Strange Times

We're back online after an electrical storm knocked out our external modem last week. Sweetie's son, the supposed computer tech, neglected to hook us up to the surge protector. And us two trusting people assumed he had as the wiring, etc. is out of sight behind our desk! It took some effort to locate another modem here in the back country but we're good now. Me thinks his son was too focused on trying to get TV reception after the digital conversion. He was going through withdrawals not having BOTH high speed Internet and satellite TV. Poor man.

We came home a couple days ago from town and discovered a surveyor had marked our south line and part of our east line. Took a ride through the small lots that adjoin our 12 acres and found a few more survey pipes in the ground with orange flag tape on them. Asked a few neighbors about it and they all assumed it was done for a lot being sold on the SOUTH end of the platted 40 acres - in other words, clear to the other side of our place. But today, we took a ride to the south end and found NO markers on the lot that's being sold. Then we talked to another neighbor who said he had questioned the surveyor when his lot was marked. He got an evasive answer so today we sat at his kitchen table and called the survey company and got more evasive gibberish. Next, we contacted the person who's buying the lot and were told they had NOT ordered a survey, nor had the real estate or title company.

Something's fishy for sure. The only upside of this is that our south line is now defined every 100 feet and the neighbors realize they have stuff to move back onto their lots.

Another strange happening is the state police and county sheriff officers patrolling this road which is about two miles long. He, he, maybe they have information that a radical prepper has moved into the area. I dunno.

In other news, we have learned that the nights here are almost always cool, so certain crops do better than others. A neighbor grew cauliflower larger than a basketball last year and claims that tomatoes have to be grown in tires so the warmth collected by the rubber gives off heat at night.

Neighbors have also thanked us profusely for cleaning up the debris on this land. If we had bought when all the snow was melted we would have written the removal of several dump piles into our purchase agreement. Oh well...

We have half jokingly decided to call this place Half Done Ranch because there's not a thing the former owner did that's finished. I wanted to call the place "Someday..." because we're always saying, "Someday, we'll do this," or "Someday, when we have the time or money..."

We had a Father's day dinner here with two of my children, the grand kids and my Dad. Fixed baked Alaskan salmon flash frozen and shipped in to the local market. My second oldest granddaughter wrote a four page story about my Dad and my youngest granddaughter read it. By the end, we all had tears in our eyes.

Well, tomorrow we're back outside (if it's not raining) and working on the garden and the pole barn. Progress is generally made each day so we don't lack for exercize.

I was reminded today that the best laid plans get hijacked and good intentions are often misconstrued. I guess the best plan is to tell yourself each day that you'll do the best you can and keep a positive attitude regarding your own responsibilities and goals. If it doesn't get done today, well hopefully you'll still have time.

That's all for now folks. Keep prepping. Treesong