watch out for the seven voltures
Okay, so I need to start bringing along the damn camera. I could have provided pictures of the wild antelope and thunderstorm I drove through on the way to cocktail hour at July’s this afternoon.
And wow, I wish I could have taken a picture or two of the 7 voltures living in the tall trees of July’s yard! We decided to name them: Buzzard, Betsy, Batholamew, Buellah, Bert, Bud, & umm…. umm… forgetting kinda drunk…. Amazing birds they are, swooping down and around her front yard. Seems they took up residence a few months ago, and have decided to stick around for a while.
Picture is of my little rental ranch house that is becoming overgrown with beautiful weeds.
the guest house is open and ready for business!
the guest house is open and ready for business! just bring yer own potty bucket!
I might’ve mentioned July offered to hire a hand to help me out for a couple hours. We spent the first hours drinking strawberry daquries (with fresh local strawberries of course!), then we headed up the hill side and brought down an ol’ pic-nic bench to sit beside the Shasta along the lonely county road. We also towed the shasta down aways, a couple hundred feet from the house, and now there is this little paraside oasis smack dab in the middle of a little gravel pit.
It’s the kinda spot where you pee on a juniper tree, but walk to the house to use the toilet to take care of the other kinda business.
I visualize a mini bar down there. Evenings spent laid out on chase lounge chairs, watching one car go by every couple hours. A great place to count stars with the sound of the creek flowing past.
watch out for Russo Rapids!?!
Yesterday, I got a wonderful call while at City Hall. Would I like to float the John Day that afternoon? Say no more, I hopped outta work at 2pm and we were canoeing down the river by 3:30, in which time I let the dogs loose for a bit and a serious flat tire was repaired on the Service Creek rig.
When I hear the word “canoe” I automatically think of the words “tippy, tippy”. Cuz folks, they truly are, espeically when a bunch of water continues to cascade into them when running rapids. I don’t care what the class – I, II, maybe even O+ rapids, they all look way big from the seat of a little canoe. I think both Dave & I secretly wanted to tip our canoe, you know just to experience it all. The other canoe tipped first, and was a bit of an ordeal. Dave had it all under control after a couple bodies and one submerged boat floated a good 1/2 mile down river, but the whole experience definately added some excitement to our trip! It was just a few river miles later when I got to go under. We were in the biggest rapids on the section between Service Creek and Twickenham, Russo Rapids, a Class II – which translates to a little bump in a raft, or a wild soaking wet ride in a canoe. There is this moment, that almost happens in slow motion, where you realize you are going down. It’s gotta be one of the coolest feelings, becuase there is nothing you can do to stop it, except go with it and enjoy the ride.
Link to video of someone else’s trip down Russo in a Pontoon Boat, but like I was saying if you want a wet and wild ride, well a canoe is the way to go!http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5222418940303286506
Total trip took 4.5 hours. 13 river miles. 2 capsized boats. 2 spilled beers. 1 big flat tire. and 4 bbq’d painted hills beef steaks to finish off the night right.
shootin’ that hard work ethic into space
Somtimes I think I must be cursed with a hard work ethic. I swear the damn thing is wearing me down!
Plant garden. More Hose. Paint Signs for Restaurant. Go to Grant Meeting for City. Create New Breakfast Menu. Work a Bazillion Hours. Finish Painting Upstairs Rooms. Sew Aprons. Clean. Type Meeting Minutes. Exercise Dogs. Mop. Help with Concert down at Service Creek tonight (well, this one is more fun than work). All in a typical 24 hours. Always, lately.
I am plumb tired. But no rest for the weary. Have to be back down at the restaurant again at 6:30 am to start another day. Luckily I don’t have time lately to even wonder how I was ever able to go camping, visit hot springs, and relax for hours in a beer garden. That stuff still happens I guess, but it’s like a blur in-between work, work, oh and more work. Work at the City. Work at the Restaurant. Work at home. Goddamn WORK!!!
I thought the whole damn reason I moved out to the country was to RELAX?!?
(pic above are some stairs I worked on and installed in Lucky’s dog run. good advice lead me to add John Day River sand into the regular outdoor paint to create traction on the steps – a good idea indeed)
sometimes….well sometimes you just have a bad day
A bad day can start at anytime. Sometimes it starts with the sunrise. You are still tried, on the verge of crankiness, yet the bright light is beating in through the windows. Maybe your alarm has been going off for a half hour, but in a last ditch effort to save yourself from a bad day, your subcounsious decides to ignore the beeping and and buzzing. I am sorry my friend, you were able to avert it for another 30 minutes, but that bad day is still waiting for you.
And yes, it is still “garbage day” meaning one of 2 days per week the dump is open, and yes, you are still working a long shift this Saturday,the other dump day, so even if you put off the dump run this morning, you will only have to face dump day again next Wednesday morning.
So, you already slept through “shower time”, but you are still able to make a cup of coffee and get the dogs fed before driving down to city hall, and let’s not forget, the dump.
Maybe your day at City Hall starts out okay. You finally drink that cup of coffee, you brewed earlier, now that you at work, you pile through emails & paperwork, and have faith you will manage.
Then it’s an Emergency Council Meeting. Must post signs all over town. Set the tape recorder, and take notes through a heated debate. Usually you keep your whims about you, stay neutral, record as is your job. But on this day, well, the comments just don’t sit right. You must speak your mind. And with that you open the flood gates to emotion and becoming involved.
You try to shake your irritation on the drive home. You call a friend, bitch for a moment, and nothing seems to bring your blood back down from a boil. Crack a beer. Crack another beer. Still nothing.
Talk to mom for a good hour on the phone. Okay, starting to feel better.
Ooops. Dogs still have cabin fever. Hell, you have cabin fever. Okay, everybody, let’s pile up in the jeep and go get another drink. Crack another beer. Try to admire sunset. Okay, yes, this seems to be working.
Sit down with some friends on a porch. Crack another beer. Um…. so what was it I was so worked up about? Um.. I can’t remember….
… must not have been that bad???
like Christmas in July
So, Miss July called tonight to tell me she’s getting me an additional extra special gift for my birthday, and even though my big ol’ 30th birth-day was five months ago, I am so excited!
I have been complaining a tad bit about how I wish I had a neighbor boy to hire. You know in the old days where a kid would mow your lawn for 5 bucks. Or maybe clean out your grandma’s gutters for another 5. Well, I am pretty sure I’d have to drive 50+ miles to find me a neighbor boy willing to do any little handy jobs around here. So I end up putting on my boots, throwing on a cap, and diggin’ into the work myself. I never invisioned myself cleaning a chimney, weed-whacking tall brush, buildling fence, or loading a 22 to kill a troublesome varmit, nope, but I always new there were neighborhood boys who tackled these kinda things.
So for the most wonderful gift ever, Miss July has offered to pay a most wonderful guy out here to help me out for a few hours. I promised my honey-do-list is under 2 hours long – it may be an action packed 2 hours, but I am dreaming it won’t hit 3. I already installed a window where the plywood used to be in an upstairs bedroom, but need someone handy to finish off the job by framing it in with old barn wood. And ever since I saw the biggest snake of my life coiled up in the pumphouse, well I have been reluctant to go back there and get the heater & power cord out, that’s a job I have enjoyed putting off til tomorrow. And since her wonderful friend drives a truck with a hitch, then we are also going to tow my little shasta trailer a good 100 feet to make a camp-out oasis for folks to stay in. Oh… I can’t wait! And, the last thing on my put off til tomorrow list, well I need to movea bunch of old junk, boards, pipe, etc that lay in a pile near the back deck, as the snakes have already taking a liking to it this season – oh neighbor boy!!!
But I do have to add, that sometimes it’s a gal who really saves my ass out here! Miss July has already done her fair share, and last summer Liz was kind enough to install a new toilet for me, talk about a cute & sexy plumber!
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