RANCHO ENERO

Whew! Once again the first of the year is rocketing by with no regard for my comfort level! Here it is the middle of the month and I’m still waiting for the month to start!

We’ve kicked of the year at “flank speed” and it’s not likely we will decelerate to “slow ahead” any time soon. I’m not convinced that our old barges were meant to go this fast!

The Ranch is still trying to handle to effects of all the goodies we hauled back from our vacation. Stuffing and stowing our booty isn’t always easy since the space in the barn and garage are already pretty well accounted for. We always think of something. 

Well….Ol’ Ran’s head has a couple of extra holes in it. Seems that the tooth fairy has fallen on hard times and wanted her money back from when I was 7 years old. I said, “Fat on you! I spent it!”. The next thing I knew, she snatched 4 of my teeth and left me with a couple of gaps. You know times must be tough when the tooth fairy turns into a thug. *SIGH*.  I'll have to take an antibiotic for a few days and so, far, I don't need any pain meds at all (after the first day). That's nice. 

The weather has been very mild again this January. It’s hard to complain with your day time temps are in the 60’s and you're wearing short sleeve shirts. We even had one day in the upper 70’s! There was a couple of days it did get down to below freezing but, by mid-day, the temperature was back up in the low 50’s. It doesn’t appear that we experienced any frost damage at all.

The bad news is that our precip levels are only about 25% of normal. That’s not good. It remains to be seen what will happen if we get hit with another dry year in a string of them. The state has passed some remedial legislation but they don't tell you the downside of such power grabs. Between the state and the Feds, they have commandeered all authority of all water resources even private well water on private property. But, they're "here to help", right?

Guess which “Computer Dude” is having computer issues and had to rebuild one computer and is in the process of doing the same to another? Yep…the “Grand  Exhausted Computer Poohbah”, that’s who. My big custom-built studhorse quad-core machine decided to go on strike. It’s hard to imagine a big bad beefy box going south on you at the most inopportune time but it did.

We were in the middle of publishing the church bulletins when it croaked. I haven’t started pulling the covers off yet because I don’t have time. Thankfully, I had just rebuilt my other big bruiser, the Dell XPS420 quad-core stomper with 8GB of ram. I replaced the motherboard and both hard drives and I dual-boot to Win7 and Win XP. The Win7 hard drive is 2TB and the XP hard drive is 320GB. Both are running as smooth as buttermilk. The hard part is bringing all of the software up to speed.

The good news is that I backed up most of my docs and such on both of them because I’m really sensitive about backing things up. Wanna know why? Because recently  I accidently pulled my 3TB external back up hard drive into the floor and killed it along with untold numbers of drivers, docs, pics, music and such, that’s why. Hard drives don’t cotton to being dribbled on a hard floor.

My heart sank lower than my jaw but I had to be careful not to be too tough on myself because Connie doesn’t take to anyone beatin’ up on her hubby. I could have ended up with some bruises.

It’s already time to start preparing our garden boxes for spring planting!! We’ll need to strip off the top foot or so of compost and replace it. We’re not happy with last year’s crops at all. This time we’ll probably add some top soil and make a mix. Our friend, Rudy in Springville, just uses the straight stuff and his garden grows like wildfire. Ours just needs to be fine tuned, I suppose.

A couple of apple trees along our front driveway need to be replaced, too. One of them didn’t thrive so that gap has been there awhile. Then, during this last yard sale event, someone backed over one of them and wrecked it.

Likewise, a couple of our vines need to be replaced. The replacements are patiently waiting in their pots but someone (ahem…wonder who?) needs to dig a hole….with a shovel….straining their latissimus dorsi, abdominal, and lower back muscles.

Oh, yes….then there’s the peach tree and plumb tree replacements too. I really think that the Ranch is soon going to see a couple of shovel-toting young fellas working around her for a few hours instead of the old muscle-protecting ranch hand. Whoa!! I just got a loud “AMEN!” from my gluteus maximus!

And, we are getting ready to have a chicken coop built!! There’s still a lot of planning to do but it should be….interesting. Chickens are fairly easy to raise but they still require work. Yet, nothing beats farm fresh eggs from free-range chickens. Most likely, there will be 6 or so layers to start with. There may be some “meat chickens” as well. We have options.

Our bees are happy and healthy. "Uncle Buzz", Dave Cruz, our friend the beekeeper, gave them a clean bill of health the other day. In a few days, we’ll feed them some sugar water. The bloom will be returning soon so we won’t have to feed them again for a long time.

Would you believe, there’s still stuff that needs to be stowed from our last yard sale and after hauling stuff back from our vacation too! Looks like we may be hiring a herd of helpers to help us get these energy-robbing chores done! I turned our upstairs mezzanine area into an "eBay" and "Craig's List" work room, too. So, there are all kinds of sell-ables hunkering in every imaginable corner and stacked all over. That all needs to be pared down and sold. Looks like I need another day off!

Lots of things need to be overhauled around here too. Most of the motorized equipment/tools need to be de-winterized and such. My motor powered trike needs a new rim. The old one is bent. Connie’s trike needs to be built! I’ve not done that yet!! There are still two more small motors that mount on bikes that need to be installed. Did I mention that I need another day off? 

Before I forget, I post this newsletter on “Facebook” for friends and all but also for relatives for whom I don’t have an e-mail address. My database was lost during my computer crash so it’s not that I am trying to snub anyone. If you can send me an address, I can restore it into my contact list (swordman1949@gmail.com ). Also, you might forward to others so I can stay in touch with them too. Thanks.

Speaking of “replacements”, we’re still trying to find a nice pooch to be our guard dog. I’m still thinking that the dog will find us first. The place just doesn’t seem quite right without a dog. The dog house is a mansion so the new tenet will feel special, no doubt. Not sure yet what we’ll name it but a couple of names have been floating about our noggins for awhile. We’ll see.

Anyway….that’s the news from “Rancho Relaxo”. Stay tuned because things…..just might get….interesting.