YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! WHY AREN'T YOU PETTING ME????
Thursday, August 20, 2009
And Even More...
This is the old Philco 49-1609 radio we picked up for $10.00 in Larimore from the antiques lady. It is in good condition. I sanded the case all down and have restained it. I stained the lighter colored parts too, but do plan on going darker with them because it has too much red in it from the mahogany. I have the rest of the staining and varnishing to do on it and then I will replace the speaker grill cloth, cut some pieces for the back of the cubbys on the bottom. I am going to replace the 3 way input selector swith with a 5 way switch. (now it has phono, standard broadcast or AM and FM). The other 2 selections for it will be for an iPod and one for a satellite radio which will be great for those who want to experience the warmth of music being piped through the tubes combined with the clarity of the satellite radio or iPod. Will post more pics of it when I get it done.
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! WHY AREN'T YOU PETTING ME????
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! WHY AREN'T YOU PETTING ME????
Some Cool Pics!
The weather here has been interesting.
Things have been going good except for the Mercedes on the road after it has been raining. We went into Grand Forks last Saturday and a transmission cooler line sprung a leak. We stopped at a small used car lot to look at some old cars and when we were walking back to the Mercedes, Joyce noticed transmission fluid pouring out. We got it to the auto parts store and I was lucky enough to have the correct size wrenches and allen wrench to do the job! I happened to have the tool kit for the diesel generator (which is still in Baltimore in storage) in the car. I was thinking of throwing the tool kit in with my tools and for some reason I left it in the car. I am very happy that I left it in there though. There is a hard line that goes from the transmission to the cooler in the front of the car and it is kept from vibrating by a strap to the oil pan. (which is held on by allen bolts) A small chunk of rubber fuel line, a couple of hose clamps and about 4 quarts of tranny fluid later and we were on our way!
We are currently looking for a truck of some sort for the winter. We did stop and look at a 1976 Ford F-150 XLT Extended Cab pickup. It was in extremely good condition. The interior looked like it did when it rolled off of the assembly line and it had factory cruise and air conditioning. No rust and no dents. They were asking $1000 for it. When we got home and I emailed the guy, he said someone was coming from Minnesota the next day to pick it up. See pick of green truck. We will find something cool and different though.
The dogs are still extremely happy! It has been raining the past few days, so everytime the wiener dog goes out, her whole undercarrige gets soaked because she likes to walk through mud puddles and then she is so close to the ground that she picks up little balls of dirt in her hair. Duke loves sitting outside in the sun and laying on his back (a trick he learned from the wiener dog!). Speaking of things learned from dogs...The wiener dog has been the barky one for the most part. We have a neighbor that has a big Malamute. The wiener dog doesn't like it when Mia (the Malamute) is on the porch, so when we let her out, she tears out of the house barking like she is going to attack something! We also have a neighbor that has peacocks that come into the yard a lot and the wiener dog doesn't even notice them, just the other dog.
We went to Devils Lake last Sunday. It was a lot of fun. I forgot to bring my fishing stuff. I have been waiting for a long time to go fishing there and forgot to bring it! Oh well, it was only a little over an hour to get there, so its not like we wont go back. We went to the Spirit Lake Casino while there. We went through the campground there and it was really nice. They offer seasonal campsites there and we are thinking about taking the Wiener Bagel II there next summer for the season. A seasonal campsite was $1400 or around there, so it would be a built in vacation spot and there is a marina at the casino so we could put a boat in the water every weekend and go fishing. The marina also has slips for rent for $675 a year so if we found a cabin cruiser style boat, we could keep it there and have a place to go to and we could stay the weekend on it relaxing and fishing.
Well, thats about it for now. Using Joyces camera now that mine is completely dead. The lens is not working on mine at all on it, but it still powers up. I am just happy that it lasted as long as it did after getting washed and dried!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Meteor showers and bacon
Meteor showers and bacon are two of our favorite new things in North Dakota. Not that either are particularly unique to North Dakota, but I am sure that we would not have been able to see so many bright meteors leaving tails across the sky last night if we were still in Baltimore City. As for the bacon, well, they just seem to do pig well here. Hopefully they do deer well too. We see an average of 15-25 in the fields by our house everyday and a big one strolled down the road this morning while I was waiting for the internet guy. Michael is itchng for hunting season.
Things are going well as we continue to adapt to a new lifestyle. We had propane delivered yesterday as our heat and cooking and hot water depend on that big ugly thing in the yard now. Our internet was connected at home this morning though to keep us in touch with the real world. Still no new cell phones. I know that many of you are frustrated with us because we have almost no AT&T service here except for some pockets in town, but it gets old walking circles around Best Buy talking on the phone or driving back and forth on 29. If they worked in Walmart that would be a different story, but no go. In a pinch, Michael's phone is better than mine, and text messages usually get through within a couple of hours. We've been struggling to find good windows mobile phones on the Verizon network which is delaying our transition. It looks like the HTC touch pro 2 will be released next month though, so I am saving my pennies. I really want to be able to sync to my work contacts and calendar and stuff since I am all grown up with a new job now.
Michael is job hunting. Radio stations, a portrait studio and some alternative energy jobs top the list of his prospects out here. He'll find something so that he can save up his pennies for flight school! We'll see how the cookie crumbles. The lousy economy hasn't been nearly as destructive up here, but its still a recession. Having the internet up and running at home will help. he's been keeping busy though and is re-finishing an antique radio as we speak that we bought for ten dollars. Its a 1949 Philco cabinet radio with a turntable and is pretty cool. He's doing an amazing job on it. We were shocked when he plugged the thing in and it worked beautifully. Michael found an oldies station to complete the effect. It had been gathering dust and spiders in a barn. The lady also has a very nice antique dresser that she's selling very cheap so we'll probably go back and get that too since we actually need one of those. Both the dresser and the radio will look gorgeous with our fold up camp chairs. :) I'll be happy to get our stuff from Baltimore. Hopefully soon.
We've also started looking for winter weather worthy vehicles for me. Fortunately, there are a lot of them up here! My requirements are 4 wheel drive, working heat, and enough clearance to blow through a snow drift or two. :) That'll probably wait until after we finish the move unless we find something extremely cool like an international scout between now and then. Next step will be equiping all of the vehicles with cold weather survival gear in case of a break down. Seems silly to think about when its 95 out today, but well, I'm planning ahead these days.
We've actually had the air conditioning on for the last few days as we've been in the mid 90s. The humidity is much lower here than Baltimore though so it hasn't been too painful. We tried to go swimming in the Larimore Dam yesterday, but both Michael and I chickened out on account of it being a bit too au naturale for us. There is a huge goose population there and they leave a lot of ... droppings... on the beach area. Their poo piles make Duke's look puny and left the water a bit murky. Michael assured me that the huge turtles we've seen swimming by (one of which Michael caught while he was fishing the other day) are not snapping turtles, but between the goose poo and the high algae content, we both only went in up to our knees and then drove to Larimore to see if the pool was still open (nope). Would still swim in the dam before I jumped in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, but guess I'm not completely countrified yet (or maybe I just wasn't hot enough!)!
I've rambled on enough. To those of you on better terms with the Big Man upstairs than I am, if you could say some extra prayers for my friends Kate and Reagan's daughter Hallie this week, it would be much appreciated. Hallie and her twin brother were born 15 weeks ago as extreme preemies. Unfortunately, their little boy did not make it and Hallie is really struggling for her life. She a beautiful little fighter, but well, she and her amazing parents could use some extra prayers right about now.
Lots of love!
Things are going well as we continue to adapt to a new lifestyle. We had propane delivered yesterday as our heat and cooking and hot water depend on that big ugly thing in the yard now. Our internet was connected at home this morning though to keep us in touch with the real world. Still no new cell phones. I know that many of you are frustrated with us because we have almost no AT&T service here except for some pockets in town, but it gets old walking circles around Best Buy talking on the phone or driving back and forth on 29. If they worked in Walmart that would be a different story, but no go. In a pinch, Michael's phone is better than mine, and text messages usually get through within a couple of hours. We've been struggling to find good windows mobile phones on the Verizon network which is delaying our transition. It looks like the HTC touch pro 2 will be released next month though, so I am saving my pennies. I really want to be able to sync to my work contacts and calendar and stuff since I am all grown up with a new job now.
Michael is job hunting. Radio stations, a portrait studio and some alternative energy jobs top the list of his prospects out here. He'll find something so that he can save up his pennies for flight school! We'll see how the cookie crumbles. The lousy economy hasn't been nearly as destructive up here, but its still a recession. Having the internet up and running at home will help. he's been keeping busy though and is re-finishing an antique radio as we speak that we bought for ten dollars. Its a 1949 Philco cabinet radio with a turntable and is pretty cool. He's doing an amazing job on it. We were shocked when he plugged the thing in and it worked beautifully. Michael found an oldies station to complete the effect. It had been gathering dust and spiders in a barn. The lady also has a very nice antique dresser that she's selling very cheap so we'll probably go back and get that too since we actually need one of those. Both the dresser and the radio will look gorgeous with our fold up camp chairs. :) I'll be happy to get our stuff from Baltimore. Hopefully soon.
We've also started looking for winter weather worthy vehicles for me. Fortunately, there are a lot of them up here! My requirements are 4 wheel drive, working heat, and enough clearance to blow through a snow drift or two. :) That'll probably wait until after we finish the move unless we find something extremely cool like an international scout between now and then. Next step will be equiping all of the vehicles with cold weather survival gear in case of a break down. Seems silly to think about when its 95 out today, but well, I'm planning ahead these days.
We've actually had the air conditioning on for the last few days as we've been in the mid 90s. The humidity is much lower here than Baltimore though so it hasn't been too painful. We tried to go swimming in the Larimore Dam yesterday, but both Michael and I chickened out on account of it being a bit too au naturale for us. There is a huge goose population there and they leave a lot of ... droppings... on the beach area. Their poo piles make Duke's look puny and left the water a bit murky. Michael assured me that the huge turtles we've seen swimming by (one of which Michael caught while he was fishing the other day) are not snapping turtles, but between the goose poo and the high algae content, we both only went in up to our knees and then drove to Larimore to see if the pool was still open (nope). Would still swim in the dam before I jumped in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, but guess I'm not completely countrified yet (or maybe I just wasn't hot enough!)!
I've rambled on enough. To those of you on better terms with the Big Man upstairs than I am, if you could say some extra prayers for my friends Kate and Reagan's daughter Hallie this week, it would be much appreciated. Hallie and her twin brother were born 15 weeks ago as extreme preemies. Unfortunately, their little boy did not make it and Hallie is really struggling for her life. She a beautiful little fighter, but well, she and her amazing parents could use some extra prayers right about now.
Lots of love!
Friday, August 7, 2009
'bout time I weigh in on this...
I've been leaving all of the writing to Michael, but since its a rainy day and our plans to finally move the weinerbagel II out to the house are on hold, I figured that I would take a few minutes and say hi to all and add some thoughts.
The house is very nice. Its not huge, but has the feeling of Gram's house (before she fixed it up) or maybe the old farm house on Doering's mountain in its best days. They've done a nice job updating it though with stainless steel appliances and new carpet, and its more a feeling than anything specific about it. We're planning on adding some fresh paint and will be happy to get all of our stuff from Baltimore. We'll probably get a new bed and a new couch before then. Its amazing to me how little I miss TV and that kind of stuff. Still, the internet will be on next thursday. That will be a relief since it'll help Michael with his job hunt and allow us to communicate better during the day. Our cell phones are lousy here but we haven't gotten new ones yet.
The dogs do LOVE it, and are thrilled that they can just run outside. Duke has been pretty good at coming back when he starts to wander too far away, but there really isn't much trouble he could get into anyway other than wandering too near another of the .... three houses within a mile or so of us and scaring the Dickens out of someone. The weiner dog prefers to stay close and practically underfoot, so she doesn't go far anyway. I'm not sure if the neighbors cat is keeping its distance from Duke or the other way around, but every since she gave Duke a bloody nose for getting in her face, we haven't seen much of her. The neighbors do have what looks like a husky that will wander by from time to time. Her name is Maya and she will show up on the porch for a treat and then head back home. Other than her, looks like Duke's new friends are going to be deer, turkey, peacocks, phesants, and if Michael is REALLY lucky, an elk or two.
Duke hasn't been allowed to do any playing since we moved in. The first day we were in the house, he snagged his bad leg while getting up from laying in my blankets and proceded to dance around on three legs for a day. I called the vet and confirmed that Grand Forks has a surgeon that will do a TPLO on his knee (the same surgery he had on the other knee), but since then he's been back walking on it. We'll put off the surgery a bit longer as long as he's using it, and continue to rest him and watch. Not only is it expensive, but the 6 months of restricted activity and recovery was hard on both of us last time!
Grand Forks is... nice. There isn't really another word for it. We've been here almost a month and today is the first lousy weather day we've had. Any other storm kind of just blew through and the sun was right back out. Today is rainy and dreary though. Looks like we may get a few more days of this before the gorgeous weather returns. My favorite things are the huge sky (we're right next to "big sky country" after all), the frequent rainbows, healthy breezes and all of the gorgeous sunshine. The clouds here are amazing too. Must be all of the strange air currents over flat land, but I think that everyone is getting cloud pictures for Christmas this year! This is probably the sunniest place that I have ever lived. Between the sun and the wind, North Dakota is remarkably progressive in the whole alternative energy thing. The university has a huge institute devoted to it (the EERC or environmental energy research center I think).
I am starting to feel the stress of Baltimore disappearing and Michael is the happiest I have seen him in probably a year or more. You can breathe here, and with all of the fresh (and I mean fresh -- pulled from the ground that morning and still covered in dirt) vegetables, I feel like we're adding years to our lives out here. I wish that I could have been here early enough to plant a garden here, but that wasn't going to happen. I'm hoping to find some tomatoes to can though and maybe some other goodies to get us through the winter. Our favorite vegetable source is this little old man in Larimore. he's probably 90+ years old and sits out with his cart and milk crates full of goodies. Michael keeps insulting him trying to give him more money but he won't hear of it. A 5 pound bag of fresh beans were about $1. Same for giant bunches of carrots, zucchini, and a big bag of cherry tomatoes. Will probably have to find a zucchini bread recipe to keep those from going bad. Add in fresh bread/buns from the bakery plus fresh meat from the butcher and you get a very happy Joyce. y'all know that I love food!
The lab is good. I got a ton done today getting things set up. Michael was a big help for the tall person jobs. It's probably still a good weeks worth of labor, but it'll be ready when the grad students show up around September 1st. I'm working on safety protocols, animal care certifications, and budgeting for my start up package now. I'll be excited to get to work though and start doing actual research again. My favorite is still my office though. It'll be even better when I finally get all of my stuff from Hopkins and can decorate. I do have a plant though, and I love having my own office to turn on the radio, put my feet up, and work without others over my shoulders. I've started to outline my grant plans for the next six months and they will keep me busy and hopefully allow me to recruit a post-doc or two. Right now, I have money for a technician or a post-doc and a grad student, but I won't even try and start hiring yet. Too much to do.
I guess I'll wrap this up for now. lots of love. Come visit.
The house is very nice. Its not huge, but has the feeling of Gram's house (before she fixed it up) or maybe the old farm house on Doering's mountain in its best days. They've done a nice job updating it though with stainless steel appliances and new carpet, and its more a feeling than anything specific about it. We're planning on adding some fresh paint and will be happy to get all of our stuff from Baltimore. We'll probably get a new bed and a new couch before then. Its amazing to me how little I miss TV and that kind of stuff. Still, the internet will be on next thursday. That will be a relief since it'll help Michael with his job hunt and allow us to communicate better during the day. Our cell phones are lousy here but we haven't gotten new ones yet.
The dogs do LOVE it, and are thrilled that they can just run outside. Duke has been pretty good at coming back when he starts to wander too far away, but there really isn't much trouble he could get into anyway other than wandering too near another of the .... three houses within a mile or so of us and scaring the Dickens out of someone. The weiner dog prefers to stay close and practically underfoot, so she doesn't go far anyway. I'm not sure if the neighbors cat is keeping its distance from Duke or the other way around, but every since she gave Duke a bloody nose for getting in her face, we haven't seen much of her. The neighbors do have what looks like a husky that will wander by from time to time. Her name is Maya and she will show up on the porch for a treat and then head back home. Other than her, looks like Duke's new friends are going to be deer, turkey, peacocks, phesants, and if Michael is REALLY lucky, an elk or two.
Duke hasn't been allowed to do any playing since we moved in. The first day we were in the house, he snagged his bad leg while getting up from laying in my blankets and proceded to dance around on three legs for a day. I called the vet and confirmed that Grand Forks has a surgeon that will do a TPLO on his knee (the same surgery he had on the other knee), but since then he's been back walking on it. We'll put off the surgery a bit longer as long as he's using it, and continue to rest him and watch. Not only is it expensive, but the 6 months of restricted activity and recovery was hard on both of us last time!
Grand Forks is... nice. There isn't really another word for it. We've been here almost a month and today is the first lousy weather day we've had. Any other storm kind of just blew through and the sun was right back out. Today is rainy and dreary though. Looks like we may get a few more days of this before the gorgeous weather returns. My favorite things are the huge sky (we're right next to "big sky country" after all), the frequent rainbows, healthy breezes and all of the gorgeous sunshine. The clouds here are amazing too. Must be all of the strange air currents over flat land, but I think that everyone is getting cloud pictures for Christmas this year! This is probably the sunniest place that I have ever lived. Between the sun and the wind, North Dakota is remarkably progressive in the whole alternative energy thing. The university has a huge institute devoted to it (the EERC or environmental energy research center I think).
I am starting to feel the stress of Baltimore disappearing and Michael is the happiest I have seen him in probably a year or more. You can breathe here, and with all of the fresh (and I mean fresh -- pulled from the ground that morning and still covered in dirt) vegetables, I feel like we're adding years to our lives out here. I wish that I could have been here early enough to plant a garden here, but that wasn't going to happen. I'm hoping to find some tomatoes to can though and maybe some other goodies to get us through the winter. Our favorite vegetable source is this little old man in Larimore. he's probably 90+ years old and sits out with his cart and milk crates full of goodies. Michael keeps insulting him trying to give him more money but he won't hear of it. A 5 pound bag of fresh beans were about $1. Same for giant bunches of carrots, zucchini, and a big bag of cherry tomatoes. Will probably have to find a zucchini bread recipe to keep those from going bad. Add in fresh bread/buns from the bakery plus fresh meat from the butcher and you get a very happy Joyce. y'all know that I love food!
The lab is good. I got a ton done today getting things set up. Michael was a big help for the tall person jobs. It's probably still a good weeks worth of labor, but it'll be ready when the grad students show up around September 1st. I'm working on safety protocols, animal care certifications, and budgeting for my start up package now. I'll be excited to get to work though and start doing actual research again. My favorite is still my office though. It'll be even better when I finally get all of my stuff from Hopkins and can decorate. I do have a plant though, and I love having my own office to turn on the radio, put my feet up, and work without others over my shoulders. I've started to outline my grant plans for the next six months and they will keep me busy and hopefully allow me to recruit a post-doc or two. Right now, I have money for a technician or a post-doc and a grad student, but I won't even try and start hiring yet. Too much to do.
I guess I'll wrap this up for now. lots of love. Come visit.
Even More Pics!
I dont know what the painful look on my face is. I just caught a little perch and should be happy!
Some serious fishing going on here at Larimore Dam Park.
Larimore Dam sunset.
Our house.
Real cool shot of the moon.
Rainy DayToday
Above is taken from our front yard. This is what we see when we walk out of our front door.
Grain elevator in Larimore, ND. Real cool little town. They also have the closest grocery store to us there.
We are trying to get her into a 12 step program. This has gone on too long!
Red River. Left side is North Dakota, right side is Minnesota.
Taken from the campground across a field of sugar beets.
Just as the title says..it's raining today. It isn't like the other storms we have had where it rains for an hour or two and then blows over. It just looks like a normal rainy day here. I am happy because the jeep and the Mercedes are both getting washed! Living down a dirt road has its disadvantages, but wouldn't change anything.
We have been in the house for a week tomorrow and both dogs are extremely happy! Went fishing in the Turtle River State Park yesterday and plucked about 20 fish out of the river! Had 2 keepers and the rest were waaay too small to keep. I threw them all back though. Wasn't really planning on keeping any this trip. They stock the Turtle River with rainbow trout and that's what I was catching. The areas I was fishing were pretty shallow. There is a deeper part of the river I didn't go to this time. Too many people. I will get some better pictures of the area next time I am down there. We went fishing at Larimore Dam Park. They have a campground there and the lake has walleye (I caught a baby one), perch, catfish, northern pike and bass. Joyce caught her first fish the other day too! We drove north of the state park by our house and fished under a bridge in the Turtle River. I grabbed a few out and Joyce got her first one. I went to take a picture of her with it and dropped it in the sand (as you can see in the picture).
There are TONS of deer around on the property here! I don't have a good enough camera to catch some up close pictures of them but will keep trying and will post them. Every evening when we go out to go fishing, we see them out in the field by the house.
Anyway, thats about it for now. Here's a bunch of pictures!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)