March: time to heat things up!

Well Cow Fans, another 2 weeks have blown by and I find myself having a cold wet grey Saturday afternoon. It is a good time to either mindlessly play games online, mindlessly play games off line, do housework, or work on the blogs. So I am thinking Blog time is more fun than washing the floors. =o)

March is here and the 'in like a lion out like a lamb' thing is far overrated. This last two weeks March came in with a flash and went KBAM so far no one has been hurt... but the opportunity is still there.


First the weather has been so nice to us. The 'snow' we had this year was nothing compared to last year. I did wheelbarrow a couple of loads off the yard but they were mostly from a couple of snowdrifts in an attempt to eliminate yard moisture and get working earlier.


Yard cleanup 2012 The beginning.

This year I started with raking and more raking, the garbage pile grew to mountainous proportions. I began to shovel more gravel into the driveway an parking pad. Hopefully this year I can put the second layer on that I wanted to do last year. I was able to straighten a line or two on the parking pad and give it a more defined look. I will post a picture after it is finished Hopefully next time.

Mt. Trashmore

Then I did a little yard burn. Supposed to be the first of a series of burns, It got a little out of hand. I started with a burn down the north road in the ditch in the East side of the property. Make a fire break there. Wind was a gentle breeze from the West, so burning back toward the house was minimal and easily contained.

The starting burn down the ditch.

In a about an hour I reached the northern most point where I wanted it to burn to. I started to do a second fire break along the north side of the treeline where I needed it to stop at. Winds were still out of the South west and very mild  enough to move the smoke and not much else.

The ditch now burnt, on to the trees.

While the firebreak was burning I had allowed a burn to move into the brush that I wanted to burn out from the east side along the ditch to continue working west. I went to the south end of the stand of brush and  started a couple of small burns. I now had the area I wanted to burn with a fire on all three sides.

Starting to burn the brush from the south looking north. 

The Northern edge was giving me grief as it kept attempting to relight after I snuffed sections  to make the fire break. I extinguished everything that was making life difficult for me in that area and checked the south west side of the burn. It merged into one burn exactly how I wanted it to and was progressing perfectly to the termination point. The northern fire break was still giving me some grief, and the fire was reaching the western edge of where I wanted it to stop. At that point was some of last years grass clippings that I had not raked up yet and I figured to let it just burn them  and I would stop it there.


Then I had another flash on the northern edge. It got a little away on me. I found myself putting out one spot moving to another then rushing back to the first to out it out again. It circled back into the ditch again and started burning past the fire break I had made.  This was bad because now I was in more then brush I was getting into the forest to the north of the house. Past that is swamps pasture and farms. One good flair up and I would be burning into Ashern before I knew it. It was then that the wind changed.


The fire that was up to now moving at about 3 inches a minute against the wind now had wind feeding it. I looked and it was burning into a cleared out section of the yard, I was not worried. I fought a series of small fires and looked it was now burning by the shed the vans and heading to the west side of the property as fast as it could. I was getting overwhelmed with smoke and fireballs would flash up with a crackle everytime it found a new source of fuel. I stopped the progress north ran inside and sent out the cry for help!


12:10 2 E mails to people who should be sitting for lunch and I know have the computer on, and a blast on facebook and a quick chat with a friend in Stienbach. Because of him 911 was called and I ran outside to continue the fight.


12:50 I was winning. The wind had changed back to what it was. I had all the outbound spread stopped or under control. I now had a fire burning in the garbage pile that the flames were as high as the popular trees. A fire in the burned out pickup out back a fire around the vans another on a pile of rotten lumber by the sheds and several smaller ones burning on the assorted piles of trash buried in the grass throughout the yard. I take a moment to contact all who had called for help and tell them thanks but please call in and tell them do not come now it is out.

After it was done you can see where the burn was working. 

1:25 Ashern fire department goes roaring down the road. I am working a garden hose and 2 five gallon pails to put out hot spots and flair ups. They hit the breaks and pull into the yard. The dumb question of the day. "Are you the guy who called for the fire department?"

the now freshly scorched back yard

 I looked at him as if to say "No, I am having a weenie roast. All the scorched grass and smoldering piles of stuff in the yard was just because of he heartburn!"  But I kept it sane and said," Yea an hour and a half ago! You are a bit late, I got it now, thanks."


I guess they figured they needed a bit of a stretch so they helped me water down the pile of garbage burning in the burned out pickup truck. The second truck came and started attacking the garbage dump with a vengeance. I am watching this and wondering why not help me fight the fire burning next to the shed? Or the ones by the vans that I was working on? Or go check the forest and make sure there are no more hot spots that could burn the whole flippen country side the garbage will not burn anything else now! I am most assuredly not worried about it damaging anything in there. I kept my self in check but the manager in me wanted to start barking orders.

 two of the piles of junk that were smoldering when
the heroes came rushing to my rescue 

   
After they were certain that the garbage was out they piled into the trucks and the leader asked me if I was aware that a fire ban was on. I said no but I can see why they would want to suggest such a thing. He murmured something about it being posted yesterday, I was thinking then why not make it known to everyone. I know about the ones in southern Manitoba because they post it on the facebook page. We had a light rain two days before I was thinking that should allow me to burn with out much problem.

burned out old pickup full of garbage was still
burning when they arrived.
Instead of putting out the fire burning next
to something important they went to put out this first?

Mt Trashmore after the
 fire department put it out

behind the sheds,
the stuff I was trying to keep from burning
 when the  heroes came
to save the garbage piles

On the plus side I am sure I will now be getting a bill from the good ol fire department for their efforts. I am glad it was not life threatening cause I would have been a very un alive blogger today if I was waiting for rescue from them. Oh and one more big Kudos to MTS for being so nice as to screw me over and then cut my phone off, it makes calling 911 so much easier!

Thanks again to the heroes from Ashern who fought so valiantly
 to make this mess of the garbage burning here

out behind the vans

and from the other side

Other hot stuff!

Since my last post my boss has been attempting to make sure I am without work. Problem is the boys in the garage, the other drivers and even the parents and kids out here want or need me driving. I get more 'thank yous' and compliments from them than my boss has complaints to use against me. So needless to say I am still getting some work. Not a full route or all the time but I am busy and able to cover my butt, if ever so slightly.

The kids are having spring break starting today and last week has been a week of weird things that they do in school. The little ones went to school with or in PJs and carrying teddy bears.

Kyle's class did a crossdresser day. He sent me the picture of him in drag. I had a chuckle but I could have made him look so much like a woman that even his mom would not have recognized him. Unfortunately I have been sending and packing Marianne's cosmetics and whatnot so even if he had asked I could not have had all the stuff I needed. But the next time he feels the need I am sure I can help him get it a little better than his own attempt.

Meet Kyleenia the drag princess extraordinaire
poor kid I am going to tease him without mercy
for so long now!

Last thoughts


Spring is here, Other than some smoking hot times in the yard things are quite normal. I sat and watched the baby spiders string out the first strands on the wind the other day. It was interesting seeing all the little sucker trees each covered with hundreds of tiny spider web strands blowing in the breeze. The sunlight was bouncing off them and making little ribbions of light. If I could have gotten a clean picture of it I would have posted it. but all the camera shows is the trees Unless I blow it up to super sized amounts, but then you loose the effect of thousands of the little strands all dancing in the breeze.


I also have geese, killdeer, crows and the cranes all making a return to the area. Unfortunately it also means more bugs. I am hoping that this rain we are having today allows me to do another couple of controlled burns, but this time I will get a second person to help out just in case.

Baby hope was fixated on something in the yard
she did not even care that I was taking the picture.
It is a crow in the yard.

Till next time Cheers C[_]

Consequences and feedback.

Well Inverted Cow Fans another two weeks has blasted past and you never even knew it was there.  Things are finally starting to return to a degree of 'normal' out here. But I do have a recap to do.

Last post I had made a couple of comments. I am not talking about the whole Racism thing, or the segregation thing or anything else but a couple of comments in my stories from the cheese wagon segment. In those comments I mentioned a Hyper child who gave me a apology letter for causing the bus to be stopped while I regained control, and small story about giving the kids in the back seat a little "air time".

My telephone was disconnected because the idiots at MTS will not allow me to make alterations to the phone as it is under Marianne's name. They were grossly over-billing me, I could not get them to fix the account or give me credit for what was in essence their error. As a result I am now phone less, and I had to switch to Emil only, as a primary source of communication. In my signature is a link to the Blog. My boss read it and was so upset that I had any fun with the kids he wrote me a full page letter about the above mentioned topics. I am also no longer driving that route. Apparently although the normal driver is no longer fit to drive he was miraculously able to get another spare driver to take over the route while I drove a field trip for three days, who is now able to drive full time on the route. So now I am out of work, but there is NO connection between the letter or me getting to sit on my arse at home all day now.

Now do not get me wrong I love and even welcome constructive criticism. Some of the points he made in his letter were valid. I had an image where the school division name and bus numbers were clearly visible in the background. This is a faux pas on my part. I usually take great care to not show any names or information.  He also mentioned that I was critical of the School for feeding unhealthy amounts of sugar to the kids on the bus causing them to be hyper and that one student gave me a apology letter the next day. I had mentioned the gender of the student in question and he stated that it could cause harassment or other issues. More on this later.

Both of those have been adjusted. But he poked at a few other things that I feel need clarifying. In particular the story about the bit of airtime I got. So I feel that an amplified version of the story would be necessary to ease the hearts of those who feel that I am a reckless driver. (nothing about the 20 plus years of professional driving with out a single accident on my record, or the fact that I have more kilometers under my wheels than most people will put on in a lifetime.)

So first I will copy and paste the story in question AS IT WAS WRITTEN, Then I will amplify it using Italics in the parts that are added. Sorry for the long read, You may want a cuppa coffee or something. C[_]

Stories from the cheese wagon; recap amplified


After I was able to get the hyper kids off the bus, the rest of the ride was reasonably nice. I had no kids on at the last stop, but the stop before I have two, they are good kids who do not make much noise and who sit quietly for the trip. These two kids do not vandalize the bus, are at the stop, on time, every morning, do not yell, jump around, or move between seats while the bus is in motion, they do not leave garbage all over the place, and do not backtalk to me when I ask them to do something. These kids deserve all the kudos and fun they can get. The thing is, on the road to their place the frost has caused a culvert to push the roadway up and it forms a bit of a jump.The "jump" in question is about 6 to10 inches high of the roadway with a decompression on the far side in the direction of travel for the story being portrayed here. I have mentioned the "jump" to the safety people and to the school as it is a concern for when spring comes and it is unmarked and will become a driving hazard.  If I have the kids from the last stop on I will slow down and go over it slower, slower on a 'normal day' meaning this is an unusual event, Also slower means I normally hit the bump at less then 40 KM/h the reason the kids in the last stop are mentioned is they are high school kids who lay across the seats with their muddy boots on my clean seats and are plugged into the MP3 players I could set off a box of fireworks and they would not even be aware of it.  but these two LIKE the bump, so on the way down I told them to get ready. They are now aware that I am planning to hit the jump and have secured anything that may 'fly' around,  I kept the speed at a normal speed this being 60 KM/h and counted down using one hand till the jump, 3 2 1 jump. The students were aware of the jump, were prepared for the bounce, and were able to get ready so to not be caught off guard.  Hit the bump and sent the bus ever so slightly air born. This line being the one line that caused the contention, "ever so slightly air born" means that I had enough negative Gravitational forces to produce a lifting of the bus to the point where the bus was relaxed on the suspension but the wheels were still in contact with the roadway at all times. At no point was there a possibility that I could ever loose control for even a hairs breath of a second.   They were giving me a couple of cheers for that. The next morning one of the two thanked me for giving them a bounce on the bus and gave me these:

In the letter my boss had mentioned that I should be driving according to my training. My training states that I am to drive at a prescribed speed of 80 KM/h  If I hit this bump at that speed I could have the wheels come off the ground and I could very easily loose control of the bus.  The roadway is icy, it is gravel, and I do not give a rats ass about my schedule I will not drive that stretch faster than 60 Km/h because to do so would be cause for problems such as this.

On another note, ( I said I would get back to this) the only way that the hyper students in question could be identified is, if it was me, them, or someone who had direct knowledge of the events, or the student's parents identifying them. I  routinely call the kids on the bus "My Kids" and for what it is worth I treat them as if they were my own kids. I would never endanger them or in any way cause them to come to harm, I would give my own life before any one of them is caused to be hurt. So to say that I am being reckless is uncalled for.

Yuck I got to go wash my mouth out with something.

Stories from the cheese wagon, this edition

As I mentioned in the segue to the whole blog today I had a three day school trip. It was supposed to be a two day trip but we got a blizzard on the second day and had to postpone the trip home. Teachers/ Chaperone made the call not me.

For my part, We loaded in Ashern took off to Asessippi Ski hill. (Coming from Alberta where we have real mountains, this is more of a bunny hill than anything) The kids played on the hill for a few hours and we tootled off to Russel.

The kids got a nice hotel with a swimming pool and waterslide. Of course they had security tape placed on the doors after lights out, but that was part of the fun.  I got the Jolly Lodger. I made the mistake of looking it up online before hand, it is a roadside flop house no bells or whistles.

Bed, TV nothing fancy.
Also if you look both pictures on the wall are the same.
Gideon's Bible is in the drawer. 

Water closet, almost big enough to squeeze my fuzzy
butt into without knocking my knees.
 Biffy is so small I almost  had to be a contortionist to use it.

The first night the idiots in the room next to me were drinking and smoking pot all night long. I had a nice blue haze in my bathroom in the middle of the night as the bathroom vents apparently are not installed with back draft dampers. What happens in one room gets shared with every room. Not good if a fire breaks out. For those who do not know pot  and most drugs react violently with me, the smell of the pot in the next room gave me a nasty headache I had to shut the bathroom door and leave the fan on to clear it out. Another noise to keep me awake.

The next morning I had a fresh 4 to 6 inches of snow on the roads it was still blowing and not very nice out but off we went to go skiing again.

Not a great shot but this snow kept up all night long
By morning we had a nice  soft powder on
the ski hill, and the roads and everywhere else. 

I sat in the lodge and watched over one of the chair lifts under my window was the skipatrol and the rental shops. Having spent enough time working on the ski hils in Alberta when I was in my early 20s it was fun to just sit and watch.

Of course not everyone had fun I saw one kid get a arm put in a  splint, I am guessing sprained wrist. Another in a sling. Wrenched shoulder or collorbone and another who sprained an ankle.  Fortunatly none of the ones we had with us appeared to be injured.

Another night of hotel calafornia and it was off to Ashern again. The kids were in no real hurry to get home. we loaded at ten thirty and stopped for a "30" minute break that took over 45 minutes. We drove the rest of the way and got back in time for half of last class. I had just enough time to get the bus to the garage and get my arse chewed out, (read above) and that was it. Everyone had a great time I love doing charters just to know that people can have fun and get home safely.

The Wolves at my door.

Yesterday the last of winter was attempting to make one more gasp. I was outside shoveling the worst of the snowdrifts from the driveway when on the roadway I saw some foot prints. These were dog prints but they were about 3 and a half inches in span. There is no dogs, and no traffic out here. Even the poachers have moved to a different area. The coyotes are not big enough to make prints much larger than the cats, and the bears are sleeping for another month. That leaves Wolf. I wish I had a camera setup to catch a shot of him as he walked right down the middle of my roadway. Kyle wants to set traps all over the area. Timber wolf pelts are worth more than all the other pelts he has turned in so far this year combined.

He brought some stuff around, and was all excited as we have not had a wolf this close to the highway for decades. We set traps for the coyotes instead. I doubt that the wolves will be back in this area again for a while as it appears they were tracking a heard of elk through the area.

Most kids in their teens buy fancy perfumes or colognes.
 Kyle buys Wolf urine.
 I can see the advertisement for this:
The boys use Axe
 Real men wear Wolf Urine!
 Guaranteed to make the ladies HOWL   

Final Thoughts.

Spring is almost here. The weather reports are calling for plus tempetures for the remainder of the week. Snow is melting and I am getting excited, as spring is, by far, my favorate time of the year.

I have to get old red and little red working shortly. Also dig out the rototiller and get it ready to go. Still need to repair the pullcord for it. I am planning on making a smoker before the suckers start running so that we can make some smoked fish. ( I am hoping to solicit the help of the folks and mayby some of their friends for the adventure)

Also as I have eluded to this time I am without income for the time being. This means I have time but no money. (one or the other but never both) I have taken my time and loaded a few more links on the Support the inverted cow page. Please check them out.

I am also thinking of starting a photo blog  and calling it "Cow Spots: Manitoba Memories"  I will be posting photographs of some of the historical buildings just sitting out here in the middle of nowhere and when possible I will be posting a caption of the history of the building.

Just a sample: 
 

The New Home Church. Originality on names was not big out here.
I love the architecture  

Last stop here on earth for a few.

I found out later this belongs to the mechanic's family.
I hope to get some history on the building later.

An old schoolhouse just sitting in a cow pasture now.

Cheers C[_]