May 29, 2006  Memorial Day
 
It's a nice day here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Outside temperature is 82 degrees F at 10:00 am. Mostly sunny with a light breeze coming off the lake.
 
I have a few things to blog about, but they'll wait for later.
 
Today we should remember all the men and women who have served our armed forces, and give special memory for those who gave their lives in service to their country and for our freedom.
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

May 21, 2006  Rain, Skeeters and a Stock Market Dive
 
We've had several weeks of rain here in the Northwoods. It's strange weather since it runs from calm to windy, rain to sunshine. The rain is needed to bring up the lake level and the water table. However, some other areas have actually flooded.
 
The rain has brought enough moisture to raise the mosquito populations to levels we haven't seen in many years. I understand that the same is true in Illinois and in Texas.
 
So we've had flooding, pestilence and now a stock market plunge. Analyst are reporting a rally as of Friday, but compared to the plunge, the rally is miniscule.
 
Is this what George Dubyah had in mind when he wanted to replace Social Security with individual investments?
 
Fuel prices have been rising and some analysts expect them to go higher. Of course with fuel prices up the costs for shipping products goes up and we pay more when shopping. And the buying power of the dollar has been plummeting.
 
Kinda reminds me of when Tricky Dick was in office. In fact, Nixon and GW are similar in many ways. Their egos have been much, much larger than their IQ's. Both have been unfit for military leadership. Both have been miserable failures in foreign policy and in economic policy. Both have blamed others for their mistakes. Both found ways to invade the rights and personal communications of American citizens. Both have downright lied to America. Both have had idiots for VP's (OK,only one actually shot a civilian for no reason, but the other could've).

 
Until later.....DKHT

May 13, 2006  Mutha Nature Strikes!
 
The day before yesterday morning it began raining at 10:00 am. The temperature dropped to 33 degrees F. Then it began to sleet... a lot. Overnight we got about a half inch of snow (it was indeed quite wet and would've been a couple of inches worth in colder weather). I've lived in this part of Wisconsin for 34 years, and I think this may be a record for late season snow. Today it's at least back to just raining. It's still only about 40 degrees F out, but we really need the rain.
 
My mother finally found a new car that she liked and fit the budget. I was able to track the safety rating on www.iihs.org which is an independent insurance auto test site. Then on www.edmunds.com I was able to find true invoice pricing. This site includes regional adjustments, delivery charges and dealer incentives which allowed me to dial in the target price on the vehicle. Dealers usually get a kick-back from the MFR that drops the price even lower, but the sales staff typically have to use the true invoice price for making deals. Thanks to sister Cindy for providing those url's.
 
Most of the major excavation on my Texas property has been completed. Heavy rains interrupted the final smoothing which will is now being done as things dry out. One neighbor complained about damage to fencing during excavation, but my mom and aunt went out and checked on things. Evidently the neighbor somewhat exaggerated the situation and only two fence wires had missing clips on a few fenceposts. This is really easy to fix, and I'll hopefully get it repaired asap.
 
I certainly don't want to start things off by violating neighborhood trust. My Northwoods NFTD drives home the point that a new bad neighbor can make your life agony. So I'm eager to make amends as much as reasonably possible. But I totally trust Mike, the dozer fella, and I'm not sure he had anything to do with the sagging fence wires. It may just be that the old clips were too loose and fell off as the dozer passed (have you ever felt the ground shake when a dozer passes close by?). I'll attempt to have repairs made to satisfy neighbor's concerns.
 
I recently received emails from two good friends back when I worked for the John Stuart Quaker Oats Research Labs in Barrington, IL. Quaker since was bought out by Pepsico and both of these folks continue to work for Pepsico. We knew each other in the 70's and it was really good to hear from them. Dar is a great gal friend and Crash (Bob) has been a long-time 4x4 buddy.
 
Until later.....DKHT

May 6, 2006  Sexto de Mayo (the day after Cinco de Mayo)
 
Well, Uncle Al is out of the hospital and doing pretty well at home.
 
Mom has received settlement from the insurance company for her car and will be shopping for a replacement vehicle in a few days. I had a phone conversation with the adjuster from State Farm who answered some questions and concerns regarding the accident and insurance. She was very knowledgable, professional and reassuring. Nothing like the arrogant jerk named Kevin from the local office who refused to tell me anything, citing "privacy laws" even though I had my Power of Attorney documents faxed to the office from the helpful assistant to Mom's lawyer (I did do a follow-up call to the owner of the office who got things straightened out, pronto!).
 
And out at the "ranch" Mike, the dozer owner/operator has been busy with the work there. I did discover that 24 inch diameter steel culvert pipe costs $16.84 per foot delivered. I needed a 30-foot long section of it for the main entrance to the property. But it's what I asked for to make sure larger vehicles such as semi's and RV's could swing into the property from the narrow gravel streets in the area. The nice thing is that this entrance will tie into an existing gravel-based road already traversing the property. This road was intended to be an extension of a local street back when the property was first developed but was later abandoned when lot designations were made.
 
Other work taking place out there consists of dozing a fire break around the perimeter and clearing the scrub mesquite. A section of the fire break will also provide me with an access road to the larger part of the property. I'd wanted to have a "pond" excavated (often called a "tank" in TX) to provide accumulated runoff in order to irrigate some trees and some lawn. It'd also provide water if I ever decide to put out a few grazing animals. However, when Mike and I analyzed the costs and budget, I figured the road access took higher priority. And, hopefully I'll have some money in reserve to provide gating for the two entrances to the property (bar ditches will keep out the riff-raff).
 
This brings up a point that has bothered me a long time. Some people dump their garbage on property owned by others, at least in Wisconsin and in Illinois. This includes household garbage, major appliances and abandoned vehicles. Local police often aren't aware of most of this dumping, and seldom have the man-power to follow up, what with speeding, jay walking and parking violations running rampant. But I keep running into this junk when hiking out in the woods and along our rural roads. There aren't that many murders or robberies in this part of the country that the fingerprint experts are that tied up. And the folks that dump this stuff, in my opininion, are primarily poor white trash from Arkansas, and should be trackable due to weird inbred DNA patterns and mostly abnormal "whorls" in their fingerprints.
 
Down South, I seldom see evidence of garbage dumping, maybe because Arkansas white trash typically doesn't survive long in this environment, except by trying to exploit traffic accidents. That's not to say that abandoned vehicles and appliances can't be found in abundance, but they usually appear on property that the persons that abandoned this junk actually owned. It's not good for the ecology, it's not fair to the neighbors, but it stems from the days when poverty was king and landfills didn't exist. Anyway, there's no junk on my property, but I figure I have to at least gate it to make sure none of those Arkansas hillbillies get any ideas.
 
Here in Northern WI, things have been really exciting. First off, I had my septic tank pumped yesterday. Then, today I was entertained for close to an hour by my new neighbor (you know the one...he's got the IQ equal to the price of a pack of gum at a discount center). He'd traded in his fishing boat toward a new pontoon boat. He pulled out the new pontoon boat from his new pier and dropped anchor(s)... forward was a fluke-type anchor and aft was a a standard mushroom anchor. The lake breeze was quartering off the port bow. He hauled in his aft mushroom anchor wanting to reposition the boat. The boat swung which buried the forward fluke anchor even more deeply in the lake bottom. Not knowing how to drive over to release that type of anchor, he stood, legs askew attempting to "land" the lake bottom. After a twenty+ minute fight on his anchor tackle the soft sand bottom of the lake finally realease the grip on the fluted anchor. He fished for another 20 minutes with his 5-yr-old son, not using the forward anchor. Unfortunately "Lake Cam" wasn't connected during this episode.
 
The entertaiment continued. Neighbor from the Darkside (NFTD) tired of his sport and attempted to land the pontoon boat at the new pier. The wind direction was obvious, but, instead of taking advantage of it, NFTD attempted to "hook" the boat into the pier from the wrong direction. Eight attempts later he was able to get the aftmost part of the stern close enough to the pier to have his 5 year old son jump to the pier, catch a line, and haul Dad into the berth. LMAO!!!!
 
Until later.....DKHT