ARE WE LOSING OUR MINDS???

HEY!!!  I'm going to surprise you tonight.  This post isn't going to be one of a complaint against a company, or talking about smoke, fire, scraping bark (or maybe I haven't told you about that yet???).  This post is going to be about how I think OUR MINDS are getting old...

Example; I decided to make 3 loaves of my favorite pumpkin bread in our Easy Bake Oven (AKA RV oven).  I mixed my wet ingredients and sugar together and then in a different bowl mixed up the dry ingredients.   You know; the flour, the spices, the baking soda..BAKING SODA...BAKING SODA.

I already had everything in the dry bowl except for the BAKING SODA so I got it out, measured out my two tsps and put the BAKING SODA away....only to realize I'd gotten out the darn corn starch!!  ARRGGHHH!!!

I knew which side of the bowl I put it, so then I tried to dig  out what I hoped contained two tsp of corn starch (along with some flour I am sure.).  I managed to get the correct BAKING SODA put in the dry ingredients and proceeded.

The pumpkin bread turned out quite moist and tasty, so must be I got the starch out or it just didn't matter.

Then there is Dan...

We had to make a mad dash to Gray to the Post Office on our lunch hour.  We normally only take 15 minutes instead of an hour, but not the case today.

Gray is about 15 miles (or a bit more) from us.  When you come into town you come to a very weird intersection and to top it off railroad tracks run through part of this intersection.  Lots of signs and signals.

Dan came  up to the intersection in the right hand lane.  We had a red light but since we needed to make a right hand turn, and traffic was clear I asked him "Why don't you have your turn signal on?"  I figured he was going to turn SOON.

His reply was "I KNOW what I'm doing and I know where I am going.  Trust me."

Words he has been eating for a while today.

I knew he had not been to Gray to the Post Office without me at any time, so I couldn't figure out WHAT he was doing.

I ventured another suggestion about putting on his signal so he could turn (by now the light was green).

Dan calmly replied "I've been to the dump 4 times today.  I KNOW how to get there!"

"OK, great.  You went to the dump 4 times today on behalf of the refuge, but WE need to go to the Post Office."

Then the light above HIS head came on and he realized what I had been trying to get him to do.  Poor Dan...he thought he was still at work and heading to the dump again...even though we had OUR truck.

Yep, we are losing it.

About the scraping and painting trees....

Dan is using a draw knife, which looks very similar to a tiny two man cross cut type saw (it might be 15" in length and has handles at each end).  This is used to scrape the bark, ever so lightly, off from boundary trees on the refuge.  When he gets done scraping, then I come along with some of the smelliest paint, BRIGHT YELLOW paint and a 6" wide paint brush and paint a stripe about 1/3 of the way around the tree.  Many of the trees we are doing are ones that have been used over the years and have been painted in the past, but it fades after time and then it is hard to tell whether that paint is yellow or orange.

Orange paint is used on the refuge to help identify grounds that are NOT available for hunting.  It is important to make sure hunters and others can differentiate between the two colors.

This is a very messy job but it gets us outside so that's what counts.  AND now that the spring plants are popping up, it is allowing us to see where there are a lot of old homesteads.  You may not be able to see the foundations or fences (unless you want to tramp thru bramble and damn grape vines that usually put me on my face), but you can tell they are there due to the plant life that must have been a part of the yard...daffodils, jonquils, yucca plants.  It is SO interesting to now see all of these homesteads that we didn't realize was there.  I will try to get some photos of "yards" so you can see what I mean.

We THINK we will finally be able to head to Orlando, leaving on Sunday and probably coming back on Wednesday if not Thursday.  Dan thinks he might like to go to NASA, so we may take an extra day to do that.

Well, I guess that is about it for now!  Please keep checking!!!

THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES

Another week that we won’t be heading to Orlando.

This week the weather is cooperating on Monday and Tuesday in Orlando, the days we’d be at Universal.  But it is expected to get down to 22 HERE on Sunday night and we won’t leave the RV unattended if the weather is expected to be below freezing.  I’m beginning to think we aren’t supposed to go to Universal.

But after watching the helicopter doing its aerial “stunts” this week, MORE THAN EVER I NEED TO GET ON A ROLLER COASTER!!!  It was killing me to not be able to be in that helicopter!!!!  Darn, that looked like a lot of fun.  I would have given up my 2 cups of morning coffee and my occasional bag of Brach’s chocolate stars (no not eaten in one setting!) for 2 years in exchange for that ride!!

I will try to explain how these prescribed burns go when using a helicopter.

First, as they normally do, the guys set off a fire on the perimeter of where they want to burn.  But it is a bit more detailed than that.  They also have to make sure they’ve got good, visible “black lines” (where it has burned) so the ship’s (easier than spelling helicopter, ok??) pilot and the person who is with him can see where they need to fly to GPS THEIR position in order to set up the flight pattern….and even that can change should the wind direction change.

After the black fire lines have been established, then the ship flies over, and over, and over to GPS the pattern of where to fire the “ping pong” balls….then the fun begins.

Because the objects that they fire ARE the size of ping pong balls, you can’t really get a photo of the actual firing or the ‘landing’ of these flammable balls.  I can’t remember what the main component is that is IN the ball, but as I recall from having it explained to me, when they are fired, a “needle” injects some other component that makes them explode with fire when they hit the ground.  They don’t set off a BIG fire, but the object IS to have a controlled burn.  It was amazing to watch the two burns that were set off a couple of days ago.  I’m not sure how many ping pong balls are used per acre, but it has to be quite a few.

Time was important too because the ship/pilot is not allowed to fly after dark, so instead of heading back to Okeefanokee (spelling??)  the end of the day, he ended up spending the night.

Dan and I were asked to go back out to check the last fire (since it was along a main road) about 8:30 that evening.  What we were mainly checking for was to make sure visibility was good along that stretch of road and that we didn’t see any fire that looked like it was out of control. I think this was a 2000 acre fire (seems someone said that).

I WISH I HAD TAKEN MY CAMERA AND TRIPOD!!!

I had NO clue what to expect; I just figured we’d see and smell smoke, with maybe a few stumps with a bit of fire.  I was SOOOO wrong.

With the bright full moon, the smoke hanging in the trees , many  OF DEAD TREES ON FIRE, lots of little fires on the ground, embers shooting off from the trees…it would have made for some awesome photos.  Next burn that we have, with a full moon, no clouds, perfect weather, I will get those shots!!! 

They had planned a couple of small burns today, but the weather changed quite a bit since they set things up.  One of the areas to be burned is right behind where we are staying.  Nathan bulldozed a line around the woods where the fire is to be contained, but it won’t happen today.

If my internet connection cooperates, I hope to post a few photos with this post.

(I have been trying to post this off and on all day...beginning to wonder if it'll happen!  Must be the wind....)

IT TOOK ME 10 MINUTES TO GET ONE PHOTO UPLOADED!  AT&T...YOU WIN!!!  I WILL NOT ATTEMPT ANY MORE PHOTOS TODAY!! ARRGGHH!!!!!!

COULD BE AN INTERESTING DAY AT PIEDMONT

Carolyn, our "boss", let us know a couple days ago that the helicopter is supposed to be here today to help with the prescribed burning process.  She was busy yesterday so we didn't get to confirm that with her.  We will find out this morning.

We received MORE bad news about our Dodge!  And THIS is not covered under warranty.  THE FUEL LINES NEED TO BE REPLACED!  So, we didn't get our truck back yesterday and hopefully will get it back today.  I haven't had a chance to look into this, but a truck with a bit over 40k miles that has only spent one winter in "da U.P"...should this have happened??!!  Maybe it was the salt air when we were at Nags Head??    I think I will take this one  up with Chrysler, not the local dealer back home.

Here is a photo of what the "old" pipe (less than 6 months old) looks like compared to the new one...see the big "crinkle"????  No wonder it wasn't even touching the header!

HERE WE ARE...IN A FOG

CAN YOU SEE US????  It is so foggy this morning I can't even see the shop and other buildings from our "home".  Glad we don't have to work today!

However, later this afternoon we SHOULD be able to go to Macon and pick up Bubba.  We dropped him off last night and got a "loaner".  Now, back home, in da U.P., when you get a loaner from the shop, it usually is an extra vehicle they have on hand for such purposes.

Not here...we were picked up at the dealership in a 2012 Dodge Ram and then was (were?) driven about 3 miles down the road (by now we didn't know what was going on) to a car rental agency.  We spent about another 15 minutes there going over the forms, etc and I finally asked "Are WE paying for this?"  Nope.

The lady finally had everything she needed and we went out to the lot, assuming we were going to get a little car or something.  But she stopped at the truck we just arrived in and we checked it all over, she handed us the keys and said "We'll see you tomorrow!"

I realize it is "only" $20.99 per day to rent the truck, but I am amazed at how well this car dealership treats it's customers.  So a big hats off to FIVE STAR CHRYSLER, DODGE, MAZDA AND JEEP OF MACON, GA.  If I had a web address I would put it here, but I don't find one for them.

Tomorrow the helicopter is scheduled to come for a prescribed burn.  Every one is hoping the weather cooperates.  Spring is really arriving early here and many plants are greening up ( I may have mentioned that before???  Magnolias in bloom, jonquils, daffodils??)

Not much going on, so I guess that is it for now!