we have the best chickens. they’re a real kick in the pants to watch.

This is what I get when I go in to gather eggs.

There’s a certain window of time during which, apparently, the eggs are under chicken jurisdiction. I’m still trying to figure out what the time-frame is. It seems to change daily, and according to which chicken has been assigned ‘egg-duty’.

So many details involved with living here. So MANY.

Fraley and I finished getting all the sand into the round pen this week. I ended up using Lisa’s Jeep to level the sand down (dragging a steel grate behind it). Now, we just need to assemble the panels this week and ta-da, we’re done. Well, almost done. A few small details to do in addition, but almost almost done.

We went out Saturday nite to see The Happening. It was a decent premise, but the cast/crew didn’t manage to pull it off very well. On the way back home, we met up with some of our neighbors and the highway patrol sitting at the bottom of the hill. A tree was down across the road completely blocking it. Joy. I volunteered to take my Jeep up the road and try to pull it out of the way with a chain. When I got up there, another neighbor was already there (from the other side), winching the thing out of the way. Part of living up here – trees going down, cows, landslides, etc.

Well, back to work tomorrow. I got pretty used to not going to work the past two weeks. Rather enjoyable really 🙂

Long day yesterday – made 10+ trips up and down the hill with the big dump truck, much to our neighbors displeasure, I’m sure. No accidents, but a couple close calls, mostly due to folks coming down the hill driving too fast. Its funny, but getting back into a regular car today felt weird – like it was a ‘low rider’ 🙂

So, as long as I had the truck, I got one load of play sand:

Why? Because apparently puppies really like sand piles:

Lisa’s friend H replaced all the gravel in her backyard with beach sand and the dogs loved it – 100+ft of personal beach.

Dretti and Dee were disappointed when I told them that the BIG sand pile wasn’t theirs:

Today, I grabbed a couple final loads of stuff from the quarry, ditched the truck and drove the skip loader up our road. It was riding on one of those park tour vehicles – about 3+ mph. I got to see all sorts of stuff along the road I never see while driving a normal vehicle.

Ok, time to rip up (er, landscape) the back yard 🙂

I finally started on the outdoor riding arena project today. I got all the heavy equipment lined up at United Rentals (these guys rent pretty much every Tonka toy you can imagine). I was supposed to start getting gravel/sand from the local quarry early this morning, but due to a spectacular accident that happened on the I-680 south near the rental location, it took me 1.5 hrs to get there – its only 5 miles. I managed to get 4 loads of ‘base rock’ to make the foundation of the arena before the quarry closed – they close at 2:30 ?!?! I guess folks who build stuff/truck stuff get up much earlier than I.

Driving around the quarry was ‘interesting’. Lots of huge earthmovers tooling around, much larger dump trucks, etc. Plus – everyone but me knew where they were going. I finally had to stop at the office to ask directions, etc. Saved me from accidentally getting loaded with asphalt 🙂

Once I figured out the routine, it was a pretty quick trip in and out. You just pull up near the pile of stuff you want a scoop of and like magic, the big loader appears and fills each truck in a single scoop – pretty wild sitting in the truck, watching this thing come up and hover over you and dump its load.

My dump truck is much smaller in comparison pretty much every other one in the quarry. But its about as big as I can get up / down our road. As it it, this truck squeezes thru some places with maybe 6 inches to spare on either side. I’m sure a much better truck driver than I could get a 10 wheeler up the road, but until I go to truck drivers school, I’ll stick with the smaller one. Plus its no fun meeting other traffic coming down our road (when I’m driving up full – its a real drag to have to stop/slow down on a hill because someone in an SUV can’t figure out that 1) I’m bigger than they are 2) I have a full load and am not stopping unless forced to 3) they have an SUV – THEY can drive it off the pavement at least a little to squeeze by me. The closest call today was a bicyclist – he passed me when I was going down the hill empty, so I knew he’s be on his way down when I returned with a full load. And like clockwork, I found him – even after honking my horn around the corners, he came flying around a corner and almost impaled himself on the front end of the truck. He dove off the side of the road next to the cliff (rather than going flying down the ravine into the creek).

Tomorrow will be busy – i need to get around 10 loads before the quarry closes. I’m sure the neighbors will be so happy to here me go up/down the road starting at 5:30am :-/

And those of you with kids know what that means!!!!! An endless stretch (well, 3 months that seems endless) of hot, sticky “I’m booorrrrrreeeeddd”

Not necessary, young creative minds, not necessary at all! With a few household items, a little ingenuity and a small family pet that nobody really wants to take care of anymore anyways, you and a competitive group of close friends can have loads of fun this summer!
(click on the picture to get a closer look at the detailed how-to instructions!)

I’m thinking any small pocket pet will do, hamsters just seem to have more of an aggressive drive that makes them specially suited to this ‘sport’, but I’m sure you could use guinea pigs, mice, gerbils or even hermit crabs (although that might get a little slow). To add a little twist to it you could try a parakeet or maybe a lovebird (the avian equivalent to the hamster) and ninja stars instead of boring old straight knives. That’s some sweet-ass entertainment right there.

You know, moms and dads, you don’t need to thank me. I mean really, anything that keeps the little rugrats too busy to pick up some pesky “I was bored so I got hooked on coke and heroin” summer habit, right? Just doing my part to keep America’s young minds active and healthy!

I’m going to San Antonio, Texas tomorrow. For a conference, the ACVIM (American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine). Woot. I’ts gunna be about as exciting as you’re guessing it’s gunna be. It’ll be okay. I’m picking up the rental car the moment we land and I’m driving my ass out to Hondo! That’s right, HONDO!!!! 9.6 square miles of nothing in the middle of nowhere (approximately 40 miles west of San Antonio). 0.04 square miles of that is water. I’m guessing it’s someones above ground pool. You may wonder why I’m going to Hondo, in fact, I’m pretty sure you are. Do I know someone there? No. Is there a SuperFun Water Park with a wave pool and dolphins there? No. Alright, maybe there’s a huge religious cult compound out that direction founded by fundamentalists and maintained by aliens from Area 51? Nah, nothing that good. I’ll tell you what there IS in Hondo though, and this is direct from their website (they have a website!); 6 apartment complexes and quite a few rental houses, 4 free parks & playgrounds, 2 parks that require a deposit, the Medina County Fair Hall that is available for rental, a soccer field, 2 baseball parks, a bowling alley, a movie theater that shows the most current movie releases, a public swimming pool, a nine-hole golf course and so much more. Did you see? There’s a bowling alley in Hondo, it’s where they make the fun! Well, not really. But I’m going to see if I can pick up Hondo Bowl t-shirts to bring back. I just like the name. And there’s a sign erected by the Lions club in 1930, it’s quite famous they say: “This is God’s Country, Don’t Drive Through It Like Hell,” I am so there. Then, I’m off to D’Hanis, which I’m convinced is pronounced Duh Anus. Man, this is going to be a great trip. Sure I’ll have to sit thru some lectures about IBD, lymphoma and a bunch of other stuff, but hell, I’m goin’ to Hondo!, and another town that sounds like butt. Freakin’ awesome!
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