Good morning!
Holy smackerel, it rained all day and all night and yes it's raining right now too.
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I've been helping my son replace the ball-joints on his Blazer. We got the first side finished without much trouble. Day before yesterday, while we were working, a couple deer and
bear hunters came by and asked if they could hunt. I agreed if we could have some meat. I've been seeing tracks and signs deer and elk have been very close the our house and gave them some tips about where they are. This is the second time, perhaps the third time these hunters have asked and been allowed here.
Yesterday morning they drove up to the house with a three pointer in the truck.
We now have some venison! We spent part of the morning butchering the two front legs we received. Perfect timing since deer season is over tomorrow.
With the cool wet weather, I was talking about needing a wood heater in the shop. Austin said there was a big pot belly stove in the barn. Awesome, so after butchering, we drove the Jeep and trailer down to the barn and retrieved the pot belly in the rain.
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It was raining hard while I was trying to install the stove pipe cap, and I had to give up. It just wouldn't go on, grr
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Now the lumber is wet and I'll need to re-stack it and get it off the ground. This is the lumber for the aquarium cabinet. That project went to the back burner when we began the stucco project on the house. That project stalled too, because of rapid climate change I need to modify the way I've done things here in the normally dry (16" of precipitation per year.) Keeping
firewood dry here was never a big issue because it didn't rain in October and when it snowed it was powdery and often blew off the piles before it melted.
The term rapid climate change says it all, now I need to have a rapid response to go along with it.
The rain may pass over today, I hope so, I need to get on the shop roof and finish the installation of the pipe cap.
On the bottom I made a modification to the stove pipe, apparently we forgot to pick-up the 7 1/2" to 6" adapter. I tried to weld it in, but I'm out of acetylene. :upset: It's on the list, but naturopathy is using up every penny we have and it got back burnered too.
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I'm pretty proud of that mod, nevertheless.
A lot of stuff is happening here all at once, for example the greenhouse roof is leaking zinc from the galvanized tin roof into the fish tank. This will hasten the trout harvest before they get sick.
"Damn rain," I never thought I'd say that here in New Mexico.
We need to scale up the firewood collection which we should have done already. This is going to be a very different Winter than last year and for that matter years past.
I need three times as much firewood as I have here. Sigh.
We were able to collect firewood all through the wimpy Winter last year. I have a feeling this year everything is going to be wet wet and snowy as hell. I've been remiss in making my morning newsletter and it's all these issues, projects, and project changes that have kept me too busy to write or even take pictures.
Oh well, we're doing pretty darn good, all these things considered.
We were not able to attend Della's Harvest fest. We did get to Albuquerque in time to have a great family dinner with Nell's and my family too. Japanese food and great visiting. It was great. Austin brought us all kinds of food goodies from Della's annual Fall Harvest Party. In my haste to make up for missing the good times at Della's, I ate two pieces of pumpkin
pie along with all the brisket, turkey and potato dishes Austin brought. I completely forgot that eggs and dairy cause an inflammatory response in my joints. I woke up with painful finger joints as a reminder that I will never be able to eat eggs or
milk products ever again. Dang it all!
Dashed on the rocky shores of reality.
I'm going into surgery in the beginning of November for a brow lift, which hopefully lesson the pressure on my eyeballs. The surgeon says it won't, but if I tape my brows, lifting them up I feel instant relief from irritated eyes, the itchy scratchy feeling goes away immediately.
I went into see if I could get an appointment to talk to my primary physician before the surgery. Alas, "No openings," was
the answer. I said I just wanted to talk to him and let him know I was feeling much better these days. Apparently the only part of that message the doctor got was that I was feeling better and they cut my hydrocodone prescription by two thirds, Which is fine, except for the fact that I'm having surgery in two weeks and the rules with a pain killer contract are what they give me is all I can get, not any from the surgeon either. Sigh.
My anxiety level is heightened now.
What are ya gunna do about it? I've been coping with severe chronic pain for four years, I guess I can suffer a little more.
I am doing a heck of a lot better. I just need to pay closer attention to what I eat and that will keep the pain away.
Brian