Yesterday and today K and I took down trees. Now, these weren't large trees, 2" to 5" diameter poplars. Saw saw, hack hack, saw saw, hack hack. 16 of them came down over the span of a total of about 4 hours. They are to be the trusses for the bunny barn's roof. The uprights and cross beams are thick tree trunks from when the power guys put in the power here. Those have been up since W's visit. W & A got some of the trusses going. Those 16 trees should finish out the left half of the roof, I hope. After all the trusses are up (they are side by side touching each other), we're tarping it, then putting some dirt up there, and planting mint up there.

As a reward though, around the base of the last tree we found wild raspberries and strawberries. Since they were going to get squashed anyway, we ate them. :D Then a bit ago we took a walk down to the street clearing on the south driveway and on our way back we found more raspberries and strawberries. Ate them too. :D All total I think I've had a handful of berries today. Num!

aka: Its a good thing Winchester is soooo tolerant.

Winnie was standing at his food dish, chowing away. Helios decided it would be great fun to walk under Winnie. More like low crawl really, they are about the same size after all. Winnie, like any self respecting dog, took exception to this. He yelped, yorped, and nipped the general direction of where Helios was (under Winnie's belly at this point).

Luckily for Helios, Winnie is pretty much blind at this point so he, of course, completely missed Helios. Helios, of course, teleported out of the way.

Hazelnut had a litter of kits sometime overnight between the 3rd and 4th of July. Looks like 6 little squirmers. Daddy is Cobalt. I also bred Bonnie to Tiger's Eye. She promptly thanked me for her play date by biting my thumb. Luckily I had had the foresite to bring my gloves with me ... and remembered to put them on, so all she got was a snoot-full of suede. :P She's now hopping about her abode grunting and squeaking and carrying on. I'll have to watch her, last time she was bred she gave us 13 kits!! :P

We're really likely not to be able to winter much over due to lack of proper homes for everything, but we are going to get some animals to become freezer meat soon. Probably a pair of sheep and a pig. Yeah, pig. Like I know a bloody thing about pigs. Oh well, have to work on figuring that one out.

I really need to remember to order some chickens soon.

First, Ed McMahon passes. He was 80s and it was not unexpected.

Then, Farrah Fawcett passed. She was only 62 but after a long battle with cancer this too was not unexpected.

Now, Michael Jackson passed. Dead at 50 from what appears to be a heart attack, though they are doing an autopsy. This one is a little weirder. Well, okay, he was a little weirder than normal but I do have to admit, I still like his music. I have the original Thriller video on my iPod that I periodically like to just watch.

This year, it was ahf and I from up here. Even though she's not up here. ;) Anyway ...

This year's weather was 120% better temperature wise ... I think Friday was the warmest at mid 70s. Yes, really, 70s. No 90s or 100s like previous years. And no tornado trying to land on us like last year. However, it did do a fair amount of blubbage. Which was quite annoying. Saturated ground + lots of people = grass killed off and people slippin. But the cooler weather equated to some lovely sleeping weather. And, for the first time ever that I can remember, we turned ~off~ the over head ceiling fans.

We got there, on purpose, on Monday. First time ever doing that. It was ~so~ worth it. We did move at a solid pace, but it was an unhurried pace. Got there, got set up, got our groceries, and made it to the in person Monday night meeting. We were in cabin 14, one of the quads right at the intersection to the pool/dining facility. Good cabin, good location. Except for Tuesday night's karaoke though. That was, erm, painful. Alternatively, we may not have been drunk enough to appreciate it. :)

FSG this year was very not stressful. Unhurried. Relaxing. In all, good. :) I now have a set of practice poi to hit myself with, uh, erm, I mean practice with. I don't know how to do anything beyond just making them go in basic circles right now, but I'll work on that. *IF* I ever get to the actual flaming variety I'm going to need a custom leather wrap for my copious amounts of hair. Burning hair stinks. :P

Drum circle Friday night was amusing. When I got there it was just me and this other dude actually trying to make a rhythm (there was a lady with her young daughter who was doing more of a random sneakers in the dryer thing). Then another dude showed up with a basic bass drum and set out a solid beat. At one point me and the other guy that was there originally looked at each other and he says "you take it". I'm like "me?! I'm a beginner!!". He's like .. "great, so am I". :P We managed OK for a bit until the more experienced folks showed up and got things really rolling.

For FSG I won't use the bus again. Cyr's schedule is just too inconvenient on the return trip. Love Cyr otherwise, great drivers, excellent buses. Unlike a certain lame dog company whom has not impressed me ~at all~. On the way down we were "inspected" at Houlton by the boarder patrol nuts again. I was wearing a 1st Cavalry ball cap, and the gent across from me was wearing a "US Army Retired" ball cap. They quizzed us both, of course. ~rolls eyes~ On the way back apparently we were extra scary -- there were 4 vehicles and 6 agents present. Normally the bus rates 1 vehicle and 2 agents or so. Then, in Presque Isle, just as we were getting ready to leave the stop after off loading most of the bus, a PI cop comes screeching in. The bus driver apparently wasn't surprised, hopped off bus and stood aside ... as PI cop sends sniffy dog into the luggage section. Then we were on our way.

More later ...

Ever since I switched from the data analyst position into the QA position with this company up here, I'd been sharing an office with 2 of the temps. The room was about 8' wide and about 12' long. 3 desks, 6 computers, 6 monitors, one printer ... yeah, it was rather crowded.

Yesterday I moved into my own office. Yes, I have my own office. It's small ... about 8'x8' ... and has rather disturbingly matte institution white walls but it has a door and everything. So it's been kinda nice today, sitting here with no shoes on, listening to music out loud on speakers with the door closed. I've positioned the desk so that I can see my white board and out the window on the door.

I just need to bring in my fan after FSG (it gets a little stuffy with the door closed) and find another desk lamp. The one I had gotten a few weeks ago has a daylight bulb in it and is over on the shelves between my 2 plants for their benefit.

I love all the birds. We had 3 yellow bellied sap suckers (no, really, its a bird, a type of woodpecker) ... all males ... fighting the other day. Apparently 2 of them tried moving in on the one's territory. They sound like flying squeak toys. :P I've been trying to learn specific things about the birds we have, rather than going "oh, it's the crazy little woodpecker again". ;)

Helios & Winchester are just fine, though Helios tried to kill my sage plant. Every time a new leaf grew, he ate it. He also ate some basil, oregeno, and parsley. :P I'm going to start calling Helios "mooooo". :P He did, however, sit ON my lavender plant and killed it. Or, rather, helped it finish dying, I started the killing process. Not on purpose of course, its just that I'm not that good with plants.

I now own a '97 Dodge Neon 4 door. Solid little car with about 30k miles on this motor. It has minor issues -- the stereo is stock tape deck and 3 of 4 speakers are shot, a little surface rust on the hood, a couple dents here and there, and a suspected leak -- that has stopped leaking, and it's an automagic :P. It needs a good cleaning and I need to sort out the tires. It has 4 all seasons on it now in excellent shape, but the previous owner put 3 steel rims (all occupied) and 2 extra tires in the car. I know 2 of the tires are good snow tires (non-studded), I need to figure out which ones are that and get a couple more (and a couple more rims). I think one of the extra stray tires would be suitable for a spare, rather than using an evil donut.

Next week is FSG, I'll be leaving from waaaay up here on Sunday. We're actually getting to FSG on Monday this year. Should be a fun week. It's going to be a climate shocker though ... FSG typically is in the 80s and 90s during the day ... and we're still dropping to 35 to 40 at night with highs around 60s (there were a couple of exceptions of course). Huge change!

The rabbits have all settled in just fine. Their little abode is working well, but the tarp roof is a definite weak point. Will have to start working on that after FSG. Even Gem is settling down, she's back to letting me scratch her head. For the first few days she'd lunge and growl at everyone. :P She's up in a top cage so that there is no chance of E trying to pet that particular bunny, given Gem's reputation. E does get to pet Cobalt and Tiger's Eye and Topaz regularly though. I'm going to breeding one a month so that we'll have a litter month ready to be dealt with. First up was Hazelnut & Cobalt, July will be Bonnie & Tiger's Eye, August Gem & Jasper. I may also, later, do a Gem & Topaz mix for small rabbits to be sold as pets. There's no real pet stores up here so there is a lot more selling through the buy/sell/swap guide and such.

Anyway, off to work!

I needed to get back to work to let my scratches and bruises heal. :P

Friday started off with making dirt. No, really. There's this pile of dirt from leveling the spot for the yurt, and we needed dirt for the garden (raised bed style) and for the planters. SO we sift many wheelbarrow loads of dirt. The dirt goes in the gardens/planters ... the gravel goes in the parking to deal with some of the soggier areas. Win-win situation.

Saturday I hop in the green machine and drive allllll the way to Auburn, sans trailer as it's not road ready yet, to get the rabbits. I also had to go to the Auburn Lowes as the Presque Isle Lowes didn't stock the new bunny barn. It's a 10'x10'x6' chain link dog kennel. We'll add a roof later, right now the roof is a mongo tarp. So we strapped that to the lumber rack. Then we go to nachtegal's and load up the bushel of bunnies. :) Since there were quite a few more than I was expecting, I wound up putting my prime breeding stock in travel crates inside the cab with me and the extras in the cages in the bed, with lots of fresh mowed lawn clippings as padding. They, of course, ate some of it, but they burrowed down in it for the most part. Little Topaz, who has never been that brave, completely buried himself in clippings. Winchester thought this trip was great fun (he went with me, he loves road trips and he likes the "have monkey to self without annoying cat around" time). On the way back it was a little crowded on the standard bench seat, so Winnie decides he's going to sleep by putting his head on my lap. At another point he was leaning against one of the travel crates and I see Hazelnut hop over and sniff his ear. :P All the rabbits, me, the truck, the dog, and equipment made it back safe and sound at about 9pm (I had left home at 7am). LOOOOOONG day so when I got home we just quickly saran-wrapped the truck in a giant tarp and called it good for the night. I brought the breeding stock into the motor home with me, much to Helios' delight. Helios passed out half on me, half hanging over the edge of the bed STARING at the rabbits.

Sunday K and I set up the dog kennel turned bunny barn. E was very excited at all the bunnies, kept doing the sign for bunny. Periodically she would also do the eat sign, so I'm not sure if she was saying eat 'cause the bunnies were eating or 'cause she wanted to eat a bunny. But, set up the kennel, set up the bunnies, went to the hardware store for feed (yeah, really), and I spent the rest of Sunday and most of Monday sorting, cleaning, dishes, laundry, that sort of thing.

Now I need to go back to work for a break. :D

The law passed and was signed by Governor. Some folks started calling for a petition to get the subject on November's ballot. This is expected. What I hadn't expected was covered in this article: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/106581.html ... basically when Maine's Catholic Diocese threw their hat into the petition deal an activist group filed WITH THE IRS challenging the legitimacy of Maine Catholic Diocese standing as a 501c3 (non profit). As a religious non-profit the entity is not allowed to participate in political hoopla (the individuals may, of course). I am much amused.

The house and the senate passed, and the governer signed, a law allowing same sex marriages. Here's more info: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/105356.html

We haz it.

The other night there was a wild hair, half molted. So his paws, belly and random wild hairs are white but the top and his head were a lovely chestnut brown.

Frogs, croakers and peepers abound. You don't see them, but boooooy do you hear them.

The firing range is a pond.

Birds ... little black headed chickadees by the swarm, a few wood peckers (including one very confused one that rattataptaps on the back of the pressure treated piece of plywood holding the power meter to the pole), a pair of grey jays, and something we suspect is a hawk.

And then this morning a suspected yearling bull MOOSE was in the driveway, checkin' us checkin' him out. Got some pics of that.

Then I was outside and see something moving on the front right tire of the truck. I thought the tire was moving. Then I realized it was something ON it moving. It turned out to be a young squirrel. Fully furred and on his own but not any bigger than my hand. We stared at each other off and on for a while.

There is one very confused brown-grey dove living at the street end of the driveway.

And that's all ... for now ...

Yes, folks, thats right, I now have a motorcycle permit. Which means when I am brave enough I can ride in daylight hours with a helmet and no passengers. hehehehehe. Got a 100 on the written test to boot. It was just the book and permit test. Eventually I'll likely take the riding course, but apparently only one dude up here offers it. And he had his venue taken over by Lowes, so apparently where he is going to hold it is up in the air.

The instructor was a hoot. An older gent, is well known in these parts as apparently he's taught about all the kids normal drivers ed for like the last 25 years. Yes, he rides. He has a Suzuki GS550, a ... V Star?, and this kick ass scootery like thing. 250cc motor in the scooter. What was really cool was all his stories he had from personal experience and his buddies' experiences. One of his buddies apparently doesn't have a right arm so he customized his ride to have the throttle on the left handle bar (apparently it works backwards from normal) and is still out there riding. He's even taken the car and motorcycle road tests, officially, from the BMV within the past year or so due to a medical condition. So he had lots of fresh information about how they do that.

One of the girls in the class was an older woman who recently bought a 150cc scooter for fuel efficiency. Apparently in the state of Maine that means you have to have a motorcycle license. So she had to go through this course. So the instructor would describe a control (and/or show us on his bikes he had parked in the class) and then turn to her and say sorry, yours is different. :P I felt sorry for her, she had to learn all the motorcycle controls and apparently scooters are completely different. I'm not talking like the difference between a 5 speed manual and a 6 speed manual in a car, things like the left lever is one of the breaks on her scooter where on motorcycles it's the clutch. Huge differences like that.

I did learn something new, aside from the theory behind turns. Apparently if you are licensed in the state of ME and you refuse a breath or blood alcohol test ... it doesn't matter if you are drunk or not ... they can administratively suspend you for up to ... get this ... *SIX YEARS*. Just for refusing to take the test. Not for the actual act of drunk driving (if you were). I know a lot of states have that "implied consent" to the testing for alcohol but it's always been like 30 day or 90 day suspensions, not 6 ~years~.

Off I go!

So, all week long has been non-stop. We were short staffed at work and OT is currently taboo so we'd been working like mad during our designated 8 hours trying to get everything done (and not always succeeding). Then we had 2 dinners -- one here, one at someone else's -- getting to know local paganish types. Then thursday we hosted a discussion group at the public library. So I was looking forward to a quiet weekend.

Until I mistakenly turned on the radio. And we passed by the "mall" coming back from wednesday's dinner. Suddenly I had 3 things to attend on Saturday. First, there was a craft & antique show in Presque Isle. Then the radio also announced there was a trade show ... at the Houlton civic center. Houlton's a fair hike away. And then the sign on the mall said "ARBC Rabbits". I wasn't sure if they meant easter bunny or REAL bunnies so I put that on the list of to-dos too.

Managed to make all 3. The rabbits thing was real rabbits (including an adorable flemish giant who was super friendly). Lots of pet rabbits, it was a rabbit sale. Lion heads and dwarfs abound, though there were a few Californians. No rex. Some lops too. Turns out it's a club. OK, so I got their info.

Next, found the Forum where the "craft and antique" show was. Oy, lame. Lots of country "cute", some home made food stuffs (I really should have gotten that jar of sea salt and garlic pickles, wow), candles and military memorabilia. Not even good military memorabilia. :P Left that fairly quickly and went to Houlton.

Trade show was a little more interesting. Their civic center makes Augusta's civic center look big. But they had crammed some RV/trailer types in there and lots of motorcycles, scooters, and atvs. But they also had alternative power information and other assorted property related stuff. Windows & doors, geothermal, outdoor wood furnaces, etc. Gathered lots of info. Stopped by the Bison pumps guys to tell them how our pump did this winter.

Then on the way home I had this stupid county sheriff ride my ass from Monticello to Mars Hill. Very annoying. *I* was doing the speed limit (ish). He was being an ass. He had a few opportunities to pass, but of course he didn't.

So now today I have to go do laundry. I normally do that on saturdays, but saturday was quite full. I don't want to go do laundry. I wish it did itself. :P

Maybe? :D

Beastie's off to the mechanics getting put back on the road. Which puts me >this< much closer to finishing up this move I started last fall. :P

The stupid laptop died, again, for the same FREAKIN reason as the last two times it went belly up. And it doesn't look like Toshiba is wantin to do anymore work on it (they fixed it the previous two times, once under warranty and the other 'cause of the RECALL for these laptops DYING for the reason mine did). And I'm not sure I really want to FIX something that will break, again, for the same reason, in about another year or 18 months. It is so annoying to have to keep fixing something for the same reason, it really is. But is replacing it any better really? :P

I have garlic growing in my motor home and Helios hasn't ate it (yet).

The snow is starting to melt by the bucket load, which now means we have Lake Dragonvale over by the power pole and a river runs through it at the bottom of the road. Oh, and the mud pit formerly known as the parking area (aka: door yard :P). Yeah.

Thinking of getting a pig. Put it in a small movable pen, and let the little bugger earn its keep by digging up all these dogwood vine/root systems. 'Cause these things are quite deadly to unshod feet and car tires. Of course he'll be named bacon or sausage 'cause that's what he'll be in the fall. ;)

Job is going ... interestingly. The company I work for makes tax preparation software for small to large accounting firms. Amongst other things, but that's the segment I work in. After moving up here and hitting the swing of busy season I discovered the Caribou office actually has some IT staff ... including an entire team of manual and automated software testers. Which is, of course, what I do normally. So once busy season for the data analyst position wound down I applied for the QA position. Talked a little with the manager and he seemed interested. But then I didn't hear anything for awhile. These things happen. Then the company decides to put in place a hiring freeze for the time being. They aren't in any danger near as I can tell, they are just headed up by some realtively cautious/conservative types. So I figure that was the issue, the hiring freeze. Then the QA Manager called me down to his office to have a chat. Turns out he wanted to make the offer but he couldn't cause of the freeze as I expected. So he made an offer I wasn't keen on but agreed to do ... I could quit the company and get hired on as a Temp through Kelly services in his QA department. Gah. Not ideal. Not even close. After some thought and a pros/cons list I decided to do that and gave notice. This is getting long isn't it? :P Then things got weirder. I was having a hard time getting the temp agency to respond to me, so I emailed the QA manager. He asked me to come down. Apparently the HR side of things freaked right the heck out that I was quitting to go to work as a temp. So ... I am going to QA as a full time permanent person. The QA Manager apparently didn't realize the hiring freeze meant outside folks, not internal transfers (though internal transfers required an extra level of okeydokeys than normal).

So on friday (which was supposed to be my last day in data analysis), the QA boss sent a meeting request to me and the data analysis boss to "discuss the issues". Crap. Then I get a request for another meeting (I have almost no meetings at this place, 2 in one day is a record) from someone I don't know at all titled "welcome to QA". Huh. OK. The "issues" one was first and it turns out it was just the 3 of us discussing when I get to go to QA. I now start the 13th instead of the 6th, no problems. The "welcome" discussion I thought was with our HR proxy (we don't have an HR department up here in the great wilderness). Nope. Turns out to be my new boss's boss. The VP of QA. Bloody hell, I'm in jeans cowboy boots and a sweater and my hair has been having some seriously wacked fluffernutter days. ~gah~

Turns out she's (yup, she) is quite cool. She even knows what a Yurt is! Apparently when I had turned my resume in for the position they wanted me from the get-go but she figured she should try to do some semblance of an interview. Yeah, I never really interviewed for this position ...

Saturday was sunny and 50(ish) and happy and I put convertible roof down and drove to Madawaska and everything and it was almost like spring.

Today we wake up to 1 to 2 inches of wet heavy snow on top of our semi-frozen mud ruts and it's still snowing now.

Laptop broke, again, 3rd time for the SAME reason. Gathering the info to determine if I should fix it (it's just going to break again, it's a design flaw) or contemplate alternative ideas.

The yard is now mud, frozen mud at night, instead of ice rink.

Snow pack driveway is now ice and you find yourself doing more of a controlled pong game than actually driving.

Songbirds are singing and twittering and carrying on as birds are prone to do, while it's snowing of course.

You start to think they secretly replaced your previously paved road(s) with dirt as you watch the dust clouds the passing cars leave behind.

You start seeing the bushes, small boulders, and small trees you've missed all winter long.

The cat starts leaving you a regular supply of juvenile mice and moles, usually where you least want them.

The snow mountains are more the size of hills now, and hard hard hard. You can climb them without falling in.

The snow no longer sparkles in the moonlight. :(

Yep, she's dead. Don't really know what went wrong but the end result is the end of the engine. Now, MR2s are good little cars and odds are high I would put another engine in her ... except the week before this happened I had made up my mind this is not the environment for her so I was going to sell her this spring. I'm not putting an engine in a car I was going to sell anyway. It'll make someone a great parts car though, so she's going up on craigslist as such.

Now, add that on top of horned1's jeep dying (expectedly) of multiple organ failure and we're down to just the geo.

Once the snow starts melting I'll be digging a beastie out of a snowbank and see if I can get her back on the road. For now though ahf is loaning me one of hers. I'll be heading down to Augusta to meet her and caulay for lunch and car.

Last night we had a power fail in the motorhome. After much futzing and cussin we came to the conclusion that where the motor home's power cord came loose, then disconnected, from the extension cord. After yet MORE futzing and cussin, and continuing the project today, we got the cord out of the snow bank and reconnected.

Thud

The other day ... Saturday, I believe ... I was driving home down "park hill". As I'm cruising along this blur runs out into the road, stops, darts back. I missed it, because of the fact that the sand has now melted and is slippery as all get out I was only doing like 25mph. It was a small ferret shaped creature in all white with a black tipped tail. I got the general impression it was a "teenager" rather than just being small. He ran on his merry way and I continued sand sliding down the hill.

So, last night was a full moon, which increases the kitty krazies.

Monday morning I was driving to work at about 6:15 am. I come up what we call "park hill" and as I crest the hill there's a fairly awesome view of rolling hills, houses, and some bigger hills in the background. The sky was a dark slate blue and the moon was this giant mild cheddar cheese colored ball hanging over those bigger hills. It was a rather nice sight, though its a good thing there isn't much traffic in my town as I totally wasn't paying attention to the driving.