Bees!!!!
While the Diesel Mechanic and I were finishing up the septic system this morning, I looked across the canyon and saw a gazillion head of cattle running up a sidehill. Maybe there was someone on a horse behind them or a pickup they were chasing, but it looked very bizarre. I pointed them out to the Diesel Mechanic and he posited that they were being chased by a swarm of bees. What can I say? He’s a big fan of the Boomerang cartoon channel.
A very nice county inspector showed up around 11 am and asked a few pertinent questions and then passed our system. I think even he was shocked at how big it was.
My neighbor gal came over and whacked weeds for me around the trailer and down by my gate. She’s raised seven kids and can do just about any work you might normally hire a man to do. She told me a great story about how she once worked on a commercial fishing boat and how a sea lion once snatched a salmon out of her hands as she pulled in a line. Being a land lubber, I was pretty impressed.
Anyway, tonight life is good. It was about 90 degrees today, so it’s still warm. I’m sitting outside drinking beer, listening to Boot Liquor as it streams over the satellite connection, and, of course, writing this. I unloaded all the lumber and pier blocks from the pickup this afternoon, so I’ll probably start the deck in front of the trailer tomorrow.
When are y’all coming to see me? Huh?
My New Buddy
That’s the budding paleontologist in disguise. She’s only seven, but she’ll talk your ear off about dinosaurs and not just about the ones we all learned in school (it turns out brontosaurus wasn’t real?). She’s already figured out that I know very little and likes to test me with made-up dinosaurs. As in BegoniaSaurus, real or fake? We’ve also spent a lot of time chatting about time travel and whether she’d rather visit the Triacic or Cretaceous period. She says she wouldn’t be scared to go as long as she was riding a sauropod, had her jump rope, a kicking donkey, and some kung fu frogs.
Wireless Outhouse
At the risk of sharing too much information, I wish to inform you all that I can hit the outhouse at the top of the hill with my new wireless-N broadband router. Yay! Unfortunately, though, the signal peters out just over the hill, which means the building site is still inaccessible.
Ha! I said outhouse and peter in the same paragraph.
A Landmark Moment in Internet History
Or a landmark moment for me anyway. As I sit here in my trailer house bed listening to KMUD and waiting for my coffee to happen, I am updating my blog via satellite. Sure, I still don’t have running water, but it’s kind of startling how easily I seem to be able to live with that. And yet the thought of living without the Internet for few days left me in tears.
Yesterday, the Diesel Mechanic came over early and we finished up the trenches for the leach line. My job was to help him get the floors level and tell him where to dig in the areas that he couldn’t see for himself. I had a great time challenging his abilities, which by definition probably makes me not very good at that job, but I can tell you now that after three days of testing, he is highly skilled at his. He was so precise that he could put the bucket within a quarter inch of the cement “D” boxes in the center trench.
The finished septic system makes it look like I’m putting in a small apartment complex, but the good news is that it’s not likely to fail and hopefully will pass the county’s requirements when the inspector comes out in a few days. I’d show you pictures, but my USB cable is either hiding out at the Worm Lady’s or has disappeared among the tools, toilet paper, and emergency canned meat I store behind the seat of my pickup. Maybe it will reveal itself later today and I will be able to upload some photos. [It did, and I have.]
While we were finishing up the leach line, the ForSat guys showed up and went to work locating a satellite for me to connect to the Internet. It turned out that Leon, who owns the business, is married to a woman I went to high school with and who also has family ties to Blocksburg. His assistant was the star point guard on the boys varsity team when I was in high school. We had a great time catching up, and the whole experience was a hundred times better than the time I wasted with that installation outfit from Washington. So, if you’re thinking about having a broadband satellite dish installed in Humboldt County, call Leon at (707) 768-2149. I highly recommend him.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m headed over to have some coffee with our local postmaster.
Tadpole Science
I’ve been sleeping better at the trailer than I have in years. It’s so incredibly quiet! Today I didn’t get up until about 7:30, which is late for me. I woke up before that, but it was so nice to open my eyes and see blue sky through the leaves on the trees outside my window that I didn’t want to get up. I finally did, though, and hiked up the hill to get some water for coffee (I still have to install a part to get water running in the trailer). I had bacon and oatmeal for breakfast, and then went to work digging some steps up the hill to the outhouse. I am really tired of sliding down it on my ass when it’s raining.
The Copenhagen Girl dropped off the Purple Cowboy a couple hours later, and he hung out with me while I labored at the end of a shovel. I made it a little over half way up the hill before I hit rock. I was exhausted, so I hung it up for the day around 2 PM. Tomorrow, I’ll borrow a pick axe and see if I can make it through the rock a la John Henry. Well, OK. Not quite.
Later in the afternoon, the Purple Cowboy and I drove over to the Worm Lady’s place. After a couple rounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers with a jump rope, her granddaughter showed us the aquarium she was filling with tadpoles from a nearby ditch. The new habitat was looking downright livable until Stella the dog decided to come over and take a slurp of water. “This is why it’s important to have a lid,” the granddaughter told me.
Septic Satellite
I got up early yesterday morning to head to town. I had originally planned to buy the rest of the parts for my septic system from a business that caters to contractors (and where my dad gets a discount), but that didn’t work out. I had to go back to Hilfiker and buy 240 feet of infiltrator system and four D-boxes, which was a shame because I could have had everything delivered all at once with the septic tank. Instead, I had to haul all of it in the back of my pickup. There was quite a bit of debate today among my various advisers about whether I’d actually be able to pull it off, but everything fit just fine. The forklift operator turned out to be the same guy who delivered my tank. It was nice to see a friendly face, but everyone at Hilfiker was great. When I walked in the door this time, the gal at the front desk asked, “Are you the girl from Blocksburg?”
“I am,” I said.
“Your dad is on the phone,” she replied. I busted up laughing. Small towns are so funny like that.
In other news, I’ve decided it’s possible the mix-up with the satellite dish technician was actually a blessing. My friend the surveyor stopped by yesterday to catch up over coffee. We had a lot to discuss, but he mentioned that he had a terrible experience not too long ago with the same outfit that was supposed install my dish. The Worm Lady has recommended another company out of Arcata, so I’m thinking I’ll try them. It will probably mean a longer wait, but it’s worth it if I don’t have to deal with creeps.
My Projects
My Short Films
- What's a Nice Girl like You...
- Story Machines
- Boot Camp
- Moving Horses from Montana to Washington in 1903 (audio)
My Tweets
My Photos
The Blocksburg Book
My Favorites at the Moment
- Luke's remix of his Peter and the Wolf remix
- These hand-tooled shoes and purses
- Gossip Girl
- Red Rock Rondo