Weed Warriors

One thing we've discovered is this is the perfect time of year to chop dead weeds around the farm. With the freezing temperatures, our weed whip has been clearing pretty good sized patches of weeds and brush at a time, and we've been burning large quantities of the dead stuff a little at a time in a 55 gallon barrel.

We've decided we're in a long term war against weeds on the farm. We're winning the battle at the moment, but the opposing army's logistics are not organized, and won't be until Spring. With thawing temperatures, I'm afraid the devils will attack in full force, and our only advantage may be the fact that we've beaten back last years "defenders" of this upcoming years crop.

We're also discovering what our farming neighbor meant when he asked if we had a metal detector. As we hack through the weeds, we've come across angle iron, partially burried fencing and wire, and at least a hundred old 3 pound coffee cans with both ends cut out. I have no idea yet as to the purpose of the cans, but I hope someone will give me their ideas.

So for now, the Grim Weeder is winning the battle...sure hope he can win the war of the weeds.

Tech Support

We currently use a satellite Internet connection, but the monthly connection fee and slowly degrading service has us looking into a wireless alternative. We think we may have found a good high speed service that will rival our satellite connection on a good day, and at a fraction of the price.

As most of you already know, I like to use email communications, and I've been swapping emails with our prospective service provider about their service and specifics of what to expect in our area. The folks I've been writing in Arapahoe have been nothing short of great providing the exact information I want.

Having a great experience with tech support probably isn't the norm for most folks, and I have to pass this true story along about our experience with QWest DSL in the Denver area and their tech support.

We ordered DSL as soon as it was available in our area, and an ActionTech (brand name) modem was provided as part of the DSL installation. Wow! DSL was great for a few hours, but the service just stopped working.

When we called for for tech suport service, we got John Wayne for a technician. Now this fellow wasn't at all like the John Wayne most of us think of in a big western hat and an easy conversational manner. Our John Wayne had a thick foreign accent, and when Margie queried him as to where he was located, his repsonse was India. We have since discovered that these foreign support centers assume American names to make conversations go smoothly.

Anyway...Margie finally starts getting frustrated talking to John Wayne as no progress in solving the problem is apparent, and makes the comment that the DSL modem is a "piece of crap". John Wayne replied with his thick accent "it is not crap...it is ActionTech!". To make a long story short, we never got our DSL working, ActionTech was a piece of crap, and we still like telling the story because we chuckle every time.

It is refreshing to work with a local technical support person that knows their stuff. Most tech companies are large corporations with centalized and even overseas support centers, and our experience as noted above has been less than outstanding.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

The Ugly - Part of my early phone company career found me climbing phone poles to either hook up service, or repair a problem. Open wire phone lines and their supporting poles were a common site with their glass insulators and wires stretching along country roads for years before underground cable became cheaper to install and maintain.


The old phone lines with the glass insulators are a thing of the past for the most part, though I'm sure there are still a few of these original phone technology connections around. While exploring the area around the farm, I spotted an abandoned phone line with several standing phone poles. The insulators were long gone, but I decided one of those old poles would make a cool mailbox post for the farm, and would always pleasantly remind me of the hundreds of poles I climbed working for Ma Bell. I first contacted the local phone company and was informed the line was abandoned in 1962, and the poles became the property of the land owner.


Lucky me! I contacted the farmer who owns the poles and after informing him of my desire for one of his old poles, he said "take 'em all", which I replied that I only wanted one. He told me to help myself, so armed with chainsaw, a pole was selected and dropped. Only problem, when the pole hit the ground, the cross arm split. I could quickly see that the old poles were too far past their prime for my original project idea.


Plan B - I scrounged a treated pole and an old power company cross arm from the farm and using the original phone pole hardware, have made my version of an original faux phone pole mailbox post. I got to thinking that I was building a new pole and cross arm with old wood for a new mailbox...upon reflection, I bet the neighbors will wonder why anyone would go to as much trouble putting up an old looking mailbox post.

I have the post and cross arm sitting in the ditch next to road awaiting the underground utility locator to show up so I don't hit the phone cable when I dig a new post hole, and the whole works weighs a lot more than I originally planned. I'll finish up the project once I get the post installed, and I'm setting the pole so if someone runs off the road and hits it, the post should pop out of the ground quite easily.

The Good - We made appointment for DirecTV to install service on the farms house for local channels and get us off the motor homes dish. The installer and a trainee showed up exactly when promised, and I couldn't be happier with the install job.

The Bad - To put in the new mailbox post, we called the "Diggers Hotline" to have a tech show up to locate the underground phone lines so I don't hit one. They were to be here by 4:30. Shame on them for being a no show no call. Mailbox project delayed.

55 to 15

Several Nebraskans have stated that if you don't like the weather, just wait and it will change pretty quickly. Yesterday at the farm the temperature was 55, this morning it's 15 and dropping. I liked the 55 better, so I hope those native Nebraskans are right about quick changes!

Yesterday we had a lifetime first. Since we've knocked down most of the weeds around the farm, birds have discovered there is a smorgasbord of tasty treats laying around on the ground. We did some town errands in the morning, and when we returned, the farm was alive with the sounds of thousands of the little winged creatures.

Now the sound of so many birds isn't really new to us, but the attack of the Robins was. We were barely in the house when well over 100 Robins found our yard and birdbath (our driveway). We've never seen so many Robins at a time like that, and with the nice weather the last couple days it does feel a bit like Spring so I shouldn't be surprised I suppose, but the sight of so many was what was amazing.

They didn't hang around long, and I figure we just happened to be at the right place at the right time, or Robins roam in packs around here.

Settled In?

My mother asked in a letter the other day if we were feeling settled in yet? The answer is no. Settled down might be a better term, but settled in implies something very different to me.

When we decided to settle down and buy the farm, that implied that we were shifting gears from a mobile lifestyle to staying primarily in one place. We now have a real address, a place to turn into a home, and we're in the unique situation of having our former home parked out front. I'm pretty sure my mother always felt that when we hit the road in our RV, that we were homeless. Not true! We were just houseless.

We're still living in two places...sort of. Our motor home still has some things in it that we don't have a place for in the house yet. As you may recall, we lived in the farms driveway for a couple weeks so we could clean up the place and then started moving inside, and just last night I discovered something I should have in the house but don't...my tennis shoes. They, along with other things just haven't made it inside yet mostly because we're not settled in yet.

You may ask why we just didn't stay in the motor home until the house was really ready to move into? RV full time living is great...in warm weather. When the temp starts getting cold, it's time to fly south (snow birds), or be prepared to be uncomfortable as it's just about impossible to get warm and comfy in an RV when the temperature drops much below 20. Poor planning on our part buying a place that needed a lot of work at just before the first day of Winter!

When we hit the road initially, we sold our house and everything in it. I kept quite a few hand and a few power tools, but for the most part, we sold everything. Problem now is every time I try and start a new project, I don't have the tool or tools needed to get the job done. Need to bore a hole for a bolt? Gotta get a set of big drill bits. I had no need for wood working tools in the RV but I do now! We're not in a position to go out and buy all new things all at once, so we pick and choose our projects and expenditures pretty carefully.

If we want to bring something into the house, we don't have a place for it except to pile it on the floor someplace. I need to build shelves, but I also will be tearing out walls and closets, so building is mostly counterproductive right now. Buying furniture doesn't make much sense to us yet because we don't have a good plan on what the room sizes will ultimately be. The outside property has been driving us crazy so we've directed most of our energy to cleaning up the place the last 3 weeks, and are finally beginning to see some progress. I'm between that rock and a hard place...I struggle a bit to get just about everything done, and I need everything to get anything done.

At the same time, I LOVE IT HERE!

So after reflecting on what it means to be settled in, I'd say that once I have a closet rod up in our bedroom and the clothes out of the boxes on the floor, I'll probably begin feeling differently. Until then, we're unsettled in.

Farmers!

We've gotten to meet several of our farming neighbors, and I bet we've made quite the impression. To be honest, these are the first farm owners we've met outside family, and the first in Nebraska since I was a kid. I know for sure they're glad someone has moved in willing to tackle the cleanup, but upon reflecting on one of their comments, I'm wondering if we have substantially underestimated the cleanup needed...more on that later.

I'm sure we're the neighborhood amusement with our low tech approach to weed control around here so far, but I also think they feel it worked pretty good considering the possible dangers of taking power equipment into our former weed patch. We got to learn more of the farms history, and I'm now totally amazed at the goings on here in past years.

It seems there were often over 700 hogs around here, and the folks that worked this place didn't use much power equipment. There were fences and pens all over the place, much of which is been buried on our farming neighbors land near us. We learned that the windbreak was necessary as snow drifted over the livestock shelter making winter miserable work digging out. We touched on our common property line, and he asked if I thought we needed a pole set in the field to show where the property line is. I told him I hoped he wouldn't put up a pole...he can farm right up to the house almost if he wants.

My farming neighbor has quite the sense of humor too, and he had me and bro-in-law Gary belly laughing with a story about a burn pile fire in his past. We've gotten along well so far, but it was one of his comments during our visit in the pasture that makes me wonder what we may really have in front of us...

"Do you have a metal detector?"

Less Than A Bargain?

A couple days ago, we took a road trip to Kearney. I can't believe how quickly any trip over 40 miles has now become a road trip to me. Anyway, Kearney was our destination as my brother in law Gary wanted to visit the Cabela's. We found the store with little effort, and braved the siff north wind to get inside.

We were greeted by a nice lady asking if we'd been in before, if we had a Cabela's card, and passed out a card with the stores latest special offers. Margie wanted to look in the "Bargain Cave" area of the store, so off we went leaving Gary in a cloud of dust...so to speak.

The bargain signs hanging from the ceiling proclaimed Margie had found her version of "the quest" for the day, and with so many things on the shelves to look at, you had to spend some time to see if there was something you might actually want. Being me, I headed to the selection of shoes and boots that were "bargains".

The first thing that caught my eye was a pair of what appeared to be used work boots with scuffed toe. Looking closely at the boots Vibram tread sole, it was obvious this was a pair of what appeared to be used boots somebody had swapped with a new pair and put back on the shelf. Whoever the culprit was, they took the time to remove the shoe laces with the price tag and place it in their old boots. Old boots with new laces still don't look new, and for sure not worth the $159 price tag to me!

Whoa... Not so fast! I've been amazed at fashion trends now and then, and I've seen clothing in stores that's being sold as new that sure looks like it should be a reject of the Thrift Store. OK, so call me old fashioned, but buying clothes with holes "worn" in the knees because it's a trendy thing to do doesn't make sense to me. I do however recognize that there is a market for such things, and the prices demanded for these items can be astonishing.

So what's my point? Today I'm pointless except to note that on our road trip to Kearney we observed the gas station next to the freeway charges $.29 a gallon more than a station a block down the street, people are building homes right next to the Platte River (I guess the river never floods at Kearney), there were 3000 German POW's housed near Atlanta during WWII, and a bargain isn't necessarily a bargain just because it says so.

Small World

Brother in law Gary wanted to visit Cabela's in Kearney, so we took off with the intention of stopping for breakfast along the way. We made it as far as Arapahoe when we saw the Derby cafe and pulled in.

We got a late start, so it wasn't busy when we arrived. The Derby's menu and prices are exactly what I expected, and the pancakes are huge and tasty! A sign on the wall proclaimed you're only 342 miles from Wall Drug South Dakota, the Farmall and John Deere tractor signs supply much of the artwork, and the folks working are as friendly as you could find anywhere.

Shortly before we finished our breakfast, an older gentleman walked in and took a seat at the counter. The man and waitress obviously knew each other as they exchanged how-do's on a first name basis. It was tough to not overhear their conversation and I now know that he has a secret, I know it, and I won't tell.

What made this breakfast special for us is that we got to meet this very friendly fellow that knows more about our place than we do it seemed. I'm sure I made my usual comment about being new in the area, and that's how we met Wren. He asked where abouts we bought, and we told him our general location. "Let's see now, is it on the west side of the road? I know just about every place and field in that part of the country. I've lived in this country for 76 years and used to custom swath almost every field in the area."

Well, next thing he's telling us how the previous owners lifted the house 4 or 5 years ago and put a new basement in. He told us some of what he knew about the folks that that lived and farmed on "our" farm in the past. He knows people that we do in Colorado, though those folks are from the Republican River valley too, and the short amount of time we got to visit made me wishing we had more time just to sit and learn some of one persons lifetime perceptions of the area.

I'm finding that even though the number of miles might be many, the actual distance between towns isn't much at all around here.

Maximum Impact

We've done a lot of 4x4 exploring throughout the western USA on public lands managed by the USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management. Part of using public lands in our opinion is helping protect it by operating our vehicles so as to cause the least amount of impact possible.

A group that we believe every back country motorized recreationist should be aware of and follow their principals is Tread Lightly! This organization offers training programs and information to help preserve our access to public lands, and you can learn about Tread Lightly! at http://www.treadlightly.org.

Since we've been living Tread Lightly! for years by trying to inflict the minimum amount of impact on the land, using our Jeep for cross country travel on the farm is a foreign concept to us. The thought of knocking down vegetation on purpose is contrary to our normal operating procedure, but the weeds are tall on the farm, so something has to give.

Blackie took a spin around the farm with a home brew device designed to inflict maximum impact on the vegetation that came in contact with it. Now I won't begin to say that my "invention" is even slightly efficient, but it works pretty good, and for someone without farming equipment, I'm pretty happy with the result so far.

I hooked a length of hog fencing with several hundred pounds of weight on it and dragged it around about 2 acres on the farm. Diving headfirst into a weeds 10 to 12 feet tall makes for an interesting trip, but I had help in the form of a "scout" breaking trail to make sure I didn't hit a pipe, roll of fence, or who knows what else might be in the way. Brother in law Gary got a good workout! After several passes over the same area going a different direction each time, the tall weeds gave up and are laying flat on the ground.

I don't suppose I'd recommend this type "mower" for anybody that wants to keep from scratching their vehicles paint. Blackie hasn't had good paint in years however as narrow Jeep trails often have encroaching brush that has been hidden by scratch cover wax, so adding more character lines from the tall weeds to the paint never crossed my mind.

I've got more weeds to "mow", and I'm building quite a burn pile of brush from tree cutting activities. Big changes to the farms appearance are well underway, and we're excited that we think we'll have all the major cleanup activities completed by Spring. We're only now starting to fully appreciate how tough farming this property was for prior residents based on what has been left behind.

Congressional Haircut

It's the season I dislike most...election season. With all the name calling and misinformation passed around this time of year, I thought I'd pass along the following story to add a touch of reality to the mix...

One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies, "I cannot accept money from you because I'm doing community service this week". The florist was pleased and left the shop. When the barber goes to open his shop the next morning there is a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, "I cannot accept money from you because I'm doing community service this week". The cop is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a 'thank you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Later that day, a college professor comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, "I cannot accept money from you because
I'm doing community service this week". The professor is very happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber opens his shop, there is a 'thank you' card and a dozen different books, such as "How to Improve Your Business" and "Becoming More Successful".

"Finally, a Congressman comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies, "I cannot accept money from you because I'm doing community service this week". The Congressman is very happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and many of the members of our Congress.

Wood Working

Brother in law Gary made the trip from Denver this weekend with some furniture and an odd desire to do some wood working. Gary's type of wood working isn't the same as most people probably think of. You see, Gary wanted to see how much firewood he could load in his truck from our wilderness, and pile up near the house for the rest of the winter.

Margie's Dad was here last week with his chainsaw, and spent a couple days of constant cutting it seemed. The results of his labors were about 3 cords of dry wood, and a couple cords of stuff that needs to season for a year before it goes in the wood stove, and Gary's personal mission today was to load, move, and unload about 2 cords or so. To be fair, Margie hauled, loaded, and unloaded her share of firewood to help out too, and the farm today started to look just a little bit like somebody cares about it and it's not a mostly abandoned property anymore.

Ironically today, we got an email about some high tech terms that could be interchanged for dealing with firewood and a wood stove, and it gave me a chuckle so I figured I'd pass 'em along for those of us that use the old tech heating device and fuel source.

Logon - Adding fuel to the stove.

Logoff - Unloading the firewood from the truck.

Monitor - Keeping and eye on the stove.

Megahertz - Result of not being careful with the axe or chainsaw.

Floppy Disk - What you get from carrying too much firewood.

RAM - That thing used for splitting firewood.

The weather forecast is for COLD, and we couldn't be happier to have a big supply of wood to keep the farms house warm and toasty. Thanks Dad and Gary, your guys labor is sure helping make life a lot easier and comfortable for us not to mention how it's speeding up the clean up process!

What's My Line?

Somewhere in my past, there was a TV game show called What's My Line? The show had a host of course, and panelists Bennet Cerf, Steve Allen, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Arlene Francis were the shows regulars. The show started with a contestant being told to "Enter and sign in please", and they would walk up to a chalk board and sign their name. The contestant would then sit down and the moderator would give some factoid clue to help the panelists determine what the guests occupation or special talent was. and a game similar to 20 questions or hangman followed with the panelists asking questions to figure it out. The "lines" ranged from rocket scientist to hair dresser, and it was fun to guess along with the panelists trying to figure out the puzzle of what the person did.

We've had our own version of What's My Line? here on the farm recently, and I think it's an extension of a phenomenon I have observed meeting several new folks in the region. I'd like to call it The Nebraska General Rule Of Meeting Newcomers. Most folks tend to treat us newcomers rather coldly, at least until they learn a little about us.

Not everyone is effected by this interesting behavior trait, so I guess it's not a rule, just a guideline. I've had a couple folks come to our door and not saying anything, waiting for me to say something like "What can I do for you?" When I was a phone installer, I'd hit the door and say something like "Hi, I'm here to install your phone" and have them guess why I was there. Now if these visitors had an official company vehicle or uniform or something, it would have been a bit different, but I had no clue whatsoever why they came to my door to start with.

It's no big deal, just different than we're accustomed to. Most city folk when you first meet seem to want to know more about you and ask what they want to know. I'm finding that many Nebraskans want to know more, but are not nosey so they tend to wait for you to tell them. I suppose part it is just about everybody knows everybody around here...except us, so people are just being cautious. The best part is that once started, people seem to love to visit a bit, and we've met some really nice people willing to share some good area tips with us as well.

I've mentioned before that people really go out of the way to make us feel welcome around here, we just have to get past the first few awkward moments to feel that way.

One Month

Today it's been one month since we bought the farm. Since we made our original offer for the place and it was accepted, I've been ramblin' on about our transformation from city slickers to a rural country lifestyle some, complained about my pet peeve, and shared some experiences that I hope you enjoyed.

I spend quite a bit of time on the Internet, and read an interesting forum post someone made about people like me and Margie moving from the city to the country, and what at least one country native doesn't like about city slickers. It got me to thinking about my post yesterday about not answering email, so I thought I share the gist of the persons post and respond here.

The person writing about city folk moving to the country stated that we just love the beautiful scenery, wildlife, peace and quite and what have you, but we bring a mentality of change with us that isn't necessarily welcome. The person posting the comments spoke of newcomers wanting to change the landscape with more stores, restaurants, theaters and the other stuff of metropolitan areas. Comments about small acreage land parcels taking up the landscape with big houses was included, and the general feeling I got from the forum post was city folk...stay away!

Now I don't for one second think that our community leaders would admit that they don't want city folk coming to this region. I think most everybody knows change is inevitable, but the consequences of that change is what they fear. The publisher of the McCook Gazette commented on one of my posts that her fear was that my perspectives of the area would get out and "there goes the neighborhood" with an influx of newbies would be the result.

Well...after thinking about my email post rant, I hope you don't think I want to change the landscape around here. The landscape and people are exactly why we're here in the first place. I guess my real point yesterday was more about reminding businesses to pay attention to what they claim to already do...not change it.

Yep, we're new in the area, and we want this area to succeed and stay economically healthy as much as anybody. We hope the things that make this area great don't change, and that people like us coming here feel the same as we do... we want to fit in, not try and change the landscape to fit us.

Business Ads

Advertising and business seem to go hand in hand. We're all flooded with advertising every day. TV, newspaper, radio, billboards, and you even get TV advertising at big city fuel stations now-a-days with their "pumpcasts".

TV stations know that people don't like ads much, and it's pretty obvious to any casual observer that TV commercials are often louder than the TV show you were just watching. If a business person wants to get their print ads noticed, pictures, loud colors, and full page ads are the norm. Ads are packed with information about products, prices, where the place is located (sometimes), and often a web site URI and email address.

To tell the truth, we've not noticed much difference between the ads in the city vs what we've seen in Nebraska. The advertising sales and design folks are going to school and learning about buyer metrics and using the tools that work best to attract our attention to the advertising they sell to Nebraska business. Yep...advertising techniques common to business are in full swing right in your communities, but some local advertisers are wasting all their money as far as I'm concerned.

A great example is an ad on the McCook Gazette's web site. One business advertises almost every day, and they include an email address in their color ad to contact them. Do you think they will respond? Not no, yes, I don't know, or I'll find out...just dead silence from their email address. Makes me wonder why they advertise it and are they even in business anymore? Now I touched on this before, but the issue is still here, so I can't help but bring it up again. If you advertise an email address...CHECK YOUR EMAIL!

I've contemplated calling the businesses that I've emailed to ask them why they don't check their email, but I already know the answer...they never get any email, are tired of checking it without any inbound mail, and figure that nobody cares...maybe the thinking is that an email address in the ad implys being tech savy and people should trust them. If you think I'll go to a business that snubbed my email think again. If you have an email address, you advertise it, I try and contact you via it, and you ignore it, I'll ignore your business...it's that simple.

Economic development and outward migration are issues I've read about in this country quite a bit. But people like me and Margie are part of an inward migration, and we use email every day...if not 10 times a day. We seek information, and feel that email is a good way to get it without bothering someone on the phone, freeing up everyone to respond when convenient...not never as what our experience is starting to show. We use a cell phone instead of a land line, so calling for information can get expensive when we exceed our plan minutes, and my speech is poor and phone communications are difficult to make matters worse. Email is a requirement of life for us anymore.

So business advertisers, we recommend you take your email address off your web sites and out of the newspaper ads you spend your hard won money on if you don't check your email every day. I'm probably not the norm yet, but as time goes by, I won't be the only person willing to drive 100 miles to avoid doing business with a company that doesn't respond to their email, even if that business is the most convenient or has the best price...it's that important to some of us.

Big Rat!

A couple things caught my eye this morning as I was looking at a couple Internet information sources. First was a story about a billion dollar deal that has been hammered out in Oregon, that though not yet approved, may make some significant changes in environmental policy.

According to a Yahoo story attributed to Jeff Barnard, Associated Press writer - "The plan, announced Tuesday, followed two years of closed-door negotiations between farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, conservation groups and government agencies battling over the fate of scarce water and fish protected by the Endangered Species Act."

I forgot to tell you what the plan is...remove dams on the Klamath River in Oregon to save Salmon. Now I find it unusual that something this big would need to be handled behind closed doors, but environmental issues are often handled that was as I believe that environmental interests don't want the general public knowing what they are really up to.

The other story that caught my eye was one of a giant rodent that lived 4 million years ago in South America swamps, and this 2000 pounder is the largest ever found by a long shot. Imagine if you will what might have happened if the Endangered Species Act had been in effect 4 million or so year ago.

There might be some big rats!

Duvet?

My daughter gave us a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card as a Christmas present, and one of the nice things about this card is you can use it to shop online. Since we bought the farm, our list of things we need is long, and funds are short at the moment, so we figured we'd find something we could use pretty quickly.

As you may already know, we're not big shoppers, and after wandering around BB&B's web site, we are quickly reminded of some of what it is we don't like about shopping. For example...What the Hell is a Duvet?

First off...The web site shows pictures of Duvet sets...I think. I looked at these photos, and wondered what it was that made what looked like ordinary bedding a Duvet. I even read the description of the items..."a colorful Duvet perfect for accenting..." Yeah right...what does that mean? It sure didn't describe the item to me, just what it would do for me...a perfect selling tactic for sure, but not very helpful if you don't know what a Duvet is.

Second...is it Duvet like Corvette, or Duvet like Chevrolet?

Third...is that fancy name a more accurate description of an item, or just a good way to make you feel all warm and fuzzy when you buy one? I guess if you already know what a Duvet is, it's probably a good description, but for us uninformed shoppers, we still don't have a real firm grasp on what a Duvet really is except some sort of bedding.

Margie stumbled on this item looking for what she thought would be a common item like a bedspread. We've not found this item yet on the BB&B web site, but maybe we did...they just call it a Duvet or something else now.

Memory Sled

My daughter and her husband just made their first trip to the farm. After the farm "tour", her response was "It's not as bad as I thought it would be". This after nearly a month of scraping, wiping, hauling, dumping, cutting, and otherwise cleaning up around the place. I'm thrilled that we have made so much progress...NOT! If you ask me, I can barely tell that we've done much of anything around here, though the ache in my back tells me I've been doing something.

The kids brought their one year old Britney Spaniel with them, and Riley had a ball chasing rabbits, Casey our Golden Retriever, and terrorizing Sox our cat. Riley also found the burrs and the kids had a wonderful time with a brush and a pair of scissors getting the little devil's removed. Riley needed a hunters clip instead of that big city "do".

One thing they brought with them was an old snow sled of mine and the old Flexible Flyer still looks to be in pretty good condition. I honestly can't remember the last time I took it for a spin down a hill, but it took me for a little spin down memory lane. I think I mentioned a while ago that as a kid, I was an accident waiting to happen? Well that old sled is part of one of those accidents.


To make a long story short, that sled was under me when I broke my arm. It was not a common break, and I had to see a specialist to get it set properly. I didn't get a cast, it was more like having your arm taped to your body at a 45 degree angle for what seemed like forever. Doing school work was always a challenge because I couldn't hold my own paper down to write and teachers had to tape it down for me. Getting dressed was tough, and that is just some of the stuff I recall about the whole affair.


Yep...that old sled sure brought back some memories. Margie and I are building a rather interesting collection of memories here on the farm too. Only problem...we're usually too tired at the end of the day to remember them.

Selective Breeding

A picture is worth a thousand words...I wonder how long it took to get this result?

Wilderness Designation

Along with our motorized recreation (Jeepin') over the years, we've spent a considerable amount of time working with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. From motorized route planning and use, to public lands clean-up, trail maintenance, and education, Margie and I have been involved with educating off road enthusiasts about sustainable land use, as well as opposing route closures and adding wilderness designation to more public lands.

Wilderness is a big issue to us. Throughout the west, US and state governments hold vast areas of land, and much is suitable for motorized recreation. Take Nevada for example, over 90% of the state is public land. There are wilderness areas scattered all over Nevada. California has thousands of acres of public land too. Margie and I spent 3 months just driving around 18 wilderness areas withing 100 miles of Needles California checking to make sure that "No Vehicle" signs were in place to help wilderness areas stay that way. I hope someday someone will be able to explain to me how the term "untrammeled by man" includes roads and buildings because our "wilderness areas" almost all have been trammeled by man. Some of these areas are so vast and remote that without motorized vehicles, areas are effectively closed to human use.

The US Forests Service signs say "Land Of Many Uses", but wilderness changes all that! Wilderness to me really means land of no uses...unless you have a horse or walk. No bicycles, wheelchairs, or any other mechanized conveyance is allowed, unless of course it's not convenient for the land managers, and they get to drive in if necessary for "administrative purposes".

You may wonder why I wouldn't want more wilderness designated and the reason is simple. The US Congress has gone through this exercise before with the original Wilderness Act that designated millions of acres of land wilderness. Now, environmental interests want more areas with "wilderness characteristics" designated wilderness. As far as I can tell, local public comment on these publicly proposed wilderness areas is of little value. If it is cost effective for the government to close an area to motorized recreation, it happens. This will close thousands of miles of motorized recreation areas, and force more people into smaller areas, causing more impact, causing land managers to shut down more areas in a vicious cycle of use and lose land management practices.

Other than the fact that our farm is privately owned, it might be worth considering being a wilderness area. It certainly has wilderness characteristics as defined by environmental groups. There are roads on the farm, but they get almost no use. There are weeds 10 maybe 12 foot tall all over the property. Though it is obvious that man has indeed been here because there are roads and buildings, scattered about, that doesn't matter because the property has wilderness "characteristics". So unless I hurry and get the weeds knocked down, some environmentalist may show up at my door with a wilderness study sign claiming eminent domain and make us move.

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Dark Of Night...

I love the United States Postal Service. It provided much of the income of my parents and grandparents, and had a colorful history that a kid growing up in the 1950's could use to fire the imagination. The Postal Service history dates back officially to 1775, and you can read more at http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub100/pub100_001.htm.

My grandfather was a rural mail carrier in Holt county Nebraska. I suppose he started his route in a Ford Model A, but he turned into a Chevy man after a bad experience with a dealer in Clearwater I think it was. As near as I can tell, he went to great lengths to keep his appointed rounds. Mom tells of a bad blizzard that hit northeastern Nebraska and virtually all country roads were shut down. Since he couldn't drive his mail route, he hired somebody in the area with a plane, and delivered mail and food by air at his expense. After that storm, he and some of his buddy's modified some sort of car into a snow cat. I've got a picture of that machine someplace, and once I find it, I'll post it as it really is something to see. I guess it was a maintenance nightmare, but he was inventive.

My Dad worked for the USPS as a railway mail clerk. His job was to sort mail on moving trains, and I mostly remember when he traveled back and forth from Omaha to Cheyenne on the Union Pacific. The mail trains were passenger affairs, and Mom and I took him downtown now and then to catch a taxi from Omaha to Council Bluffs where his route actually started. The Butternut Coffee plant was downtown, and I remember the smell to this day. Dad's "case" as they were called included Minnesota. Dad sorted mail for Minnesota...land of 10,000 lakes, and there are about that many towns with "Lake" in their name. To sort the mail, you had to memorize a lot of town names, and Dad had to take tests of his knowledge of various "cases". He spent a considerable amount of his own time practicing sorting mail...you would have to see it to believe it. He told stories of train wrecks and storm delays, and showed us the downtown hotel in Cheyenne he spent the night when traveling, and the cafe around the corner that served food around the clock for the train crews.

Being a kid, my Dad had the best job of anybody I knew! In the 50's, TV westerns were filled with train robberies and shootouts with Pinkerton and US Mail Agents chasing the bad guys every Saturday afternoon. Dad had to carry a badge and gun to work, and I suppose some small level of exaggeration on my part made Dad's job sound pretty exciting to my friends.

We love our rural mail service. We've got a shorter walk to the mailbox on the farm than I had in the city, and that old Post Office saying about making their appointed rounds in all types of weather is still true today. Living in the country has afforded us the opportunity to meet a couple of guys that truly risk their lives to get us our mail. Think about some of the bad storms you have had through the years...slippery country roads, washouts, down trees and power lines, but the mail guys got it done one way or the other. Thanks USPS, and especially Scott and Gary...the guys that handle our rural mail route.

66 And Counting

Happy Anniversary Mom.

Today is my parents 66th anniversary. I lost my Dad two years ago on Veterans Day, but I'm lucky my Mom's still alive and kicking it up in Washington state. She's a tough ole gal from Holt county Nebraska, Dad grew up a few miles away in Antelope county.

My folks had pretty different childhoods I believe. Dad grew up on a farm without electricity and little money for the family. Grandpa (Mom's Dad) worked for the US Post Office as a rural mail carrier and had a steady income.

My childhood, thanks to them, was pretty cool. Mom and Dad taught me the important stuff about life, protected me from harm as best they could (I admit it, I was an accident waiting to happen), instilled a special respect for nature and the outdoors, and exposed me to a wide range of travel destinations.

Road trips...We took 'em! Omaha was our starting point, and from there we went from the Canadian Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, to Disneyland, the Grand Canyon, and into Mexico. We had family reunions in Colorado, and saw the bears of Yellowstone. Our nations capitol was a great destination, and I think I blame my folks in part for my wanderlust over the last several years.

So Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad. Thanks for all the stuff you did for me and continue to do to this day. It's funny how the road of life picks you up and where it ends up dropping you. Mom and Dad got dropped off in Washington, I'm pretty sure Me and Margie just got dropped off in Nebraska.

Sci-Fi On The Farm!

We've got one. Something used seldom by a few, known of by most, and only fully understood by those unfortunates needing it's services for an extended period of time. What am I talking about? An inflatable air bed.

When we decided to buy the farm, we knew that our finances would be pretty tight for a while afterward, and with no furniture, we would have to make some concessions to comfort. So off to the local Wal-Mart for a queen size Coleman inflatable air bed complete with air pump. Our plan was to use it a couple months until our finances stabilized some from the farm's purchase.

Now unless you've slept on one of the these inflatable beds for a while, you won't ever fully appreciate a regular bed. Our first night on the air bed found us waking up in the center barely able to get out of the bed. I hadn't closed the air valve completely, and a slow leak was the cause. This went on to varying degrees for two or three nights with varying degrees of "togetherness" in the morning before stopping.

Now here is the creepy part. While sleeping, the fitted sheets popped off the air beds corners. Not only that, but when trying to pull them back down, they wouldn't stay. The bed had...grown! It started taking on the appearance of an overstuffed double meat hamburger with no fixings on it. What once was almost a perfect rectangle was shape-shifting us right on to the floor.

I was chatting online with my mother in Washington state about the farm and it's needs when the bed topic came up. Mom mentioned prices of beds in Washington, and I picked up the ad that had come in the Cambridge Clarion from Whitaker's in McCook. A whole page worth of bed mattress and box springs were on sale. I suppose I said something like "I hope I can still get a pretty good buy in March" when Mom says, buy a good one and I'll pay for it...you need a good bed around there.

So we decided to take her up on it and called Whitaker's on Saturday afternoon and ordered a new mattress and box springs sight unseen. The last time we bought a bed, we tried several out before buying, but unless you actually sleep on one, I don't think you ever really know if you will be happy or not. Our first night in the new bed was great! The second was even better.

Now...the rest of the story. Since Whitaker's had told us they would deliver by noon (which they did by the way), we needed to move the air bed into another room to be used as visitor sleeping quarters until we get another guest bed. These things are pretty light and it was a snap to move it to another empty bedroom. After the new bed was delivered, set up, and delivery guys departed, we glanced in the spare bedroom only to see the air bed completely flat on the floor. I guess the sight of its replacement was more than it could bear.

Maybe I'll get a vinyl patch kit and find the hole someday...if the air bed doesn't eat me first.

Rush Hour On The 409

When you have a satellite TV receiver in an RV, part of the service is getting both New York City, and Los Angeles broadcast TV stations. It was nice because we could watch Leno at 8:30PM when we were physically on the west coast by watching the NYC station, and it gave me a couple extra chances to catch the Denver Broncos during football season as the different coasts often showed different games.

Along with the big city TV stations came their respective morning and evening traffic reports. "Backup on the 405" and "The 101 is running slowly" are almost daily comments of the traffic announcers drivel.

The first time I heard this shortened slang for US and Interstate highways was the first day we had satellite TV in the RV. Denver at that time said "I-25 is slow from the mousetrap to I225", and still does as far as I know. They havent picked up the road number slang yet.

My 24 year old daughter on the other hand has picked up all kinds of highway number slang for the Denver area, so todays blog is dedicated to her.

Cambridge Traffic Report

Early morning traffic is heavy, and slippery sections remain on the 409. Expect slowdowns and icy conditions from the 725 all the way through Medicine Creek bridge and on to Neosha. Heavy traffic can be encountered along Park and school zone slowdowns are in effect after the Christmas break...keep a close eye out for those little ones on these dark mornings! The 6 and 34 have normal volumn, but watch out for truck and trailer activity at the 47 interchange. Be sure to have your sunglasses for your easbound commute.

The above report was after seeing 4 cars and the school bus on road 409, and only a few more in town. I love it here!

Neighborhood Watch

Getting organized on the farm is a challenge on many levels. As soon as I get started on one project, another seems to pop up that seems more urgent. Today was somewhat productive as I'm getting some work space organized so I can find my tools, and have a decent work surface. I moved a long old workbench from the hog barn into the mud room after cutting off about 3 feet.

We also got to meet some of our neighbors. The farmer that owns the land surrounding our place and his wife stopped by bringing delicious cookies and a warm welcome. We got a chance to visit for a bit, and from our first meeting, I think we'll get along great. A couple comments caught my ear that our neighbors had noticed different vehicles in the yard over the last couple weeks, and they also mentioned the size of our dumpster. Later in the evening, another car pulled into our driveway with more goodies and a welcome to the neighborhood. This just never happened to us in the Denver suburbs.

On a more personal note...the goodies were so good from our neighbors that they probably are the blue ribbon winners from the state fair in their respective categories.

In the city, you often see signs when entering a neighborhood announcing "Neighborhood Watch Area". These signs are erected by the city after a neighborhood has circulated a petition and had organizational meetings, a fixed percentage of the residents agree to watch for suspicious activity, and the city provides approved training sessions for the volunteers.

We're thrilled that our neighbors are paying attention to activities on the farm...especially since nobody has erected a Neighborhood Watch sign and all that goes with it.

Hidden Treasure

When I was a kid, I loved games involving finding things. Hide and seek, cops looking for robbers, cowboys looking for Indians, explorers looking for distant lands, and pirates digging treasure. We spent hours making up "treasure maps", devising plans to get the bad guys, and trying to figure how to get the Indians before they got us.

As an adult, I still love finding things. Here is an example. If you have never heard of geocaching, their web site states "The sport where you are the search engine". Basically, geocaching is hide and seek using a GPS receiver to find things other people have hidden. Cambridge has 7 of these hidden cache locations within 10 miles, and McCook shows 11. To find these hidden locations, check out http://geocaching.com. Geocaching is a worldwide family sport, it's free except for the GPS receiver cost and fuel to go looking, and there are hundreds of thousands of hidden locations worldwide. We've "found" old mines, WWII training areas still visible, and a host of interesting places like old ghost towns and ancient Indian locations with ground art called intaglios.

Anyway, the farm is giving up some hidden treasure of it's own. Yesterday, the human dynamo (my father-in-law) headed into our "wilderness" with his chainsaw and discovered an old roll of galvanized steel hog wire. I won't have to buy 4 foot high fencing...ever. The barn's hay mow has hundreds of board feet of hardwood flooring in the haymow, and the old hog barn has a wood stove in perfect condition. There is an old farm wagon of some sort that had steel spoke wheels that I'll get separated from the ground once it thaws, and with weeds 8 foot tall on most of the property, who knows what else we'll find.

The human dynamo and his son have cut up a small fortune of firewood, and have barely scratched the surface. Since we haven't gotten the heat pump repaired yet, having more firewood than we can burn is saving us a fortune in electric heat by not needing the emergency electric furnace portion of the unit at all. We've not run our furnace for 2 full weeks now, and the house is almost too warm.

They say one mans trash is another mans...well you know, and the weather forecast is pretty good, so I think I'll go see if I can find some more hidden treasure around here.

Laundry Day

Most folks in these parts of the world have a washing machine. How do I know this? The nearest laundromat to Cambridge is in McCook and I'm sure if most folks didn't have a washing machine, there would be a laundromat closer.

When we first got our RV, we had a small combination washer/dryer in the unit. It didn't take long to determine that our lifestyle didn't go with on board laundry facilities as the water use drained a 1/2 tank of fresh water every load. Not good if you are camping away from a water source which we usually did. We yanked our motor home laundry in favor of storage space and that worked well visiting local laundromats...until we bought the farm.

Until we moved to Nebraska, I thought just about every small town had a laundry. That was our experience throughout most of the west. Of course not every wide spot was laundry equipped, but it was always easy to find one.

This has not been the case in Nebraska. We called the towns of Cambridge, Arapahoe, Bartley, and Indianola looking for a laundromat. Cambridge told us to try Arapahoe. Arapahoe said to go to Holdrege. Bartley and Indianola knew that the closest laundromat was in McCook, but then try and find it!

Somewhere along the line of multiple phone calls, someone told us of a laundry in McCook near the Mac's Drive-In and that's who got our business. There may be other laundry facilities in McCook, but we don't know of them, and few others seem to know either.

So we pack the Jeep to the roof with weeks of laundry and head west for the McCook suds and duds place...a 40 mile trip each way from the farm. Our directions stated "I don't remember if it's past or before the Mac's Drive-In, but it's on the right". Good enough directions 'cause we spotted the washers through the buildings windows, but never did notice a sign.

Once inside, the facilities were clean and all but one machine worked. We've been in places where all but one machine DIDN'T work. We took more than our fair share of machines, but it didn't matter as the place was nearly empty when we arrived, and before we knew it, we were packing the Jeep to retrace our route home.

Things will be different from now on when it comes to laundry. Margie's Dad showed up yesterday with a truck load of new washer and dryer for the farm. As much "fun" as going to the laundromat is, I won't miss it a bit!

Almost Officially Speaking

Yesterday was a great experience for us at the Furnas county courthouse. I was surprised when we pulled into town at the...well...lack of town. The town sign on the highway states 641 residents if I remember correctly, but from the highway there doesn't seem to be much of a town for a county seat. Preconceived ideas about what should and shouldn't be jumped right in my face.

After passing through town, we turned around and saw the sign pointing to the business district. As we drove into town, the brick streets rumble along under us, and remind me of Omaha in the early 50's when I lived there. While the town appears much like any other small Nebraska town, being the county seat adds something. There is more traffic, not a lot, but more than most other towns it's size. We quickly found the courthouse, a vacant parking spot along the street, and headed in.

The very first office we came to was the sheriff's office. This was a required stop for someone wishing to license an out of state vehicle so the vehicle identification number could be verified. We handed our keys to a deputy, and headed into the sheriff's administration office to fill out paperwork. The deputy returned with our keys before we could finish filling out the forms, and we paid our fees, took our paperwork and headed for the drivers license testing office.

The drivers license testing office is open only on Thursday, so it was a pretty busy place. There was someone in front of us when we walked in, but the gal administering tests got us started filling out the required forms (again), we took our eye test, registered to vote, and were pointed toward the clerks office for photo and fee payment. This entire process took less than 10 minutes.

The Furnas county clerks office seemed to be the hub of activity for the whole building. The ladies working in the office were as professional, friendly, and courteous as anyone could be. Our only complaint would be that the drivers license picture taker seems to have a knack for taking the most unflattering pictures.

We paid our fees, got our pictures, made a stop in the treasurers office for a copy of the property tax bill for 2007, visited with Noel in the county extension office about weed control, and were on our way in less than 2 hours. If we had been in our original Colorado home county and had to do the same basic procedures, I think it would have taken a couple days to accomplish. Just getting a Colorado drivers license is usually a 2 to 3 hour affair as it is...take a number and wait...license plates can take 4 to 5 hours on a "good" day.

The Furnas county courthouse is an older building, but it sure has character in my opinion. The stairs creak a bit, and some offices are now located in what at one time were Diebold vaults like you might see in a bank. The building was as busy as any place we've been in Nebraska, but either our timing was right, or the folks working for the county really know their stuff because everything went quickly and smoothly. I'd put my money on the county employees knowing their stuff. OK, so maybe knowing what we needed to have with us speeded up the process just a little.

So now I guess we're almost completely officially full Nebraska residents. Why almost? It still takes 30 days of continuous residence to get a Nebraska resident hunting/fishing license...we're not quite there yet, but we're close!

City Council

Today was a first for us as we attended our very first Cambridge city council meeting. The agenda was posted on the towns web site, but the time conflicted with what was posted in the grocery store flier so we called city hall to verify the time and made it with time to spare.

We were greeted, and asked to print our names so the spelling would be reported correctly, and during the course of the meeting, we were even offered pizza. I gotta tell ya...if I was ever made to feel more welcome somewhere, I don't remember where it was.

Tonight's meeting was special with a state senator as well as representatives for two of the Republican River NRD's expressing their opinions and answering questions about some pretty important water issues. The meeting room was packed while the guests had their say, and as soon as the presentations were completed, just about everybody not officially connected to the town government exited.

I guess I don't blame people for skipping business meetings, or leaving as soon as they can. The business of running a town isn't the most exciting of meetings, but there was some subtle humor that even an outsider like me caught now and then, and the meeting adjourned sooner than I expected.

I haven't been in a situation to pledge allegiance to our flag in many years now, it doesn't happen in the city it seems. I can't express how refreshing it was to say it after the meeting was called to order tonight. Maybe some of the great patriotism found in the heartland can spread out more and help solve some of our nations problems. Sure hope so!

Resolutions

Happy New Year Everyone!

Every year most folks make some New Years resolution that they hope to keep. There was a news bit last night about the subject with quiting smoking and losing weight near the top of the list. I'm no exception, though I feel my resolutions are more like targets than life changing activities.

Here are some of my resolutions for 2008 in no particular order...

No cigarettes for me this year. I quit a few years ago, so should be pretty easy.

Clean, repair, and paint the barn. This may be a job that extends beyond this year.

House bathrooms. This will be my biggie! What we have in the house for a bathroom gives me the creeps and changes are in order. We're pretty sure we'll be adding two bathrooms and removing one. Only problem is we have not had time to plan, so until we get organized...

Get organized. This is a little tougher than it sounds. Gozer was well laid out with ample storage compartments for everything we needed. In the house, we have no storage compartments and fewer kitchen cabinets than we had. Since we don't have a master plan yet, we don't want to buy stuff that isn't in the long term plan. We want to move everything from Gozer into the house, but we don't have a place to put stuff yet...waah!

Master plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail I've always heard, so a master plan will be evolved for the farm. Let's face it, plans are meant to be changed it seems, but having some idea where you want to end up and the steps to get there being planned in advance sure improves your chances of getting it right the first time.

Go to the stock car races.

Go to baseball games.

Go to the county fairs.

Meet my neighbors.

Build a business. I've got a pretty good start on an Internet Information business and hope to expand it greatly in the next couple years.

Guess I better quit typing and get to work!