Happy Valentine’s Day and a Happy 3rd Birthday to Zane Gray, the smartest dog in the world. (Clair de Lune is the sweetest dog in the world.) Unfortunately, Zane is injured with a bad bite from a dog encounter the other day, so he can’t enjoy a nice walk for his birthday. He and Clair were with Alan, on leash, when 2 loose dogs came charging up and laid into him, one biting him on his hip. Clair was fine, just scared. I’m trying to heal him with homeopathy (Hypericum perferatum) Tramadol, and rest, and it might work, if he’d stop licking the wound. Otherwise, he’ll be headed to the vet tomorrow to get stitches and a “cone of shame”. Not a great birthday for a pup.
The pictures above are of our new Skyliner Tent, from Springbar. And yes, that is a woodstove. We are hoping this is our permanent replacement for Pippin when we travel. It’s an amazing tent and goes up in less time than it takes us to set up the camper. It replaces the one we used on the last trip, which really isn’t warm or sturdy enough for the kind of camping we do. The plan is to head out again in a couple weeks to test it out, heading south for a while, then up north to see family. The reason we bought it was to make it easier to find boondocking campsites. It can be challenging with a trailer.
In the meantime, Alan is still busy doing the remodel on the kitchen, complete with a new range, new shelves and a tiny broom closet. You can’t really tell what it will look like yet, but it’ll give us additional counterspace and cupboards below.
I’m busy with school again, teaching 5 classes this semester, but it hasn’t been strenuous so far, as I’ve taught them all before. I was tasked to work with a AI team to develop AI-generated course content, which I’m finding rather ludicrous and possibly dangerous. I’m the “subject matter expert”, and what I’m seeing is that the AI information is tending to dumb down and over-generalize the content. I’ve been quite vocal about the possible pitfalls, so am not the most popular person on the team, which is based in Ontario. So far the roll-out of the first AI-created class has been delayed twice.
I’m working to stay in shape by taking lots of hikes in the canyon and doing my yoga every day. My neck injury has completely healed and right now (knock on wood) I can’t complain about my health. Our washing machine broke and I was able to fix it by replacing the pump. I am staying away from almost all news.
We’ve had 1 snowstorm drop 8″, which melted within hours. And that’s it. Otherwise it’s dusty, dry and brown. I am worried about trying to grow a garden this summer if things don’t improve. Will the well hold up? A storm is coming in tonight, but isn’t supposed to do much here.
The most exciting thing happening here in the canyon has been the massive ice dam/lake that has formed at one of the fords. After all the work the county crew did in December, they couldn’t have predicted that the lack of snow and sub-zero temps at night (along with 60 degrees during the day) would freeze one of the culverts and cause the ice/water to flow over the road. At one point, the ensuing lake was 2′ deep. When frozen hard, early in the morning, you can drive right over it, but later, when it thaws, it’s a bunch of little floating ice bergs, waiting to rip your skid plate off. We’ve parked one vehicle on the outside so we can get out by parking another vehicle on the “inside” and walking to the other truck. So far it’s worked fine and we can get in and out without problem, but it is a conundrum. The crew comes in every week to clear out the ice, but it reforms within hours. They swear that the county has put the money and materials aside to build the road up and make low-water crossings of concrete and grating in the spring. We’ll see. We’re afraid the funds might get frozen, as is happening in so many places right now.
We got the new/used tractor home last week, after repairing the flat tires. Alan, who has always wanted his very own backhoe, now has one. I’m pretty scared of tractors, convinced that they’ll roll over on me at any moment, but it will be very useful this summer. We used it to lower the new range off the truck, which saved our backs, so I’m happy.
It’s February, the most blah month of the year, especially when dry. I had looked forward to snowshoeing and hiking in snow this year, both activities I enjoy, but there hasn’t been any opportunity locally, even Cumbres Pass is more ice than snow. But I love my long walks. I’ve seen a fox, a bobcat, and a few elk. With hunting season over, they are returning to the canyon.
We have signed up to host WorldPackers this summer with the first visitor coming in early May from Great Britain. Then a couple of guys from Argentina, and a third from the East Coast. We’re looking forward to the experience, trading a little labor for food and a place to stay and shared stories.
A poem from Alan for your reading pleasure:
Lament for an Empty Coffee Cup
--A Dreadful Penny Poem by “Boz Momerath”
“How disappointing!” mumbled I, reflecting in the bleary dawn
“I’m not quite sure I drank it up, but all my coffee’s gone!”
Then glaring at the empty cup with weary eyeballs swollen
The thought occurred I hadn’t drunk! My coffee had been stolen!
And so across the chilled and thorny desert I set sail
To reclaim my absent coffee from the thieving garden snail
Who surely stole the beverage from my cup, there in the darkling dale
As if it were the golden nectar of the Holy Grail.
Across the dunes the thief fled, trailing puffs of arid air
Laced with randomly firing neurons that wreaked havoc with my hair
So I blinked while I was aiming, and thus I was ensnared
By a dream of Ginger Roger’s backward dance with Fred Astaire!
Hence I paused while yet another Panavision dream,
Unquenched by coffee meddled with my scheme
To reclaim that stolen antidote, buffered with cloudy cream
The tragic loss of which concerns this missive’s theme:
Naked I stood and knocked upon the door
Of the bungalow beside the grocery store
Eve answered, naked as she was in ancient lore,
And smiling said that clothing didn’t matter anymore.
“Clothes make the man!” I muttered in the dark,
Blinded by beauty, bitten by a Snark!
I hardly heard the jesting sound of Eve’s remark
That set bright Cupid’s arrow on its course to pierce my heart!
Alas! That coffee black and bitter I should shirk
And to my taste a sugared coffee simply doesn’t work
They cannot clear away these dreams that fill my mind with mirk
And my stolen creamy coffee might as well have never perked!
The night has passed. The sun is up. My fading dreams have failed.
I never caught the coffee thief through all the sands I sailed.
And love that seemed so easy in a dream was but a shell
That shattered in the ring of my alarm clock’s bell!
Yet still, with all that said, I haven’t really woken up.
Perhaps I’ll simply go and brew myself another cup.
WE WISH YOU A PEACEFUL, COMPASSIONATE, AND LOVING VALENTINE’S DAY
❤️
4Fords Journal 