October Musings

Me at My Rendezvous Lodge

October has kinda snuck up on me – I’ve been busy trying to get as much done on my house & yard as possible ever since the weather became reasonable in late August.  The storm windows are off and I’m painting the window frames that are behind the storms plus the storms themselves.  Both doors to the house are painted as well as the front eve.  The back eve needs one more coat.  I’m out of paint now, so further painting is on temporary hold.  My Harley is finally fixed & road worthy, but the rain has prevented me from picking it it as yet.  Oh well, this weekend should be warm & sunny.

Fall has always seemed a time of beginnings – the legacy of starting school for either myself or my urchin for 38 of my 59 Septembers on this earth.  I actually feel at rather loose ends to not be buying textbooks and all that.  And I miss the excitement of learning with other folks in a group instead of just reading things on my own.  I suppose this joy of learning with a group is what drives the various lecture series etc. aimed at retirees. 

I have had a beginnings of one sort at least.  I’ve gotten broadband interwebs at the house and gone cell only for my phone service.  By terminating my relationship with my Century Link landline I also stopped their annoying buy-this-service calls.  Which is wonderful.  nTelos  does not call its customers unless its a bill payment issue.  Which is how it should be.  I now have a nice bright red Samsung cell phone with nice big buttons and a thingie the size of a jump drive in a USB port on my computer.  WooHoo !  I can actually download sizable updates etc.  I am a happy camper.

I’ve also changed primary banks.  The automated telephone customer service used by Bank of America has failed to serve me for the last time.  BB&T offers a much friendlier telephone & website interface.  The local branch employees are friendly too, but then the local Bank of America branch wasn’t the problem.

Sorry, no fall rendezvous pictures yet.  The fall SLR event was fist cancelled due to open fire restrictions at the site, then rescheduled an hour farther away.  I had thought to go to the local BMW rally but the Harley had some lights that weren’t lighting and a bad manifold seal – both easy enough to fix but not in time for the rally. 

Its mid fall here at the house.  The lower story in my woods is beginning to die back and the leaves are just beginning to fall.  The evening woods are still full of little critter songs but they quiet down well before midnight.  The dry summer meant the creeklet went totally dry for about a week, but the recent rain has put it back into service.  Their have been several light frosts but no killing frost as yet.  It seems the woods is just going to slide into winter by small little steps.  Which is not a bad thing at all.

ALBA 2010

August and its time for A Laid Back Affair motorcycle rally.  I admit I had been looking forward to this year’s Affair all summer.  I had the time off to go, the Harley was in the shop my mid July to get its fluids changed & tuned,  Urchin had the time off to go &Urchin’s fella was coming too.  Way Cool.

Enter Reality.  The Harley needed a new coil along with fresh fluids and new plugs, points & condenser.  It wasn’t ready to roll until Thursday morning of the ALBA & it still needed insurance, registration & an inspection.  Scratch the HD for the rally.  Urchin had developed a nasty cold/sore throat/whatever & wasn’t in any shape to ride her Ninja anywhere.  Scratch Urchin.  No Urchin also meant scratch Urchin’s fella. 

OH well, its going to be a very different rally than I had planned, but my friends of many many years will be there so off I went Thursday noon in my truck to ALBA.  I went over Snicker’s Gap to Elkton then up the valley along the Blue Ridge on US 340 to Greenville near my parish.  From there I cruised on up US 11 to Lexington, hung a left onto US 60 over to Buena Vista, picked up food at the local grocery & then cruised into the Glen Maury campground.   The drive was beautiful & the temperature mild.

I entered a crowded Glen Maury campground.  OMG.  A very, very crowded Glen Maury campground with only 4 motorcycles in sight and many many tents, trailers and one massive class A RV parked right where the ALBA camps.  People everywhere.  Kids everywhere.  There were more bicycles than motorcycles in camp.  ?????  Seems the campground had double booked the pavilion & camp area with a family reunion, a very LARGE family reunion.  Mind you, they were nice, shared the pavilion with us, invited us to their big dinner at the event pavilion down the hill, played cool  music live in the evenings.  But it made for a very strange Affair. 

JP & Serena were there but sans bike – JP’s trike ate its transmission 60 miles from his house Wednesday morning on the way to the Affair.  Paul had double booked himself & had to work the weekend.  Mikey came but left Friday afternoon.  Jo has been tied up with her new house all summer & was still too tied up to come.  Several regulars hadn’t planned to come this year, they were on their way to Sturgis.  Several more got delayed by in the truly awful thunderstorms & wind that hit the Washington-Baltimore area Wednesday & Thursday, then decided to just skip it when they heard about the Family Reunion Hoard.  (A polite Hoard but still a Hoard.)  About half a dozen other riders arrived, saw the super crowded campground and headed on down the Parkway for their own Affair.  Can’t say I blame them.  All in all we had 20 registrants & 15 motorcycles, 5 of which arrived Friday evening late.  Well there were plenty of door prizes for everyone.

This year was a Black Tie Affair, we all got black ties as Rally pins.  Some of us were more inventive than others in wearing our ties – yes friends, this man keeps the interwebs running in a big way.  I went swimming in the Maury River, took a nice ride in the country Friday and caught up on all the news from the folks who were there.  I do think we should consider a change of venue though – this isn’t the first time in recent years the campground has “forgotten” about our reservation until we actually arrived. 

The lemonade was excellent.

Life’s Little Detours

August is the season of A Laid Back Affair motorcycle rally.  Usually Kat & I head off on our respective rides to Buena Vista, hang out with our friends all weekend & cruise around the Blue Ridge.  This year Kat’s fella JR was going to come too.  I’ve been looking forward to this weekend all summer.  Enter some pot holes in the road of life.

Kat is sick so she can’t make it.  No Kat equals no JR either.  No Affair for them this weekend.  My bike is still in the shop.  Its engine oil, trans oil, primary oil, condenser, points & spark plugs are all new.  But its plugs aren’t firing.  So now it has a new coil too, but its not yet registered, insured or inspected, so its not going to the Affair either.  Phooey.

Oh well, I’m going anyway, in my NNMC truck (that’s No Name Motorcycle Club).  I can take pictures, go swimming & maybe ride on the back of someone’s bike.  JP’s trike died on the way to the rally yesterday (Jim Post, the father of the Affair) so I’m not the only one who found a pothole or two.  Viva La Affair !

A Quiet Day of Rest

Since I was given this extra day of rest, I decided to rest.  The various projects on my plate right now could just stay there for one more day.  So after breakfast at noon – I do need to go to work tonight – I put a few stray things away around the house & then headed out to my lawn chair near the woods line to see what was to be seen. 

Its clearly mid summer in my woods.  The cardinals, titmice, wrens, nuthatches, thrushes, finches, pine siskins & various sparrows are all busy calling out to one another while they hunt down this or that tasty morsel.  The honeysuckle are about done blooming but the little orange flowered perennials are just starting up.  The shallowtailed butterflies and bumblebees are busy checking out the flowers, waiting for their feast to begin in earnest.  Various insects are calling one to another but not many this early in the day.  The world moves as it will & the wheel of time turns in its circle of life.  It has been a good day off. 

Life’s Wonderful Little Gifts

For various reasons I ended up having  tonight off.  Given I’m currently harboring a cold, this was rather nice.  So as twilight moved over my house & yard I built a small fire in my fire ring (wasn’t cool enough for anything larger) and let the smoke carry various troubles off into the darkening woods.  The fire flies were rising, two different kinds from here & there in the yard & the woods alike.  A humming bird flew along the woods edge, stopped & chittered at me & then flew on its business.  Paws-in Trouble hopped into my lap & got his tummy rubbed as we watched the green of the woods darken into green-gray backlit  by the setting sun.  The day birds had quieted & the night insects were beginning to take  their place in the cycle of sound.

I’m not sure whether it was sound or a touch of movement but I turned slightly to my right as I was watching the fire flies in the yard – to see a nice 4 point buck saunter into my yard between my chair & the tulip popular.  He totally ignored me & Paws from a distance of less than  twenty feet.  As near as I can tell he never even saw us, the sound of the weed wacker  across the street had his attention.  He nibbled his way across my yard, around the honeysuckle bush, along the pines between my yard & the neighbor’s yard & then walked alone the woods edge for maybe 20 yards before moving under the trees & back into the woods.  For slightly over 20 minutes this handsome fella was never more than 50 feet from me.

Now in the almost 18 years I’ve lived here I’ve seen several deer in my yard.  For the first 8 years there was a magnificent 10 pointer that showed up every October.  Various smaller bucks & does  have walked along the tree line & once I saw a fawn resting under the forsythia.  But I’d always seen them from inside the house through the kitchen or back bedroom window, never when I was outside in the yard.   I feel honored to have been able to enjoy this buck’s visit. 

Hippo Birdie to Ewe Urchin

Twenty eight years ago at about 9:15 AM my Urchin was born.  Its been a good 28 years and I’m proud of the woman my little girl has become.

Urchin with Munchkin the Turbo Kittah

Urchin drove to my place in the wee hours of the morn & we spent her birthday together.  Around 7:30 AM we took her car into C’ville & dropped it off to get 4 new tires.  While that was happening we had a Birthday Breakfast at IHOP, then cruised back to my place once her car was finished.  It was much too hot a day to really do anything, so we just hung out at my place, chatted about this & that – not at all a bad way to spend the day. 

Happy Birthday Urchin. 

Stray Thoughts

Wednesday it was 103 here at high noon, today it was 100.  I didn’t even consider going paddling, painting house trim, mowing the yard, working on N&K’s cabinet doors or any other similar tasks.  I did do my dishes, wash clothes which I spread out on my lawn to dry rather than use the dryer, brushed out Sophia, gave Pookie a bath, cleaned & flea sprayed my bedroom which has AC, brushed Baboo, read some, got the truck oil changed and met the farrier for a hoof trimming session.   I also drank a LOT of ice water.  And considered various truths of life.

1.No matter how you list the items of a household budget the bottom line stays the same.  Changing the order of the budget entries does nothing to alter the budget.  Phooey, why does creative budgeting only work for the government. 

2.Washing your laundry in cold water does reduce how hot the laundry area gets.  Drying your clothes outside helps a great deal too.

3.Cats are more willing to ignore other cats they don’t like much when  sharing a room with AC in really really hot weather. 

4.Kittens are unaffected by ugly hot weather much to the displeasure of older cats who really don’t want to play tag in the heat.

5.No matter how frequently one brushes a collie-type dog there is always a lot of undercoat to brush out.  Maybe the undercoat clones itself.

6.Thunderstorms like to tease humans during heat waves by promising torrential rain which never actually falls.  If by chance a thunderstorm actually does drop heavy rain it will also knock out the power thereby nuking the AC in your home. 

7.”The heat is much easier to handle than 28 inches of snow.”  Its a good mantra, use it.

8.Tina in Japan lives in the back of beyond.  So far, no atlas or map of Japan has shown her current abode.  She’s done it, she’s off the map !  Huzzah Tina !

Summer’s Halfway Point

Its hot.  Its humid.  My To-Do list is getting shortened but very slowly.  Its just too hot to do much Mightly Mouse work.  I have managed to get kayaking on the Rivanna River once each work break.  I’ve been up the Jumping Branch of the river into the Ivy Creek Natural area until the Branch got too shallow to continue.  Last trip I saw 2 great blue herons, a muskrat, a doe drinking from the branch not 12 ft. from me, about 4 dozen Canada geese, a dozen or so Mallard ducks, more turtles than I could easily count and a selection of birds I couldn’t quite identify.  Yesterday I went up the river itself half way to the Earlysville bridge and saw a nice 6 point buck, an adult great blue heron, a juvenile great blue heron, half a hundred Canada geese, several dozen mallard ducks, a whole convention of turtles at a bend in the river and 3 kingfishers.  I’ve working on improving my paddling skills, the Rivanna where I’m kayaking is impounded so there’s no current to speak of.  I’ve got basic straight forward and staying centered down, working on tight turns.  I don’t think I’m ready for moving water yet. 

I’ve also been helping friends in Staunton ready their house for sale.  Their new kitchen cabinet doors have been primed, sanded, various little voids filled and given their first coat of paint.  Its going slowly in part because they have me using oil based paint and its taking 6 to 8 hours for the paint to dry.  So I can only work on one coat on one side of the doors a day.  They need another light sanding & a second coat of paint before I can deliver them.  Saturday I spent at their place removing wall to wall carpet, wall to wall carpet padding & the nail strips used to hold wall to wall carpet in place.  Uufda.  Once the carpets & carpet strips were up we chilled for a bit, had dinner & then headed out for the local fireworks.  Not a bad day all in all, not bad at all.

Happy Birthday to the USA and here’s to a good July & August for all my friends.

It Just Wasn’t My Day – Or Was It ? June 24th

I let myself sleep this morning until I just woke up on my own, which meant it was morning but not by much when I got up.  I decided to continue chillin’, so I went out & washed my kayak, located all the kayak stuff in the yellow bedroom & put the kayak paddle together (it comes apart for storage.)  Loaded the kayak et all into my truck & headed over to the Rivanna for some paddling.  It was hot but clear.  Unloaded the boat, got it in the water, pushed off & flipped.  The 3 guys and 2 boys fishing at the put-in got their afternoon comic relief performance.  I was a bit short of dignity at this point but managed to re-launch nicely if not all that elegantly.  At least I didn’t loose any gear.

Paddled out of sight of the landing as fast as was prudent - one flip in a “No Swimming” impound was enough for me – & headed towards the Ivy Creek Natural Area coves.  Well at least I was a great deal cooler than when I unloaded the boat, being as I was soaking wet.   A great blue heron flew over and landed at the head of the first cove & proceeded to get lunch-to-go in short order.  I halted the kayak & watched said bird enjoy its suchi snack, then headed on into the 2nd cove & watched some turtles swimming in front of my boat. 

Unfortunately I forgot to watch the weather.  Just as I reached the back of the 2nd cove the sky gets dark, the wind picks up and the thunder starts.  Great.  I’m in an open boat, a thunderstorm is building & I’m about a half mile from the landing with the wind strong & against me.  So I paddled to an opening in the trees near a granite boulder and beached the kayak to wait out the storm.  Serious storm too, half an hour of locally severe weather, at one point I couldn’t even see the other side of the cove & its a modest cove.  Once the weather moved on I paddled back to the landing post haste by following the shoreline.  The wind was blowing diagonally across the water & strong enough to produce a nasty chop, so along the shore was prudent.  I’ve flipped once already, let’s not make it twice !  Made it back OK, just very wet & very chilled.

Once I got home & into dry stuff I headed back out to C’ville for dinner, except C’ville had no power & thus no functioning places to eat out.  This is clearly not exactly my day.  Finally found a pizza place open on the way back home & had a meatball sub.  Oh well.  I had a good if somewhat shortened paddle, I finished the forsythia trimming & pine trimmings disposal after dinner and generally have recharged my internal batteries.  Spent the remainder of the evening doing various small sewing projects since C’ville had no power & thus I had no interwebs.  Funny thing, those servers want electric juice.

Just Chillin’ – June 23rd

The “Buckingham” coming into Scottsville.

I get home from work, I go to bed & the phone rings at 11:15am.  Seems I had brought a piece of equipment home from work, so I got up, got dressed, drove to work, turned in the item in question & then drove back home.  What a great way to start the day.  I looked at my To-Do list, said “Phooey”, & decided to treat myself to  “Just-For-Me” time.  So I grabbed a camera & headed off for the James River Batteau Festival stop at Scottsville.

There were 28 batteaux in this year’s fleet, plus various canoes & kayaks escorting them as they drift down the James River.  All the boats have names but I wasn’t always able to see & read the wooden name plates.  Some where quite faded.

This is the “Maple Run”.  It is one of the shorter batteau.  It steers quicker than the longer batteau but obviously can’t carry as much.   The Batteau Fest starts in Lynchburg and floats its way to Richmond in 8 days with various pre-arranged overnight stops with camping..

This is the Rose of Nelson.  The batteau vary somewhat in length and just how they’re set up.  Not all the boats have awnings although they all have steering oars fore & aft.   Basically these craft float or are poled downstream, although it is possible to pole one upstream if the current is modest.

Most batteau have a short pointed stern & prow on them, but some are flat at both ends rather like a barge.  The wooden boxey things in the center are for gear storage on the reproduction boats.  The originals would have had hogsheads or other freight filling most of the batteau.

This is the ‘Spirit of New London” steered here by none other than Dulcimer Dave McNew of OVPR fame.  He was singing a chantey as the batteau drifted into the landing. 

The day was very hot & humid when I first got to Scottsville but a line of squalls cooled things off nicely without actually raining on the festival.   There were various food & craft vendors available, nice food, decent modern crafts. 

This fellow was snitching food from various folks, I caught him at 560mm.  Isn’t Image Stabilization nice !  I also lost my camera lens cap somewhere at the Fest.  Bummer.

Stay-Cation Part 2 – June 18-20

Friday I relocated my box of Round-Tuits.  Started the day by cleaning and priming 3 aluminum storm windows, then put the first coat of trim paint on the front door and front eves.  That used of 6 hours of labor, 4 of it from a ladder.  Then I put 2 half gallon plastic  orange juice containers mostly full of water in the freezer and made up 2 cheese & baloney sandwiches.  The Urchin & I are to meet up in Front Royal for their 2nd Annual Celtic Festival on Saturday & I’m bringing a cooler with plenty of cold water plus lunch.  Finished up the day by burning more of the white pine and then visiting with friends.

 

Eric Opening the Celtic Festival.

Saturday morning I finished making lunch for the day and then drove over to Front Royal for the Celtic Festival.  Had a bit of a problem finding it as there wasn’t any directional signage to the Festival site, but find it I did.  A little bit later the Urchin found it too, having had the same problem I did finding the Fest.  Even though it was uncomfortably hot, we had a great time.  The music was quite good, there was also various groups dancing, Clan booths, Celtic craft venders, various general vendors, decently priced food booths and even 2 guys with peregrine falcons giving talks on falconry.  

Linda sang mid-afternoon.

There was of course the obligatory pipe band parade.

One of the Peregrine Falcons

Eric, Linda, Urchin & I all had a grand time in spite of the heat.  The Urchin & I ended our day with fresh frozen custards at a local family run shop which makes their custard using local dairy products.  Then I drove home by the shortest way which also happens to be the scenic way.  Got home in time to take a nice cooling bath before the fireflies came out. 

Sunday was tie-up-loose-project-ends day.  The front door has been given 2 more coats of paint, various things have been put back where they belong around the house, the white pine trimmings are all gone, the laundry from the week is done, some minor sewing repair jobs got done and I still had time to go visit more of my friends.  It may be hot but life is good.

Stay-Cation #2 – Midway Through – 6/14-6/17

Well I’ve done it again, I’ve managed to arrange 7 days off of work in a row.  WooHoo !  Got home from work Monday, slept for 5 hours, got up and mowed my back yard, disposed of various little piles of brushwood and then settled down to a nice cup of java and a good mystery novel in my pleasant & delightful freshly mowed backyard.  Tuesday saw me mowing the front yard, deposited the clipping from said mowing on the woods path on the far side of the bridge over the creek, trimming brush away from the bridge, removing the jungle from the front garden, burning a fair amount of the white pine trimmings, doing the laundry and the dishes.  Wednesday was payday so there were various errands I needed to run.  While it was cooler than the previous 2 days it was also heavily overcast with short but heavy rain showers throughout the day.  I did get brush removed from the side-back yard and more trimming on the forsythia done.  The snow load over the winter had done a number on 3 of my 4 oldest bushes and they needed more substantial pruning than I had thought at first.  The rain really woke up the fireflies and the evening rising was the first really big one this year.  The damp seemed to make them hover within a yard of the ground for almost an hour before they dispersed to find the love of their life in the trees and bushes to the song of the evening frogs.  Thursday was an absolutely lovely day, cooler and with a cloudless deep blue sky.  After I did some more house chores I just sat in the back of my yard near the trees just chillin’.  The flagpole for my 1700’s camp got another coat of paint, the 8 pointed star on my 1812 wooden canteen got its final coat of paint and several letters were written.  After the wind quit in the late afternoon I burned more of the white pine trimmings so 2/3 to 3/4 of them are now just ashes.  Around 6pm the fireflies rose as thick as on Wednesday but without hovering near the yard as long.  The frogs weren’t quite as nosey either.

While doing payday errands and food shopping I ran into another once common item which has become hard to find – writing paper.   I don’t mean printer paper, typing paper, 3-hole notebook paper, steno pads, legal pads,etc., I mean plain white paper without lines for the purpose of writing a personal letter to one’s friends.  Writing paper used to be available in every grocery, Five & Dime and variety mart  in several sizes and various qualities.   Well no longer.  Not in Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Wal-Mart, the Dollar General or even Target.  Kroger had half a dozen 6x9 pads of writing paper one of which followed me home.  I guess letter writing is no longer a common skill.  Sad.

If It Ain’t Broke – Don’t Fix It !

So Wednesday I spent several hours positioning my 12 ft. ladder, climbing up the ladder, trimming a pine branch or two, climbing down the ladder,  repositioning the ladder, climbing back up the ladder, trimming another branch or two etc.  I’m a halfling, I don’t like heights.  So pine tree trimming is getting a rest even though I’m not quite done yet. 

Post trimming I went into C’ville to pick up some things, a sponge mop refill and sunscreen spray among them.  Sponge mop refills seem to have gone into exile.  I found butterfly mop refills, roller mop refills, super dupper kingsize mop refills, but no plain old ordinary sponge mop refills.  Screw mount, pin mount, slide bracket mount - doesn’t matter I’ve got all 3 kinds of sponge mop heads.  I finally found 2 LibMan mop refills at Harris Teeter & I bought them both.  Gee whiz world, the basic sponge mop is a good functional product.  I sure don’t want a fancy $25 mop that may or may not have refills available 6 months later. 

The sun screen was even harder to find.  I want the spray on sun screen that comes in a bottle with a Windex type spray head.  The stuff used to be available everywhere.  Now the manufacturer’s have gone to aerosol aluminum cans for their spray on products, which usually means the aerosol is used up before the sun screen.  Grrr.  I finally found 2 bottles of what I wanted at Food Lion hiding down on the bottom shelf behind the after tanning oil.  I bought both bottles.  

Thursday I kicked back a bit.  Put the stuff I got from my friends-who-are-moving-to-Florida away, did some basic house cleaning and painted my rendezvous lodge flagpole Prussian blue.  Mostly I sat in my backyard enjoying the great outdoors while I painted the flagpole.  Paws-in-Trouble came and inspected my paint job just to make sure I was doing it right.  As the afternoon slide into evening I watched the fireflies rise in the yard.  The lighting bugs that glow in a “J” pattern are now rising along with the 3 short dot pattern and 1 long stationary dash pattern.  The “J” pattern bugs are lawn, pasture and meadow critters.  They’re the most common around where I live.  The other two patterns are open woodlands critters.  They appear before the “J” bugs by about 3 weeks but are always rather modest in number. 

I’ve got 3 nights of work then a week off.  Various painting projects are about to have Round Tuits thrown at them !

Time Moves On – June 4-7

This is the new-to-me sundial that friends from the Great Valley gave me.  I spent Saturday with them, cleaning out their shed and generally helping them tie up various loose ends.  They’re  moving out of state, so our regular visits are about to end.  We have had excellent times together and I will miss them greatly, yet its time for them to sail in other waters.  May the wind always be at their back and all their moorages be calm.

I finished the yard mowing Friday and got more trimming on the driveway pines done Sunday, plus various routine household chores were accomplished.   Watched some DVD’s I borrowed from my Urchin too.  Not a bad weekend , just a sad one.

Loose Ends – June 1 & 2

 

Paws-in-Trouble coming down off the roof – note to self, always check roof before removing the ladder.

The 1st of the month is pay day and I also had a dentist appointment that morning.  Got the finances and teeth done, but my teeth ached too much for any other major work.  I did get Advantage on the pets, a follow up to the Capstar.  Sophia has been brushed out.  The camp canvas has been put away, the ‘vous clothes washed and stored, the wool blankets aired and put away, and the modern laundry done.  Late Tuesday night I installed the new AC unit in my bedroom window, so now its cool and dehumidified where I sleep.   Various other cleaning has been done, although the front lawn has yet to get mowed.  Oh well, 2 nights of work and then I can mow it.  All in all it has been a good week.  Hugs to all my friends.

Chipmunk helping me put away canvas.

Rendezvous at Belle Grove – May 28-31

The Shenandoah Longrifles sponsor 3 rendezvous a year at Belle Grove – over Memorial Day & Labor Day weekends plus a winter camp sometime during November.  We camp in the woods behind the event parking field, so there’s plenty of shade but with limited overhead clearance.

This is Buffalo Woman’s camp on the right & mine on the left

Of course some folks prefer a fancy camp

While others like it bare bones basic

 

But we all like it very laid back – particularly when its hot

Here’s Buffalo Woman – aka Jane in her summer finery

Of course it isn’t a real ‘Vous without some music

I’ve been known to do a bit of pickin’ & singin’ too

 

But mostly ‘Vous is about spending time with your friends

Doing nothing in particular

Two Colonial longhunters in camp

An Irish frontier family

It was hot but no rain from Friday morning until I left Monday morning.  No rain on the way home either, although I still had to lay my canvas out to dry.  It was still damp from the morning dew.

Finished off Monday by mowing my backyard, unloading the gear from my truck and giving Capstar to all the pets.  Hot weather equals fleas.  Ugh.

Let The Fun Begin – May 26 & 27

One of the joys of my work is its schedule – I work on 2 or 3 nights, then have 2 or 3 days off.  This means that if I can schedule any given 2 or 3 work nights off I have a whole 7 calendar days off.  Sweet.  So on May 26 I started a work-free week.  Wednesday I came home from work about 7am, slept for 4 hours then got up and got to it.  The garbage is all out at the street, my double brazier is washed, repainted hi-temp BBQ black and ready for sale, the door tent peg loops on my 9x9x7 wedge are all sewn where I want them, the ‘Vous groceries bought, my packing list made and general house cleaning has been accomplished. 

Thursday morning I headed out to where Irish & Louise are boarded.  Both horses were having their hooves trimmed, then I groomed and washed both of them.  The last of the winter hair has now been brushed out, their manes have been  combed, their tails somewhat combed, they’ve got hoof stuff on their feet and bug spray on the rest of them.  Irish also has some pink Swat on his legs where the black biting flies have been giving him a hard time. 

Irish in his Winter Coat

Irish all combed out & freshly washed

Irish really really likes to be washed – he really is a waterboy !

Once I finished with the horses it was time to head home and pack up for the Shenandoah Longrifle Rendezvous at Belle Grove.  I had originally planned to get there by this evening but decided that the developing thunderstorms made it more sensible to go there Friday morning.

Make Lemonade

So this weekend last I had planned to visit my daughter Friday, go to D&D’s Saturday about noon and then attend a concert by Norman Kennedy with them on Saturday evening.  Except the Urchin ended up house sitting, which blew out Friday evening, and my checkbook informed me that it didn’t have enough funds to drive to metro DC and do the concert.  Not unless I wanted to run out of gas funds for the Belle Grove Rendezvous for which I have already registered and have time off for.  The extra trips to work for in-service training and range qualification ate the concert trip funds.  Bummer. 

So I made the best of being stuck at home.  The kitchen door, kitchen windows and my bedroom window have been cleaned, prepped and painted.  Double hung windows mean painting most of the window frame, then reversing the window positions and painting the rest of the frame once the first part sets up.  Lots of up and down the ladder.  And that’s after all the dead bugs, spider’s nests etc. have been cleaned out of the area between the storm windows and the double hung windows.  Its also nice if the indoor cats stay indoors and the outdoor bugs stay outdoors while all of this cleaning and painting is going on.  Plus its a good idea to make sure Paws-in-Trouble isn’t up on the roof before you remove the ladder or Paws can’t get down.  Yet somehow I got it all sorted out and the trim does look nice if I do say so myself.

The forsythia trimmings have also been disposed of, although the rain started up whenever I headed out to do more trimming on the bushes.  The metal bands on the 1812 canteen have been painted black.  The tips of my camp flag pole have also been painted black, although I haven’t decided what color to paint the rest of the pole yet.  The big wedge tent has its upright pole pin holes marked and 2 of its door tent peg loops relocated where I want them.  My respect for sail makers has increased ten fold.  Sewing through 3 layers of canvas and either 1 or 2 layers of cotton webbing is serious work ! 

Since all work and no play made for a dull day, I also watched Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki.  I’ve now got 7 of his animated movies and an evening with Miyazaki is always a pleasure.  Although I would have preferred an evening with D&D and Norman Kennedy, the lemonade wasn’t half bad.

Summer Is a Cummin In

Its official, its summer.  As I was sitting in my back yard watching the woods grow dark I saw fireflies.  Not many mind you, only about 6 of the little guys, but I definitely saw fireflies.   So its definitely summer.  This is the earliest I’ve ever seen lightening bugs in my yard by 2 full weeks in all the years I’ve lived here, I hope this doesn’t foretell a long hot summer. 

Projects Projects Projects

Well I got the truck’s oil changed and tires rotated, the library books returned and bought the thinner for the paint I’m using on the 1812 militia canteen.  Two more boxes of stuff have been sorted through, although why my Urchin packed up 19 empty 20 oz. spring water bottles is beyond me.  I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

The lawn has been mowed a second time and is looking good.

The grass clipping from the front yard have been put on the woods path in the back yard and the path cleared of green growing things.

The last of the downed cedar tree has been added to the bridge over the creek.

All of the trailers are now in the side yard.  The yard, aka Trailer Park, still has some brush to be trimmed out. 

The forsythia has been trimmed up too, all but the parts I need the ladder to trim.  It started to rain so finishing up the trimming and cleaning up the trimmings will have to wait.

Here’s the 1812 Virginia militia canteen.  Its not finished yet.  I need to put another layer of red paint on the back, even out some places on the star, paint the metal bands black, put the number “2” in black on the star and put the strap back on.

But its coming along nicely.  Once its done I’ll get a strap for my 1808 cartridge box and make the proper haversack for these accouterments. 

When I was a child the last thing in the world I ever wanted to do was to stay at home and care for a house.  Now I think that staying at home and working on the house, yard and hobbies sounds like a wonderful idea.  Plus spending more time with my friends.

Spring is for Allergies

So I intended to get seriously into painting my eves this weekend, but nature had other ideas.  I got the front eve cleaned and primed on Friday afternoon, (the back eve is already primed) but then Nature intervened.  Saturday was way too windy to be up on a ladder painting, I want the paint on the house and not on me !  So I went for a hike in the Ivy Creek Natural Area, my first one this year.  I painted the first coat of red on the 1812 canteen star and did the work on the dinning fly.  Now my dinning fly has short webbing loops with a steel ring at each corner and at the middle of both 10 ft. sides.   Had a grand time sewing on the fly out in the back yard under the trees.  I even had Paws-in-Trouble and Chipmunk providing Cat Union labor during the project, although mostly they seem to take union mandated breaks.  Sunday I woke up with a nose that wouldn’t stop running and a really nasty sinus headache.  It took until 1PM to get the headache under control.  Of course the rest of the day I was in that slightly dizzy time warp place allergy meds take you.  Trimmed up some more wood but stopped when it hit me I probably wasn’t in the best shape for using a sharp ax.  Painted a second coat of red on the 1812 canteen – painting straight lines while on allergy meds and a lot of coffee is a definite challenge.  Took a nap as per Cat Union rules.   So went the weekend.

N.B.  The blog is now current, new entries start with March 14th.

Its Time for a Breather !

I had the week off from April 28th until May 5th.  Being one who likes to make hay while the sun shines I put my stay-cation to good use.  The downed limbs from the winter in the side yard have been cleaned up with the little trashy parts gone, a wheelbarrow load and a half cut up and the rest limbed and ready to be cut up later.  The gutter from the front of the house is down and any loose nails in the eve and soffit have been fixed.  The lawn mower has been repaired and my yard ax sharpened (thank you very much Lewis).  The yard has been mowed !  And it only took 5.5 hours !  I was one tired puppy after that I’m here to tell you.  Both Louise and Irish have been seriously brushed, although their winter hair isn’t totally brushed out as yet.  The poles for my canvas dinning fly and big wedge tent have been fixed, new pins inserted as needed and fully painted.  The 1812 wooden militia canteen has been painted Prussian blue and the 8 point star laid out.  The flag pole for my lodge has gotten both its ends glued into place.  In my spare time I got the usual house chores of dishes, laundry, et al done.  And I still had time for a campfire or two out back and some woods walks.  Uufda !

Fort Frederick Trade Fair

The first 1700’s event I ever attended was the Fort Frederick Trade Fair. I had a wool wrap skirt & leggings, a muslin trade shirt, Ft. Ligioner mocs and slept under a dog tent of shelter halves ca 1860. The first thing I bought was a set of woven garters and a sash, the second was a blue striped hunting shirt. That year and for the next 8 years if you look close at the aerial camp photos you can find my CW dog tent at Ft. Fred’s Trade Fair. Then the fair went juried and for several years it was the same weekend as either Orthodox Pascha or Carly’s Party. So I didn’t do Ft. Fred as it were. This year I was off for Ft. Fred, so Jane & I decided to make a day of it Saturday, mostly to visit with friends.

This is Missy Clark helping a customer try on a bodice. It didn’t fit, she needed a smaller model. Missy lives in New York state so Jane & I don’t get to see her much, which doesn’t please any of us. Much good music has been made with Missy at her lodge.

Here’s Henry, he does first class leather work. Plus his lovely wife feeds hungry waifs from the 21st century at the drop of a hat. I dropped my hat a lot. So did Jane.

Dulcimer Dave & his wife out shopping, Dave’s lodge is the main music venue at OVPR.

A fine Russian Orthodox cross from the late 19th century. If I’d had the money for this it would have followed me home !

After Ft. Fred closed to those without proper attire, Jane & I headed off to my Urchin’s place for dinner and a night of rest. This is Urchin with Wicket, the Smallest Ewok Kittah.

Jamestown Military Through the Ages

Jamestown Settlement host a Military Timeline event that is 2nd to none !  The idea is to have juried units from various eras to come and put on their display for 2 days.  Military here refers to any organized armed group.  Thus national armed force units sit cheek by jowl with militias, household guards, mercenary groups and even civilian privateers.  

An Early Scandinavian Sea Wolf

 

Swiss citizen soldiers

Member of a Mercenary group returning home from Byzantium

The River Rats - a British colonial Pirate, I mean Privateer crew

A Highlander Jacobite

An American Seaman from the Chesapeake Bay

Continental Revolutionary War Soldier

A British Soldier and a Boer Militiaman from the South African Zulu War

All in all, one day was nowhere near enough time to do this event.  The units started ca 720AD and continued into the current era.  I spend most of the day in the earlier time periods, at one point I even managed to remember enough Latin to hold a conversation with a Provincial lady ca 1460.    I also like the various militia/home guard units, especially the Irish Republican Army ca 1920.  This is one event I want to attend again !