Erywilde

Hi!
Ellie, the Dog here. My food provider, Frank, said that I could write in his blog today. He is typing, I am talking. He talked about my not having some kind of thumbs and not knowing how to spell. Whatever…

I like the farm. It has a lot of smells and lots of other dogs that I can hear. Of course, I talk to them when they are talking to me. It is fun. Frank says it is annoying.

You want annoying – try not getting breakfast. I was hungry this morning but there was no dog food for yours truly. I asked Frank about it and he said something about not wanting to leave dog food in the cabin because rats might get into it. There is that word again – rats. What is a rat? Maybe I will get a chance to meet one someday. That should be fun.

After my non-breakfast, Frank and I got into the big pickup truck. We need to talk to some people. The first was Mr. H. D.. He must be a very bright human because he drilled a well and supplies all his neighbors with water. We are a neighbor. We get his water. What a nice man.

We talked with him in a small house. In the kitchen there was a big table. It had lots of meat on it. I was hungry. The meat looked very good. The meat smelled very good. I asked Frank about the meat and he said it was deer meat. The body on the table was a dead deer.

Yum! I am hungry. I like meat.

I asked very politely if I could have a doggy bag with some deer meat inside but I only got hostile looks. I guess they were not through eating it yet.

Next we went to the bank. Frank made me wait in the truck. I studied the sign – “The West Central Georgia Bank”. I suppose they choose that name in case they get lost – they can just look at their bank and then they would know where they are. Very clever.

We went to the Home Depot and bought some things for the cabin. Then we went to WalMart where Frank FINALLY bought me some food. And bowls. And rawhide bones (yum). And treats. And dog brush. And Blanket for me! And nail clippers – ugh.

Back to the cabin. Slept on the nice new blanket. Heard the acorns hitting the roof again with a new sound. Frank had cleared the limbs (almost hitting me) and leaves from the roof. Now the acorns hit and you can hear them roll all the way down the roof. A fun sound. Frank disagrees. (He can get really grumpy when he doesn’t get enough sleep.)

Dawn. Frank is up, getting some milk and juice from his ice filled cooler (a big orange bucket that says “Home Depot”). Breakfast for me! Life is good.

We go outside. Frank ties me up. I lie in the sun while he does something with the porch. He explains he is staining the porch so it will last longer. Who cares? The sun feels so good.

My master arrives later with a friend. His friend is very cool looking, for a human. He has lots of pieces of little metal things sticking through his skin. Maybe he got caught in a barbed wire fence? There is one on our property. I warned him about it and advised him to stay away but he just patted my head. Sometimes humans just don’t understand me. 😦

He also had lots of beads twisted into his beard. Very beautiful. I asked Frank to twist some beads into my hair and he said he would love to but that my hair was too short. Too bad for me, sigh.

He and his friend had a big gun that they wanted to shoot. POW, POW, POW – very fast. It scared me. I stayed in my room until they were done.

Humans are strange.

Bye,

Ellie

October 13 & 14

Drove my van back to the farm today. I am planning to spend the night in the pole barn so there are lots of things to do.

On the way into town, I stopped by the glass “store” and it was open! Yeah. Turns out it is not “AA” glass but “AP” glass. I met two guys – “A” & “P”? They took my window pane measurements and cut two pieces of glass. I also needed some caulking to apply to the frame. “How much do I owe you?” I asked. “Let me see”, said “A” (?). “Hmm, two dollars for each piece and $6 for the caulking. Is $10 okay?” I thought that $2 per pane was great even though $6 for the caulking was high so over all, for $10, what a deal! So I gave him a $10 spot and went merrily on my way. The glass fit perfectly and soon enough, the repair was complete.

Did you know that rodents have a certain smell? No? Well, they do and I know it.  I must smell like one too because I seem to attract them. Consequently, I have gotten really rather good at trapping rats (and more rarely, mice). Poison is cruel plus they have a tendency to go to inaccessible places to die. Then, man do they smell! Bad! (Echos of the Blues Brothers in the fancy Chicago restaurant with Pee Wee Herman as the busboy.) The second advantage of a trap is that the last thing the little creature knows is a wonderful treat that someone had left in just a perfect spot. “Hmm, maybe I’ll bring my girl friend rat here to eat. It will really impress her.” is the last thought of said rat.

So, the pole barn certainly had the “l’odeur de rodent” probably wafting from the three nasty sofas in the room. The pole barn (not really a barn and I haven’t seen the pole yet), is really a 16×20′ room up on posts about 2 feet off the ground (to avoid the not infrequent flooding there). It has a little porch (watch for some pictures of it soon) and really nice French doors and lots of windows. The doors and windows probably are worth more than the rest of the structure. I picked up one end of one sofa, dragged it to the double French doors, opened them, and shoved it off the porch. As I lifted the second one, a little brown mouse scurried out the door.

“Ellie!” I yelled (Ellie is my son’s dog; a “mixed breed”, small with some terrier and maybe beagle mixed in.) “Rat!” I didn’t say “mouse” because “rat” sounds cooler, has more verbal punch and is actually kind of fun to say. Besides, I wasn’t sure she would know what a mouse was. Turns out she must not have known what a rat was either because she ran in, wagging her tail, oblivious to any vermin in the neighborhood.

“Don’t you smell that?” I asked. Totally not interested. Ellie is not on my list of “ratters” – am looking at a Manchester terrier. (They were specifically breed to hunt vermin and are often called “rat terriers”. One of the famous “granddaddy” Manchester terrier killed 100 rats in 6 minutes! Amazing. Of course it raises a number of rather unpleasant associated questions…)

Two sofas down, one to go. Just tossed them off the porch and dragged them under cover. Figured that wet sofas with lots of rodent gifts would smell even worse. But the pole barn almost immediately smelled better. Making progress! Next I brought in an old bunk bed that had been, at different times, my two daughters’ and my youngest son’s. Lots of notes and things written under the mattress pad, sort of a boyfriend diary. Interesting, my son didn’t write anything.

What construction office would be complete without a table? As Ikea was a bit of a drive (100+ miles), I had to make do with materials on hand – two sawhorses and a piece of plywood! Very stylish. Put lots of tools, screws, gloves, etc on the table. Even my blueprints.

The blueprints represent a very nice savings of money. No, the blueprints were expensive but they were approved by the local authorities and we did not have to have them reviewed by a professional engineer for adherence to local code. That probably is $500 saved. It seems that everyone with whom I’ve talked is very interested in the log cabin project.

As I was carefully removing the poison ivy around the pole barn, I heard a tremendous “boom!” That sounds like a rifle shot, I thought. About five minutes later, another “boom!”. It was LOUD. I was glad that there was a big hill of dirt between me and my neighbor’s house, the source, I assumed, of the cannon fire. This intermittent booming continued for about an hour.

Later in the afternoon, a couple of young men came across the field from the direction of the neighbor (and the sounds). They introduced themselves, Q & J and said that they were, in fact, the sons of my neighbor. I asked about the cannon fire and they said “yes, we bought Dad a ‘308’ as a gift. And it was expensive.”

Seems President Obama mentioned people “clinging to their guns and Bibles.” To me, someone would not be clinging to this monster. Rather they would be aiming at something with it with the intent to kill it. Dead. Not the “clinging” type to me.

Went into town for dinner and to pick up some things at Walmart. The bathroom at the Taco Bell was nice and clean and had hot water! Take note – add to list of places to go to shave and clean up. After I returned with belly full of beans, I took out my sleeping bag and settled in for a nice long sleep. This sleeping bag is a nice one and even though old, is mostly intact. It is only missing the zipper. So something is going to be sticking out no matter what side you choose.

Bam! Bam! Bam! was the sound as the acorns from the oak tree fell onto the metal roof. Sort of like being inside a steel drum without the music. Bam! Take note two – as soon as I get a chain saw, a certain tree is going to die.

As I drift into a light and uncomfortable sleep, I hear “scratch, scratch, creak, sigh”. It is Ellie in her cage. Every time she turned around she made a lot of noise. How can such a small dog make so much noise? I tried to cover my fanny and get back to sleep.

“Plink……..
“Plink………
“Plink, plink, plink”

Now what? Figured out it was now raining. Okay, that’s nice. Maybe it will lull me to sleep. Then it stopped. Now it was “Plink”, five minutes later, “Plink”, five minutes later “Plink”. Great! What is it now? It is the rain drops falling from my least favorite oak. Every three or four minutes. Not a pattern, just enough to wake you up at every impact. Amazingly loud too.

Finally, the sun! What a night but I am up at the crack of dawn. I search for my watch. 7:30! What?!! I look at Ellie and ask her why she didn’t get me up earlier. She looked at me and said “I don’t get up until about 9:00 am so this is early!!”

Dumb dog.

But I am excited to go introduce myself to our new (although used) tractor. A Yanmar. Yanmar. That’s “Y” “A” “N” “M” “A” “R”. You haven’t heard of a Yanmar? City slicker. I gazed at the beauty. Nice red paint. Big tires (designed for rice paddies I am told). Bush hog suspended from her tail. Boy will this be fun.

I insert and turn the key. (Once started, it doesn’t need a key or even electricity. It is a diesel and is like the everready bunny. It just keeps going and going and going. There is a trick to get it to stop and to find out, for $4.95 per month, you can join my “advanced users” blog and get the Inside Story!)  The motor turns, coughs, spits out a little black smoke and then, nothing. I try, she tries. I try, she tries, I try, she dies.

Off to the dealer. Describe problem. Dealer comes out to jump start the tractor with his truck. He has to fix part of the radiator system (I happened to have the teflon tape he needed). He got it running and advised me to leave it running. He said that’s what they were designed to do. They’re designed to run? What a novel concept.

He left and off I went to bush hog the field. After about five minutes, I was intellectually satisfied. Another skill learned. I gazed at my work, basically one lap around the field. Three hours later, I gazed at my work. 1/2 field cut. Man, this farming has a lot of time spent in unintellectually satisfying work, I thought.

Parked the tractor. Shut the tractor down. Closed the pole barn up. Locked the storage shed. As I was leaving, met the neighbor across the street. (Now I’ve met most of my “neck of the woods”.) He filled me in on a lot of details. We talked about an hour while cars zoomed by at, in my opinion, unreasonably high speeds. He would wave as they went by. Couldn’t really tell if they waved back because they were already around the curve before they could react. “D” told me, among other things, about the local water supply. Seems a fella up the way drilled a well, pumps the water into a large storage tank and then sells water to the “neighborhood”, the Arrowhead Lake Community. Boy, if we can get a piece of that action it will save us thousands of dollars in well digging and etc. So, next trip, #1 on my agenda.

Later,

Frank

Yesterday I labored long into the evening painting my daughter-in-law’s fence. Got a bit hard to see after dark. Especially the dark brown.

Spent the night in Luella (try to find that on a map) and bright and early drove towards a quaint small central Georgia town where my son’s new property is located. Stopped for breakfast in the Griffin Burger King. Got the maxi platter. More than I wanted as I was planning to save the pancakes for lunch.

Only ate one of them later. Not good. Limited funds have certain disadvantages. Eatable food for example.

Arrived at the new property with the van (sometimes passenger van, sometimes pickup van, and now moving van) loaded with “goodies”. Locks, tools, insulation. Got right to work cleaning the “pole barn”. Installed a double deadbolt lock in the fancy front french doors (why french doors are installed on the pole barn is beyond me.)

Left the property to go into town and as I was getting out of the van to lock the gate, the electric power company employee drove up. He came to give us an estimate on getting power to the cabin. Very nice as are most of the people in this town. Always have time to share. He has been with the company 32 years! Wow. I think my longest time with one company is 32 months.

So, this guy really knew the properties and owners in the county. We discussed how to get power, overhead vs underground – $3/foot overhead, $7/foot underground. 600 feet = $1,800. Ugh. $1,800 for a couple of telephone poles and some wire! Plus I have to get an easement from my neighbor who apparently is sick from some weird disease. I hope it is not contagious.

Solar energy is looking better and better.

Finished with him and went into town. Dropped the blueprints off at the planning office to get their opinion regarding building codes.

Next I drove up the main road, Hwy 19. My son had bought a tractor and gave me rather vague instructions about where to find the dealership. I did not see a tractor dealership but there was a company that sold tractors along with a bunch of other pieces of equipment. And hay.

So I stopped in, introduced myself, and asked if they had sold a tractor to someone this week from out of town. Yes, they had. “When did I want it delivered?” We agreed to deliver the tractor at 2:00 pm.

While in town, I also wanted to buy some replacement glass for a couple of broken window panes. It was quite clever the way the previous owner had dealt with the broken window panes – stuffed paper towels in the holes! I, on the other hand, took some builder’s felt (also called tar paper) and stapled it to the window frame around the broken out pane. The blacked out window makes for a very Gothic effect. Maybe I’ll do a couple more windows for Halloween.

I asked at the Home Depot about someone who could help with  the glass and the guy said “Yeah, they are out route 74 or 36. I can’t keep them straight.” Interesting, the town is not really that big…

I went “downtown” to a local cafe whose specialty is “scrambled hamburger”. I had that last time I was there but today I only ordered a Coke as my Burger King pancakes were standing by. I asked them about the glass store and they said it was “AA Glass”. And it is out Hwy 74.

“AA”? I shared later with my wife that I always had seen “AAA” so the vendor could be first in an alphabetic listing but never just “AA”. She said that it was probably because it was a small town and they only had to go to “AA”.

??? (My wife always gives me another perspective.)

So I drove out 74 and saw “AA Glass” on the right hand side of the road. Not a retail storefront, more commercial with a large window and a couple of solid panel doors. There was a sign on one of the doors – “Out of the Office doing a glass repair. Please call xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

Welcome to small town USA.

Of course I could not call him because my phone does not get reception out there. The only service in town is Verizon so I will have to get one of their phones on my next trip. Watch for the announcement.

Continued out 74 thinking it might intersect with my “short cut” Trice Cemetery Road.  Lo and behold, after about 3 miles, Trice Cemetery. Took a right and headed on down the road.

As a topped a ridge, my cell phone awoke briefly, burped out a message that I had messages, and then returned to its semi-sentient state as I headed down the hill. A SIGNAL! Wow! So I turned around, headed back up the road, reacquired the signal and called. Static, lots of static. I was able to get enough of the messages to learn the content but the signal was so weak, I could not call.

Went on to the property. Finished fixing the locks and securing the gate. Locked the storage shed and after I locked it, I looked at the hinges – all the screw heads were exposed. It would take about 5 minutes with a power screw driver to take all the hinges off and have an absolutely unlocked shed.  So, I guess that locks are to keep honest people out (what does that say about me?)

If something is stolen at least I can tell the insurance company that someone broke in. Kind of hard argument to make if you have a welcome mat and unlocked doors.

The tractor man came about 3:00 and give me a moderately thorough description of the different moving parts, how to raise and lower the implement (a “bush hog” is currently installed), how to change gears, start it, stop it, etc. I put it into first gear and let ‘er rip.

He walked alongside. I progressed slowly. Very slowly. About .5 mph slowly. I squealed with joy as the wind flowed through my hair. Not. I ramped it up to the high gears.

What a difference, now I was making at least 3 mph! Pure excitement. I lowered the bush hog and made my first swath through the field of hay. I circled. I made a loop in the field. I figured maybe someone in the air would see it and think it was cut by aliens. The dealer said “you have my number (I don’t) so call me if you have any questions.” Then he was gone.

I hope he didn’t treat his teenage daughter like that. “Alright young man, there she is. If you have any questions, call me.”

I sped around the pole barn, hacking away with the bush hog (a bush hog is essentially a heavy duty lawn mower that will, oh by the way, cut small trees up to 1″ in diameter).

I parked the red beauty under the roof and got out to admire it. Took some pictures.

Time to go. Locked up, drove up the gravel driveway and headed back to the big city and big city Friday afternoon traffic of Atlanta.

What a great day it was. The sky was crystal clear. So blue. The temperature reached a high of about 80. The birds were singing, the nearby creek was bubbling, the insects were chewing on the dead tree (now that’s a sound you never hear in the city. Chewing on your house yes; tree, no.)

Man, it is 1:40 am and I have been up since 6:00 yesterday. Lots done and now you know a little about an typical day of being “semi” retired.

Your sleepy blogger,

Frank

143 miles down
120 miles back.

Standing on the dam looking up hill at building site.