May, of bids and birds

Hello Again Inverted Cow family!

Overall this has been a fairly slow couple of weeks, For the most part I have been working on getting the garden ready. This means digging all the gravel off the surface, then digging out all the dandelions and other weeds, as well as all the rocks that were on the surface. Rotortill and pull out even more rocks, followed bu heading to the pens next door and scooping up a few loads of cow poop. Rotortill and rake. Planting is yet to come.

Meanwhile the lawn is growing faster than I like, but we have had minimal rain so it is not growing as fast as it could! (thank goodness) The part I ordered last week for old red came in yesterday so I will be getting her on the road shortly.

And guess who is also back?
Woodtick: n Also known as seed of Satin, Demon spawn pest from the abyss: This insect has the uncanny ability to appear our of thin air on your body at the most inconvenient times. It is able to move through time and space and somehow end up biting you precisely at 3 am every morning. This is not a normal bug.

A normal bug, the honey bee, working on the dandelions
 I was working on digging out of the garden.

A butterfly of some sort, Nice orange pattern on the wings,
I could not get a shot of one with the wings open,
they were also helping me with the dandelions 

Auction fun.

Now that spring is here I have had the chance to check out some of the local auctions. The first one I went to was not too bad, I got there a bit late and they were already past selling some of the items I wanted to get. It was here that I was once again reminded that I am living in the middle of hillbilly country.

Whenever I attempted to bid on an item someone would attempt to out bid me even if they had no interest in the item. It was only because I am a new face. The inbred farmers here would bid against me for a box of junk no matter how high I bid they would fight to get it. One even went as far as to make the auctioneer reopen the bidding AFTER he had sold it to me. I also saw the idiocy of some of them as they bid on old lawn equipment worth, in my experience, about $20 they bought them for as much as $80!

The auctioneer was not one I would recommend to anyone as they consistently played favorites and ignored bidders who were not a familiar face. This was evident in the fact that the bidders that the auctioneers knew by name, got the bids accepted every time, and the sold would hit right away. While others, like me, were ignored, or had sold bids reopened.

On the way back from the first auction there was this
out in the middle of a field. Yet another reminder
of a history that is fading into faint memory.

The second auction I went to was in the other direction. I went down to visit the folks and took in a later auction. On this one the auctioneer was willing to take any bid from anyone, friend or not. Also the people there were not bidding just to outbid someone. The prices were staying within reason.

It was here I purchased a couple of little items and a new red toy! (for some reason all the things here at the home of the inverted cow have to be red) Kyle and I took it out the next evening for a test drive(?)

Getting the new red toy loaded for a trip to the wilds. 

Birds and things fowl

About the middle of the week Kyle shows up here with a big bucket of sucker fish. He has a couple of girl friends (female friends not girlfriends) with him and they cleaned a hand full of the fish. He had a bit of a spill of the bucket  and the cleaned fish ended up in a ditch someplace. So we decided to head back out yesterday to go get more. I went to the store and got the ingredients to make a marinade, I picked up a new fillet knife and off we went. First we tootled off to get an old wood burning stove to make the smoker with. Then it was off to the ditches for the fish but by the time we got out there all the fish had left. Oh well on that attempt.

Finally we picked up Kyle's tractor and brought it back here. Now I am able to get a little more work on the garden done, provided I have no more delays.

With the tractor here we figured to head up to the beaver dam and keep it open so the water will keep flowing. Kyle scooted out on his quad first and just after I pulled into my yard he comes back with 2 fuzzy little baby geese. (see he doesn't kill everything all the time)

Apparently the parents of the babies ran into something nastier than 2 pissed off Canadian geese. When Kyle found these 2 they were nestled up against momma. She had both wings broken, one of her wings was almost ripped off and the other was snapped in half on the thicker bone. I think her neck had also been broken as she was laying there in obvious pain, Kyle had already put her down when we went back to collect the body.  From the injuries I am guessing even if we could have managed to get her to a wildlife reserve they would not have been able to save her.

Another search of the area has not turned up any more babies, and normally they have about 5 or more of them at a shot. Also no sign of papa. I ended up putting the 2 little ones in the kennel and placed some straw in with them. I made up some mushy food for them to eat but at this point they are only playing it it as most babies do. They also had a bath last night and then snuggled with me for a hour or so while they dried out.



More details on their progress to follow in further posts.
  
Last thoughts.

There was a few thunderstorms here over the last while but none seemed to give us any noticeable amount of rain. I did shoot some footage but it was mostly just cloud shots and wind in the trees.

There are a couple of American bald eagles in the area, I attempted a couple of time to get some pictures of them, so far unsuccessfully.

We also had a bit of fun with Kyle's horses the other day. Again they got out somehow. We managed to chase them back in with the cows he has on the property again. (at least we know where they are)



I have gotten an few Emails back about some work I had applied for. I need to get my boss from Calgary to contact my boss to be here in Manitoba. But it looks like everything is a go for getting some full time work again. (wasn't I supposed to be retired?)

The only reason I cannot get any work here on the side, is because I am not an inbred cousin of someone out here. Seriously!

Well that is it for now, I got more digging to do.
Cheers C[_]

May, the fun begins again

Hello Inverted Cow Friends!

The last couple of weeks have been busy as spring is unrelenting in its pursuit to overwhelm me with work. All the manure I spread over the back half off the yard that got burned off is all getting rained on now and is growing like mad. I am hustling to get a working lawnmower going before it gets out of hand. I have gotten almost all the gravel off of the garden patch and pulled the tiller out. I even managed to get it put back together and working as well. I am working on getting the seeds started for the garden, assuming I can manage to find all the stuff. On top of that I am still looking to find work that pays better than an occasional kick in the pants. But then aren't we all?

Stories from the cheese wagon

Last post I mentioned how I got a boost from one of the local schools using the blog in a social studies class. Well I found out the other day that my (adjective) boss still reads my blog and he had the IT department block The Inverted Cow! Kudos to him, I would hate to be responsible for expressing my personal views about the ineptitudes of the school system, government, or life in general, and have that distort their impressionable young minds! Heaven forbid I should ever encourage independent thought! Do not worry I am still looking for work that keeps me busy and pays better than a few dollars an hour.

On another note, I did a awesome field trip with the junior high school band last week. We took a trip into the city and visited Celebrations dinner theater. (they even splurged and allowed the bus driver to see the show, we are usually run off like a cur and expected to be back in time to take them wherever they want to go next.) I had asked the music teacher to send me any pictures that they wanted to share on the blog, but since I am blocked she can't do it.

I loved the show, it had Johnny Cash hosting a plethora of late 60s artists, including a still skinny Elvis, Dusty Springfield, Jerry Lewis, Jefferson Airplane, and several more cameos that I can't remember. 2 non stop hours of me singing along to songs I remember listening to when I was a kid. The actors were great, they signed autographs for the kids young and old alike, sang songs in the breaks, and the servers were all dressed up in costume and all in character. It was a real treat to be served by the 1960s Jerry Lewis (still a kid himself then).

 Such stars as: Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Grace Slick,
Johnny Rivers, Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield,
 Eric Burdon, Jerry Lee Lewis, June Carter,
Roy Orbison and Bobbi Gentry.

After the show I took the kids to this old part of town and dropped them off at a church for a drumming workshop. It is all narrow streets down there and I had to drop them in a safe place just around the corner from the destination. It took me half an hour to get turned around and find my way back to the church. I parked out front and went inside. Upstairs someone was setting up a movie shoot. Nothing small, this was several hundred grand of props and running crew setting up this shoot. I am guessing there will be a ten second scene in some movie or something featuring the inside of the church. Would be nice to know what it was but they were busy so I left them alone.

After they were finished, the teachers wanted me to take the kids past some historic and eclectic houses. Me, not being familiar with the city at all, drove where the teachers said. I came around a corner and had a low bridge abutment directly in front of the windscreen. Thankfully the city has some nice flashing lights and warning signs right in front of the bridge to tell you that your not going to fit. They did not have room to pull a turn around on the nice narrow street. So I had to use the green space by the bike path to turn around on. Not fun with a bus load of hyper kids screaming their damm heads off and parents and teachers sitting there calmly attempting to get them to shut up so I could talk. I had to use my outdoor voice in the nice confines of the school bus. For about ten minutes you could hear a mouse fart on that bus. Made turning around on that narrow, nasty street, and finding a way out of the city, so much easier. I handed the teacher my map and showed it to the parents and said; "Only the YELLOW highlighted roads from now on. Those are truck routes and the bus can drive on them."

I had a chuckle with the boys in the shop about that one, and how the teacher wanted me to bring back a new convertible school bus. They did not think my (adjective) boss would approve. I had to agree with them, and reminded them that they would have most likely had to put a new roof and top back on, in about three days, and get it re-certified and back on the road if I did. Apparently their (adjective) boss also thinks they are miracle workers.

Back on the home front.

Kyle and I have had some fun getting the beaver population under control on one dam we found last winter. I shot some video of us and have edited it to the best of my abilities.




I also offed his mom $200 for a 70 something Honda 360 bike that is sitting in the barn. Last one like it I bought was a "basket case" that is, it was in pieces. We paid $80 for two whole bikes,(some assembly required) and the parts of a third. This one "may" run as it has been sitting for 14 years, but the brakes need replacing as they currently are binary, either all on, or all off, nothing in between. I did some digging and the highest price that was suggested I pay was $300. If the bike could drive, and all I had to do was take it down to the motor vehicles place and get it certified then probably $500.  I told her $200 as it sits. She got all insulted started telling me about some guy in the states who wants it and the VW bug for $1200 if she can ship them down, and another offer for $700 because it is a "collector". I did not want to tell her the VW offer is, in my opinion, bull crap. An original late 60s early 70 bug, even one that is in as bad of shape as that one is, IS an collector item and is worth a few more pennies than that.

little Honda 360 it may yet ride again, but I would not hold my breath.

I drive school bus part time. I make less then minimum wage, have a mortgage, and 3 cats. If I had $1200 to spend on a bike then I would be at the local dealer and get one that can drive, is registered in this province, doesn't need an inspection done, does not need almost $300 worth of work done to get it drive-able. So am I being unreasonable? So on the flip side if you have a bike of about the same size that I can get on the road for less then $500, send me an Email!

Something else to think about, before you pass judgment on my problem, every day Kyle comes by and we go trapping together. He is under age and by law needs an adult with him. Also it is a safety thing, he almost cut his finger off last winter, and as I will talk about, in the next bit, we had some fun in the brush last week.

He made almost a thousand dollars in beaver tail bounty, caster, also in muskrat over the last month or so. How much does Art get for helping him haul this out of the bush, or how much does he ask for his time or anything? NONE nill nada. I do not want or expect it either. But asking a little slack on something that can help me out down the road.... well how could I?

You, as a parent, how much do you pay to have someone watch your kid after school every day, and do they ever make sure the kid is able to do what they enjoy safely and, profitably?  

Ok I am off this rant before I go hurt someone!


Time for coffee!
C[_]

More Kyle fun!

Last weekend I was taking a break from the digging, (apparently all I do around her is dig) when the local trapper kid comes bombing on the yard. He persuades me to join him on a trek to check the traps. I jump on the bike with him and off we go. Normally, for these treks, I wear a blaze orange hoodie type of coat. In the pockets are the video camera and a multi tool pocket knife thing, but on this occasion I just kept the jacket on I was wearing to do the yardwork.

Off we go. About 3/4 of a mile down the roadway we see a black bear male standing in a clearing. No pictures of that because as soon as we stopped he was in the brush. Another mile or so and we are looking at the smoke from one of the fires that was burning in the area this month. two water bombers fly overhead, Kyle got some footage of that so I am pinching it from him.

Even the choppers were here.

Another shot with the bombers working on the fire

(note: this was NOT my grass fire  LOL)

We check the traps and pull out a couple of large beavers. So far a good day. (Insert omnious music score here)

Kyle then starts to head out of the bush and rams a poplar tree that the beavers had fallen last year. He tears off one fuel line from the fuel pump, a wire from someplace and skewers the fuel line from the underside of the tank. We have gas pouring out of the line and he asks; "why won't it go?" As he tries cranking it over.

Ok so Kyle is not mechanically inclined.

We winch it off the tree. I attempting to plug the line that is squirting fuel from everywhere and having no tools with me I find it is hopeless. When along down the trail comes a party of half drunken kids out lost in the bush. they attempt to tow us back to the roadway. Next thing I know we have about a dozen assorted quads, side by side U.T.Vs, and off road trucks all hanging around with us having a laugh at poor Kyle and his misfortune. None of them had any kind of tools or anything to help fix the bike. We load it up and off to the house we go. Kyle hits one bump and dumps the unsecured bike off the back of the truck and into the ditch. I hook the winch cable to the truck and tell him to drive home with it. We park it in the yard, by now all the fuel is gone from the tank so attempting to drain it further is pointless.

Kyle returns the next day with new fuel. I take the tool that I normally have in  my pocket and cut the line and hook it back up again. The mystery wire took a few minutes to track down, it was the spark plug wire. Kyle was attempting to crank the bike over with the spark plug wire being showered with fresh gasoline. I do not think he even had a idea as to how much of a bang he would have gotten if that had ignited. But something tells me it would have been the end of his trapping days for quite some time. It took me about ten minutes to fix the bike. Lesson learned, always carry the pocket tool when riding with Kyle!

After we fixed the bike we spent the rest of the afternoon traveling the back trails in search of the fire that was burning. We found it about three or four miles north of my place. Also got some video of that. On the trip we saw another female black bear and 3 cubs in a field. I am hoping that the fires do not drive too many of them down by my place as I am letting the kids outside during the day now.

Bear and 2 cubs, the third was in a clearing  on the other side of the trees

Last thoughts

Now that I have annoyed many people, I hope you all have a chance to enjoy the remainder of your day. I have to get the lawnmowers working, if we manage to get the rain that is forecast the grass in the back yard will grow like madness. 

The kids are loving it outside, even Hope is learning to catch mice, not kill them yet but catch them. 

Well I have an unending list of chores to attend to. 

Back to the digging.  

Cheers C[_]