Thanksgiving 2012

    Thursday found us on the road early to get to Byers before noon.  The younger generation starts the takeover of holiday celebrations with Tif and Ryan hosting Thanksgiving dinner. 

     Thirty-one people gathered under one roof.  That included eight children, most under age 5. 

 

 

      There was time for everything from reviewing the Hawaii pictures as they are transferred to the computer,

  

to reading,

 

to visiting,

 

 

picture taking,

 

clowning, and of course, eating.

 

     We left about 7:30 to head for Cherokee Park where we earned our room by keeping an eye on the horses,

 

and the two little pigs (not so little maybe).

 

 

    The weather is nice, but dry.

 

  I guess travelers shouldn’t complain about dry weather this time of the year.  Must be the farmer peaking out from dormancy.

Wood Gathering

      A Sunday night call sent me on a plumbing call Monday morning.  The real work for the week was to do a little wood gathering while the weather remained dry (probably could have waited a long time?).

    The first order of business was to get the old “wheat” truck up to the homestead and get it ready to take a trip to the pasture-woodlot.

 

    The old gal started right up, went about two blocks, and ran out of gas.  Fortunately, the standard equipment includes a gallon of gas.  We limped into the service station and put in six gallons.  No sense putting in too much.  What if someone steals it and tries to flee the country? (The keys are always in it.)  Wouldn’t want them to have a full tank.  The $3.40 price had a little to do with it.

     Next, get the chainsaw ready to go.  It hasn’t seen any service for nearly a year.  That was a good excuse to clean up a little of the damage from last Memorial Day’s 100 mph wind storm that snapped off three locust trees and part of a Russian Olive.

 

 

 

    Tuesday morning found me in the pasture draw with the old truck, chainsaw and accessories, ladder, and lots and lots of dead wood to choose from.

 

     By parking the wheels in the washout, I could access the truck bed without the ladder.  It was

a lot easier to throw on the cut wood, too. 

 

 





 

 

   

    One tree provided a good sized load.  A couple of years ago, I had cut some green ash and left it lay.  It’s dry now, but a “windfall” blocked my access.  So to it with the chainsaw.

 

 

                                 So home we go with a good load to add to the wood pile.

 

      It unloaded a lot faster than it loaded.  Of course, it all had to be stacked.  Thus the old saying, firewood warms you twice.

 

 

                                     Off to Colorado for Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not Railroad Siding

Ho Hum.  Another week at the soffit and siding business.  It was broken up by visiting with the friendly Medicare Supplement Insurance lady on Thursday.   Now that’s exciting.

 

      I finished the siding-soffit project on Friday.  It went like this:

 

  

 

 

                                 Threshold replacement was included.

 

 

     Saturday, back to the kitchen floor.  The goal is to get an even surface so you don’t feel the holes and lumps beneath the underlayment.

 

 

    And there were a couple of sunrises to keep one’s spirits up during the winter doldrums and the drought (not helped much by watching the first installment of Ken Burns' "Dust Bowl"). 

 

 

    Sunday, we made a trip to Hays, thinking to pick up some flooring for the old kitchen, but that didn’t turn out too well, as they didn’t have what we needed in stock.  We took the pickup, but came back with one gallon of paint.  Shipping costs $250, so guess we’ll make another trip.  Gas was $3.07 in Hays.

    Thanksgiving this week, so westward ho!

Dormancy

   Not much in the way of farming news this week. The calendar plus a cold front, mostly dry except a Saturday evening shower, encourages hibernation.  It’s mostly back to the soffit work.  I finished one and started another.

 

 

    You’ve seen one soffit, you’ve seen them all?  At least with soffit work, you’re always looking up. 

     This one has a little siding work to be done, which also involves some deck work.

 

 

                                  Tear off, insulate, put up corners, apply siding.

      In between times, I tore out the old kitchen floor at home.  Lots of “fill-in” work to do before I can do the underlayment.

 

     The old underlayment was installed over this floor due to asbestos issues—cover up, don’t tear out.

     Anyway, I’m becoming a dull boy—all work, not much play.  (I forgot to take any pictures while playing—having too much fun.)

     I'm off this Monday morning to finish my siding job.  The mercury says 14 degrees.  Guarranteed to keep part of me from hibernating--my nose will be in a marathon.

Blow Wind, Blow

    We were “Sooners” on this day.  We arrived at 11:15 instead of the 11:45 on the invitation.  We had permission.  It was NextEra’s Ribbon Cutting ceremony marking the near-completion of the windfarm.  We were among the first to tour the nearest wind tower.

  

    You can see the first landing.  Two more above that.  The elevator doesn’t work too well, so use the ladder at right.  They didn’t offer to let us climb it.  I didn’t feel much like it anyway, suffering from my head cold.

 

     Our electrical engineer kept the hosts occupied for nearly an hour.  Listening in was quite interesting, even if I didn’t understand a lot of it.  The wheel turns from 12 to 20 rpm.  A step-up gear box converts that to 1000’s of rpm needed to turn the generator. Maintenance includes checking and changing oil in the gear box.

     At 12 rpm, the tip of the blades are traveling about 130 mph.

     Voltage is stepped up to the thousands of volts at the sub station.  Don’ touch that wire.

      The MET tower, among other things, alerts techs to static electricity in the vicinity. If the level gets tool high, they must exit pronto as a lightning strike is a good possibility. Wouldn’t want to be in that tube when a bolt of lightning hits.  If you survived the strike, the thunder would ruin your ears and several other parts of your anatomy.

    Land owners were the special guests, so time to meet up with the neighbors.  And then there were the speakers.

 

     Here they all are playing with their miniature wind generators, their reward for having been guest speakers:

     Left to right: NextEra CEO Pimentel, State Rep. Gardner, County Commissioner Beedy, Public Service Exec. Eves, and of course, Governor Hickenlooper.

 

      Here they all are having just cut the ribbon.  Now the wind can blow, bearing man’s harness and serving his will.  Maybe.