Month: April 2013

Opening the Haven

/ Shane / 4 Comments

Over the weekend we officially made our first trip up to the Haven this year. As usual, it was great to be up there, and we actually covered a pretty good percentage of the property just wandering around before settling in for some good old fashioned playing in the sand. We didn’t see any animals this time, but we saw lots and lots of evidence; mostly poop (fur-filled or otherwise), and lots of very clear tracks. We saw some deer tracks, something that was either a giant turkey or a velociraptor, and some sort of clawed monster, possibly a werewolf.

I certainly was happy we went up there. However, there were actually quite a few problems (in addition to the velociraptor/werewolf infestation).

The main thing was that a significant amount of the property was under water. I know that we’ve received a lot of rain lately, and it’s not crazy to think this was the five year (or more) high water mark. Still, it’s somewhat of a bummer to think of dealing with all that water hanging around on your property. We saw evidence that water stands in some of the sandy areas, but we never really saw that at all last year. Is that more typical, or was that because last year was especially dry, and this is actually the normal case?

Most disappointing of all was that all of the raspberries we planted last year were totally underwater. We’re talking a mini-pond, at least a foot deep. The water had obviously been there for quite some time and didn’t seem to be going anywhere soon. We shall see, but I think it’s likely that none of them will survive. Not only will we lose all of our raspberries, but we also lost our “excellent garden spot” since there’s no way we can plant anything else there now.

On the other hand, we did get a little justification as far as building sites go. The area we had tentatively selected as a potential build site was basically the only possible spot that was not underwater. So it looks like we chose correctly, and I think we can officially declare that to be the Official Location now. So that does feel pretty good.

I don’t remember any tremendous storms coming through recently, but there were several major trees down. I’m talking enormous old pines, like house-crushing size. It seems to me it must have been some storm to take them out. Obviously something out of the ordinary, since we haven’t seen hardly any other trees down. I guess the silver lining is that we have plenty of trees to chop for firewood now.

Actually though, I’m not sure we’ll get to them! Between needing to clear out some higher ground for a new garden location, knowing where we need to start clearing out for potential future cabin building, and wanting to get started on clearing for a driveway, we have lots and lots (and lots!) of trees to chop down this year. Right now it seems like almost an infinite amount. We’ve got our work cut out for us (unfortunately, not literally…we have to do all the cutting).

Most unsettling of all was that someone has set up an *extremely* permanent looking tree stand that is clearly on our property. This is a fully built platform, with a permanent ladder attached, everything shiny and new. I have heard story after story about people who have fights with neighbors over tree stands, and I was really hoping to avoid this. This thing is big, heavy, and bolted in, so I can’t exactly just climb up and take it down. On one hand, it’s not too far from the property line and I don’t really mind right now if people are hunting there AS LONG AS THEY HAVE PERMISSION. That’s why we specifically chose no trespassing signs that said hunting was only allowed with permission, to indicate that we are open to it. Now I feel like this is some sort of test, to see if we would notice or complain, and if we don’t, then we’re push overs and everything is fair game. I hope that I’m wrong about that, but in the meantime, I’m not sure what to do. Of course, all of this is compounded by the fact that most of our no trespassing signs are down, but I believe there were several still up close to the new tree stand.

Still deciding what to do about that one. I would like to minimize the stress in my life. Which potential path will ultimately lead to less stress?

Quote Monday has trouble being understood

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Ollie: “When I’m older, I want to d&%i$@.”
Sara: “You want to drive?”
Ollie: “No, I want to d&%i$@.”
Sara: “You want to dive off the diving board like Evie?”
Ollie: “No, I want to d&%i$@!”
Sara: “You want to die?”
Ollie: “Yes! So spiders can eat me!”

Evie: “Who was the first person alive?”
Me: “Me.”
Evie: “No.”
Me: “Grandpa.”
Evie: “No.”
Me: “Grandpa’s grandpa.”
Evie: “No!”
Me: “Grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa.”
Evie: “…wait, which Grandpa?”

Ollie, singing: “It’s a not-hard life, for us. It’s a not-hard life, for us!”

Sara: “When Oliver was rolling down the hill? I peed a little.”

The Zombie Preparedness Initiative

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Of course, we all know how valuable bacon would be in the case of a zombie apocalypse (the correct answer being “more valuable than gold”). This very topic was discussed at Baconfest in regards to the Tactical Bacon. Commenter Victor Tookes was quick to point out this post on How to Make Bacon Post Apocalypse.

This article is great, with some fantastic quotes:

There is no reason that the walking dead should stop humanity from enjoying it’s crowning culinary achievement.

and

Pigs are fantastic, magical animals, they turn vegetables into bacon.

Tell me that is not just *dying* to be put on a tee-shirt.

However, the informative bacon posts are just the beginning! It is well worth looking around the rest of the Zombie Preparedness Initiative’s website!

Hours and hours of things to read there. Important, life saving things. Keep in mind, this is the only zombie organization specifically inspired by Shaun of the Dead. And if that doesn’t make them serious enough, they have an .org extension on their webpage. They are an organization people!

An important organization with an important mission. I want all of you to study up. We’ll each have our roles to play, and we don’t have room on the team for any slackers.

Little Ronny Howard

/ Shane / 4 Comments

If you come around our house, plan on hearing about Evie’s old pal, Little Ronny Howard.

Yes, I’m talking about *that* Ron Howard. You didn’t realize he and Evie were friends? He probably doesn’t realize it either.

Her obsession with Lil’ Ronny began with his role as Winthrop Paroo (Evie’s love of The Music Man already being well documented), but soon took on a life of its own.

It’s amazing how often the phrase “Little Ronny Howard” can come up in a day. Never “Winthrop” or even “Ron Howard”, always “Little Ronny Howard”. It’s like her and Little Ronny are best friends; you might think he’s a boy who lives down the street. “Little Ronny Howard plays the cornet”, “Little Ronny Howard has a lisp”, or “I wonder what Little Ronny Howard is doing right now?”

The lisp adopted by Little Ronny Howard in the movie in particular captured Evie’s imagination. All these questions about lisps! Why does he talk like that? Do people really talk like that? How do you do a lisp? Could I have a lisp when I grow up? We seem to be through the lisp phase now, but she mostly alternated between practicing the lisp for herself, or forcing Sara and I to say, “Thomething Thpethal!” with absolutely as much spitting as we could muster. Even Ollie started talking with a lisp (as he always does when Evie is on about something).

It’s pretty obvious that Little Ronny captured her imagination by virtue of being the main person her age in her favorite movie (not to say that his acting was poor, because it wasn’t, but I suspect it needn’t have been spectacular to win over this particular fan). But Evie seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that the movie was filmed in 1962, and Little Ronny Howard wasn’t exactly little anymore. I really blew her mind when I explained that Little Ron is actually older than I am. I think he’s older than my mom actually. Oh, and by the way, he doesn’t even have a lisp.

You could have knocked her over with a feather.

To Evie, Little Ronny Howard is just some kid. To her, he IS Winthrop Paroo. It makes no difference to her that he went on to be a television star before becoming one of the biggest directors out there. Means nothing to her. He might as well be a boy who lives down the street. I don’t know Ron Howard any better than Evie does, but I kind of think it would put a smile on his face to know that there’s a little girl out there asking herself on a daily basis, WWLRHD? (What Would Little Ronny Howard do?)

No More Pop

/ Shane / 1 Comment

For several years now, Sara has not had any pop to drink. This drastically cut down on the amount of pop I was drinking, since it mostly wasn’t in the house. She also convinced me to stop ordering pop at restaurants when the kids were around, to set a good example. Although sometimes this kind of killed me, I am definitely on board with trying to give the kids some good, soda-free role models. We see plenty of role models sucking down soda like there’s no tomorrow, trust me.

None of this ended up being all that hard, because I found a lot of other things to drink, such as coffee, a million different kinds of tea, milk, wine, Sara’s homemade cocoa, smoothies, the occasional white Russian, etc. (to say nothing of water). I’m much happier with this variety of things, I actually feel kind of foolish for being stuck on pop for so long.

Nonetheless, I steadfastly held on to my 4 cans of diet, caffeine-free Dr. Pepper for my lunch at work (one could argue that I was already hardly drinking pop at all). It’s a vast understatement to say that I enjoyed those cans of pop. I would look forward to them for hours, and often, it would be the only thing about my lunch that I enjoyed. I didn’t just love that can of pop per day, I was IN love with that can of pop. Sure, it was chalk full of the most god-awful chemicals on the planet, but it’s only 4 cans a week, and it was basically my last big vice.

And thus it continued for many years.

Suddenly, one day I took a few drinks and I just thought, “Ugh, this tastes like corn syrup and weird disgusting chemicals.” Seriously, it was just that abrupt. One day I loved it, the next day it was, “it’s not you, it’s me”. I soldiered on for a few more days just to make sure, but no, I just didn’t have the taste for it anymore. It was just too sickeningly sweet all of a sudden. At last I realized, if I was no longer enjoying this cloying cocktail of chemicals, what in the world was I drinking it for?

I could see having a pop now and again in the evening or if I went out to eat. On the other hand, I don’t see any reason to invite that particular demon back into my life. If I’ve gotten it out, what would the draw be? I enjoy so many other drinks more.

Now, it’s not totally all fuzzy unicorn rainbows. There is some downside.

Years ago, I had mostly eliminated caffeine from my diet. Now, it has come back with a vengeance, mostly due to drinking caffeinated coffee when decaf is unavailable. It’s even wormed its way back in at home, where I usually make “half-caf” coffee. Additionally, I put cream and sugar in my coffee or tea, which means I’ve picked up an extra calorie or two that the diet pop wasn’t giving me (say what you will about super-unnatural chemicals, but our bodies refuse to process them on principle, so there’s that). Also, I wonder if I’m teaching my kids a different lesson by always having a steaming cup of joe in my hand, rather than a pop.

Well, one problem at a time. For now, it’s sayonara soda.