Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

October 21, 2007

Just another autumn day.....


Today we went at filling in the trench that we had dug for the new wires to the garage. I had filled in both ends when I ran the wire, but left the rest as it was starting to rain. Since then, it has rained almost every day, leaving the trench filled to the top with water for most of it's length. Here's a view off the deck.



Today most of the water had finally soaked in, so we started filling the trench. The last third needed to be bailed out so as to be able to fill with dirt and compact it somewhat. So we did that and finished the filling project. Here's a view from the front steps. I thought that I would get the mower out and cut the grass for (hopefully) the last time. It has been to wet to mow or pick up leaves, to I did the whole job today. That's why the grass is so green and clean looking.....



Meanwhile, the love of my life had prepared squash, baked spuds and elk steak for dinner. Mmmm, mmmm, good! Peg had also cleared the old yellow daisy stalk from the flower bed, cleared the old peony plants from the south beds, and other outdoor tasks while I was mowing. Almost done with fall chores.....






I love those yellow leaves on the poplars at this time of year!!
















The woods to the east of the field is looking quite nice, now that the evergreens and poplars are doing their fall thing. No matter what the status of the seasons happens to be, there is always something nice to look at.









____________Hey, carve that pumpkin, would ya???____________


October 19, 2007

Quack, quack......

Let's see.... "Nice weather.. for ducks!" Or, "Duck! Here comes another rain cloud!" I think it's wet enough up here now. Mind you, I'm not complaining (too much), at least it wasn't a Katrina. Or tornado.

O.K., down to business: Presidential rating--24% approval. Hmmm.....

TV--you have to be kidding!! Have you looked at what is on? The present offering is unbelievable! Almost every evening is pure junk until at least 8:00, most nights 9:00. I watched a re-run of Seinfeld tonight and following it was some offensively glitzy affair called "Oo will be the naixt grite American band?" Ya, another dippy show with an annoying british host....
You can avoid all this, of course, by watching "The War" on PBS. It's an oncore playing of a riviting show. Watch this to bring yourself back to the real world, but be aware, it shows just how insane this so-called 'intelligent' species really is......


What do you know? A new shelf in the bathroom! The old farmhouse still has a few opportunities for improvement. Peg found this unit on sale at Menards, and I put it up a couple of days ago.



This time of year has it's own kind of beauty. The poplars are yellow and a little green yet. They look nice against the bare birches. Soon all that will be left of colorful trees will be the intense green of the balsams in winter, and the wonderful yellow glow of the the tamaracks.



The big silver maple in the yard is one of the few trees nearby that still has colored leaves on it. These trees are only outlasted by the poplars. This pic is kind of out of focus, taken late afternoon today in case the leaves are gone before I get a good photo.





And for those of you who are already looking forward to spring, just kick back and imagine yourself in this cabin in Alaska... I guess that wouldn't be too hard to take!







____________Hey, carve that pumpkin, would ya???____________

October 14, 2007

I liked this day.....


Got up a little late today, headache and such... but finally got going on finishing the electric project. I glued together most of the PVC parts that the wire would go through. Here is the completed house end of the run.









The twisted 3-wire conductor is quite stiff and hard to get throught the pipe and fittings. It took some work and last minute glueing of fittings with the wire inside. Here is the completed garage end of the run.









Inside the garage the wires run up through the PVC tubing and into the breaker panel. Peggy found this panel at a garage sale, $3.00 and it's just what we needed.... smart shopper, that girl.










Here are the wires ending in the breaker panel, ready to be connected to the appropriate terminals. The other end of the wires were fed into the house via the piping shown in the first photo. That end of the wires will be routed to and connected in the main sevice panel. Still need to do that. I turned my attention to some other outdoor tasks that needed to be done before winter. I think I'm finally catching up to the list a little bit..... But that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Today has another importance...


___________________________________________________

October 14th, 2006---October 14th, 2007





We spent this day a year ago in our fancy clothes, going out to Lugerville to get "hitched". Snow on the ground last year at this time, and cold! The weather co-operated and we had sun and a break from the wind.




We're remembering a wonderful time with family and friends at the Chequamegon club.













Thanks for the hats, Rosie, we wear them quite often.... ;-)















You know, this picture shows us just the way I feel today....really good.

When I came in from working around the place today, Peggy had a steak and baked potato dinner, with salad and beans and dinner rolls. We had some left-over wedding cake for dessert (Peggy had been keeping some in the freezer).

Thanks, Peg, for a great first year!! The start of many, I'm sure.

October 13, 2007

Mixed bag.....


Friday was one of those days.... each time I looked out the window at work, I could tell that there was NO WIND at all. I should have taken 1/2 vacation day and headed somewhere in the plane! This guy, Karthikkumar, is one of our India office employees and has been here for about 5 months. He is leaving for India in a couple of weeks and has been wanting a ride in the plane. He came into my office mid-day on Friday and he suggested we go that day... so we headed to the airport at 5:30 and he had a ride.



We saw local chuter, Jim Heizler, in the air with his powered parachute. We flew near him once and then went our own way. I caught up with Jim when it was time to land and we talked while he put away his chute. Being quite cold, I left quickly for the warmth of my truck.



Saturday morning found us working on the electric project. First we finished the trench to the appropriate depth. That was way the most funnest thing we've done in a long time.... not that bad, in reality.



Next order of business was to get a hole drilled throught the bottom of the house wall. This is where the conduit fitting will attach to the wall and allow the wire to get into the basement. Three layers of wood, about 4" to drill through. Always a treat with a hole saw.









At the garage, I decided to attach a piece of treated decking material to the wall. This will allow the siding J-channel to go around wood and allow secure fastening of the conduit and fitting to the wall.



Yes, this thing here is what it's all about. I'll pick up a few last minute things in Phillips this afternoon, and then we'll be set to finish the wire install tomorrow. I'll be heading to Phillips to, what else, go flying!










An old friend from work, Jim Kucaba, has been very interested in my plane. He called early Saturday morning and suggested we take advantage of the nice weather and go for a plane ride. A little arm twisting and it was decided. Looks like it takes a call from a would-be passenger to get me going..... We would meet at the airport a little before 4:00 a take it from there. We took off about 4:15, flew the area out around Jim's house, down to Prentice, the Ottertail, Ogema and back north. We landed about 6:20, just at sunset.



I think he had a good time, or else he just likes grinning......













_____________Hey, fly that aeroplane, would ya???_____________

October 7, 2007

Da wall.....


This is what I saw each time I looked out the garage door today. We worked on getting the wall built that would define the two areas of the garage..... Peggy's area and 'our' area. That bike was calling my name all afternoon, but I managed to stay on task...... We needed some supplies from the lumberyard, so Peggy headed up there to get them. I started in on the electical work, strung some wires on the overhead, put up some outlet and light mounting boxes.



When Peg got back we finished nailing the wall sections together, stood them up and got them nailed into position. It was extremely humid (and warm temperature) out there, and I was, once again, too hot to be having this much fun.... We built the wall in two sections, then put the plywood on afterward.




I ignored that bike in the yard and we managed to get all the plywood on the wall. We cut and fit the last panel on the east end, put it in place with two nails, then put on the top 12" tall piece across the top. (9' tall walls, 8' tall plywood). Then we took that last panel back out so I could have easy access to both area of the building until the wiring is all done. We swamped out the whole north end of the building, moved the bike trailers in, backed the van in, moved the motorcycles back in. Then I finished the light wiring in Peggy's area, so things are moving along.



When we were shopping for siding and other needfuls at Menards, Peg saw a little base unit cabinet. She asked, "Is it time to retire that dishwasher in the kitchen?" I reluctantly agreed (ha, ha) So we got the cabinet and put it in place next to the stove.



We thought we would use the wood top off the old washer, as it looks kind of nice there, being dark wood amid the mostly white surroundings. So, after a day of working in the garage, and laundry and other stuff, I caught Peg working on cleaning up that wood top at 9:15 this evening..... Hmmm....
Anyone need a dishwasher???? (Doesn't work, though.)






_____________Hey, fly that aeroplane, would ya???_____________


October 6, 2007

Early October at the Lodge

Pictures need enlarging.... so click 'em!


Took a little air tour around the area last week. I think the colors were about peak brightness and it was a pleasant sight.






Here is an interesting example of blocks of hardwoods next to green areas. This is the case in most areas up here in the "sticks".



I'm not sure if this field is supposed to make a political statement or if it just happened to be shaped like that???? It's next to Little Chicago road just south of Phillips......



I thought this was an interesting mix of dark green and bright colored trees.



A good aerial view of the Ottertail, from the South.



A little nearer and lower. Not used to seeing that garage roof down there!!



Two deliveries at the Ottertail today. First, thanks to Ivan, our piano traveled from Peggy's house in Phillips to the dining hall of the Ottertail. I got the chance to play for about an hour today, felt good.......



Second delivery was a shirt that I ordered for Rosie. She needed a souvenir from Airventure '07 for one of her aqaintances in Brazil, Ricardo, who is crazy about flying and wants to get to Oshkosh one of these years. This was the only style Airventure shirt that EAA had in stock. I guess they pretty much sell out soon after Airventure.



Yup, gonna finish digging that wire trench to the garage. I could not find the old grub hoe that I remember being around here somewhere, but Peggy had this head in her garage. I bought a new handle and I got it fit to the head today.




Also bought a rain hood for the chimney. Got that put on Thursday evening, took the ladders off the roof and did a little shingle patching in the valley near the eaves on the north east corner of the roof. So a little clean-up of old shingles on the lawn and the roof work is done for the season. Peggy and I started building the dividing wall in the garage today. Will finish that tomorrow and maybe get the wire trench done. I plan on getting started bow hunting soon, just not sure when it will be. Soon, Ivan, soon.....


Here is a view out across the grounds of the Lodge area. We've had some unusually mild weather for this time of year and it seems like all the summer's rain is falling now....






















_____________Hey, fly that aeroplane, would ya???_____________