I miss my babies.
Gratitude #83 - Sweet Biddies!
11 years ago
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Feb 2
Today is ground hog day and I see the sun shining on the snow. I think that is not good for those of us who want spring soon
Unfortunately the only thing that Idaho is predictable about is our voting. We are redder than fire engines!
Unfortunately the only thing that Idaho is predictable about is our voting. We are redder than fire engines!
Friday, February 1, 2008
spring streams
In the desert there are streams that only run for a few weeks in the spring. When this site has a bit of water, it is so beautiful, but miss it a few days and it is over for that year.
Does it seem to you that I am really wanting spring to hurry up?
found joy
In this Alz business you have to find joy where you can.
Sometimes it takes some looking. I have been doing more cooking lately, which works out pretty well, except my skills are not very deep yet, and my cooking vocabulary is rather small. But, shucks, I can make the same lunch 2 or 3 times in a week and who knows?
I grew up on peanut butter sandwiches, every day, which is what Hemingway ate while doing some of his best writing, so I am told. For me a huge variety of foods is not necessary, good thing.
The weekend is upon us. I am so glad.
Sometimes it takes some looking. I have been doing more cooking lately, which works out pretty well, except my skills are not very deep yet, and my cooking vocabulary is rather small. But, shucks, I can make the same lunch 2 or 3 times in a week and who knows?
I grew up on peanut butter sandwiches, every day, which is what Hemingway ate while doing some of his best writing, so I am told. For me a huge variety of foods is not necessary, good thing.
The weekend is upon us. I am so glad.
telescope house
The house is on tracks and swings around 360 degrees, so the big scope can see through a slit in the ceiling. This is about an hour south of boise out in the desert where the sky is dark. At night all the lights on the side walk are red so it won't mess up your night vision.
our house chapter 1
In the 70’s we moved back to the town where I was born, and we now live.
My step dad had subdivided the place where they lived, not the place where I “grew up,” that place had been sold some time earlier.
There was a scrap of land, a little less than an acre that was on the back side of things, across the ditch. It was full of sage brush and ants. I talked to Mom and Dad and got permission to garden there.
For a few years I planted the whole thing to veggies and we ate well. There was 6 of us and we had a lot of company.
Then Mom and Dad decided to make us a gift of that piece of land as well as the building lot next to it. The pieces were two triangles with a “creek” (actually a drain ditch that runs year around) down the middle and an irrigation canal on the back side.
It was a great place for a house for a young family.
By the time we began building our oldest daughter had gone off to college, so there was the 5 of us.
With the lot as a gift I figured I could build a small house for about $10,000, and having not that much cash, I approached the “friendly” banker. Well, he said, with all the gravity that bankers can muster, if we are going to loan you $10,000 you will need $10,000 in cash.
“You are not listening carefully, if I had $10,000 I wouldn’t be here talking to you.” So that was that.
We decided to go ahead and do a house, cash as it was available. The whole thing would be a huge adventure.
In order to keep expenses down, and to channel rent money into building materials I put up a tent and we moved onto the back part of our property among the trees. It was an interesting summer.
The city had no idea of what to do with a protohippie like me, so they did the only thing they understood, the gave me endless hassles. Most houses are inspected 3 or 4 times in the whole construction phase. Mine was inspected at least once a day and often twice.
The basic concept of the house was fairly simple: small (about 1000 feet); inexpensive to build; energy efficient; room for the 5 of us to have some private space, and two bathrooms. The last was essential.
The idea of a solar house was popular then, even though there wasn’t all that much information available. The solar part was to be a greenhouse on the south side, which faced the street. It would provide solar heat as well as a place to grow some veggies. The house was put 4” underground, because at that depth, the ground changes temp very little, year round.
I went to college the year before we began construction and I worked on the design as one of my class projects.
Next: living in a tent in 100 degree weather.
My step dad had subdivided the place where they lived, not the place where I “grew up,” that place had been sold some time earlier.
There was a scrap of land, a little less than an acre that was on the back side of things, across the ditch. It was full of sage brush and ants. I talked to Mom and Dad and got permission to garden there.
For a few years I planted the whole thing to veggies and we ate well. There was 6 of us and we had a lot of company.
Then Mom and Dad decided to make us a gift of that piece of land as well as the building lot next to it. The pieces were two triangles with a “creek” (actually a drain ditch that runs year around) down the middle and an irrigation canal on the back side.
It was a great place for a house for a young family.
By the time we began building our oldest daughter had gone off to college, so there was the 5 of us.
With the lot as a gift I figured I could build a small house for about $10,000, and having not that much cash, I approached the “friendly” banker. Well, he said, with all the gravity that bankers can muster, if we are going to loan you $10,000 you will need $10,000 in cash.
“You are not listening carefully, if I had $10,000 I wouldn’t be here talking to you.” So that was that.
We decided to go ahead and do a house, cash as it was available. The whole thing would be a huge adventure.
In order to keep expenses down, and to channel rent money into building materials I put up a tent and we moved onto the back part of our property among the trees. It was an interesting summer.
The city had no idea of what to do with a protohippie like me, so they did the only thing they understood, the gave me endless hassles. Most houses are inspected 3 or 4 times in the whole construction phase. Mine was inspected at least once a day and often twice.
The basic concept of the house was fairly simple: small (about 1000 feet); inexpensive to build; energy efficient; room for the 5 of us to have some private space, and two bathrooms. The last was essential.
The idea of a solar house was popular then, even though there wasn’t all that much information available. The solar part was to be a greenhouse on the south side, which faced the street. It would provide solar heat as well as a place to grow some veggies. The house was put 4” underground, because at that depth, the ground changes temp very little, year round.
I went to college the year before we began construction and I worked on the design as one of my class projects.
Next: living in a tent in 100 degree weather.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
our house
If you have never met me, but have read this blog, you know that any house I would design and build would be off the wall quite a ways. It was conceived and built in the 70's when energy costs were going up, which is why the house is partly underground. It is quite small by today's standards, but thankfully has two bathrooms, which can be about right for two people.
I am coping
I went to the doctor today,
The regular one that both Miriam and I see. Having the same doctor for us is easier. I am trying to be efficient, which can be called lazy as well!
Anyway, I was sitting on the chair when the doctor came in. She is in her late 30’s, not long out of medical school, and is a very fine doctor, already. I like her, she listens well, which is a huge thing.
Once she told me that she has her loans for her medical school paid down to two hundred thousand now.
Anyway, when she came in the room she asked me how I was and I guess I gave her this inane “fine” for an answer. She smiled and asked questions and provided thoughts.
Then a few minutes later, she got to the point: “You are not fine, but you are coping.” And that was the most brilliant thing I heard all day. I am not fine, really even close, but I am coping.
When I ask my near teen or teen age grandkids how they are they will often say: “Good” and I have always had much the same response: You may be well and healthy, but you are my grand kid, you are not good!
But I love them, and I know they know it too.
The regular one that both Miriam and I see. Having the same doctor for us is easier. I am trying to be efficient, which can be called lazy as well!
Anyway, I was sitting on the chair when the doctor came in. She is in her late 30’s, not long out of medical school, and is a very fine doctor, already. I like her, she listens well, which is a huge thing.
Once she told me that she has her loans for her medical school paid down to two hundred thousand now.
Anyway, when she came in the room she asked me how I was and I guess I gave her this inane “fine” for an answer. She smiled and asked questions and provided thoughts.
Then a few minutes later, she got to the point: “You are not fine, but you are coping.” And that was the most brilliant thing I heard all day. I am not fine, really even close, but I am coping.
When I ask my near teen or teen age grandkids how they are they will often say: “Good” and I have always had much the same response: You may be well and healthy, but you are my grand kid, you are not good!
But I love them, and I know they know it too.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
bonus boat
Some years ago I worked for a small company. Our bonus one year was a motor boat for the other employee and I. We have a 5 by 12 mile lake quite close to our house and the first year we spent a lot of time on the water and had a super good time. The next year was a drought year and there wasn't any water any where, so the boat sat that year out.
For some reason we never got any pictures of the boat in the water. Truth is that I probably did take some, with film, and the film didn't get processed, you know the drill!
step 2
So one day the boss who had given me the boat as a bonus, came by and before it was over I had traded the boat for the very fine 1956 Dodge. That was the year that Miriam and I were married.
But alas my budget did not include taking care of a collector car, even an old Dodge, so I sold it.
final step, I think
I sold the Dodge to the father of my neighbor who had the car shipped to Ohio.
The money was banked and it waited until I had time. Then I built this teardrop camper trailer.
So, you could say that Bill gave me a teardrop.
Thanks Bill.
fruit buds
With any luck, and baring a late frost, these buds should provide some fruit next summer. My orchard is in a frost pocket, so we don't get tree fruit every year.
more snow
We’ve had a lot of snow this winter.
Today most schools in the area are closed, and heaven help those who have to commute to work, it is SLICK out there.
To snow you need cold weather and moist air. And, since we live in a northern desert, we don’t always get them both at the same time, hence not much snow. Our farms are watered with runoff from the high mountains and they do get a lot of snow up there.
And that is how it is supposed to be: dry and cold here, snow and cold up there!
But this year is the exception. Before the last storm I heard that we had more snow than any year for the last dozen, and it snowed 6” yesterday morning, with more snow forecast each day for the next week and a half.
Enough already!
And, our house is at the crossroads of something big.
Yesterday I went out to the shop to work, and no person had walked across my footbridge that connects the front of our property (where the house is and is in the city limits) and the back acre (where the shop and garden are, and is in the county, and subject to different rules about almost everything).
The snow was unwalked in, except there were dog and cat tracks going everywhere. Big dog prints and small cat, all laid out there for me to observe and think about.
Sometimes my neighbor kids use my footbridge as a short cut between destinations. I know they do, and even though I scold them about it, one generation of short-cutters follows another.
Yet even their tracks are often visible, even in summer.
And that reminds me that we are hardly ever as crafty and sneaky as we think we are. We get caught regularly. I have never done serious crime, but I’ll bet they all thought they could get away with it, that they were smarter than the law.
Sadly, they may well have often away with it sometimes, even as the kids keep coming across my bridge.
Today most schools in the area are closed, and heaven help those who have to commute to work, it is SLICK out there.
To snow you need cold weather and moist air. And, since we live in a northern desert, we don’t always get them both at the same time, hence not much snow. Our farms are watered with runoff from the high mountains and they do get a lot of snow up there.
And that is how it is supposed to be: dry and cold here, snow and cold up there!
But this year is the exception. Before the last storm I heard that we had more snow than any year for the last dozen, and it snowed 6” yesterday morning, with more snow forecast each day for the next week and a half.
Enough already!
And, our house is at the crossroads of something big.
Yesterday I went out to the shop to work, and no person had walked across my footbridge that connects the front of our property (where the house is and is in the city limits) and the back acre (where the shop and garden are, and is in the county, and subject to different rules about almost everything).
The snow was unwalked in, except there were dog and cat tracks going everywhere. Big dog prints and small cat, all laid out there for me to observe and think about.
Sometimes my neighbor kids use my footbridge as a short cut between destinations. I know they do, and even though I scold them about it, one generation of short-cutters follows another.
Yet even their tracks are often visible, even in summer.
And that reminds me that we are hardly ever as crafty and sneaky as we think we are. We get caught regularly. I have never done serious crime, but I’ll bet they all thought they could get away with it, that they were smarter than the law.
Sadly, they may well have often away with it sometimes, even as the kids keep coming across my bridge.
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