Found in my old stuff

As I was going through old boxes (full of mold, dust, dead spiders, etc), I ran across lots of "treasures" amongst the debris. It was disappointing that a large # of pictures were totally destroyed, although since I couldn't see what used to be on them, I guess it's hard to mourn their loss too much. It's hard to miss something you didn't know you had! Anyway, I was quite happy that most of the cards, letters, etc., were still able to be rescued. I have been putting them into a scrap book or other much safe locations as I find them. Following is a typed story that I found about my great-grandmother (I think). I have no idea where it came from, but it is obviously quite old, as evidenced by the form of typing. It reads as if it may have been copied from a newspaper article. As background ~ my mother's family had a ranch over on the Montana / North Dakota border, near Medora. It was called the TIX Ranch. This is, apparently, a story from there. I've re-typed it exactly as it appears with capitals, mis-spellings, etc., intact. Enjoy!

"A RATTLESNAKE, RABBIT AND SKUNK, in that order, were shot with her .410-guage shotgun recently by Mrs. Dan Connell, pioneer resident of the Medora area. Not a bad day's "bag!"
Happened like this: Mrs. Dan Connell, whose lively, though near 80 year old husband is nursing a bad heart, has to stick pretty close tot he ranch house, 16 miles south of Medora. She loves her baby kittens. Hearing a familiar RATTLING sound, she peered out the screen door, saw a big fat RATTLER on her very own porch, giving warning to the curious, fluffy kittens. They probably figured it was good playing fun.
Grabbin for her trusty old .410 guage shotgun, the ranch woman, the mother of Mrs. E. E. O'Hearn of Dickinson, calmly sniped Mr. Rattler, leaving the kittens startled but unharmed.
Later she heard some more ruckus in the ranch yard, bounced out, shot a rabbit. Little later yet and one of her favorite setting hens skeedaddled up to the kitchen door clucking a worried warning. "Hummm". mused Mrs. Connell, "probably another rattler!" So she grabbed her gun and took off again.
It wasn't a snake this time though. Just a skunk. So she shot him too! Who said anything about defenseless woman?
Reminds me o f pert young ranch gal, Alice Lebo, who is employed at the North Dakota state employment office here, startles a few town girls now and then. Speaking of rattlesnakes--a general topic these days---she can dip in her purse and whip out a little exhibit with a "Look at this!" order.
It contains nine rattlers and "the button" off a big rattler she shot a few days ago at the Leboranch inthe Medora vicinity.
And some women are afraid of angleworms!"


No, I don't know who Alice Lebo is and the words stuck together at the end are exactly like the typed sheet. Love the story though! Hope you did too!

Saga of a broken camera

A month or more ago, Jeff came in one day and asked if he could borrow my camera as he was headed off … somewhere… and might want to take some pictures. So, I kept my misgivings to myself and said “Sure”. Off he went with my camera “safely” stowed in his pocket. Upon his return, he handed it back to me, and it looked like he’d run it through the hay baler, and then dug it out of a bale.. The strap was totally gone, the camera was filthy and it wouldn’t work because it had so much stuff, dirt, hay, and who knows what else, crammed in every nook & cranny. (I asked Jeff what he’d DONE.. and he said “Nothing! I never even took it out of my pocket!” I said “What the heck is in your pocket??” He got his coat and started digging around & found: fencing staples, horse treats, hay, dirt, a pen, and miscellaneous other things).

I, understandably, was a little miffed. So, Jeff took and cleaned on it, and cleaned…. And cleaned… used the compressed air…. And cleaned. Eventually he got it working – mostly – except that a big ol’ piece of dirt had somehow gotten in between two of the lenses and so every picture I tried to take, had this big spot on it.

We checked out getting it cleaned (a LOT of money) and were debating if we wanted to pay that or just live with the spot. Well, last week, I headed down the road with the camera “safely” stowed in my pocket to get mail. But, when I stopped to get out, apparently I hadn’t actually zipped the pocket, and the camera fell out – INTO A MUD PUDDLE! I brought it home, dried it out and tried to clean it. It wouldn’t even TURN ON!! So, Jeff worked on it awhile and got it to kind of work, but nothing would show up on the screen. At this point, we knew it would have to be either a) totally dismantled and cleaned; or b) replaced. Since cleaning was MORE than the cost of a new one, I decided I had nothing to lose by trying to clean it myself …. Note to all you do-it-yourselfers out there… NOT a good idea.

I sat down with my tiny little screwdriver and a seam ripper (yes, like you use for sewing). And started dismantling. It went ok, until I got into where you can see the electronics… But, I just kept plugging away. I was able to clean some of it, but never did figure out how to get into the lenses to clean between them, and one of the little bus lines (is that right you technogeeks?) came umplugged. I went ahead & cleaned as best I could & started re-mantling. Overheard by Jeff a contanst mumble:

“Mmmm… what part goes in first? OMG… that TINY TINY little spring just came unhooked and disappeared inside. WHERE did that stupid thing go? Oh! There it is, unhunhunh… got it! ARGH, lost it. Oh! Wait! There, got it.. now if I can just…. Unhunhunh… ok, now if I hold this and hook… ok. Got that. Why won’t this screw fit? I thought all the screws on this part were silver? Why do I have an extra silver screw? Oh well.. next.. um… ok, let’s try this, add the screws.. Argh.. was supposed to put this part on before.. ok, take this off, put other part on… how the HECK does the end of that spring fit in here? I”ll just tuck it here & hope it works… Hmm… this little bus line came unhooked, hopefully it’ll reconnect if I just stick in there… I wonder if it matters that this plastic piece thing isn’t sticky to the electronics anymore? Ok, replace back, put in screws…. Hmmm… I have 3 extra screws.. wonder if that’s a problem? Let’s see if it works… …

*Repeat above 3 times*

After MUCH time and frustration and multiple re-do’s… well, lets just say it STILL won’t work. No idea why…..

So, we move on to option B… replace. But how? Where to get the money? Especially with the trip to Richland looming… WAIT… what about my “Rainy Day” jar? I’ll count that change & see what I get…

So, I dumped the jar on the bed & started counting. The quarters went ok, and then I did some nickels & dimes which were also ok. But THEN I started on pennies – and my OCD kicked in. I have this compulsion that I can’t get rid of any penny without making sure it isn’t old. (What defines “old” you may ask? Well, obviously it’s any penny that’s older than me!) I HAVE to look at every single one, unless they are very shiny and obviously new. Do you have ANY idea how long it takes to roll 1000 pennies when you have to look at every one? And, apparently my eyesight is getting worse, because it’s not just a quick look, I have to tip & tilt & squint & try to determine what the year says… It’s EXHAUSTING. But, I DID it! And it was very rewarding! I DO have enough to buy a new camera! So… on our trip, we’ll be completing the saga by going to a Best Buy to compare cameras and make a purchase. I’ll keep you posted of any “saga-worthy” moments.

The moral of the story: Don’t loan your camera and ALWAYS keep it in it’s case.

If it ain't one thing... it's another!!

Well, many of you may have seen the picture of the crawler pulling the skid steer down the road. That was just the crowning item in a day FULL of unanticipated happenings.

It all started with the white stuff. Because we got quite a bit of snow on Thursday & Friday, we were pretty well snowed in. Kim (the boss) had left Thursday a.m., to head to town & got out ok in the pickup, but by Thursday afternoon when I went to get mail, it was a different story. I told Jeff that I had made it- barely - with the Suburban which goes REALLY well in the snow (as long as it's in 4WD). So, when Kim called that eve, Jeff passed that on & also told him how hard it had been blowing. ("Blowing so hard it blew my headlights right into the ditch" as my grandpa would say!!) so we were certain it would be bad down at the mailbox where you turn onto our road from the highway. But, because Kim had gotten out ok on Thurs, he figgered it would be ok Fri afternoon. Well, about 12:30 on Friday, we got a call from Kelly (Kim's wife) - they couldn't get in and Kim was stuck. So, Jeff headed down with the tractor & pulled them both through the monster drifts. Then, as Kelly went to pass him in her car, she got stuck AGAIN. So, he pulled her out again & they finally both made it up to the ranch. Jeff came back with the tractor & he & Kim planned to plow on Sat a.m.

Saturday a.m., (after ANOTHER night of snow & blow), Jeff heads out in the crawler down to the mailboxes & Kim followed in the skid steer (ss) with the snow blower on it. They figured that by tag-teaming it, they'd go a lot faster. BUT.. the SS is WAY slower than the crawler & when I went to pick them up to bring them back for lunch, Kim had just gotten down there (it's 5 miles to the highway). So, I brought them to the ranch for lunch. Jeff said that he'd not gotten as much done as he wanted either because FOUR trucks w/ snowmobiles had tried to come through and he'd had to stop & pull each one out of the drift (Snow-mobilers just aren't all there sometimes! Kinda like the hunters we get up here) One guy had gotten stuck, Jeff had pulled him out & then the guy asked if he could just leave his truck parked right there in the middle of the road. Um... NO! How am I going to plow with you in the way? So, just before lunch, he'd plowed the road closed so they couldn't even TRY to get in until he got it cleared.

After lunch we head back. I dropped Kim off at his little SS & he headed back through our little gorge to clear some more, & then took Jeff on down to the crawler Rode it w/ him out to get mail & then jumped in the Sub & headed back to the ranch. But, when I went to pass Kim in the ss (in EXACTLY the same spot Kelly had tried to pass Jeff), I got REALLY stuck. We looked all over the ss & sub for a tow strap, chain, anything - NOTHING (not that the ss could have pulled me out anyway). So, there I sat in the Sub waiting on Kim to get to Jeff so he could come pull me out w/ the crawler. SS goes about 2.5 miles/hr, Crawler does about 8mph. So, the mile to Jeff & then him to come back took almost an hour. In the meantime, I have to explain to every snowmobile rider that comes by why I'm sitting reading catalogs in my stuck Sub. BUT.. at least they stopped & checked on me!!

Jeff gets there w/ crawler & HE doesn't have anything to tow either!! So, he had to plow a furrow in front of me & then push w/ the crawler from behind & finally I'm FREE. I got back to the ranch at 3:30, & head to leave to go pick them BACK up at 4pm. So, off I go... BUT... did I think to put a tow strap in yet... OF COURSE NOT!!! I get to where Kim is & guess who's off the road & almost tipped over into the creek w/ the ss!! He's ok, but I have no tow rope to help. SOOO... continue down to Jeff to tell him to come up w/ the crawler, go back & pickup Kim, come to ranch, get tow rope, go back to where the ss is, just as Jeff gets there. We pull it out & all head back to the ranch (SLOWLY... remember, ss = 2.5/mph) in a convoy. Jeff is a ways behind us as he wants to knock off the highest snowbank on the north side of the road. We get about 2 miles toward home & Kim stops in the ss in the middle of the road. I'm waiting behind him, waiting, waiting, reading catalog... I can see him messing around in there, but no idea why. I figure he'll get out if there's a problem, right? Jeff shows up in the meantime & I say... there must be a problem, we've been here awhile. So, Jeff goes up & talks to Kim. Apparently, the ss had just died as he was going down the road. And, because the bucket/blower was up, he couldn't open the door to get out & I wasn't noticing that he was trying to signal me!! And, since it was totally dead electrically, they couldn't lower the bucket at all. So, after Jeff determined it wasn't going to start back up anytime soon, we try to take door off - no luck. (I asked Kim if he wanted me to get him a beer since it looked like he'd be there all night. He said "NO! I've been thinking about what I'm going to do to go to the bathroom as it is!!). Kim pulled the seal on the back window (like the emergency tab SAYS to do) and it STILL won't pop out. So, Jeff & I get tools & take the bolts out of the piece that holds the back window so that Kim can finally escape.

No luck getting it going, but we can't get the Sub by it either, so they finally hook onto it with the tow chain that we now have, & pull it off the road.

OMG.. what a DAY. Kim was NOT a happy camper. But, the road DID get plowed & it's "mostly" passable now. But, I think Jeff will be on his own in the future when it comes to snow removal!!

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

Ok so here I am with my not-so-regular dose of "Did you know" news. First though: My favorite sign of the month, seen on an Arizona road sign: "Dangerous But Passable"... hmmm...

Thanks to High Country News for that sign, and also for the following tidbits, which I've excerpted unashamedly:

Do you or someone you know live on or near what used to be an orchard? Did you know that the soil in those areas can contain extremely high amounts of hazardous chemicals? Growing veggies, playing / digging in the dirt, or dust stirred up by the wind, can expose you. And, of even more concern, expose unborn fetuses or your children to extreme levels of DDT (and it's breakdown products, DDE & DDD), Arsenic, Lead, & Chlordane. Testing is expensive, but if it's a concern, there are methods to reduce risk - let me know if you want those. The article noted that several states suggest testing by developers, but none REQUIRE it. And so, because it's expensive AND they might actually find something, few do it. It is of course, more complicated than what I've written here, but that's the bottom line.

Also... in a note related to one of my earlier blogs re: our destructive dependence on oil, did you know that we have pretty much exhausted supplies of "light oil" which required roughly 4.5 barrels of water to produce 1 barrel of oil. Now, we have to mine "heavy oil" which was shunned in the early years of oil production. It is "heavy" due to geology (shallow deposits and tectonic movement" and biochemistry (petroleum-consuming bacteria have made the oil the consistency of molasses). It now requires nearly 8 barrels of water per barrel of oil. And that contaminated water, "produced water" has to be disposed of in some fashion (and it is FULL of chemicals such arsenic and nitrates, chloride & boron, and can also have detectable radiation). A small percentage of that water is recycled by the oil companies, but the majority is either a) pumped into evap pits (often unlined) or b) pumped into underground disposal wells (which can have unknown access to underground aquifers & water tables.) In CA, the oil companies have to BUY their water, supposedly encouraging recycling. However, due to the cost of recycling, it is cheaper to just buy everything they need. And, yes, there is some government oversight of the disposal, but the income from oil is so great, that they are often overlooked. In Kern County, CA, in 2008, oil companies pumped 425 million barrels of produced water into underground wells & discarded 200 million barrels into surface evaporation ponds. And, considering the long-running drought in CA, why are we continuing to ignore the fact that oil companies divert & use as much as eighty-five percent of the water in various water districts?

Here's my bottom line question: Isn't it time we a)seriously re-think our dependence on oil; b)at a minimum enforce current regulations and perhaps even beef them up; and c)consider our water a REQUIRED item for our life & protect it accordingly???