Wood Cutting

Wood cutting season for this area officially opened just a few days ago.  Today we went to one of the BLM areas to cut juniper.

I went along to help.  He did the cutting and I pulled out the bucked limbs and put the rounds in the truck.

He had just started in one area when I spotted a tree that had already been cut into several rounds.

The nearest person was over 50 yards away.  No one else was around and I thought we should take advantage of the already cut logs.  He said no and actually got mad when I loaded a few of them up anyway. Well, I didn't take them out but I figured the person who cut the logs was gone so they were there for the taking. What...is there some sort of "woodcutters' code"?  Finders keepers, right?  

Every load has to be properly tagged.  This is about a 1/2 cord.

Now we are legal and can take our wood home.

Once home we stacked it neatly behind the shop.  

We decided our next loads will just be dumped since most of it has to be split anyway.  We'll have to rent a splitter when the time comes.

We are allowed 8 cords per year per household.  (That is when taken from BLM or National Forest.  With permission from landowners there is no limit.)

I'm happy that we've started our wood pile for this year.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

If you look closely you may see some green! It's grass that's trying to grow. Maybe spring is right around the corner. We can only hope!

We got the results of our tax trip. We do have to pay (no surprise) but it's much less than we thought and even less than what I had figured. Now we just have to figure out how to save enough to pay for this year.

One of us might be getting a job after all... How sad to have to get a job to pay taxes.

Wildland Firefighters Monument

Today we visited the Wildland Firefighters Monument in Ochoco Creek Park (in Prineville). It is a memorial to the 14 wildland firefighters who died while fighting the South Canyon fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado in 1994.

There are also honorariums to the armed forces and the different wars they fought in. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Off the main entrance and bordering the Ochoco Creek is this pathway.

It is lined with boulders with plaques that have information on the firefighter crews and plaques with each individual who perished in the fire.

At the end of the path is this bronze sculpture by David Nelson.

The majority of the crew that died was from the Prineville Hotshots. This memorial was built using all private funds.

My Golden Crown

I'm not talking about the kind of golden crown that goes on top of your head, rather the kind that goes inside your head (your mouth). I finally got my new permanent tooth today.

And talk about perfect timing! Yesterday I flossed wrong and popped the temporary out (again). But as you can see my new golden crown is in.

My husband came home just as I was leaving for my dentist appointment. His appointment on the other side of the Cascades went well. His next appointment over there is in two months. My next appointment here is tomorrow. It's time to get my breasts pressed!

But on to more pleasant things! I've been making our own bread lately, rather than buy it. I'm not sure why. Maybe just for something to do? Anyway, I've been having a hankering for lox and bagels. Our local Ray's doesn't seem to carry lox so that will have to wait till my next trip to Redmond and the Fred Meyer. (When I asked a clerk at Ray's for "lox" she walked me over to the "hardware" section. I realized she thought I said "locks" and when I tried to explain I meant "lox" she looked a little confused and said if they had it, it would be in the fish section. It wasn't in the fish or deli. ☹)

So I looked in my "Bread Bible" book and the recipe in there called for an ingredient I thought I had but didn't. I checked my trusty Betty Crocker cook book and it had a much simpler recipe that most importantly I had all the ingredients.

Okay, so they didn't look so pretty but they didn't taste half bad. I'll need a little practice to make them look better. Hubby made a white bean and ham soup that was delicious and went well with the fresh bagels.

Now I don't have to be careful about what side I'm chewing on and I can fully enjoy my Hubby-made meals!

On My Own

Hubby left this afternoon to go to Eugene. He has an appointment tomorrow and with the icy evenings he wanted to make sure he could get through.

I took advantage of his absence to do a little deep cleaning. I started with the rug in the living room/dining area. I used a carpet cleaner I bought about eight months ago and never took out of the box. But I got it put together and figured out and now the rug is clean. Then I started on the kitchen floor. It's a rough ceramic tile that is supposed to look like stone. I don't know when the last time it was cleaned but it was a loooonnnngggg time ago.

Sadly for me after over a year in storage my steam mop decided it isn't going to work any more. That meant I was on my hands and knees with a scrub brush.

Well, I got the kitchen done and I decided I'm done for the day. I still have the island bar area, the entry, and the laundry room to do. I've also decided I'm pretty sure I will get a new steam mop.

I have definitely decided that I'm too old to be scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees.

PS-Because of the road conditions Hubby took the truck so I couldn't get the materials for my chicken coop, something I'd much rather be doing! Another day then.

Freezing Fog

I learned the name of the phenomenon I mentioned on Saturday's blog. Not so oddly, it is called a "freezing fog". We had a good one today. We took a little walk around the property after getting the mail and I brought my camera.

This is a single twig. Look how the fog has "grown".

This is the same twig. I knocked the frost off. You'll notice the background is the same.

I had the dogs pose for a portrait amongst the frosted weeds.
We saw this tree. Something wasn't quite right so we took a closer look.

Maybe a pack rat nest? They do live in this area. Fortunately it was vacant at the time I took the picture.

And finally on this chilly day I decided to get started with the wallpapering. I got two strips up and it looks ok. I'll have to do a little paint touch up at the top because I was having trouble cutting it even. So it's not a totally professional job, but it'll do.

I just hope I don't walk into the room tomorrow and find the strips curled up at the bottom of the wall!

Painting Started

Yesterday afternoon I got the first part of my dental crown. The news was not encouraging. The dentist said he was concerned that the fracture ran from the back of the tooth to the front, rather than from side to side. I got my temporary crown on and he wants to see how it does for the next two weeks before he even orders the new crown. Apparently there is more of a risk for the tooth to totally split and/or the root to get infected which would call for a root canal. I'm going to be very careful for the next few weeks!

So today we went and bought my new fancy ladder. It is absolutely perfect for our tall walls. You can see I got one coat on the first wall. Look how much brighter the room looks already! I'm thinking I will put a second coat on and then do a first coat on the second wall. The next day I will second coat the second wall and first coat the third wall, and so on. Unless I'm feeling unusually energetic. Then I'll do more.

This afternoon our driveway alarm went off and I looked out to see a little van driving up to the house. It was a man from the county assessor's office. Since the house was newly sold he wanted to ask us a few questions. Plus he wanted to measure the play room.

Seems they did not have the accurate measurements/square footage of the house in their county files. How does this happen? The plans have to be approved by the county prior to building, plus an inspector has to come out and check things during the build. I don't get it. According to the county man they have been out to this house a few times in the eleven years that it has been here but somehow they have managed to not have the correct square footage. He said had it not been sold they would be after the last owner for the increased taxes this will no doubt create plus back taxes for the last five years!

I guess the good news for us is that the added assessment will not take affect until January 1, 2013. And since we are new owners we don't have to "worry about back taxes". Regardless, I'm not happy about this latest development. We're pretty much stretched to the limit as it is and knowing there is a good possibility that our house payment will increase by a good amount (albeit one year from now) does not make me happy at all. This definately bears a little research.

Grrrrr!

Hope your day is better.

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming!

I suppose it's a good thing we didn't do the kitchen update after all.

My husband took his truck in yesterday to get some work done on the front end and now they are saying it will be more than the original $500 estimate. Aarrrrgh. He also decided (rightly) that the truck needs a couple of new tires... to the tune of about $260 apiece. More aarrrrgh!!!!

The fence guy came out and gave us some advice about the electric fence. The bad news: We are in a bad area for electric fences. It has to do with the dryness of the area, the rockiness, the climate, etc. It's not impossible but it's not the news I had hoped for. Meanwhile he took the measurements for the area we wanted cyclone fenced and he will be calling us with that estimate.

Tonight we went out to #1: feed, and #2: chop wood for this evening's fire. Hubby went out first to cut the wood and a minute later came back in to let me know the bull was not in his pen.

CRAP!

We both went out to find him. I opened his gate wide and threw a flake of hay in his pen. We found him to the far south west (not far from his pen) and managed to herd him back. I think it helped that it was the normal dinner time.

I found the spot where he escaped from his pen and fixed it. I did see some blood on the ground and after examining him I found a small scrape on Dakota's shoulder. *HUGE SIGH*

So hopefully now things will calm down a bit and the $ bleed will slow down.

I took some comfort tonight in a picture of our old cat, Kneadermeier (about 13?)...

...and our goof ball dog, Clyde.

One day at a time...

Moving Rocks

We've been working on getting our electric fence to work for a long time now. Every other day my husband has been trying different things and buying different things in an attempt to make the fence work. I've been asking him to call a professional fence guy for a while, but I guess he thought he could do it. He's probably thinking: After all, the neighbors behind us have an electric fence that works. I'm thinking: A local professional would certainly know what he's doing.

I may have mentioned way back when we had stopped by the fence company and left our number. The secretary was supposed to give the owner/worker the number but we never got a call back.

Today when after two hours of more work and no results my husband decided we needed an $80 electric fence checker I just looked at him and kind of pouted a bit. And then he had a moment of brilliance. "You know," he said, "It will probably cost that much to have somebody come out to check it. What do you say to calling someone and having them take a look?"

Being the wise woman I like to think I am I wholeheartedly agreed. And being the wise woman I like to think I am I never said aloud what I was thinking: We could have saved some money, time, and aggravation if we had called sooner!

So he went into town to talk to the fence guy. As we suspected he never got our number. He said he would have remembered it since we have an out-of-state area code (cell number). He'll (hopefully) be coming out some time tomorrow to take a look and maybe fix the electric fence and also give us an estimate to build a chain link fenced area for the dogs.

In preparation for that we decided to move the (killer) rocks along the front of the driveway. In this picture we have cleared the rocks from the area next to that cement curb. Beyond that you can sort of see the curve of that section of driveway where the rocks have been pushed in line with the tree. That's the part where my car got stuck when I didn't turn sharply enough when I came out of the garage!

Next section getting cleared.
Making a nice rock pile. I already have plans for repurposing some of these rocks!
The rocks are mostly gone from where we want to build the chain link fence.
The rock pile.
And the only casualty from the day. I somehow managed to smash a finger and break my nail. Ouch.
Oh well, it's about time for a fill anyhow.

Our Garbage

We did not sign up for garbage service so we have to deal with our trash ourselves. This is the first time we've ever been without any sort of garbage service so it is a little bit of a learning curve.

We have learned to separate cardboard, glass, tin (and aluminum) cans, magazines, plastic containers, and paper. Here in the laundry room is the bottle container, plastic bags with plastic containers and metal cans.

We've only been to the landfill once so far, which was at the end of November.

All the "recyclables" are unloaded outside the dump in marked bins, so we have learned to load the truck up accordingly. All the household trash goes in the back toward the cab.

The Christmas tree is the last to be loaded, then we tie down and go.
Here are the bins for newspapers, magazines, plastic containers, etc.

After off-loading the recyclables we drive onto the scale to get the starting weight. Then we drive to the various "cells" to off-load miscellaneous trash like a broken Rubbermaid box, giant plastic tarp thing that covered the new guest mattress, and so on.

Final stop is the regular household trash.

The truck gets weighed on the way out and we pay our fee. So far we haven't gone over 300 pounds so our dump fee is only $10.

It amazes me how we have changed our garbage habits. I used to put a new bag in the kitchen trash at least once a day. Now that we are separating everything it's more like once every three or four days. It's not that difficult to put the different things in their place once you get used to it. The only thing we don't bring to the dump is paper trash, like paper towels, trash mail, the rolls inside the toilet paper or paper towels, etc. All that stuff is burnable so we put it in the fireplace to help start the fire. I'm not sure how that will change come summer (maybe chiminea fodder?).

The only thing I'm not doing at the moment is an indoor compost pot (coffee grounds, peels, etc.) Baby steps!

Now that I think we have the hang of it I'm going to get a place outside to store everything until we make our dump run. It is definitely worth it if we only have to go to the dump once every month or so and it's only costing us $10. I can certainly live with that.

Red Sky

It snowed last night and this morning we woke up to a light one inch of snow covering the area. I had taken a picture because besides the light blanket on the ground there was a fog blanket (or low cloud?) covering the town below. Sadly, I accidentally erased that picture.

Here are a couple of progressive pictures from this evening.

You'll have to take my word for it, it's much prettier in person!

Bowman Dam And Powder House Cove

Our drive along the Crooked River took us to the Bowman Dam, at the western side of Prineville Reservoir.

From the top of the dam, looking back the way we came.
The road across the dam.
The dam on the reservoir side.

And we ended our drive at the Powder House Cove. This is looking back towards the dam.

This is the "historical building" which we think is the "Powder House". Not a toilet but most likely where the explosives were stored when the dam was being built. We don't know this for sure but it's not a bad guess.

I took a lot of pictures of it because looking at it made the wheels in my head start spinning. And if you know me...

;-)