Our home has had a bad case of “being sick” since before Christmas!  When will it end?  There are days when we feel pretty good and think it’s all over, and then whammo…the “feel bads” are winning again.  Yesterday was one of those days for me.  By 4 p.m. I could feel the fever beginning to attack and by 9 I was had!

Some day it will go away and it can’t be too soon.

So, about 3 a.m. this morning I awoke to the need to hit the bathroom and noticed my side of the bed was wringing wet from me sweating!  I did my duty and then drank 2 big glasses of water and went back to that damp environment.  At least it was warm.

Now is when things started to get interesting.  I could feel I had a fever and the sweating began almost immediately, but I lay there trying to go back to sleep.  For the next two hours this is what I remember:

I found myself at a rendezvous and I was carrying my possibles bag, rifle, powder horn, No Grimaces’ rifle and possibles bag, Trackers favorite movie camera and a tri-pod.  I was wandering around through this large gathering of mountain folks trying to find anyone that looked familiar.  None of them had I ever seen before.  All of them seemed to be “traders”, with their blankets stretched out and they were sitting in small groups discussing stuff and trying to lure people closer to look at their goods.  The land where this rendezvous was being held was not flat, it was filled with deep, rocky crevasses and cedar trees barely hanging on to the edges by what little root systems they had holding them up.

Somehow I  got away from the burden I was carrying….I laid it all down someplace…and now I was frantically trying to relocate it.

Still nobody looked familiar.  I scrambled trying to scale one of the many rocky cliffs to get up on the top of it.  The rocks I grabbed gave way and tumbled down the narrow crevasse below me.  People down there, out of sight from me, were yelling up for me to stop tumbling rocks down upon them.  I had to make a mad scramble back in the direction from where I had come.  A traders blanket drooped over the edge of the cliff I was on and partially kept me from reaching the far side.  I made it after a very tough struggle.  And there lay my rifle and all the other things I had misplaced.  I tried to pick it all up, but it was too much to carry.  I looked around and there were no people who looked trust worthy enough to leave any of it with.  I was in a very big dilemma.

And then, just as quickly as I had misplaced and found again, my load of guns and camera equipment, there were two young boys insisting I join them in finding something.  What that was I’ll never know, but we ended up at a large bleacher filled with people watching young people perform on a stage far below them.  And then I was alone.  Someone called out that they knew I hadn’t voted yet and that I needed to get down to “the building” and vote before it was too late.  I scrambled up the bleachers and over the other side, suddenly finding myself in a wood shack with extremely steep stairs leading down to a door.  The stairs were filled with old rusty tools of every sort.  A hammer fell and someone above me yelled at me and asked why I dropped that hammer down on the table below.  I looked down and there were lots of hammers laying there, I kept struggling to get down the stairs through all the tools, trying my best not to knock any others to the floor below.

When I made it to the door, I opened it to find a long narrow room filled with people.  It was pretty dark inside and a guy was carrying a wooden box, like an old fashioned shoe shine box and yelling if anyone wanted to vote as the time was closing fast.  I yelled out that I needed to vote and he proceeded to hand me a paper and pencil……

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I awoke to Winemaker getting up to go and do her exercises.

So, what does a dream like this one tell you?  Pretty confusing if you ask me, but it was so vivid I was able to recall all of this later on when Winemaker and I were having coffee.  A fever dream for sure.

Bears Butt

January 29, 2014

I just came across this on the internet and thought I’d share with you guys.

Bears Butt
January 26, 2014

These computers are really something else.  I remember when I was working (at a real job) and they brought in “MY” computer….it took the tech guys almost all day to get me hooked up and running.  And then in came the sweet little gal to teach this old dog how to operate it.  I didn’t have any clue as to how this thing was going to help me.  I was new to my job (the boss) and I was eager to learn and then to show “my people” how to make their computers work for them.

The whole deal of modernizing our office was in the hands of a few.  We were to become what eventually was state of the art in the world of aerial photography.  And here I sat, in total obliviousness!  The gal showed me and I took lots of notes.  She kept saying, “Now don’t write down your password!  Someone could come in and find it and get into your computer and really cause a lot of problems”!  But, how in the heck could I remember my password?  After all, by tomorrow I will have forgotten it.  Unknown to her I did write it down on a sticky note and put it in a special place only I could find it.  I used it every day, until finally I could remember it.  I also remember after a year of using my computer I had sticky notes all around the screen.  Notes of every kind!

Now, it seems like the computer is something I just can’t do without!  I use it every day…well, every day I’m not hunting or camping or whatever, away from the house.  But if I’m home, I use it daily and some days….ALL DAY LONG!

It can get frustrating and I really appreciate when someone calls and says something I have sent them won’t print.  Today was one of those days.

I sent out a “jpeg” file of the Super Bowl Board…gambling is illegal you know, so keep this one quiet….besides we aren’t gambling…we are going to enjoy watching a football game and have to have a reason to watch it…that is why we have this board.  It’s our incentive.  We could care less if the Broncos or the Sea Hawks beat each other up and one of them wins.  What matters is if our square on the “incentive” matches with the score when the game is done.

So, Muskrat was having a time trying to print the jpeg attachment I sent yesterday.  He was sort of “fit to be tied” and called asking if I could redo the attachment in “pdf” format and resend it….Of course I can.  I had to ask Winemaker how to do it, but together we got it done and off it went as another attachment to an email to Muskrat.

I waited a few minutes and then called him to make sure everything was alright.  He was sitting at his computer and just opened it up.  It was important that he get it printed and have it in his hand when he met the “boys” at the coffee shop this morning, I completely understand.

As we conversed and he was working diligently on his end talking to himself as he went…the mumbling kept reminding me of myself when I first started playing with my computer at work.  I also went on a short memory lane trip in my head about how fascinated I was the first time I sent an attachment from my office to an office in Washington DC….the person was on the phone to me and asked if I could sent a certain file I was in charge of keeping updated.  I sent it via the computer and while she was on the phone, she said…”OK, I got it!”  And the amazing thing was that I had just pushed the “enter” key…zingo!  She got it!  That was my first mouth dropping event of the “new age” of computers.

So, today as I listened to the mumblings on the phone I could not help but grin and think about what he was doing trying to get the document to print.

As it was looking very promising on his end, he related a story about “last week”, when he was having printer problems.  He said he printed these things over and over and nothing would come out of the computer.  His frustrations got the best of him and he left the room.  Later in the day, or the next day or whenever, he came back into his computer room and had pieces of printed papers all over the floor and in the printer catch bin!  How could I not laugh at that?  I laughed and laughed!

So, with my coffee cup in hand, I solute you Muskrat!  Job well done!

Bears Butt

January 26, 2014

Yesterday Winemaker and I were sitting in our usual spots enjoying our morning coffee when she said, “It sure seems cold in here this morning”.  I checked the temp and sure enough it was only 63 degrees…brrrr!

I went to the thermostat and it was set on 68, just where it’s been for a hundred years, so I kicked it up to 75, pulled the cover off it and blew out the dust!  I thought maybe a spider had crawled in there and gotten himself between some contacts or something.

And so the day went on…later I told her I thought I could hear something strange with the noise the furnace was making…you could hear and feel the blower working, but then there would be pulsing noises like it was trying to fire up and then it would shut itself off.  This would occur about every 10 seconds.  On…Off…On…Off.   She could not hear what I was trying to describe….until this morning!

When she heard it her first comment was….”We need to call Scott and get him to come and look at the furnace”!

Scott Pettingill is his name and he lives in Brigham City.  He owns Box Elder Heating and Air Conditioning and he was the man who installed the furnace and central air in the old house.  I have worked with Scott quite a bit over the last 10 years or so.  A good, reliable and reasonable heating and air conditioning man.  He knows his business and doesn’t bite the hand that feeds him!  If you want fair and honest!  Scott is the man…435-723-3151

It was about 7 a.m. at this time and so I texted his number asking him to call me when it was convenient.  My phone rang less than 15 minutes later.  I told him we had an issue with the furnace and he said he would be out about 8 a.m.

At 7:55 Scott pulled into the driveway!  Grabbed his small bag of tools and headed for the basement.  He stood there listening to the noise the furnace was making and said…”We have a water problem”!

Our furnace is going on 19 years old and it is of a type that creates condensed water and that water drains into our floor drain in the basement.  Scott knew right away the water was not draining.  Something had it plugged and the way the furnace is designed, if something in the workings of the furnace is not right, the sensors tell it not to operate.  So, as a little bit of water would drain through the plug, the furnace would ignite, then when new water built up to the stop point, the furnace would shut off…thus the On again, Off again stuff.

Scott found a drain plug on the main drain, opened it and drained out some very ugly stuff!  That ugly stuff was little bits of rust mixed with water and over the years it has been building up until it completely covered the main drain pipe outlet.  Who would have thought?

So, with all the BS’n and stuff, Scott was here about an hour….his charge?  $40!

The furnace is working just like new, the house is warm and the thermostat is set back to 68…Winemaker has a big old smile on her face, I have a big old smile on my face, MaPa’s is looking at us wondering why we have big old smiles on our faces, and Scott is off to another job!

Does it get any better than that?

Bears Butt

January 24, 2014

We were heading up toward Hardware Ranch the other day and I saw a Bald Eagle gliding down the canyon.  I made a comment that he was a little early to be migrating through at this time of year.  Usually they don’t show up until around the second week of February.

Of course Winemaker informed me that I don’t always see the individual ones that come through early, I only see the masses of them as they glide around at the peak of the migration.

As for my thoughts on the subject, I think I observe lots of things, and I still think this one eagle is early.  So I believe that this sighting is an indication of an early Spring!  That’s what I’m saying and I’m sticking to it!

At the ranch, while we waited for the others to show up, we observed a small band of six wild turkeys on the hill side.  Several of the Toms were fanning their tails out and strutting around like they were meaning some business.  That is another indicator to me of an early Spring…Strutting Toms!

So there were two signs in one day!

This morning while we were eating our breakfast, a bird flew down and picked up a stick that was laying on the brown grass and flew off with it!  What does that tell you?

And even though we have not heard from Punxsutawney Phil, the ground hog over in Pennsylvania, I’m here to tell you winter’s back is broken and you best get your Spring stuff ready to do!  Bears Butt went out and got the paper this morning and saw his shadow!  Only six more weeks until you see a 70 degree day!

This just might turn into something big, so mark your calendars!  People just might be flocking around Bears Butt’s den waiting for him to come out and see his shadow….who knows!?!

Bears Butt

January 23, 2014