Homestead Day 56 Thursday 11/16/2017

 I read a post on LinkedIn that reminded me of this story…..A small bird lingered in the north lands whilst his friends flew south. Too late he headed south and flew as hard as he could but, at last, the effort wore him out. He landed in a snowy cow pasture and was just about frozen when the cow, inadvertently, rained down a great pile of steaming manure onto the freezing bird. Suddenly, he was warmed and began to sing. As he sang he attracted the attention of a fox. The fox came over and spoke to the bird, “Do you need any help”. “Yes”, replied the bird. “I was so happy to warm that I’ve stayed a little too long and the manure is hardening around me.” “So you need help to get out?” questioned the fox. “Yes, please”, tweeted the bird. “I have no hands so I’ll have to use my mouth to get you out. Is that okay?” asked the fox. “Yes! Yes! Anything you need to do to get me out of the manure.” tweeted the bird frantically. The fox then took the birds head and shoulders into his mouth pulled the bird from the manure and swallowed him. Moral of the story: Everybody that shits on you is not your enemy and everyone who volunteers to get you out of the shit is not your friend. This is a good thing to remember not only in your business life but you personal life, as well.

Today was not a red letter day. It was one of those days that no matter how hard you work you just don’t seem to get anything finished. We did get the new washer installed only to find out that we were very low on water. The water company did not refill our tank on Monday. Laundry is now out of the question as are showers until the tank is refilled. Hope they’ll refill it tomorrow.

Summer and I spent most the day crawling around, on the frozen ground, under the house insulating the waste pipes to the septic tank. We didn’t finish the job as we ran out of insulation and duct tape. There is only about 10-12 feet left to be insulated. Will get additional insulation and tape tomorrow to finish the job. We wrapped the pipes with heating tape and then insulated them. A dirty, time consuming job. Next we have to close up some of the holes that let cold air under the house. More fun to be had in the 20 degree weather. Sunny and 20 almost everyday, but we know with certainty that the snow and below zero are coming.

More sawing of the ‘destruction’ wood. Took about an hour to gather and cut up enough of it to get us through until tomorrow afternoon. Cutting wood has become a daily chore. Soon there will be precut, presplit firewood delivered, I hope. We are running out of ‘destruction’ wood.

Today, as almost everyday, we saw the pheasants. They are very colorful and not really that afraid of humans. One of our neighbors was raising them and decided to loose them from their captivity and let them roam free. There are some quirky people here in Alaska. They are, at once, very helpful and very quirky. I tried to talk to my nearest neighbor about jointly maintaining our shared road. His reply is that he didn’t like to be bothered by people. That was okay by me as I am an equal opportunity individual. I don’t dislike people for their race, religion, sexual preference or anything else you can think of quickly. I’m just not that fond of the human race as a whole. So when one of them doesn’t want to be bothered, I’m down with that. This reminds me of something my Dad said to me when I was in my 20s and running with a crowd of hoodlums, ne’er-do-wells and trash. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” He was right. My immediate future became a disaster with one exception, I met and married my best friend, my third and final wife. Dating and married for over 43 years. Seems like yesterday.

Today I was wondering about the skeleton in the outhouse. Hadn’t heard anything else from the police so I’m guessing it wasn’t human. Some weeks ago Summer discovered a fairly large skeleton in the old outhouse. It could have been a child or a small woman. Not able to discern whether it was human or animal because there was no head, we called the police to identify it. The next morning a bemused Alaska State Trooper arrived at precisely 8 AM as he had promised in the phone call. He inspected the remains, took some pictures, He said it looked like a bear carcass but that he had sent the pictures to the Medical Examiners Office just in case. Then spent a half hour giving us some good information about the area in which we now live. It was a very pleasant exchange. He did allow that Alaska would be a great place to be a serial killer even though he laughed at my assertion.

Dinner was cube steak in gravy, black-eyed peas and boiled potatoes. Dessert was a couple of Vienna Fingers and a large vodka-seven.