Ah, yes. Spring has sprung and things at the ranch are awakening to a green lawn, blooming flowers, wonderfully cool temperatures, and ...moles.
The mole in our front yard has begun to mock me by dotting the freshly-mowed lawn with his earthen redoubts of defiance. No sooner do I evict the pesky mammal than his neighbor moves in. It's a never ending battle.
There are several approaches to ridding one’s lawn of these varmints but none appear to be very effectual. I was thinking about ramping up the battle to the next level by using a backhoe or perhaps filling a 2 liter jug with black powder and a fuse. Naw…maybe not. The folks next door probably wouldn’t appreciate having to clean large chunks of my lawn from their roof.
The rain has kept the ground soft in our back yard so the building of our barn is being delayed. It’ll be a super nice 40’ x 20’ sanctuary for our beans and rice and the field mice. Oh, well.
I got around to soaking and purging the residential water filter and it only needs to be plumbed in. The contractor for the barn knows a guy that can install it for us.
Speaking of water…our well stopped dead in its tracks the other day. It's discomforting to turn the tap handle and be greeted with silence. The inferences are stark. We have three bathrooms to last the day so we had to do some "figurin'". I figured that, at some point, I'd need to head to the "Indian Station" 2.6 miles down the road. That turned out to not be the case because we had options (stored water bottles).
That was on a Sunday afternoon. We called the pump service guy, Tim Witzel, who was a few years behind me in school. His sister, Kathy was in the same class as me and his elder brothers, Ronnie and Darrel, were just ahead of me in school. Darrel is a fellow pilot and a good friend of mine.
That was on a Sunday afternoon. We called the pump service guy, Tim Witzel, who was a few years behind me in school. His sister, Kathy was in the same class as me and his elder brothers, Ronnie and Darrel, were just ahead of me in school. Darrel is a fellow pilot and a good friend of mine.
Anyway, Tim hustled out on Monday and found that the contacts had been compromised by earwigs. How interesting. We had to be out of town Monday and Tuesday. So, when we returned, we had water. It was a minor inconvenience to have to drink bottled water and miss one shower.
The first thought was to just shove the valve on our newly installed system and tap into our river/ditch water. But, wouldn’t you know, the ditch water was stopped for the annual cleaning! That’s why we had 15 2L bottles of water stored in the garage and elsewhere! They surely came in handy that day!
It is difficult to express the pleasure that is being derived from the new Breville espresso maker. It makes the perfect latte’ and cappuccino. I can’t speak for anyone else over 60 but, it takes a couple of latte’s so Ol’ Ran can move faster than a sleeping bullet. Besides, it’s cheaper than calling AAA for a jumpstart every morning and much less painful than a precordial thump.
I picked up my new Mossberg 20GA pump shotgun from Big 5 the other day. The quail are in big trouble if I have a hankering for wild game birds. She’s a real beauty. It’s the only multiple shot shotgun that I have at this point in time. I have a single shot .410, 20GA, and 12G. I’ve only shot the .410 so far. I’m not at all a sportsman. The only desire is to harvest game for the table. The shotguns are a bit loud (if not somewhat expensive) to just blast away for grins and purposeful degradation of one’s hearing.
We have Canadian geese that regularly fly over the property. Sometimes they are low enough to throw rocks at. At some point, I can see harvesting a few big birds for the curing of hunger. The back yard sees a regular presence of quail, too. I was able to take one with a .22 pellet rifle from 60’. They call that “plumb lucky” where I come from especially considering that it was a “head shot”. “Ran, the sniper”, they call me. We haven’t seen any ring-neck pheasants on the property but have seen a couple of them along Globe Road.
If you consider that we have the Tule River about a half mile away and that Success Lake is only 4 miles down the hill, you can see that there are options for a continued supply of protein should the need arise.
We do have a current fishing license but have yet to take the poles for a stroll. The state gets a whopping 42 clams (heheh…I crack myself up) each for the license. If that isn’t highway robbery, I don’t know what is.
I’ve been trying my hand at making beef jerky. That means that our two main dehydrators (of the 4 that we have) have been getting a work out. It appears that I will never again have to purchase jerky at retail prices that push 35 dollars per pound. This stuff is outstanding! I was surprised how easy it is to get great results! Using different spices makes for some really good snacking! “Ol’ Jerky Ran” they call me (at least that’s what I thought they called me).
A cool and unanticipated aspect of making jerky is that the new Mexican super market, Villarta, in Hooterville sells the ultra-lean beef that I use for making jerky. But, they slice it Mexican style which is rather thin. It’s exactly the right size for jerky! It saves me a step in the process! We do have a small meat slicer but this is so much easier that it doesn’t see much usage.
My interest in Ham radio is returning somewhat. I just purchased a nice Kenwood R-600 shortwave radio so I can listen to the Ham bands and brush up on my Morse code. Also, a friend of mine sold me his Yaesu FT2400 VHF/2 Meter mobile unit for a more than fair price. I have a Yaesu FT-530 VHF/UHF dual band hand held as well. It was a gift from dear friend, Jeff Edgecomb (KB7PMO) in Longview , WA
The next step is to build an antenna then get an HF transceiver. We’ll see. Not much time to work with as of late (not that I mind). I love to build wire antennas like the inverted “V”, regular dipole, or “sloper” but, due to constraints on my playtime, I may just purchase a multi-band vertical and mount it on the roof.
I sold my Kenwood TS440S HF rig 7 years ago. It was sitting around begging me to dust it so it could see daylight. It persisted so my lightening-fast mind said, “If you ain’t gonna use it, sell it on Ebay, dummy”. So, off to Ebay it went where it sold right away. It now has a nice dustless home and a caring operator.
The new Crate GLX212 guitar amp is getting used frequently. I keep the Fender Teleblaster hooked to it all the time. I sometimes switch to the Strat or the Les Paul but the Tele is the preferred ax. There was an amp-shaped hole in my heart into which the big Crate fits perfectly.
The new Crate GLX212 guitar amp is getting used frequently. I keep the Fender Teleblaster hooked to it all the time. I sometimes switch to the Strat or the Les Paul but the Tele is the preferred ax. There was an amp-shaped hole in my heart into which the big Crate fits perfectly.
The other day, Connie was medicating a sore spot on the inside of my right ear. It was where my Bluetooth device had somewhat degraded my epithelium. She grabbed a cotton ball, smeared some kind of antibiotic goop on it and shoved it my ear. Never one to allow an opportunity to josh someone pass by, I said, “’Ol’ cotton sticker, Connie,’ they call her. Yep...'Cotton sticker'. Sort of has a ring to it, don'tcha think?”. Boy! She looked me right straight into my pretty brown eyes and said, “Reckon just where would you like for me to stick the next batch of cotton?” Kind of hard to pull one over on her!
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