First, updates.
Nothing from Leroy on my truck. At this point I'll assume it's Monday before I learn anything, either because he calls or I drive up there to see what's (not) going on.
Charles arrived as scheduled a little before 8 a.m. yesterday and we looked things over while waiting for Robyn, who arrived right on time. The two of them talked and agreed on a cutting plan that would have the smallest possible impact on the creek. Then Charles and his helper Monte cut down about four big trees close to the creek, dropping them at an angle of about 30 degrees to the creek. The plan is to cut the others in such a way as to lay them those so that they can be dragged out with no contact with the creek.
Charles and Monte left shortly after that, a little before noon, so he could go get their bulldozer, which showed up mid-afternoon. At that point he planned to be back here to start work at 7:00 this morning. but he called in the evening to say he had a couple of things to clear up at another job site. So this morning he delivered a very big back hoe-like machine with jaws on the arm, literally ripped some medium trees out of the ground. and used the bulldozer to clear a path for the trucks to get in. He and Monte will be back Monday and Tuesday to get the rest of it done, and we're fine with that. Sure, we're eager to have the work done, but the functional difference between today and Tuesday doesn't amount to much.
You should see Monte, Charle's helper. He is 84 years old, has been doing timber work since the Civil War, and moves around, on, and over trees like a man half his age. Deaf as a post, but one of those guys who has seen it all and has an expertise that only experience can provide. Always smiling and ready to laugh. What a treasure!
Connie, Charles' wife, was also here and is a regular part of the crew. She drives the cat and hoe, and does the paperwork part of the business. Nice lady who will talk your leg off. She had the contract ready for me to sign. I'll get 25% of the price the logs bring at the mill. The normal split is 50/50, but the special issues here - difficult access, the creek, the number of dead trees - shift that balance. Dave, a local timber guy from the coffee shop who has seen my situation, said that's a fair deal.
I got a new watering system set up for the chickens. A 5 gallon bucket hangs from the eaves with a 1.25" PVC pipe coming from its bottom and going into the coop. Inside the coop that pipe has three little red "nipples" that have a stainless steel pin at the bottom. When a chicken pecks at the pin water comes out. This will be a much easier and cleaner system once I get the pump and supply lines installed, which happens after all the trees are gone. Turn a valve, fill the bucket, and call it done.
I finished this today and removed the double-wall waterer hanging from the coops ceiling. Now I hope my chickens, which have demonstrated just how stoopid a chicken can be, figure out that the nipples will give them water. Either that or I'll have six dead, dehydrated chickens in a day or two.
That because temps are mid-90's today and tomorrow before dropping back into the 80's Sunday.
Help me out.
First, go here, to the Facebook page of Cornerstone Church
Now go here.
Your thoughts? Legit or bogus? Or....?
Yesterday we went into Eugene to pick up our race packets for tomorrow's event in Junction City. On the way home we stopped at Burger King to get drinks and use their free broadband internet to watch videos and do other things that require more bandwidth than we have here at home. We'd just settled in when Pam pulled out one of her ear buds and said, "I really like our life here."
That meant a TON to me. In 45 years of marriage I've always been the initiator, the mover, and she's been the follower. She's followed all over the country and into a very wide variety of adventures. New jobs, new places, new projects. Our move to 3 acres out in the woods of OR 10 months ago was, in many ways, one of the most dramatic and as we talked about the possibility of relocating I must have asked her a dozen times, "Are you SURE you want to do this??" We talked through the pros and cons over and over again, but because she's such a go-along person I wondered if she was being her cooperative, easy self, agreeing to what she sensed I wanted to do. So hearing that yesterday made me feel good.
Yeah, I asked her to elaborate. She said she likes the freedom we have to do whatever, whenever. If we want to stop at BK for internet for an hour or so we can do that.
Agreed. No deadlines except those we create (and alter), and the priorities we agree upon.
If I'd have known retirement was this good we might have done it years ago!
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