Remember When...
Last time I told you I'd write when I wasn't feeling quite so slothful? Well... I'm still feeling slothful, but I'm going to write something anyway...
Once again I spent the week up on the mountain gathering cattle. Usually, it's got its twists and turns, warm days and cool nights, met with many a day spent in a log cabin that was built by better hands back in the early 1900s.
For those of you that are long timers here (7 years-ish already? Wow...), you'll remember the last couple of years that my heater fan gave out on me just as the weather got miserable and snowy. So this year I bought a new motor and had high hopes...
This year... started off cold and windy, and stayed cold and windy. Sunday was about a high of 55 and tried to rain all day, but it made the 2 1/2 hour slog up to the cabin a lot less dusty, even though it didn't do more than spit...
Until we set up camp...
I lit all the pilot lights in the trailer... fridge, heater, water heater, then as we went to bed... here came the rain. Nevermind that the weather gurus said that it wasn't supposed to rain until Wednesday evening at the earliest... that should have been my first clue though...
So here I was... ready to put the heater to an immediate test. Good news is that it worked like a shot all week. Bad news was... well... let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Woke up at 6 the next morning to the end of the rainstorm that had been going on all night long... as I passed the back side of the trailer, the water heater looked a little funky, with a large yellow colored flame behind the guard. I thought it a little strange, but figured I'd used a little hot water that morning for my morning routine, it was just heating some more up... whoo boy, was I wrong...
After breakfast and the coming up of the sun... I moseyed out and saw that the yellow flame was still there and that the whole outside of the trailer at the water heater was black with soot... not good. I ran up and pulled the cover off and the main valve was on fire. In fact... all the little plastic knobs were burning in a nice yellow sooty flame. The steady rain running down the side of the trailer probably kept my trailer from burning up with me in it...
So that was the end of the hot water for the week...
After that things went ok... the cattle moved easily enough, the days went by quickly... and a fairly good crew had some good times with a little... well... alcohol was involved...
But one thing stood out every morning... on the wall of the cabin is a little plywood slab that got painted white in 82 when they painted the inside of the cabin. On that slab are carved names, brands, just about anything and everything, but one thing still stands out...
In blue ink somebody had written, "Snowing 10-3-1998" as an ominous reminder of the weather invariably to come.
As you can see from the post date... today was 10-3... guess what I could have written on the slab right next to the other scribe...
Not only was it snowing this morning it was nasty cold and windy... we decide to go ahead and make a little ride, then break camp before we turned into the Donner party...
I'll let you know later just how much snow fell today up there... because I'll be right back in it tomorrow. Oh... the fun to be had in the cattle business...
***************************
Today's mystery lyric: (Remember the rules folks, no online searching of the lyrics, if you don't know it, you don't have the answer!)
Lay down, heaven can wait
You think you're right, I think you can change
Draw some blood, I'm not going hungry tonight
Won't it be fun, to Howl in the night?
Answer to last lyric: Paralyzer by Finger Eleven... Way to go BC!!! Ok... Tiffy too... ;)
Once again I spent the week up on the mountain gathering cattle. Usually, it's got its twists and turns, warm days and cool nights, met with many a day spent in a log cabin that was built by better hands back in the early 1900s.
For those of you that are long timers here (7 years-ish already? Wow...), you'll remember the last couple of years that my heater fan gave out on me just as the weather got miserable and snowy. So this year I bought a new motor and had high hopes...
This year... started off cold and windy, and stayed cold and windy. Sunday was about a high of 55 and tried to rain all day, but it made the 2 1/2 hour slog up to the cabin a lot less dusty, even though it didn't do more than spit...
Until we set up camp...
I lit all the pilot lights in the trailer... fridge, heater, water heater, then as we went to bed... here came the rain. Nevermind that the weather gurus said that it wasn't supposed to rain until Wednesday evening at the earliest... that should have been my first clue though...
So here I was... ready to put the heater to an immediate test. Good news is that it worked like a shot all week. Bad news was... well... let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Woke up at 6 the next morning to the end of the rainstorm that had been going on all night long... as I passed the back side of the trailer, the water heater looked a little funky, with a large yellow colored flame behind the guard. I thought it a little strange, but figured I'd used a little hot water that morning for my morning routine, it was just heating some more up... whoo boy, was I wrong...
After breakfast and the coming up of the sun... I moseyed out and saw that the yellow flame was still there and that the whole outside of the trailer at the water heater was black with soot... not good. I ran up and pulled the cover off and the main valve was on fire. In fact... all the little plastic knobs were burning in a nice yellow sooty flame. The steady rain running down the side of the trailer probably kept my trailer from burning up with me in it...
So that was the end of the hot water for the week...
After that things went ok... the cattle moved easily enough, the days went by quickly... and a fairly good crew had some good times with a little... well... alcohol was involved...
But one thing stood out every morning... on the wall of the cabin is a little plywood slab that got painted white in 82 when they painted the inside of the cabin. On that slab are carved names, brands, just about anything and everything, but one thing still stands out...
In blue ink somebody had written, "Snowing 10-3-1998" as an ominous reminder of the weather invariably to come.
As you can see from the post date... today was 10-3... guess what I could have written on the slab right next to the other scribe...
Not only was it snowing this morning it was nasty cold and windy... we decide to go ahead and make a little ride, then break camp before we turned into the Donner party...
I'll let you know later just how much snow fell today up there... because I'll be right back in it tomorrow. Oh... the fun to be had in the cattle business...
***************************
Today's mystery lyric: (Remember the rules folks, no online searching of the lyrics, if you don't know it, you don't have the answer!)
Lay down, heaven can wait
You think you're right, I think you can change
Draw some blood, I'm not going hungry tonight
Won't it be fun, to Howl in the night?
Answer to last lyric: Paralyzer by Finger Eleven... Way to go BC!!! Ok... Tiffy too... ;)
posted by LL at 9:45 PM
4 Comments:
I'm sure the smell of the burning plastic was a joy too.
It was actually outside so I never actually smelled it...
Truth be told... there was almost NO way to notice it other than in the dark.
Whoa - be careful out there!
Your life is interesting. I mean it.
My life is eventful... I'm not sure I'd call it interesting...
But then again... I'm living it too...
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