Beside the Stream

Archive

Working on the facade

Published on November 30, 2008 in market. 5 Comments

We’re redoing the walls, ceiling and floor of the market, so the inside will look fine. The exterior is more problematic.

We have a faded Kelly green metal roof with a poorly painted plastic tube along the ridgeline, cheesy railings and posts that are falling apart, and the front of the building is sided in a deteriorated 60s wood-product painted in a peeling grey. Around back the building is sided with metal panels, also grey.

Here’s the plan: replace the green roof with rusted corrugated as soon as there’s some cash flow; paint the front a barn red with brown trim and paint the sides and back next summer; use some of the wood Bob and Sam stickered last summer to give a more substantial feel to the facade.

Here Paul and Mike are setting a crossbeam.

It doesn’t quite fit so Paul jacks the roof up a little more while Mike holds the beam in place.

Paul worked as a wildlife biologist for the government for years, managing Nevada’s wild horse herds. He quit because of his blood pressure, and now he’s a smart, quick carpenter with a herd of horses at home. He was the guy who was going to capture Thankful, if Suzy had permission. And he always has a good story.

At the end of last winter, his old mare had a stroke. Paul said that after such a hard winter, there was no way he could put her down: she deserved a nice spring and summer, and he was going to make sure she got it. And he did. She was an invalid for a bit, and then she limped around, and now she still has a droopy lip and a drool and is a little slower perhaps, but she had a very nice summer, he said. Very nice.

Here are the new beams in place. At this stage, every step forward illuminates another ten steps that need to be taken (or: Gee, it still looks awful).

Time: 5 days

Published on November 28, 2008 in dogs and time. 1 Comment

On November 23, Sandy and I took the dogs on one of our usual hikes where they swim at the end.

That was the last of fall weather. Five days later we’re slipping into winter.

I asked my dog to pose at the same place as she did five days earlier, and she said: Are you mad? Have you checked the water temperature? It is much too cold for me to get in the water today.

Shaq the Newfoundland is turning three, helpful as can be. Where did you want me to stand? Here? You want me to the right? Is this good? but my old dog won’t get in beside him.

A dark and snowy day

Published on November 27, 2008 in snow storm. 2 Comments

The geese left, the ducks are gone, and Thanksgiving was a dark and snowy day.

A Hard Year for Geese

Published on November 26, 2008 in birds. 1 Comment

It’s been a tough year for the geese. This old pair raised a whole set of hatchlings, and by fall there was only a single adolescent left.

It’s time to go south, the water is really cold, the nestful didn’t turn out the way they thought it would… it’s sort of a glum moment here, in spite of the brilliant sky, and I hope their migration goes safely. If hunters knew how hard it was to raise goslings amidst the bobcats and coyotes… they’d hold their fire.

Progress on the beaver lodge

Published on November 25, 2008 in beaver. 2 Comments

I took these pictures of the newly refurbished beaver lodge and pond on November 19.

You can see that the lodge is substantial–Suzy thinks 9 feet, I’d guess 8 feet tall, and plenty wide.

The pond is clearly delineated, and it looks like it’s well established but it’s brand new. Don’t you like that fully peeled trunk on perimeter? They did.

This photo was taken at about the same spot on August 12,

and this shot was taken three weeks later. They’ve kept the basic outlines since then, and refined it.

This is a mid-August photo of their lodge, which was formerly an abandoned pile of sticks in a meadow.

This is taken from the other side of that same lodge on the same day. In mid-August, there was a few inches of new water around it. It didn’t look like much, but the beavers had big plans.

This is the same lodge from nearly the same point of view about 3 months later. Jessie is helpfully providing scale (though she’s very large). In fact, this pile is so big that the cottonwood trunk in the last photo has been completely covered. The beavers just patted on lots and lots of mud–you can see their handprints from last night’s work–and when the whole thing freezes it’s going to be impermeable.

To the right of the lodge is vast stash of twigs. They’re sticking out of the water, but they’re stored from the bottom of the pond on up: it’s more twigs than meets the eye. This is the beaver’s winter pantry, ready for the days when it’s too cold to go out for food. We have Thanksgiving on Thursday, but those beavers must be giving thanks every time they peek out their door and see that big stash of food for the winter. There’s nothing quite so cozy as a full larder.

A busy weekend

Published on November 24, 2008 in market. 2 Comments

It has been a really busy weekend.

The framing is done, the insulation goes in Monday, and the sheetrockers start Tuesday.

Plumbing is underway, but there’s some earth that needs to be moved.

This is a job for 17-yr-olds. Guistino and Sam have been friends since 6th grade, and they’re happy to work on Sunday. Guistino is wielding the pick, and Sam has a shovel. I’m doing site clean-up and thinking how adorable the boys are

until Sam asked, Do we get a paid lunch?

Thanks

Published on November 22, 2008 in celebration. 0 Comments

New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has the following word origin for Thanks:

thank (v.)
… Old Engish noun þanc, þonc, originally “thought,” but by c.1000 “good thoughts, gratitude.” The whole group is from the same root as think (q.v.). In ironical use, “to blame,” from 1560. Thankful is from O.E. þancfulle; thankless “likely to not be rewarded with thanks” is from c.1547. Thank you is attested from c.1400, short for I thank you. To thank (someone) for nothing is recorded from 1703.

A thousand years ago, thanks and good thoughts came along with the verb ‘to think’ (food for thought).

Our little Thankful

Published on November 21, 2008 in horses. 2 Comments

Here we have a horse that is literally untouched by human hands. Thankful has never been brushed, never seen a vet, never been inside a horse trailer or a barn or a shelter… and she looks great.

She looks so great that we’ve been calling her Pretty for a while.

This is sort of a high school yearbook pose

where she’s such a picture of equine perfection that she almost looks airbrushed.

The white stallion who manages this band of mares has been noticing how nicely Pretty has filled out.

She certainly is delectable.

Not today, he might be thinking, but soon. Soon.

A one-day-old foal

Published on November 19, 2008 in horses. 4 Comments

Suzy and I hiked out to see the band of horses on Ute Mountain Ute land before they’re moved south for the winter. This mare was still pregnant when Suzy was there two days ago, so her foal must have been born yesterday.

When she saw us, the new Mom and her baby walked away, leaving the herd.

I followed (with my dog) because I’ve never seen a horse that was born yesterday,

and I can’t tell if it’s a girl or boy but it sure is beautiful.

I particularly liked this shot of a nursing Mom.

I’m getting too close to them, and when the stallion sees that his mare and foal are so far from the herd, he

leaps to the task and

gallops over to her side.

He screeches at her like a rusty door… not a shreak or a scream, a skreee as if to say “IF I HAD KNOWN THAT YOU WOULD TAKE MY BABY SO FAR FROM THE HERD I NEVER WOULD HAVE HAD SEX WITH YOU.”

That mare slunk back to the herd with her ears pasted to her skull. She was very sorry.

When they got back to herd and were settling down, she nudged her child and said,

You never argue with Dad.

An eastern fence lizard

Published on November 18, 2008 in what they eat. 2 Comments

This is an Eastern fence lizard. They eat insects and bask. They have very finely articulated hands and feet.

Pet care instructions said that these lizards made good pets, and needed to be fed ”gut-loaded crickets” or fruit flies. Can you imagine writing those two phrases near each other with a straight face?