November 30, 2006  This Isn't Texas Anymore, Toto!
 
Whut the...???? Temps range from 16 to 27 ° F with a half inch of ice and a growing snow cover, but it isn't Wisconsin. It's Wichita Falls, Texas, which NEVER sees this kind of weather. And it's still snowing.
 

 
Mom had a weekly hair dresser apppointment this morning. Since she totalled the AWD Subaru Forrester earlier this year, her Nissan sedan is a nice replacement but lacks 4X4 ability. So I told Mom I'd take her to the appointment in GeoTruk.
 
There were slippery spots, but the biggest danger was the TX drivers. Now I know where the Texas Two-Step came from....there's the shashay, first left then right while breaking for a stoplight, followed by the glide through the intersection with another shashay when they hit the gas peddle again, all done to the tune "Waltz Across Texas". And those super-sized Texas pickem-up trucks with their wide tires, four inch dual exhausts and lift kits are just so much ditch fodder when there's ice on the road.
 

 
Guess there's not much left to do except to wait for that old Texas sun to melt this stuff. Maybe I should head out to the spread and see if there's any frozen rattlers or scorpions....
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

November 28, 2006  Home on the Range
 
I went out to my property, or "spread" as they say in the local jargon, last Tuesday. Got to drive on my main road coming into the southern 1/4 part of the property as well as the fenceline road along the west side of the place. There was a low spot (that I knew of) along the fenceline which was kinda muddy and a little squirrely, but GeoTruk's 4x4 made things easy.
 

 
The bad news was that the main road didn't quite access the area I had envisioned, and some erosion will require remediation. But the firebreaks had been established and I finally had the opportunity to see the property in perspective with drainage areas, low areas and high ground.
 

 
The best news was that I was able to look at the property's potential in more and better ways than I had originally believed. Once I get together with the bulldozer operator I'll know more about soil types and rock formations.
 
We also went to my cousin Steve's to clean up Thanksgiving leftovers the day after. Steve lives on a small farm out west of town that's co-owned by him and my uncle. They had sold of most of their herd of cattle last year, but still have one young bull and a heffer. These two haven't had the close human interaction that the old herd had, so they can get pretty weird around people. On the way out the bull kept jumping in front of GeoTruk, and when I'd stop, he'd prance back into the dark of the night, only to jump out again a few yards further down the driveway. This went on for about a half a dozen times.
 

 
If you're planning a road trip to Wichita Falls, be prepared to get lost. At first I thought the problem was with Delorme, provider of the laptop GPS software I use. Closer inspection indicated that all maps showed this anomoly.
 
Basically, I-44 ends as it enters the city, by which time it has combined with routes such as 287, 281, 277, 79, 82, 477 and a host of others that eventually splinter off at various locations, only to pick up other State Routes that seem to go simultaneously in different directions. So some (obviously drunken) city planners and engineers decided to name major route combinations, hence the creation of Central Freeway, Central Freeway East and Henry S. Grace Freeway, to name a few.
 
What's wrong with this, you may well ask? First is the absence of signage. Only route numbers are on the signs (I'm told that there's one 6 inch by 24 inch sign each for the freeways, located in the bar ditch behind a crepemyrtle, but that's just hearsay). Basically, there's nothing to tell you what, if any freeway you're on, let alone how to get to the next!
 
Second, each freeway consists of 4 different roads! Each multilane side of a route bears the freeway designation (even 'tho it may carry routes that aren't on the opposite multilane) and the various access roads to the freeways also carry the freeway name although most also have city street names. I talked with cousin Steve who works with the city police department, and he confirmed that accident reports have to be appended with additional info to clarify just which of the 4 expressway roads is referenced.
 
No wonder an outfit like Delorme has problems with programming routing in this area!
 
Until later.....DKHT

November 23, 2006  Happy Thanksgiving!!!
 
I arrived in Wichita Falls, TX about 4:30 PM on Tuesday after dodging a few construction areas and moron motorists, particularly in Oklahoma City. I even "swam" with a pod of 18-wheelers for awhile. I've always respected the OTR drivers and know to give them wide berth and ample maneuvering room, looking ahead and realizing it's easier for you to slow down and let the 18-wheeler maintain speed and get in ahead of you. Sometimes you may be most of the way through a pass and will have to kick your rig in the butt to give the OTR driver an opportunity to slip in behind you.
 
However, the hills in Missouri and Oklahoma tend to group vehicles in odd ways. The big rigs try to pickup speed on a downhill run since, depending on load and horsepower, they have different speeds climbing the uphill leg. As a result, groups of trucks tend to migrate together, with the faster or lighter rigs passing the slower ones going uphill. I found myself and GeoTruk sock-up center in just such a group of Big Rigs between Springfield, MO and Joplin. We were surrounded by about 14 diesel-gulping monsters ahead, behind and alongside with visibilty reduced to 3 or 4 hubcap widths.
 
Now, riding in the "rocking chair" is a pretty good ride as long as you don't make some stupid move, keep your eyes open, and keep up with the rig ahead of you. Yet, if you want to see the dynamics get really interesting, just throw in a cement truck or some idiot from Indiana driving a Civic with a cartop carrier and trailing one of those little U-Haul trailers and can't even make the 45 MPH limit printed on the cracker box by U-Haul into the mix. A whole lotta shuffling comes into play. It gets really crazy if the cement hauler or U-hauler is one of those asses who sticks in the Monfort lane!
 
South of Oklahoma City truck traffic dropped to nothing and auto traffic was much the same. After paying my last bribe to the OK Turnpike system ($3.50 for the Will Rogers Tnpk, $3.50 for the Turner Tnpk, and $1.25+$1.50+$1.25 for the H.E. Bailey Tnpk) I escaped across the Red River into Texas, and on to Mom's house.
 
Went out to my property yesterday and took some pics and made some notes. I'll post some pics when I can get a new download cable for the camera....I forgot it back in WI.
 
We're heading over to my Aunt's for Turkey Day. Everybody in the family (except me) is pitching in for the feast. I'll take pictures, or at least pretend to take pictures if I fill up the 2 GB memory stick.
 
I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope you have a very special time and enjoy wonderful memories.
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

November 20, 2006  Road Report
 
I was up until 10:30 last night with final preparations for the trip south...things like final packing, setting up random lights in the house, draining down the plumbing and putting RV antifreeze in all the right paces....
 
I got up at 4:15 AM, made some coffee, packed food needing refrigeration with ice in a cooler, and loaded up GeoTruk. I had to let the motor run for 30 minutes in order to defrost the heavy frost and warm up the cab Early AM temperature was 15° F.
 
By shortly after 6:00 AM GeoTruk and I were ready to roll! The sun was just coming up in the SSE, and since I was headed due South, it's rays blinded me all day.
 
I had made 2 sandwiches and had some munchies as well as a 6-pack of bottled water, 2 bottles of diet Dr Pepper, and one bottle of V-8 in addition to the coffee. My last 1/2 sandwich disappeared at about 3:00. Good thing, 'cuz I-44 had curved to the Southwest and the sun was totally blinding when climbing those Missouri hills.
 
So here I am in Cuba. Checked into a nice Best Western and went out for an OK dinner. Oh yeah, it's Cuba Missouri.
 
Less than 1/2 the trip remains for tomorrow. I expect lots more road construction before I get out of Missouri. But that's OK...the gal at the motel desk said that they'd have free cereal, fruit, donuts and WAFFLES with syrup tomorrow for breakfast! My diet normally doesn't allow for this stuff, but I gotta keep up my driving strength!
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

November 19, 2006  DKHT On The Road Again!
 
I had hoped to be on my way to Texas in GeoTruk this AM, but had to delay a day because of some unforseen problems.
 
All went well with bank preparations, Post Office mail forwarding arrangements, setting up an LP delivery for my furnace, most of the packing, etc. But the computers did me in!
 
First, I was attempting to write a bunch of backup data cd's with info I'd need on my trip and stay down south. But my old tried-n-true cd burning program (Roxio) blew up on two separate attempts...I mean sudden death bkue screen....and at the last moment when trying to close the cd. I was using older Memorex cd-r's that had a slower write speed. Anyway, that was 6 hours lost.
 
So I jumped over to a new (for me) program called CDBurnerXP Pro. The .msi file for that program had gone missing so I had to do an uninstall and reinstall. However, it did the job and I filled 3 cd's, albeit another 6 hours later.
 
Next I discovered some problems with my DeLorme Street Atlass 2007 GPS/Routing software. A few adjustments later it seemed to be running OK, but I jumped on DeLorme's website and, shore nuff there was an SP1 upgrade. Downloaded and installed it and went for a test drive. I think it's ready for the trip.
 
Tried to get on the DOT websites for WI, IL, MO and OK with varying degrees of success. Major construction has been going on for several years on WI-51 through Wausau. The main reason for this extensive work is to relieve congestion and extend I-39 through and north of Wausau. Bridge heights and access ramp specifications on old WI-51 in Wausau were not up to Interstate standards. The I-39 and I-55 construction earlier in the fall seems to be maily over in IL. However, the entire stretch of I-44 through MO is under tons of various types of construction. Ok didn't show much construction but going through Tulsa and Oklahoma City is confusing enough without adding construction woes.
 
The trip's about 1210 miles in total, and I'd like to do 650 to 700 the first day. It's the tougher leg what with St.Louis and the I-44 construction. The second day will get me out of MO in a few hours and into OK, People gripe about the toll roads in Illinois, but the Oklahoma Turnpikes (H.E.Bailey, Turner and Will Rogers pikes are not well maintained but charge you like you were driving a train of 18 limosines). It might be worth the cost if they took you from one pike directly to the next in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, but each stops shy of these towns and lets you fend for yourself through city traffic.
 
So wish me God speed, Happy Trails, and an avoidance of pickle parks (sheesh)!
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

November 15, 2006  The Good (?) Old Days Part I
 
I was making a list of things I had to do. I've always been a list-maker....in past days, just making a list imbedded it into my mind so I really didn't need the actual list.
 
Nowadays I need all the help I can get!
 
Part of my newest list was to arrange for a refill of my 1000 gallon tank of LP gas, my primary heating source in the winter. That got me thinking about the old days when I heated my cabins with hardwood in a Vermont Castings cast iron air-tight woodburner.
 
Back in those days I typically used 5 cord of wood each heating season and my folks would use about 4 cord. These were full cord, 4 foot by 4 foot by 8 foot, not the tiny "face" cord they pass off on you now.
 
Northern Wisconsin is a heavily logged area. Loggers go mainly for the pine and fir which are prized for paper making. Solid Birch and popple can also be sold. The hardwoods, primarily oak and maple are left. In the old days, local loggers would cut and stack the hardwoods in the forest for a year or two and then sell them for heating wood.
 
Air-tight woodburning fireplaces are pretty efficient, but absolutely require hardwoods to work. Yet the hardwoods require a certain percentage of moisture to work well. They burn with better control cleaner than softwoods which often have pitch (pine and fir) or a desire to burn rapidly that leads to chimney fires, creosote and stove overheating.
 
We used to order 10 full cord per heating season from a local logger. It arrived on an articulated logger truck and trailer. The logs were 108 inch "loggers lengths" and anywhere from 10 inches to 18 inches in diameter. Typically we would get our wood delivery in late September. The logger would stack the 10 cord between two stout pines behind my storage shed.
 
Since my folks didn't live up here year round in those days, it was to me to wrestle the logs off the pile and onto a sawbuck. Then the big Husquevarna gas saw would be put into action to cut the logs into 20 inch stove lengths.
 
After several hours of this routine, the chainsaw chain was getting dull, as was I with the repetitive movements. Plus, there'd be a good sized pile of logs that still needed splitting. So, moving to the splitting block and getting out a 14 pound combination maul/splitting head and a few splitting wedges I'd tackle the pile of logs I'd cut. Most logs were split into quarters althogh some of the maple took on some unusually-directed splits.
 
By the end of the daylight part of the day I'd have 1/2 to 3/4 of a full cord cut, split and stacked. Then into the cabin to cook up some supper, have a beer, and, providing I could stay awake, spend some time hand sharpening the chainsaw chain for the next day.
 
I enjoyed "making wood" in late November. Temps were cold enough to be invigorating and the frost stayed in the wood making it easier to split.
 
Yup, those were the good old days. But nowadays I prefer to order LP.
 

 
Until later.....DKHT

November 10, 2006  Dog Days Part II
 
Reminiscing about favorite dog pals of the past, my otherwise addled brain recalled a particularly special and odiferous visitor to my cabin.
 
One summer, years ago, I was reading a mystery novel while sipping a glass of Merlot out on my front deck (front is lakeside up here...morons from Illinois call the roadside part of the house "front", hence the term "MORON") when this huge shaggy creature came up on my deck and wanted to show his affection and beg for some treats.
 
This creature was darned close to the size of a Mastodon lacking only tusks, having long green fur, and smelling like primordial ooze, or maybe limburger cheese. Simply put, he stank to high heaven and seemed to really enjoy his "perfumed" self. He was actually one of the biggest dogs I've ever seen, of mixed breed but profoundly of friendly nature. He'd obviously been swimming for hours through one of the local grass and algae swamps nearby. That effort turned his normally white coat into a stinking green mass.
 
After giving him a few treats and avoiding huge pond scum licks of thanks I worked up enough courage to find his collar and tags. Quickly memorizing the tag telephone number, I grabbed the phone and soon discovered that I was talking to the mastodon's veterinarian. I described monster dog and his friendly nature, and the vet didn't hesitate as he advised me that my visitor was named Sammy and lived on a horse farm only a few miles away, as the crow flies. I knew the territory and quickly identified the swamp that Sammy had frivolved in. I gave the vet my particulars and he said he'd have the owner get in touch.
 
Indeed, the owner showed up in a big white Dodge Ram diesel pickup. (Years ago you could instantly tell a Ford or Dodge diesel by the interesting clattering sounds they made...it begged you to look underneath to see just how many parts were falling out.) The fella seemed a nice friendly down-to-earth kinda guy, typical of local folks who aren't morons from Illinois or Indiana (for years the Indiana license plates read "Come Back To Indiana"...seems like their residents headed for Wisconsin and couldn't find their way back!).
 
Then, to my total astonishment, a female person in 6 inch heels, skin tight white slacks (no room for underwear there) with an equally skin tight top, a head full of Bride of Frankenstein bleached blonde hair and enough makeup to keep Revlon on overtime for two years, stepped out of the other side of the pickup cab. I have never knowingly seen a real prostitute (well, except for those few times in NYC and those times in Vegas and the once in Reno....) but I believe this gal would make the rest of the world of hookers look like just so many Mary Poppins.
 
We got Sammy loaded into the bed of the pickup without incident. When the fella thanked me for looking after Sammy he mentioned the hookers' name...Theresa.
 
Over several summers I'd usually get at least one visit from Sammy, just stopping by to say "hi" and visit a spell and share some treats and stories. He'd always show up in his Irish decoration and be eager to tell me his adventures and discoveries. Unfortunately dogs tell their stories by smell, and all I could smell was swamp. But, maybe, that was the point.
 
I heard later that Sammy found another home that could give him the attention and love he needed. I'm sure that some part of his doggy brain remembered cavorting in the vile swamps, and visiting old friends, sharing memories and treats.
 
This was the end to Sammy's visits. But it launched a whole new story that rocked the animal world involving Theresa, or Ms T as she likes to be called, regarding the death of 11 miniature horses and sickness and starvation to the remaining herd of over 100 miniature horses she owned, not to mention her recent indictment for theft, bank fraud and credit card fraud. Stay tuned....
 
Until later.....DKHT

November 5, 2006  Did Somebody Mention Ducks?
 
I had an opportunity to get a few pictures of the ducks gathering for migration. I counted over 60 (there were more outside the width of the picture).
 

 
Watching their behavior is a riot. These are mainly youngsters from this year's hatch. They have the necessary instincts, but need to practice (They almost have a V formation down when flying). Still, they remind me of teenagers.
 
Although breeding season is a long way off, one of the females was a little boy-crazy! She'd find a male and begin the head-bobbing ritual for mating. Most males tried to swim away, but she'd dive under them and come up right beneath them. Her shameless intentions were pretty obvious.
 

 
The smaller, shallower lakes have a thin coat of ice. Deeper lakes, like ours take longer to freeze over, although the shallower bays are showing substantial pans of ice.
 
The muskie fisherman are having a fishing heyday! Water and weather conditions have been near perfect. The local newspaper featured one vacationing Musky Hunter who had caught 10 legal muskies in a 6 day effort.
 
Until later.....DKHT

November 3, 2006  Mallards, Merlots and Maps
 
The last hatch of this year's lake mallards have been gathering together, developing flock skills. I think they may be accumulating others from further north, preparing for their migration.
 
The drakes are finally showing their regal plumage after spending the summer in the camouflage that the hens always have. The flock is usually along my beach in the wee hours of the morning, partly because there's a variety of food in the sandy shallows and partly because my beach is one of the few places that gets the early sun on clear days. They'll be flying south soon, since evening temps are getting quite low and the lake will give in to ice before too long.
 
Been exchanging some email with one of my avid readers, mainly regarding wines. In my early days I was a beer affectionado, and was single-handedly responsible for keeping several breweries a-float. Later I developed a more purist taste for quality bourbons and whiskeys. That was back when I could afford them.
 
Lately I've become a connoisseur of wines, achieving something of a unique somalier rating in my quest. My preferred wine is of the Merlot group. There are many quality vineyards producing this variety. However, my mind reels trying to choose the best.... should I choose the one that comes on a convenient 5 liter cardboard box, or the almost-as-convenient 3 liter cardboard box? Or would the 1.5 Liter bottle would be best? The solution soon became obvious. You spend $24 for a bottle of quality wine then drink and savor it yourself, saving the bottle and cork, and keep refilling and recorking it from your large winecellar of 5 Liter boxes! So very simple!
 
I recently got a buncha stuff from ebay. Some of that "stuff" were CD's with topographic maps of counties in N Texas and here in Wisconsin. I love maps, and USGS topos frequently help me with details of places I'm interested in and want to use in my research and stories. I have printed maps that cover most of the old Minnick Ranch in North Texas, but I can customize those areas for publication with the CD topos. Between satellite imagery and digital topos I hope to lay out the old O'Day and Daley Logging RR line. So Cool.
 
Until later.....DKHT