Out of Plumb

I cashed in a ‘ticket’ last night. Bon Voyage little guy. I felt a little bad about wasting him/her/it but after I got to school and told the story to some staff their consensus was that something might have been wrong in the head. It was real aggressive and actually charged me twice despite having a clear avenue of escape. I guess it actually charged 3 times or rather it started to charge 3 times....

"The Bunny"













Why we call him "Elbe" ('L' 'B' -Lame Bunny)












"Fake Wall"

















"Ol' Smoky"

















"The Store"

In the great leaf leave the neighbor won. Oh the wind, she can be a fickle mistress. The false wall is in and the stove has been installed in the shop. I have lit it three times, the third time it didn’t billow thick clouds of acrid smoke. Found that when you light it you have to close the damper all the way and force it to draft though all of the holes in the fire chamber sucking the smoke back in. Great stove huh? It is double wall with cast iron plates inside in front of the holes so it is not a fire danger, despite what it might sound like. Small tests have shown that it will be enough to not just take the chill of but to actually heat the place somewhat. Almost all of my energies have been dedicated towards creating things for the store. I will post pictures of it since none of you have ever seen it. (I suppose that depends on who is reading this) Christmas this year will hinge heavily on the sale of painted snowman napkin holders, Santas, sleighs, reindeer and crucifixes of all things. I bet your surprised to know I make a fine line of religious paraphernalia for all of your ceremonial Christian needs. Alanis Morissette anyone?

Going around the house tonight taping off all of our ‘vintage’ windows. It is not as bad as it sounds; most of them are painted closed anyway. Should help with the heating and also with the train noise. Speaking of that there was a huge coal train derailment above Trout Creek. As a result the main line has been silent all day. Watched a work train with 2 or 3 big RR cranes chug through earlier today and now I can hear we have trains stacked up on every siding. I just know that line will open up and they will roll non-stop around 2 AM. I thought the extra RR commotion was why the dog was so agitated while I was working in the kitchen. I let her out and she heads straight for the cat feeder. I feed the cats outside, inside this box so the dog can’t get at their food. Pestering the cats while they eat is a hobby of hers so charging for the feeder was not in itself a big deal. The scratching and hissing from the box was new, my cats just ignore her. I caught a glimpse of a tail and it was bushy, big and black. Ah, not one of my cats, some neighbor’s critter is sneaking a meal on my dime. I was on the verge of telling the dog to “go get it”; in essence you have my permission to chase that when I caught a flash of white in the black tail. Black bushy tail with a white stripe… oh shit. I yelled, “NO, COME” just as she clamped down. It could have ended much worse. Pepe Le Pew must have been quite surprised because he spun around inside the box with a shower of tuna flavored kitty nuggets and poked his head out snarling. I was fortunate because by that point the dog had started to obey and was heading back to me. The strange snarling head was a little much for a puppy to ignore and despite our reluctant obedience we couldn’t resist a pounce and bark. The combination of which proved a little much for the kitty nugget nibbler and Le Pew, le spewed. Thank god for the cat feeder, talk about taking one for the team. I hauled the dog back inside and ran for one of the guns determined to give my new friend a permanent Paris vacation. It took me a while to track down the beater 22 as it was still in the camper. Pepe is lucky I didn’t feel like cleaning one of the other guns, the delay gave him time to waddle off and recharge. I held his flight itinerary for him it’s leaning up next to the back door. I just know I will hear a crash one night and Pepe will be out trying to rip the door off the rabbit hutch. Oh that’s right, I haven’t mentioned “our” new rabbit. Well as it turns out I’m a damn softhearted moron…

It has been raining continuously here and I don’t want to rake the leaves. Normally I would have all of the leaves bundled up by this time and in neat little piles to either burn or give to the nice old man who drives his lawn tractor around town. This year it snowed early and now it is raining. Best I can hope for at this point is a good wind, and then they are my neighbor’s problem. I know it sounds mean but the wind can blow both ways. It’s a risk we are both willing to take. The logs are all cut up and I underestimated the yield. Had we cut it all into 2x4’s the total would have been closer to 100. We cut 2x4’s, 6’s and 12x1 board and batt. I am falsing off one of the roll up doors on the shop. They are the only way in or out and I don’t know how much longer they will last. Both automatic openers are disconnected and after a power flicker the codes reset and the openers do not work. Did I mention they are the ONLY way in or out? That was a head scratcher the first time. Even opening the doors by hand they sometimes jam. Besides I am planning on heating (well attempting to heat) the shop space this year and having the doors wide open seems counter productive.