane windows. Last year
not knowing how cold it would get or how I would react to the cold I bought a portable propane heater and a 12ft hose, so I could hook it up to a 20lb propane canister. I never used it because it seemed kind of whimpy to not deal with the cold. This year I hooked it up and use it to help the wood stove heat up the cabin. It has been very nice to wake up in a cold cabin, turn on the propane heater and then start the fire. In a very short time my cabin is cozy again.
It looks like it will be a sunny day today but with the rising of the sun, the temperature is dropping.. How can that be? It’s already down to 6 degrees. I’m always interested in the weather, now.