My Front Porch

In reading Hermit Jims post this morning (http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-me-favor-if-you-will.html), I find that (meadowlark)http://justwanderingthrough.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-front-porch.html is having a porch give away contest, or something like that. So I checked it out I don't know if the contest is for the nicest or the ugliest porch, so I thought I would take a chance that it was all about the ugliest. I think I got this one won hands down. I'm almost embarassed to even show this, but what the heck. My porch is just a deck. Nothing real special.

I used to get alot of use out of my deck, until the neighbor next door upgraded and moved in a new modular beside me. Every since they did that, I suddenly quit using my deck to sit on. I probably like my privacy more than anyone I know, yet I have less privacy than anyone I know. I can't bitch, I just assume that this is town life. What can you do? Move. lol. So thats what I am going to do.

Since they moved their modular in a few years ago, they started using the entrance nearest my deck, when anyone, (there company, kids, who ever), needs to smoke, they are right outside my deck. I find cig butts on my lawn. Their two dogs use the same entrance. Now, I like dogs, but I kinda wish I could sit on my own deck, without constantly being yapped at. It got worse, since we put in the chain link fence, absolutely no barking and yapping is muffled. I do thank my neighbor for giving me the incentive to get the hell out of town. When I get moved, just like Jim, I plan on having me a kick ass porch. I don't really care what it looks like, as long as I can enjoy all the sights and sounds that surround it and a piece of it shelters the rain and snow.

I realize that my deck in town could use alot of TLC. And while out taking the pictures, I was reminded that I had better get the lawn mower fired up real soon also. I know, I am slacking. We had a lot of snow on the ground a couple days ago, this morning it is all gone. Here are some pictures of my deck and porch.

This last photo is the veiw from my deck looking at the neighbors main entrance. Really hope I did'nt depress anyone this morning. I know soon that it will be much better for myself. I can hardly wait. Life is good, and can only get better from here. I hope.

New Calendar Needed

I woke up this morning out at the acerage to find alot of snow. Now it is 6:00 pm, I am now at home, and the snow still has'nt let up yet. I really must be looking at the wrong calendar, because I thought the month of June was about 12 days away. This is why it is called the "great white north" I guess.

Anyway, I spent the last 5 days out at my acerage. It was the May long weekend in Canada. Victoria day. I went out on Thursday and got home this afternoon (Tuesday). There were a few old friends that came out for some of it, and we did a bunch of camping and ATV'ing. Even the hermits gotta get out and play once in awhile. The weather was not real great, but we had alot fun anyway. The bush was nice and muddy, just the way we like it. I have a few pictures from the extra long weekend.

There were some minor damages, but no one got hurt.
The beaver were pretty busy building a dam.


We did see some wildlife, including elk, moose, squirrels, lots of different birds, a wild quad drivin jack russel and a weasel right on my own land. That might not be a good thing if I were to have chickens some day, but I really don't see much in the way of mice either.

Well that was my weekend. There were others with cameras out there too, and some other photos may come my way through email in the near future that could possibly get posted. The weather on this camp out was actually quite miserable. Rainy and cold. Friday morning was -5 celcius, I think I heard the radio say. There was frost on everything. I always had my furnace stoked right up at night. We did'nt let the weather hold us back from having fun though.

Splitting Wood.

Call me crazy, but I really enjoy splitting firewood by hand. I have a hydraulic wood splitter that you pump by hand. It is a little slower than all that powered up stuff, but it will split a knotty pine like nothing. I have never split a days worth of wood in my life. But I have been doing a fair bit of it lately. I built a wood shed recently out of a bunch of old lumber I had laying around, and in the process of cleaning up my building spot, I thought I may as well split the wood and have some on hand just incase I find myself in a cabin on my miniature ranch someday soon. I put a video of me splitting a log. Very entertaining stuff. lol. Just wanted to see if a video would upload, thats all. It's nothing special, just wanted to show off my splitter that I picked up at an auction a long time ago, for next to nothing. I don't even know if the video will upload or not. Anyway, so the wood splitting is kinda fun for now, but I wonder when it gets old. I can see me maybe getting tired of this wood splitting style someday in the future, but for now, I guess this will have to do. Does anyone out there happen to know how many cords of wood I would need to heat a 16x24 shack through a cold winter? How long does a cord of wood usually last? It sure seems like it takes a long time to split it anyway.

I have been keeping myself pretty busy lately. Got the backhoe running, and my quad, and I have been doing some cleaning up out there. Also research. I have been reading alot of different things, on framing, and wiring etc. I usually just go and build things and not even worry about it, but it is a little different when you know the inspector will be involved.

They're forcasting snow for tonight, and by the sound of the wind outside, just about anything might blow in tonight.

Waiting for the word GO.

I know it seems like nothings going on over here on my end, but believe me I have been going like a wildman over here. Yesterday, I finally got my stuff over to the county office, after drawing more pictures and all that for most of the day. Finally. Now, I don't know what, wait and see what I can and can't do on my own personal paid for piece of land, I guess. Kinda feel like a grade three student trying to get permission to go to the bathroom. I can understand why they need to do things like this though, I for one had all kinds of strange plans up my sleave, but having to go through the permit process kind of brings you back to reality a bit. lol. I honestly can't believe how long it took me to plot my peice of land on paper though. I did have a few other things hold me back however, such as work and what not.

Now I have been busy with other important things pertaining to my little project. #1, still hiding from work as much as possible. #2 Trying to get some front wheel bearings and seals for my old quad. It's been riding around in the back of my pickup on three wheels for quite some time now. The goodies should be in maybe Thursday. I went to a bearing place for my parts. Two bearings and four seals all for the price of just one bearing at the local Kawasaki dealer. They don't need my money very badly I guess.

#3 The old backhoe really needs some tlc, for she will be pretty busy for awhile in the near future. The beast.

She needs a couple new pins and bushings in the bottom of the boom.

It was an interesting day. I got all greasey and dirty and I loved it. Anything is better than measuring and drawing all day long. I got the boom off the tractor, and pins in hand. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do to beat John Deeres price for pins and bushings. Maybe I can get some built, and save a hundred bucks or so. Maybe I can build my own. We'll see. So thats whats going on in my life at the moment. Still being frugal, still being Candian and still being a hermit and still trying to keep everything as simple as possible, which is sometimes easier said than done.