Life's amazing - a day at the job

You know sometimes I get sick of writing nothing but depressing things,
but the only happy things I have to share are close in, and personal,
It’s been a wonderful life and this Earth, as I’ve known it, has been a fantastic place to spend it,

perhaps that’s why I get so passionately pissed at fools that are OK with destroying everything that makes life worth living.
And that my kids and grandkids will be deprived of so much that makes life worth living. :down:

So I got inspired to write some happy stuff, sitting on a camping cot, under a clear moon light, with Sandia Mtn, NM
gracing the distance. And this time, connected to the web

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Well, I’m back in Corrales, this time to put in a couple fences. 26 post holes {turned out be only 25 posts in the ground},
about 230’ worth’ of 72" horse wire fencing.
wish my back luck pals.
At least it’s all sand.
In any event I’m sleeping in the yard again, with the two horses off in their (my :wink: shed., and I tell you those buggers are like three year olds,
once they got your ticket - it’s all over.
See thing is, though they get fed regularly, they are piggies and discovered a fondness for sage brush
and they have eaten pretty near all the sage brush that used to be here, and the couple trees are under severe attack,
thus the promised fences.
Now these horses have figured out that when they get into the brush, since I long ago figured out making a fuss and chasing 'em out
was more trouble than it was worth and didn’t solve anything, . . .like 3 year olds, the minute you turn your back…
instead I’ll get them some hay - I’ve coordinated this with the owner so I’m not over feeding - but I’m much of the grazing school,
smaller portions more often, when it comes to horses at least. {When it comes to people pretty much full time minimalist…
everything you shove into your body, your body must process, . . . think about it}
:red:
This horse psychology insight was developed over my previous stay here a month ago when I lived with them horses (of two year + acquaintance )
full time for nearly four days. Finishing their shed and also hanging out and sleeping and observing, yea sleeping/observing too -
with their all night commotions and the many neighborhood horses getting to know the new kids in town,
and the rest of the animal life taking it all in and readjusting… {Day time - the road runners stopped their regular,
most fun to watch, excursions through this yard once the horses arrived, etc. and so on and so forth}
When the horses first moved in and this yard was a ripe plum for the pickings with dozens of mature sage bushes
and a few small trees (in fact come to think of it I’ve been witness to a real life “tragedy of the commons”.
In any event late last night they stayed in their shed, tonight me being up with the computer, twice they’ve ventured into the brush,
I’m starting to suspect because they know it would produce more hay….
But, I got them, this second time round I went for a walk around the surviving tree/brush area and spread the hay, making them work for it.
They were over there for most of this writing and as I look up I can see {it’s a beautiful full moon clear night} them back in their shed.
As for the night life, it’s back to dogs and air (wind) chimes, the new kids on the block are old news.
Good night pals :slight_smile:
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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
Marcus Aurelius
Read more at ]

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. Marcus Aurelius Read more at ]
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Marcus Aurelius
makes sense to me...:cheese:

Alrightie, finally done for the night.
Originally I’d intended to get all 13 posts done today.
Then I nix’ed the other gate post until I actually had the gate,
then I nixed the second to last post on the short section because I had second thoughts about placement and decided to hold off on that until I did the gate post.
{good thing too, had to move it 6" the next day}
Then, providence shined on this silly ass, and my last hole was too dry,
didn’t put enough water into it, I had no choice but to dump in a bunch of water and add it to tomorrow’s list.
Considering it was midnight (I did have a great 2 hour siesta late afternoon, and I have a reputation for crazy marathons.)
I was OK with the disappoint of not being able to mix three more bags of concrete tonight .
Now come the rewards - standing around the backyard with a beer admiring the posts,
{and mediating on how best to raise the 72" high horse wire fencing… and if I needed to line up a helper,
I’m thinking I can do it on my own, with the help of attaching small pulleys to the top of the posts and
hoisting it bit by bit with rope }
that have introduced a definitive curved line into the yard, along
with admiring the majestic scene of Sandia Mtn to the East. What’s so cool is that Chili and Morocco have
been around all day and they are watching all this commotion I’ve brought into their yard.
Now the quite time, unwinding in the yard, full moon above me, Mt Sandia with fog and lenticular cloud patterns to feed the imagination,
and the horses coming right up to me. At such a moment with a couple curious animals staring me in the face, and a beer in hand,
sure I can stand still for multiple minutes, just soaking it in, wondering what they are thinking as they are wondering what I am thinking/doing.
By and by I walk towards the house and the newly developing fence line, stop to admire, and this time the horses follow me,
and dang if they too don’t seem to be in silent revere trying to figure out what was going on… or perhaps suspecting what’s going on.
It’s all very fun and interesting, and yes regarding my first post they are “wind chimes” - I do things like that with words, specially late at night. :slight_smile:
[fixed that formatting thing]

But wait there’s more.
My answer to the question no one has asked:
What does it take to be a Darma Bum?

In my humble opinion
First and foremost a love of, along with fascination for, topped by feeling comfortable within the night.

What brings it up is that working at this place brings back all sorts of life on the road memories for me, back before stuff got so ultra weird.
Back in the 80s, during my Silverton days, I had two episodes of traveling to the Gulf Coast.  One only a few weeks long,
but highlighted by getting hired on as a 'Header' on a shrimp boat.  Said career was cut short, by one of my sorrier episodes...
with help of the worm, I pissed off the wrong fisherman at the bar and received an epic shit kicking.  Quite literally,
me down and boots in the face, temporality (weeks worth) taking out one eye, barring me from working on any fishing boat -
you must have both eyes healthy to safely work on the heaving deck of a fishing boat -
still have a couple black dots floating around my visual field as a token from that episode.
Then later, for a year New Orleans, to make my fortune off shore.  Didn't work out that easy and spent the first half year in
New Orleans helping gut out an old merchant building for renovation.  Then finally getting on with a rig for the last half year.
During this time I often "commuted" by thumb back to Silverton, seeing as it was a two week on two week off schedule and
I was getting more and more homesick.
During those trips into the south, with their different mentality and way more predators to stay alert to,
Albuquerque was like the gateway back to normalcy.  Then getting to Bernalillo and 'my' Highway 550 to
Silverton was like finally getting back to safe home territory, where you could get in a vehicle and just relax,
knowing they were regular folks just helping you get down the road.
Thing is on the freeway you can {well back in the day} hitchhike all night, but once on 550, if it was late and dark,
no sense in standing on the road.  Time to get off the road and sleep for the night, as I did on a number occasions,
always admiring the vista of Sandia Mtn.  And now it's like I'm almost looking down on that turn off and mile 1 of US550.
Fun memories, incredible to think it was thirty years ago.
What a long wonderful, strange, sometime absolutely heart breaking, trip it's been…
But then we get up and do it again.
Thee ol body willing, that is.   :red:
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Hello Pals,
Tried taking a power nap after sinking 12 poles holes, ‘step one’ - but my mind keeps buzzing and I think I’m going
to try and start something I been thinking about more and more. You see I’ve spent a good many years sparing with
contrarians. I think I’ve learned a few things, as for the conversations with them, they remain as frustrating and
hopeless as ever. Libertarians in particular play with such cynical double standard - it’s literally like talking to a wall.
And they alway manage to dominate the dialogue. I’m tired of it and though I’ll keep playing with them -
I want to work on approaching this from a totally different angle. I can only speak for myself, so that’s what I gotta focus on.
Seeing as my entire attitude towards this planet and climate science, all that learning process, which I’ve been a
part of since my high school science classes (class '73), is also reflected in my attitude towards my own life and work.
And since I’ve managed to cut out a pretty cool niche for myself, with me doing most of them alone, every job is an
adventure and different, and quite often requiring quick real-time learning, which requires honest criticality,
plus a good storehouse of information within those gray-cells.
For all my deep contempt for “libertarianism” - I probable live closer to the libertarian ideal, than any of the blabber mouths
spouting their nonsense about it. I work alone, responsible to specific bosses, for specific jobs - expectation are set out and
final judgement of success belongs with them, not me. I own my schedule, and only have to answer to a few folks who I get along with anyways.
For a while I’m been thinking I might make a good case study for the thinking process at it deals with real life situations.
Particularly someone like me who’s pretty much in his a bubble of his own making - and how I deal with my mistakes and
having to reevaluate my own assumptions, etc. You know making plans, having assumptions, reality checks,
readjusting to meet both challenges and expectations.
This is all very rough, but I’m figure this might be a good venue for me to write about it and try to make something of the notion.

A day at the job - how to build a horse fence in sand.
Objective 120 foot circular fence, with 4' gate to protect trees from horses.
10' long 4"diameter posts, sunk 4' into ground.  72" Wire Horse Fencing.
Challenge, ground is all sand, variably packed below 6/8 inches
but get's back to powder at about 3' down.
Trick: take 18" section of 12" diameter sonotube (it's like a giant straw)
sink it into the sand, like a mini caisson, dig another 2' at 12" dia,
then keep digging only the width of the post hole digger until sand gets soft again.
Fill with water walk away and let stand.
Did that before this break, as I rest, the is water percolating through the sand and I should be able to get the holes down to my 4'.
Nap times over, write you later.
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Oh that’s funny yesterday evening as I looked at my stats I realized I’d made a mistake,
adding when I shouldn’t have, just now before shutting down, I took a peek, kid you not, exactly 100,000.
Love them cosmic giggles. :slight_smile:
OK enough playing around - time to get at it

Old man can’t hustle like he used too.
Had to pace myself, now I’m ten down two to go.
Seeing if this break will fortify me to power through,
it would be sooo nice to have it behind me in the AM
so I can focus on getting that fencing up on the first fence line.
:wink:

Haa, finished the 12th post at 10pm.
But the highlight of the day was the horses again.
Like I mentioned the horses have been paying attention to what’s going on.
So yesterday I dig the 12 holes that circle a tree and bush they are destroying.
Also, yesterday I strung a rope across the first fence line, which was then in their face and stopped them
for venturing towards the house and the last remnants of sage bushes they had been so enjoying.
I did notice them spending long moments staring at that rope, but not tempting to cross the line.
Then, this morning, on the 2nd fence line (circle) I stocked each hole with three sacks (actually first bag was placed over each hole last night)
of Quikcrete and a post.
I go in for a short break, when I come back out, as if waiting for me, Chile throws a temper tantrum,
whinnying with attitude, bucking a couple times then sprinting a lap around their shed,
then she does it again to make sure I didn’t miss it.
Nothing I can do but be amazed and get back to setting my posts.
Well a couple hours later, another another round of angry whinnying I hear the crack of wood (turned out to be a post) getting kicked,
I run over to the other side of the tree and chase them away.
Thinking the excitement is over, I talk to them some more and get back to my side of the island (in progress)
It’s not five minutes and I hear Chili again, this time she is kicking the heck out of a sack of concrete,
mind you these bags have been around the yard, first one big pile, then the first fence line had three bags spread out per hole.
No problem, on occasion I’d notice one sniff at it and move along.
Now she’s deliberately destroying this bag, then I noticed she’d kicked a hole in another bag also.
Too pissed and too crazy and a horse get’s mighty imposing and disconcerting.
But I know how to fix that, a little hay, a halter defy slipped onto her head,
a lead rope and I tied Chili to a ring in her shed so I can get on with my work
and she ain’t going nowhere.
Fortunately, that didn’t seem to upset her, so the rest of the day went without a hitch.
Morocco, the old man, just stands back watching, “hey I’m not causing any trouble, don’t look at me….” :slight_smile:

New day, new challenges.
muscling that 72" 100’ woven wire horse fence into place and hoisting,
then there’s Chili who I’m a little worried about, she’ll probably spend a few hours tied up preemptive like,
{and now the owner has left for a couple days, meaning that yoke of responsibility has gone up a notch.}
while I’m unrolling and hoisting.
Gotta feeling they’ll be receiving extra rations of hay today, I want to see happy horses. :slight_smile:
Today’s a bigger test than yesterday, never done nothing like this with this sort of wire
(previous experience being pretty much pounding Tposts and barbed wired 20 years back),
making assumptions and plans based on extrapolating from other experiences.
And then going for it.
I love the primitiveness of the thing, I’ll be playing with pulleys, trying to move a heavy awkward mass into place,
just like they did all them generations ago when they were just figuring all this out,
it ain’t a job, it’s an adventure, and even history lesson of the human drama. :slight_smile:
Have I ever mentioned the folds within folds of harmonic accumulating complexity cascading down the river of time.
The back is being good to me. Thanks be.
See ya later.

Calling it good for the day after sun down, no lights and headlamp tonight. :lol:
Been feeling under par all day,
Funny how age does that, that palpable feeling of having gone too far, and the body saying F-you, wanna play the superman game,
we’ll show you buddy, “you’re old, get the message, lighten up already!”.
I’ve said it before my body has taken better care of me than I have of it. Thanks be.
But the fence raising went smooth as I could hope. Not near the physical exertion I feared.
I knew the tensioning would be tricky, but was surprised at how much time it and tying the fence down at the end posts would eat up.
One 30’ section done, the 90’ section on the other side of the gate is up and secured, went easier than expected.
No marathon tonight, the tensioning and tying down can wait til the morning.
Tomorrow morning I won’t have to run into town like today (didn’t actually get to ‘working’ til 11:30ish)
Horses weren’t too bad. Although at one point as I was securing first section to the starting post,
dang if those horses didn’t sneak around my truck and the far side of the fence,
go under the rope I’ve had stretched along the posts at just below nose height
{yea, and I was assured horse wouldn’t ever cross such a line, haa!}
and they literally snuck up behind me, dang gave me start. The impulse is to just yell at them, but closed quarters,
yelling not so good impulse, keep it cool and calm.
In other words cuss 'em out, but do it in a civil tone, and they’ll leave by their own accord… and they did.
Then I tied up Chili, tossed down hay to distract and went back to work. A couple hours later I let her off again and she was fine.
though I caught her contemplating the barrier between her and the house and yummy sage brush, many times.

could someone please remind me how to adjust image size? :sick:

I do love sleeping outside here,
but there’s definitely something to be said for a nice bed
and a room shut off from the world.
Great, long, deep sleep, and my insides are happy with me again.
Time to get at it.

see ya

Hello Pals, Tried taking a power nap after sinking 12 poles holes, 'step one' - but my mind keeps buzzing and I think I'm going to try and start something I been thinking about more and more. You see I've spent a good many years sparing with contrarians. I think I've learned a few things, as for the conversations with them, they remain as frustrating and hopeless as ever. Libertarians in particular play with such cynical double standard - it's literally like talking to a wall. And they alway manage to dominate the dialogue. I'm tired of it and though I'll keep playing with them - I want to work on approaching this from a totally different angle. I can only speak for myself, so that's what I gotta focus on. Seeing as my entire attitude towards this planet and climate science, all that learning process, which I've been a part of since my high school science classes (class '73), is also reflected in my attitude towards my own life and work. And since I've managed to cut out a pretty cool niche for myself, with me doing most of them alone, every job is an adventure and different, and quite often requiring quick real-time learning, which requires honest criticality, plus a good storehouse of information within those gray-cells. For all my deep contempt for "libertarianism" - I probable live closer to the libertarian ideal, than any of the blabber mouths spouting their nonsense about it. I work alone, responsible to specific bosses, for specific jobs - expectation are set out and final judgement of success belongs with them, not me. I own my schedule, and only have to answer to a few folks who I get along with anyways. For a while I'm been thinking I might make a good case study for the thinking process at it deals with real life situations. Particularly someone like me who's pretty much in his a bubble of his own making - and how I deal with my mistakes and having to reevaluate my own assumptions, etc. You know making plans, having assumptions, reality checks, readjusting to meet both challenges and expectations. This is all very rough, but I'm figure this might be a good venue for me to write about it and try to make something of the notion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You could be on to something. Are you familiar with "Alone in the Wilderness". It's a diary style book by a guy who built a cabin in Alaska. He mixes his philosophy in with his instructions on how to make a spoon from a log. On the libertarian thing, the work part is only half of it. The other part is what you do with the income. A libertarian considers 100% of their income 100% theirs with no obligations to anyone. In some respects, that is how our economy is designed. But in practice, our economy does not reward each of us in exact measure to our contributions. We mostly take from the economy for the first 20-25 years of our life, then some give more, some less for the next few decades and hopefully we all earn some peaceful time in retirement. The rules of libertarianism say you don't have to care about those who are getting less for doing more or who had circumstances that interrupted their plans. It's kindergarten stuff to explain what's wrong with that and some of them act like kindergarteners when you try.

Alrightie time for a quick break to shove a little cottage cheese and watermelon into me.
Its been up and down today, on the one hand, all is going well, no “full stop, reverse engine mistakes”, no busted wires
but the tying down is so dang time consuming.
I’m watching that sun race through the sky with growing appreciation that I’m not going to make it today
and my dreamed of day off to focus on writing ain’t going to be happening.
Then the wage slave grumbling starts - but I have a no-tolerance deadline to get back Sunday night, so on we plod.
I finally finished tying down the end of the long section, deciding that I would leave finishing the other end for later.
I gotta see some progress here and it’s time to tackle the circle, grumble, grumble.
After cleaning, I step back to survey the fence, well hallelujah !, it looks good and tight all the way up.
How nice to be relieved of that “oh poop what have I gotten myself into!” fear that hit me yesterday.
See I’m going down a little slope and I was really worried about loose sloppy fencing - but the tensioning worked good,
plus a little trick I tried worked quite well I’m happy to say.
More on that later, gotta get back out there, unlike yesterday when every break brought the temptation to lay down for a few,
I wanna get out and get some fence up.
:coolsmirk:

After checking in yesterday afternoon I got started on the circle,
which out of a natural tendency towards cheapness I was going to try and piece together
with the ‘fall-off’ of two 100’ rolls, and another partial roll I had scrounged up.
I rolled out the smaller section, it’s like exactly post to post, but one needs another ±foot on either end
for wrapping the post and tying down. Oh poop, I go to the other side and roll out the longer section,
immediately it’s obvious I screwed the pooch.
Not only would I create even more work for myself trying to splice together three sections, but it would look like frankenstein.
Full Stop! Being near closing time on Friday, the self flagellation had to happen on the run, as I had to decide and act to get down there.
By the time it was all said and done another 1.5 hours pissed away.
And here’s why I want to record what I’m doing, and my process with all it’s advantages and disadvantages and going to try and stick with it.
Why did I make such an obvious error?
A base tendency towards penny pinching…
Wishful thinking…
… not being critical enough of a breezy assumption I made and was working with.
Namely that I could make my scraps work, even though simple math showed I was short, not by much, oh so close, get that fence stretcher.
It’s happenings like this that I want to mediate on - and that help me appreciate why real jobs have foremen and supervisors and inspectors.
Had I walked in on any friend planning out this project, I’d have seen and told him right away: “that deal with your fencing, it’s not going to work,
get that third roll even if it’s another $250 for 100’ and you think you’ll only really need 10’, although you never know might turn out to be more like 30’
you’ll need in the end” and at least it will be there. If you don’t use it you can always return it.
{in the end, I used fully half of the third roll}
Simple as day light.
But did I see it myself for myself, yes, but it was only a nagging in the background, all my attention and focus was on my next stage,
lining up and digging holes, planting posts, getting gate hung, figuring out the hanging of the fence, keeping the project moving
forward because time was racing by…
both learning and planning as I went.
{It’s just how it goes, comes from working on houses and big projects that are so big and complex,
you gotta compartmentalize. “Today focus on getting these joists right, tomorrow we worry about what goes on top of it.”}
And all this gets me to mediating on the many ways we need each other to keep ourselves honest.
There’s a bunch more I want to add, but the deadline hasn’t gone away.
I think I’ll be OK, and but not if I keep sitting on my butt playing writerman with my computer.
see ya

Well, my screw up cost me dearly in time,
I could have been where I am now, last night,
had I not killed my momentum.
The good part is that after my hassles and drama of the week are forgotten,
The product will remain and it will look good and be a quality horse fence.
I’ve been heartened by the sturdiness of the posts as I pull tension and pound in fence staples.
And now I’ve got my circle, circled.
But that means, here’s another danger phase.
Fence is up, BUT, there are still hours worth of splicing together the two sections, tensioning
and tying down the end post. And then returning to the long section to tighten and tie down the first two sections,
which were only temporarily secured, while I was doing the tension and tying down of the majority of that fence line.
Then all the misc. mop up. It’s amazing how fast the hours can slip by.
If I’m not careful it’s going to be finishing by headlamp again.

Well it’s done, sorta.
All the fence is up, pulled and tied down.
I’ve yet to do my tension trick to about five post tops of the “island”,
then cut the tops to even out the posts, except for a couple 12 footers that I’ll leave as is,
might to be a convenient perch for some birds, or for an experimental birdhouse, some day.
then double check for missing staples, etc., clean up, pack up (tomorrow AM), then head home.
Now I’m grabbing a celebratory beer, then we’ll see how much of that punch-list I get around to this evening.
{not a heck of a lot considering I’ve spent the last couple hours and more at this post.}
Horses were calmed down yesterday,
I’m thinking having all those bags of cement and poles and tools laying around all over,
really scrambled their sense of esthetics, or more probably their sense of well-being,
now that it was in the ground and gone, there was less irritating their senses.
I did tie up Chile yesterday afternoon when I had fencing laying around all over the ‘circle’,
then when I had to run off, I also put Morocco on a lead rope and tied him down.
When I came back I set to work, after a while there was a commotion in the shed,
I look up and dang if Chile hasn’t circled once wrapping the lead rope (probably only 8’ worth of rope)
around her legs, as I’m getting up, she spooks a little (not at me, I’m too far away and her mind is on something else),
resulting in the rope tightening some more and pulling her head down, at least she didn’t fall.
I’m trying to talk calming, while rushing without bringing panic into the situation.
She’s OK with my hand on her neck as I’m trying to unhook the rope from her halter with the other,
succeeding thanks to her letting me fumble around in there until I got it unhooked.
Remember the other day, mentioning the extra responsibility of the horses now that I was alone with them - holy moly… I shutter at the possibilities.
Not to mention the schedule :coolsmirk:
Needless to say I also let Morocco off, besides by then the yard had gotten less dangerous, since fencing was up and aborted pieces removed.
When I stopped this evening, and was surveying the scene, Chili and Morocco even came up close as if to acknowledge that all was good between us.
~ ~ ~
But, that’s just part of the animal adventures. In the next yard over are a bunch of chickens and two goats
(not to mention the countless wild birds who have figured out ways to horn in on their action) providing endless distraction with their various antics.
By and by, I’m working on the side facing them so I have a front row seat as a hen is running around with a little clod, or rag, or something in it’s beak.
Funny how something can be playing out in your periphery without paying attention to it, but a part of your mind is picking it up.
Well, I’m busy at knitting together the two fence sections that make this ‘island’,
when a sudden flurry of squawks and feathers with chickens scurrying about, grabs my attention.
I stop to look up and try to figure out what the heck is going on over there this time.
Then I figure it out, that chic’s got a dead mouse in her beak and is trying to get a quiet location/moment with it to figure out how to get at the good stuff inside.
But, her neighbors want in the action.
What’s interesting is that, skin and hide isn’t that easy to get into,
something we happy lazy people with our knives and saws and butchers have lost an appreciation for.
This went on easily an hour, curiously over that hour three different (they have distinct colors and markings) hens held the pray,
when I noticed it the third time, I looked around and found the previous ‘holder of the mouse’
in a corner busy pecking at something with a few other hens joining in.
My surmise being that it finally pulled off a substantial part to work on eating, leaving the prize open for the next taker.
I love stuff like that, because it’s dinosaurs in action, for real and up close, only thank god I’m much bigger than they are!
(Any of you old timers remember that old joke, “…, I’m just glad the cows don’t fly”)
~ ~ ~
On a less grizzly, this time total cool, side,
I need to give some background first.
A month ago I was in this same yard building a horse shed where no horse had lived before.
It was me and the menagerie next door plus the extensive bird life that flitted through this yard and the ruralish neighborhood.
Quail, RoadRunners (that I’d never been around before), and three, four other species I don’t know.
Constantly cruising through this yard, and the bushes and trees
it was a trip, {remember at heart I’m a Chicago Boy still utterly amazed at the natural world that lurks outside the cities.}
So, I observe and I remember some of what I observe - and one thing I remember is that the RoadRunners came through daily,
multiple times even, then the horses showed up - never saw another RoadRunner in this yard, then or in the past week.
So here I am, just come out of the house with some cool water and talking with my babe on the phone
because I had to share the good news,
the “Island” has been encircled with fence, much more to do, but dang it’s all up and good to go, and let’s talk for a while, how’s your day been.
(Remember the “island” has been created to save a tree and quite large sage brush bush, from the horses.)
Now picture this, I’m walking over to and sit down on the tailgate of my truck,
then suddenly out of the sage brush bush I’d just isolated
their’s this flourish and a gosh darn honest to goodness RoadRunner flaps it’s way up to the top of a fence post
sitting there surveying the yard and allowing me to make positive identification.
I was half tempted to hang up on Paula and set up the phone camera, but that never works on time,
instead I just give her an excited moment by moment live report.
RoadRunners, don’t fly, but then neither do Turkeys,
and boy have I seen some amazing feats of flight when Turkeys are inspired,
ok I’m cool with this.
Sure RoadRunner on a six foot post. Then it flies down to the ground, heads over to the wood fence boarding this property, stares at it for moment,
flutters it’s wings and walks right up the dang thing.
I kid you not
it was just like those documentaries about how dinosaurs learned to fly.
It was so beautiful and elegant and swift, I’m still in a bit of amazed shock recollecting it again.
At the top he/she looked around a couple moments, before fluttering to the ground on the other side.
… ah, the simple joys of a darma bum
:slight_smile:
Incidentally, the experience inspired me to set up a bird bath inside the island.
{so much for working outside, 2 plus hours later :coolhmm: }
But, I will be sleeping out there again tonight, my last chance, not going to pass it up.

Thought I was fading there, then talked to my gal,
got rejuvenated so did some straightening out in here,
collecting my things,
cleaned up a bit,
getting ready for tomorrow’s exit.
Then I went outside, horses came by to nuzzle a little and then to top it, the rising quarter moon got me,
with Pleiades next to it reminding me summer was over, warm nights were short and chillier days were coming.
So I moved it outside and cleaned up my gear, rolled up straps, sorted trash from tools, etc.
Then remembering that I hadn’t been on top of the roof to the horse shed once this visit, and with the clear moon lit night,
I’da hated myself for passing it up,
who knows when I’ll be down here again.
Albuquerque below, Interstate 25 way off to the east made interesting by cop lights chasing down some vehicle.
Sandia Mtn, and the ridge to the south brilliant under the moon light.
Ah man, that’s the life long dilemma, enjoy the secrets of the night, but the body needs it’s sleep,
balances are imposed, still right now I’m sorely tempted to grab another beer and climb up on that roof again
just to meditate on the view and our long strange trip
before hitting the sack. :wink:
Then again I may just as well make a bee line for that cot.

I must be getting older, did the smart thing last night and went straight to sleep after posting.
On the cot outside, good thing too or I wouldn’t have gotten up for another few hours.
Instead I was up before the sun, took three hours to finish final tensioning, cut, top of posts even
Round fence turned out OK, though I’d have liked the top being a bit more taught.
put up a shelf I’d promised in the tack room,
had my little melt down about time racing past like a rushing river,
another week where I’d planned on quality writing time, is gone with nothing but stuff to show for it.
But, it’s on me, and failures to communicate, ya know thinking I got a hundred foot fence to build
then arriving and finding out - oops you’re talking two @ hundred (actually more like 120+ @) foot fences… my bad :red:
well what are you gonna do… roll up or cowboy up Mr. Cando.
So I did, everything has it’s costs and rewards - suddenly 100% of my time had to be focused on this one objective.
I put in the effort and am mighty proud of the thing, it’s a nice job.
But, the postpartum hits, specially realizing that I need to jump right into another full time gig…
(never mind that’s a whole 'nother story).
. . . . . . . as my deadline for Gail steams on by…
maybe
Now I gotta pack up and get outta here, but I though I should check in, {in for nickel in for dollar}

Hey, I got a reprieve today and don’t have to show up on my next job till tomorrow.
{Oh boy that one’s going to be a real test, I’m going to play salesman (filling in for long time friend who’s getting a new knee),
at least it’s a building materials salvager, so the customer base and the product is something I can relate to.]
Not like my previous salesman gig in 1990(92) at “The Bounty Hunter” purveyors of fine western clothing, boots and hats.
I learned two things there, how to make a felt hat the old fashioned way, and I can’t sell super expensive frivolous stuff to save my life.
In fact my finest moment on that job was when I down-sold a couple young girls on pretty beaded necklaces,
rather than the expensive silver ones that caught their eye, but had their parents giving each other sidelong glances reflecting (to my eyes) budgetary concern.
I tell you the relief on the parents faces - was priceless for me - and I realized I needed to quite that job and run off to Denver and try a little schooling.
Interestingly, I got recruited because I did such a fantastic job of describing and selling deserts at a restaurant I was moonlighting at,
but then, those were products I could believe in. :cheese: ),
I’m happy to say the owners and I left on good terms.
}
Now, maybe I can get that project done for Gail after all.

But, first I figure I should at least share a quickie glimpse of the final product and my horse shed.
Oh dear, can’t seem to be able to post it here, guess the curious will have to visit over at my place
Citizen's Challenge: ;- ) (the video at the bottom)
{Post mortum to follow}