The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[caseydog]

Hello campfire folks. Do you remember me? I come here from time to time, just to let you know that I am still alive... at least for today.

Well, I am still alive. I'm not getting any younger, and I take a lot more pills than I used to. I don't do any camping lately, but, Planovet is still my dog's veterinarian. He keeps me updated on SCT activities.

I am still photographing cars for food. I am going to South Dakota next week to shoot 25 Pontiacs. You don't hear that everyday, do you?

I need to check in with you folks more often, and I want to. I just get bogged down in the day-to-day process of making money to pay my bills. I need to win the Lottery... but to do that, I'd have to buy lottery tickets, which I would do, except I know that winning the lottery is like getting struck by lightning -- well, except winning the lottery is way better than getting struck by lightning.

Keep me in your thoughts. Believe it or not, I think about you guys and gals from time-to-time. I need to get a photography job in Maine sometime soon, so I can say I have met a genuine alien sheepman. I'll have to take pictures... but, will he show up in the pictures. Will I remember meeting him?

CD

[Fenlason]

I have spent most of this week doing trail work. I have, here and there puttered on other things.. working on bikes... getting some lawn furniture out.. work on the barn. Trail work has also been a variety of projects. Spring clean up.. new construction.. and little mods /alterations / additions.

Dave left Tuesday for a couple of weeks.. [work] Angela came out for a walk Wednesday.. then out for our first beginner ride Last night. We are heading to their place shortly for a road ride then dinner.

I am really enjoying retirement.. but still pissed about how it came about etc. I will share more of that in a separate post.

[Fenlason]

Hello campfire folks. Do you remember me? I come here from time to time, just to let you know that I am still alive... at least for today.

Well, I am still alive. I'm not getting any younger, and I take a lot more pills than I used to. I don't do any camping lately, but, Planovet is still my dog's veterinarian. He keeps me updated on SCT activities.

I am still photographing cars for food. I am going to South Dakota next week to shoot 25 Pontiacs. You don't hear that everyday, do you?

I need to check in with you folks more often, and I want to. I just get bogged down in the day-to-day process of making money to pay my bills. I need to win the Lottery... but to do that, I'd have to buy lottery tickets, which I would do, except I know that winning the lottery is like getting struck by lightning -- well, except winning the lottery is way better than getting struck by lightning.

Keep me in your thoughts. Believe it or not, I think about you guys and gals from time-to-time. I need to get a photography job in Maine sometime soon, so I can say I have met a genuine alien sheepman. I'll have to take pictures... but, will he show up in the pictures. Will I remember meeting him?

CD

Hey CD.. glad to hear you are still kicking. Winning the lottery sounds nice.. I would be happy with a relatively small one. They say the odds of winning most any lottery.. is WORSE than getting hit by lightning... I have never purchased one and probably will never... so I guess my odds of winning are really bad.

If I want to be seen.. I can be photographed... I do sometime alter my form though.... and I am generally rememberable...

[toypusher]

Good Morning. Rain all night ans still raining here now.

Sucky week at work with lots of rain and one very hot humid day this week. We did not get caught up, but got more done than we expected. Might go in to work today, but that is doubtful. Have not seen much of the wife this week. Her brother who cares for their mother had hernia surgery on Tuesday and my wife has been mostly staying at their house to care for my MIL while he is recuperating. And of course my lawn needs mowed!

[Fenlason]

Good morning Campers.. another day in Paradise!! We have had fairly decent weather.. although this coming week sounds pretty wet. I did a little work on the barn this morning.. before the metal roof got hotter than I wanted to be on. I then switched over to mowing.

[toypusher]

Rainy here today, but should be sunny the rest of the week. Looks like it will be long days the rest of the week.

Went to Gander Outdoor (used to be Gander Mountain) today and now I want two new rifles!!! But, also found out about a club that I had not known about and probably will join now to go shooting at.

[Fenlason]

I am off a day somehow.. I keep thinking it's Thursday..

It did cloud up and we had a little rain last night.. but otherwise it's not been bad this week. I have continued doing trail work.. as well as working on the lawn. Over on that side of the house we have had some trees that are not doing all that well..{ mostly storm damage} I cut them down .. took the stumps out.. Yesterday I went over the area with the tractor rake. I also clipped the sticking out roots. I also went out on 2 of our new trails.. and clipped [and cut with the sawzall] roots over there.

I was going to work off the barn roof this morning... but the sun came out.. strong and hot early... so I swapped over to more trail work. I have a bit of mechanized stuff I could do [up over there] I was working on that and broke the pivot bolt on my rake.... soooo I went to pick up a replacement and pick up some fuel.. and other things while out.

We have a cemetery trustees meeting tonight.. oh and we did have dinner out last night. I had an uncle up from Florida... so another aunt an uncle.. and my mom all went out to dinner.

Well we have lost one of our beginner riders already... Judy.. she road rides [with us] and we used to trail ride together a LONG time ago.. and she is timid and really doesn't like it any more... actually she used to be timid [but rode fairly well].. weirdly she was our best "beginner" .

[Fenlason]

I have continued to work on the barn some.. still doing trail work.. some mowing.. and worked on the lawn at the side of the house. Off the edge I had some saplings to bush hog. I used the smaller bush hog on the Gravely for that.

We had our second beginners ride last night.. and no beginners showed up.. We had two that we knew were going to be away. Another told us she wasn't really interested in mountain biking anymore... the others?? We did have 5 of our regulars.. and had an AWESOME ride. For a good part of it we "let" John and Angela take turns leading. They really still don't know there way around, although Angela is better than John. "Forcing" them to lead, allows them to learn their way around better. It definitely made for an interesting ride.. we ended up doing some pretty nasty stuff.. it was an interesting tough.. fun ride.. that everyone loved.

[Fenlason]

Right here anyways we have not had much for rain. It might have been last Saturday we did some trail work in the rain.. but it was just a light drizzle.. and didn't really add any appreciable ground moisture.

We have mostly done trail work.. lawn mowing. Yesterday I spent all day trail mowing.. and servicing the tractor. We have puttered on the barn a little bit.

I just spent a couple of hours mowing and string trimming the skinny farm. I still need to go back out and do a quick pass with the leaf blower... to clear grass off the skinnies.

We have another beginners ride tonight. The primary one we were doing this for might not make it again tonight. [for legit reasons anyways] It does sound as if we have others that are coming.. beginners and otherwise.

[toypusher]

Been a while I guess!

Just been working long days and my wife is still spending most of her time at her mother's and probably will be for another week or two. I get home at night and just do not feel much like doing anything. Things have been bad at work with my co-worker who seems to only be able to put in a 3 or 4 hour day most days. Then we have to scramble to get someone to help out if at all possible or I just have to work alone and that takes more than twice as long as it takes two people to do the stuff. Anyway, we have a new guy starting Monday and will see if things go a bit better.

Me and my buddy Mark did join the shooting club, but have not been there to shoot yet. I was going to go yesterday, but had to work half day and then mow at home, so just did not feel like doing anything at all.

[Fenlason]

I have gone through a few periods with not much too say either..

Sorry about work.... and stuff.

I have continued puttering around here.. trail work.. mowing lawns and trails. I got our "race" trailer out.. getting it ready for this weekend. Dave has a race in NH and it's one a few of us go to. It's the closest one. [although still 3 1/2 hour drive] It's a place were we can camp for free.. and get some riding in our own as well as see Dave race. He is downhill racing.. but they do have other races I could do.. I am just not ready..

We are cold and rainy here today.. which I don't really mind. I actually had a little time this morning before it started. Much of this week sounds wet. We could use the rain.. and I have other stuff I can work on.

I am just back from some errands.. picking up fuel.. returning bottles.. picking up lumber. I also just picked up some telescoping loppers. On the easier trails we are working on... over there.. we are digging up a lot of roots.. which I then clip them all off.. and with my current loppers it's a lot of weird painful bending over. These telescoppers should help a lot.

[toypusher]

We have telescoping lopers at work, but they are not in good shape. Nice to have the reach, but not nice that they don't cut clean.

Well, I lost my cell phone yesterday and had to get a new one last night. I will admit that the new one (from T-Mobile) works much better than the one that I brought over from AT&T. The one I lost did not have any signal where I lost it (might have found it, if it would ring) and the new one has 4G LTE and 4 bars in the same exact location.

We have a new guy that started today. He is 54 years old and seems to be pretty good and a nice guy. We will see through the rest of the week how that turns out.

My MIL is in the hospital with a urineal infection and pneumonia. So, my wife is staying overnight with her. She will be in for about 3 days I guess.

[Fenlason]

Earlier when I was purchasing loppers I had passed on these that I recently purchased. The telescoping aspect.. seemed like just something else to fail. [although they do feel pretty secure at the moment] I don't know how they cut yet. We will see. I wanted these for clipping on the ground.. we have a lot of stuff to do that way.. and bending over for all of it is hurting.

We had another cold great day today. It did hit 50... we had drizzly rain all morning. We did have our ride tonight and we were mostly dry. {a light mist the first mile or so] Our turn out was down.. but we had some.. and had a good ride.

[toypusher]

Been a tough week. Hard work week and my MIL has been in the hospital since Tuesday morning and finally passed away this morning. She is in a much better place now for sure.

[Fenlason]

I am so sorry for your loss Kerry.

We were away all weekend at a bike race at Pat's Peak, a ski resort in New Hampshire. It's a little bit of a pain to get there as there is no direct way.

It's a good weekend.. but tiring. Dave was there to do the downhill race. There are other races there.. it is unusual in that way.. there is a regular cross-country race.. as well as a 6 -12- and 24 race. It is a very tough course. Earlier Saturday.. some of us go out and do a loop on the course. It starts for maybe 4 miles uphill.. over pretty technical terrain. Laurie, Angela, Dick, Jane and I went out... but quickly split to two groups. Laurie, Angela, and I in one, Dick and Jane in another. Unfortunately Angela got hurt in a crash. It took a while to get her out of the woods. Usually Angela, and Laurie have a phone.. but neither did. Laurie rode down for help.. met up with Dick and Jane.. they called while Angela and I slowly worked our way back toward them. It took help a LONG time to get there. We had ended up at the base of one of their upper chairlifts.. but apparently they have several chair lift lines with the same name..

She was looked at there.. then brought down to first aid more thoroughly.. and then it was advised that she go to have it looked at. Laurie and I drove her.. so Dave could keep practicing... for his race. She does have torn something in her thumb.. and was casted.