October Wrapup

    All I got from Hawaii was a terrible cold, a terrible cold, a terrible cold. . . .  Plus I ran out of soffit panels and the supplier hadn’t reordered yet.  So, soffit is not done yet.   Lots of things got put on hold.

     Neither of us felt like going anywhere Wednesday or Thursday, so home we stayed.  I worked some both days, but didn’t do a lot.  On Friday, I had an appointment in Hugo at 11 a. m.  We hit snow on I-70 about Burlington and ran in it all the way. 

       We went on to Limon for lunch and took care of a few things there.  Out to the farm.  The small amount of snow turned the gravel road into oatmeal cooked.  So, wash the car to prevent the mag chloride from killing it.

 

   The two D’s showed up Saturday morning, so we took a tour.  The main event was to try out some of the arsenal, using the poor old ’50 Ford for a back drop.

 

                                          First you shoot.

 

                                           Then you check out your result.

 

                                         Then back and try again.

 

      Don’t miss the holster on the right hip.  It was a pretty good idea not to miss the headphones or earplugs, as well.  If you did miss something, you would have had lots of company.

 

     The rifle didn’t miss as much.  We all tried the .44 mag revolver.  How did Matt Dillon hit the broad side of a barn with that?

 

     Sunday was time to do a little garden clean up.  One potato plant left, about fifty carrots, mostly baby size, one not-so-big daikon radish.  I left the rest to see if they couldn’t gain a little weight.  Some hay will keep the roots from freezing for another month.

     Sunday afternoon’s exercise was to be a secret, but with the head cold, I was glad for the help.

 

 

     Digging the holes wasn’t much fun.  The packer did its job well.  Our windmills shall not be without their tulips, maybe. 

      Nobody asked any more questions if I told them that tulips and windmills go together like clogs and Vaseline.  Heel balm, maybe.

 

      A ten-foot piece of conduit and a short piece of angle iron insures even placement.  We will see if spring brings us pretty flowers, and another invasion, this one of tourists flocking to see our windmills and our tulips.

     Next: the wind farm ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

October Wind

            
                                           Roofing took till Tuesday to finish. 

                                

 

 

     The garage took most of Monday to finish.  As we began to work on the shed, I realized I had mismeasured and the tin pieces lacked eight inches of being big enough to cover.  That late in the day, I needed time to think about what to do.

     What we did was cut 10 inch pieces off a scrap piece and extended the top of the sheets.  It doesn’t look too bad because the roof cap nearly covers the splice.  Clean up and put stuff away, including a trip to the landfill with the dead shingles.

     

    Back to soffiting.

 

     The advantages of doing soffit and fascia over roofing:  much closer to the ground, not near as much time spent hanging on, not so much bending over.

     Disadvantages:  Your work is all overhead.  Hands overhead all day wears you out.  Both jobs give you a good feeling about making things look better.  And then, I got a break on Thursday.

 

 

     If 50 mile per hour winds can be called a break.  Here the dust kicks up around a stock watering tank where there is no grass due to heavy foot traffic.

     By noon, visibility was limited by dust. Still not as bad as Dust Bowl days--no wet sheets over doors and windows necessary.
       Handling twelve-foot sheets of soffit and eight foot pieces of fascia in that wind was out of the question.   I spent most of the day in the garage bending metal into fascia. 

    Back to normal on Friday and Saturday.  A couple more days should finish the soffit job.

  The Goodwife returned from her Hawaii trip Thursday night—blew in with the wind so to speak.  So things are returning to normal on the domestic scene, too.

    We are invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony at the wind farm in a week.  I wonder if they’ll have an open house and allow us to take a trip up to the top of a tower.  Probably not.  Maybe they will offer that trip as a door prize for one lucky person.     

 

 

Young Man's Sport

     My memory grows shorter the longer I live.  I said I’d never do another roof, and then some devil prompted me to say yes, I would.

     It isn’t too high nor too steep.  It only has three vents protruding.  Therefore, it should be easy.

 

                                   About a day and my memory got a good refreshing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Can you spot what’s wrong in these pictures?  Probably not.  What’s wrong is concealed in my back, arms, and legs—aches and pains.

 

 

                                       As usual, I used the most modern equipment

      Helper Joe and I finished the house Saturday morning.  (We began on Tuesday.)  The garage just about got me, even though it is lower with less of a pitch than the house.

    My left leg found the hole in the center of the picture.  Note the yellow handled shingle shovel to the left of the missing board.  It weighs about 20 pounds but has the endearing quality of pulling nails—without the operator having to stoop or work on bended knee.

 

     A rain squall hit at 5 p.m., just as we were putting on the final strip of paper on the garage.  The rain didn’t amount to much, but it was a good excuse to give it up for the week.

 

                                              Pretty sad when rain is news. 

 

     I managed to be gone somewhere every night this week, Monday to McCook for barbershop, Wednesday and Friday to Herndon to avoid cooking, and Thursday I was the MC for the city’s volunteer appreciation bash.

 

     Former Kansas Governor Mike Hayden was the keynote speaker.  Mike, the Mayor, and Mike’s parents. 

     I still managed to catch a few baseball games on the tube this week.  We should finish the roofs tomorrow.  Then back to something a little more civilized—and a little closer to Mother Earth. 

     NextEra, the wind farm folks, sent me an invitation to an open house on Monday October 29.  Sounds like a good excuse to check out the newly-planted wheat.  Maybe by then my legs will feel well enough to take a guided tour 250 feet up one of those towers—if they offer such a thing.

 

 

Kansas and Hawaii

     The Goodwife took me back to the farm.  She returned to Denver where on Tuesday she boarded a plane for Hawaii via Salt Lake and Seattle to visit her mother.

    I had a few farm chores to attend to before leaving for Kansas:  fetch the drills in and clean them out (they collect water and any wheat left in them will sprout, rot and corrode, not to mention beckoning to mice as a great place to nest and pollute), water trees for maybe the last time and put away the tank trailer, and change the oil on the 820.

  

     The impressive lineup not only stood me in good stead when mechanized digging in the dirt was called for this summer, it can now serve to trap a little snow this winter. No pictures of the oil change. Black sulfurous diesel oil doesn’t mix well with digital cameras, and it’s not possible to perform the operation without getting elbow deep in the used oil.

                                            One final check of the new wheat,

 

                         Pack up what we didn’t have room for on the last trip to Kansas,

 

    And off I go.  Home about 9 p.m. Tuesday.  A little soffit and fascia work to do, a roof to replace, a few other jobs to do plus my own work should keep the rust out of my joints this fall and winter. 

 

     A 90-degree day on Wednesday, and then, Summer is over.

 

 

 

     “Bird Feeder” takes on a new connotation.  I put out some old wheat on the sidewalk, but was a little surprised at the “customers”.

 

    The snow has cleared and it is nice enough to do the laundry using one of these new-fangled devices—a solar clothes dryer.

 

              Time to do a little resting.  I think the roofing materials will be in tomorrow.

Family Planning

      On Wednesday September 26, we left Kansas yet again for Colorado where we traveled to Avon, Colorado for our Family Farm annual meeting.

    But first, some important business in Limon.  I met with an insurance agent and took out a crop insurance policy on the wheat just planted.  The paper work had to be done by September 30, and the bill comes due—in July 2013.  Hmm.  I guess that makes sense, 2013 crop and all.  But it doesn’t do much for my sense of bookkeeping.  2013 crop expenses are mostly expended in 2012.  Oh well.  With any luck at all, I’ll have some harvest expenses in 2013 and the insurance can go with that.

    Then out to the farm where I had an appointment with Dusty to check the residue left by my tillage operation.  (A farmer has to file a conservation plan with NRCS.  I was selected for a spot check to see if I am in compliance with my plan on file.)  Some devil got into my head and prompted me NOT to take any pictures.

     Two things threw Dusty off his routine:  the field was ex-CRP with lots of grass stems and roots, not crop residue.  And, it had RAINED.  Thus, the cellulose was wet and weighed more than it would dry. 

    So, he threw down his hoola-hoop like circle, picked up the dead grass stems within the circle, and threw them in a paper bag until it can be dried and weighed later.  Residue is apparently measured by weight. (This is all new to me and was quite interesting.  Dusty was quite patient in explaining things to me.)

     But, we were walking on and kneeling in wet dirt!  A check of the gauge later revealed .53”.  Some of the wheat was up, but the moisture should insure a good stand.

      Well, pick a few cucumbers and peppers and off to Denver Wednesday evening.  We visited with Number One Daughter as she called on an absent friend’s three cats.

     Our Thursday got off to a rocky start.  The Goodwife, a Groupon addict, bought a coupon for an Italian restaurant in Idaho Springs.  Then we spent two hours trying to download and print it.  Eventually, we left for Avon about noon sans coupon and stopped in Idaho springs at Triggers, the restaurant.  The chef managed to print the coupon after he got logged on to the Goodwife’s Gmail account.  It was about 2 p. m. and lunch rush was over, good thing for us.  Somebody worked pretty hard for that dinner.

     On to Avon where I was forced to learn how to drive through roundabouts.  We had a beautiful view of Hole 10 from our bedroom in the condo sister-in-law had rented.

 

                                          The aspens were in their prime all during our trip. 

 

                                  We went up to Eagle and out to Sylvan Lake on Friday.

 

                               Then to Yeoman Park where we used to camp 40 years ago.

 

     Saturday we cruised Glenwood Canyon to Glenwood Springs where we spent the afternoon with friends, former Atwood, now Paonia residents.  We actually discussed some farm business Saturday evening and fell into a hot political discussion.  We mostly spent the evenings playing Skipbo and Farkle.

    Sunday, back to Denver where we concluded the farm’s business by getting our oldest sibling’s signatures on CRP papers and via power-of-attorney, our sister-in-law's.  Then on to the farm where I changed the oil on the car.  An expensive two months, 50000 miles since August 1.

     The rain gauge had more good news:

 

                                   Better yet was the view when the sun cleared the clouds: