Purging

 It could have so many meanings, but in our case it is getting rid of stuff. It is amazing how quickly one accumulates "stuff". To think, just a few years ago we had sold everything and had no stuff. But I guess it has been almost 10 years since we got off the road and that is plenty of time to fill every nook and cranny with stuff we hardly use. 

So over the past several weeks we have been on a mission to purge. Throw away, give away, or sell stuff we have not touched in years. A tote fill of old cell phones, broken or unused cameras, the bike I just "had to have" when we went on the road. (I think I rode it maybe 10 times), our inflatable kayak that had been replaced with hard-sided ones a year or so ago. 

How does one get rid of all this "stuff"? Garage sale was our first answer, we have set a date for early May.  So, we set about going through closets, the loft in the garage, the shed, sorting out things we had not uses in years. Some of it we decided to list on Facebook and eBay. We have not used eBay in years and was amazed at how much they take in fees compared to 10 years ago. But it is an effective means of reaching a wide audience. So far, we have sold over $600 worth of stuff. Barb sold one of her old belt buckles for over $100! I sold a broken camera for $50. 

For those items that are harder to ship, or we did not need to reach a broader audience, we used Facebook Marketplace. Those of you who are friends with us on Facebook have probably seen a few of our marketplace ads in your feed. A utility cart went for $60, the old rack for the Jeep $55, DVD set for $30, spotting scope for $50, turkey decoys for $60. We still have a number of things listed that have not sold yet. This bike rack we have not used in 6 years, they are going for almost $400 new! And remember that new fish finder I got Barb for her birthday a couple years ago? I have not used my old one since. 

Then there is the miter saw stand that we no longer need since I built Barb that table. If I sell all these three items that should be another $400!

Then we got into a kick of watching these YouTube channels where these people buy abandoned storage units, specifically Hairy Tornado. This couple buys storage units what went to auction and then video themselves going through the contents hoping to at least get their money back and hopefully make a profit. 

What kills me is the crap that people spend money month after month to store. After a year(s) of paying storage fees it has to far exceed the value of the contents. When we sold everything and went on the road, we sold literally everything, except a few mounts and a couple of totes which we stored at family/friend's houses. We did not know how long we were going to be on the road but figured that any furniture we did have would be out of date or not fit into our new home, so we got rid of everything. 

This couple also goes to garage sales, estate sales and even Goodwill to find things to resell for a profit. I told Barb that we should buy a storage unit on auction and we could become millionaires! She was like "Oh hell no!" I know at least one of you out there (Granny Sue) knows that while there is money to be made out there, it is a lot of work, and you certainly will not become a millionaire. 

Be warned though, once you watch one of their videos you get sucked in and next thing you know an hour (sometimes two) has gone by. 

So, what else have we been up to this week?

We took the old roof rack off the Jeep and put on a new one. The old one only connected to the drip edge of the roof. This new one bolts to the frame and body.  The sketchy part of this project is that it required me to drill through the side of the Jeep! Although it is not the most flattering rack, it will be much more secure when we travel with our kayaks next winter. We listed the old rack on Marketplace and it litterally sold within 5 minutes. Made me think I should have asked more for it!

While we were doing that, we also removed the flip back top off the Jeep (which is now listed on Marketplace) and put the hard roof back on. With the new rack, this just made more sense. 

Barb painted her workshop with the first coat of primer....

All that done, it was time to work on a project that has been on my list for a while. Finishing the loft wall in the garage. When we built the workshop and loft in the garage I had put rough-cut board and batten on the lower level, now it was time to do the upper level. I ordered the wood from our local mill and once it was ready, I got to work. The left picture below is "before", and the right side is "after". My legs got a workout as I had to go up and down for every single board. 

While I was doing that, Barb was working right next to me on top of the camper. I took this picture from the top of the ladder. She is replacing the skylight in the camper, the first step is to remove all the old dicor caulking. 

So, what is the plan for the weekend? More purging, cut up some more firewood and maybe a garage sale or two to fill up the spaces we just emptied with more stuff!

Change in Plans and More Fires!

Our summer was all laid out for us; Planting, Alaska, Harvesting, Hunting. Three out of four of those remain the same, the Alaska one has changed. Why? Several reasons. That schedule would have left me away from home for almost 9 months and with everything we have going on, that is just too much this year. 

Plus, we have a wedding or two we can hopefully now attend. I can maybe finish the floor on the boat, I can maybe put the soffit and facia on the garage and even squeeze in a trip to the Oregon coast. While we are disappointed, all is not totally lost, we will get up to The 49th next year.  

After last week's excitement, we were ready for a relatively quiet week. It started off that way with lows in the single digits and ended with highs in the 70's! 

The week did not end quietly, however. Barb and I were relaxing on the couch when our phones blew up with an Emergency Alert with a report of a forest fire that had started about a mile or so away from our house. At the time, it was 2 acres and the winds were relatively light blowing away from our house. They ordered evacuations of the immediate area which did not include our road so, although we were concerned, we carried on watching our show. 

Here's a little perspective. The image below shows the Qury Fire from last week. That one got to over 9,000 acres. The Sundance fire was 2 acres at the time. We are the blue dot. 

Texts started coming in from neighbors as well as phone calls from friends making sure we were aware of the situation and offering places to stay should we need it. More alerts came in, still not including our road, so we just sat tight. Soon, we started to see helicopters with dump bags flying by the house. Our nearest water source is about 20 miles away and the helicopters were going back and forth. Then came the next alert, the fire had spread ....

15 minutes later, came the alert we were dreading, the evacuations now included our road. Not good. I jumped on the side by side to go check out the situation. These videos were taken from the south end of our property.  As you can see, while close, there is plenty of woods between us the fire and the wind was blowing away from us, so I called Barb and told her to stay put and we would monitor it. 

While I was back there Kevin called me and said they had ordered a tanker in from Colorado and it would be here within the hour. The concern was that there are a lot of houses in this area and they needed to get it stopped soon. A little while later, sure enough, here came the tanker!

Once the tanker dropped its load, all the aircraft left. I do not know if it was because the fire was contained or that they do not fly at night. It ended up that that dump did the job and while still burning, they had contained it to 25 acres. Whew!

Here are a few pictures I pulled off Facebook from the Argyle Fire Department page...

Here is something I bet many of you do not think about when it comes to wildfires. While it is stressful enough to have to evacuate, there are so many things that go through your mind. What do we take? What do we leave behind? Not knowing when you return if anything will remain. But around here, there are other considerations like livestock. Horses, cattle.... Our neighbors have horses, cattle, goats and chickens. What do you do with them? If you have time, you load your horses up and move them. If you do not have time, you just open the gates, let them loose and hope for the best. That was the case with the Qury fire where the winds were 50-70mph, there was no time and it was dark, so people just opened their gates and let their animals loose. This week there are all sorts of Facebook posts from people who are either looking for horses or who have found loose horses. One person even wrote their phone number on the horse's hoof, what a great idea!

I hope this is our last wildfire post, but with the lack of rain/snow, I am afraid it is not. 

Barb went to a local dentist this week as well! Why you ask? Barb's jaw is still sore from the extraction and titanium post she had put in while in Mexico almost a month ago. Concerned that something was just not right she made an appointment with a dentist in Hot Springs. The first thing they wanted to do was a complete set of x-rays to the tune of $350. We literally just had a full set done last month, so Barb called Sani Dental in Mexico, and they emailed her x-rays to this dentist! During the appointment the dentist looked at everything Sani Dental had done and said everything looked good and was healing as it should be. Total bill....$35. That has to be the cheapest dental visit ever known to man. And to a dental office we have never been to before no less. I think it was more peace of mind for Barb knowing things are as they should be. 

And last, but not least we got together with Ryan and Alana for a puppy playdate and a cave tour! They came down on Saturday for a tour at Wind Cave. While we have been to several cave tours here, it has been a few years, and we always learn something new. More likely I forget what they said last time, either way it was a great tour. 

Then it was back to the house to enjoy the 70-degree weather and let the dogs play. It is so hard to get pictures of them as they run around, but I managed to snap this one as they were running by Dakota. 

Next week the weather rollercoaster continues with a high of 79 on Wednesday and a low of 28 on Thursday. What a crazy time of year!

Psithurism

Ever since I read that word in another blog it has stuck with me. I never knew that the word existed, and I still do not know how to pronounce it. I had to go to The YouTube to listen how to pronounce it.....Seeth U Rizum. But, what does it mean? In its most basic definition, it means the sound of the wind through the trees. One of my most favorite sounds. 

 Nothing relaxes me more than the peaceful sound as the wind creates a gentle rustling through the pines or a grove of aspens. A sound we hear often as we sit in the hot tub at the end of a busy day. Man, how I miss those moments when we are on the road. 

It can also be one of the most terrifying sounds as any of you who have experienced a tornado or hurricane know all too well. This week we had a mix of both as Thursday brought another windstorm with gusts over 70mph, and a couple up to 90! This of course toppled trees, some of which fell on powerlines which started fires throughout the area. 

One fire went from 120 acres to over 5,000 in a couple hours as the wind pushed the fire through the forest. Fortunately, none were within miles of us. Unfortunately, this big fire was near Dan and Bonnie's house, and they had to evacuate for a few hours. The firefighters did not even attempt to fight the fires at night with those high winds, and several houses were swallowed up immediately. By the morning the fire had reached 7,000 acres and was a mile from Dan and Bonnie's. I was over there helping him hook up some heating units as we watched the smoke on the other side of a large hill. We could not see the actual fire, but we could tell it was getting closer. 

A bulldozer showed up around noon and cut a perimeter about 150 yards from their house. Hopefully that would stop the fire should it crest the hill. They pull trucks and personnel from the surrounding communities as there are not enough resources locally to a fight a fire of this size. Even with these additional personnel they can only fight the edges and their main priorities are trying to save homes, so they try and direct the fire and place personnel around the houses. 

About 2:00 the fire crested over the hill behind their house and started coming down. Now it was time to panic. They gathered what valuables they could and a few days' worth of clothes and put them in the car. We then helplessly watched the fire creep towards their house. 

There is really nothing you can do. We hosed down the house with water, probably didn't help but it kept us busy. 

Finally, a half a dozen trucks showed up. The smoke was so bad we decided to get out of there for a while and went to supper. 

This is what it looked like when we got back.....

They had started a back burn at the road and along that dozer path to keep the raging fire away from their house. Wildland firefighters have to be one of the most underappreciated jobs in the area. They work their asses off in hot, tiring and dangerous situation. While there are some fulltime fire fighters with the Forest Service, most are volunteers. This includes Kevin who spent several days and night driving a Tender Truck bringing water to the front lines. 

We saw fire trucks from not on dozens of areas in South Dakota, we saw trucks from throughout Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. We looks up several of the names and the furthest one we saw was from White Sulfur Springs Montana, over 8 hours away. 

Fire fighters checked on them that night and told them that they had over 20 personnel surrounding their house along that bull dozer line who would be there day and night for several days to make sure their house was safe and the fire did not flare up again and jump that line. 

While their view and landscape has changed, their house is safe. The good part is the back burn is a low fire, only burning the grass and debris on the ground, not the whole tree itself. 

That was definitely enough excitement for this week. The fire is still going, over 7,000 acres, still 0% contained, the firefighters are still out there trying to save homes and other structures, but at least Dan and Bonnie are sleeping in their smoky house ever thankful for hard working men and women out there. 

6-7

If you know, you know, and those of you with grandchildren in the 10–15-year-old range probably know. 

6, 7, what does it mean? All three of our grandchildren say it randomly ,"6, 7" they would say it for absolutely no reason. When asked when it means, they say they cannot tell me. In actuality, they don't know either. So, I looked it up and it means absolutely nothing. Kids just like saying it to leave adults confused. In my opinion, they don't need to say a thing to leave adults confused. One time when Lily was here, I said "Lily, 6 7." She was like, "Adults can't say that".

According to The Google the term originated from the 2024 rap song Doot Doot by the rapper Skrilla. I am sure all of you could recite that rap by heart. One of my favorites for sure. 

Whatever it means, we were not confused when on last Tuesday at 6:30am Barb received the following text from our youngest granddaughter, "6 7, 6 7, 6 7!" That was Kendall's way to wish Barb a happy birthday! I will not tell you how old she turned, but those numbers may give you a clue. 

So, what did I get Barb for her birthday? Being the best husband in the world of husbands I took her to Menards and had her pick out a few woodworking items for her shop; a couple of clamps, some safety glasses, a box of 1 1/4" screws, (7) 6' cedar boards, and wait for it.... a 500-piece bit and drill set! Is she not the luckiest woman in the world?

On her special day we went out to her workshop and made a couple of bird houses using everything above. This was her first project using her new table saw and table. 

We figured out a few things that she needs, but the overall project went well resulting in two bluebird houses which we promptly put out. Just in time too as the bluebirds are back!

We then went over to Dan and Bonnie's who we were picking up for supper. Upon arriving we saw balloons at the entrance of their driveway and garage. They had party favors which included silly string, a bubble maker and of course shots of Fireball!

I think everyone is glad to be home. The girls are back to their favorite places around the house.

I think even the wildlife is happy that we are home as they showed up in droves when I refilled the feeder. One morning we had 17 deer at one time! And the turkeys are showing up by the dozens!

The deer even left us a few presents scattered around the property. So far, we have only found two shed antlers, but I know there are more out there!

I too am happy to be home so I can get to work on a few of the many projects awaiting me. First up was dragging the pasture to break up all those cow pies out there!

Then it was to the woods to cut and split the over dozen trees knock over from our last windstorm.

Ah, yes, it is good to be home indeed!