Tuesday, June 23, 2009 -
Although it is a bit breezy this morning, the sky is completely clear for the first time in a week or more, the sun is brightly warming the ground, Zack went out to lay on the front porch to try and soak up that warmth.
NWS is predicting partly cloudy and then more thunderstorms moving in by Thursday and continuing through Friday morning. I was hoping for a couple of days of sun so the yard would be dry enough to mow. It is getting long in the tooth and needs a good cutting. Maybe the wind and sun together will dry it out enough that I can cut it tomorrow.
With all the dead trees in the forest now, we can use the rain and moisture to help keep the fire danger down. When it heats up later this summer, I expect we will see some large forest fires over the entire area of bark beetle kill.
As soon as I finish my coffee and have a light breakfast, and then Zack and I will head into town to my doctor appointments, and run a few errands.
By 6 PM, we arrived home and unloaded the items from town. The trip to town went according to plans, as I collected my mail, made my chiropractor appointment, went to Safeway for some grocery items, stopped at Murrdoch’s for more bird seed and couple of additional salt licks, and then stopped at my doctor’s office for a blood draw and to have the stitches removed.
We headed for home, but made one last stop to pull a prank on my friend Michele. She had been boasting about how her strawberry plants already had tons of little berries and she couldn’t wait for them to mature. I bought some strawberries at Safeway and planned to put them in her plant bed to make it appear they had magically grown to maturity over night.
Her daughter, Heather, was home, so I conspirer with her to do the deed. She told me that Michele wouldn’t be home until tomorrow night, so she’d put them in the refrigerator and position them tomorrow night before her mom got home. She said she had thought of doing the same thing with the tomato plants, and I told her she should.
We left and headed to Marysville. There is no more road control, at least until they need to chip and seal the pavement the second week in July. I decided to take the long way up to the Divide, as I was pretty sure the wild flowers would be impressive, and I was right. I reached into the backseat to retrieve my camera, and my incision opened up like a defective Ziploc sandwich bag. It didn’t hurt, and still doesn’t, but it feels weird and poured plasma, or what ever that non-blood fluid is, down my arm.
I drove home, cut a butterfly bandage, applied it to the opening, and wrapped it tightly with gauze. I still had to unload the car and then Zack expected my to throw him the disc, injury or not. I made the best of it and managed to throw the disc several times without pulling on my incision. When he was satisfied enough to stop, I fed him and he went to take a nap.
I have been watching the deer at the salt licks and keeping Zack from going outside to investigate them. Zoey is now outside watching the deer. They are cautious and keep their distance, but return to the lick to enjoy the salt and minerals.
It is now after 8 O’clock and I need to shower, keeping my incision dry, and then have some dinner before relaxing in front of the television.

Saturday, June 27, 2009 -
The weather this morning is a lot like yesterdays, except . . . by 11 AM, the wind built to 20 mph with higher gusts and kept on blowing.
Using the UPS tracking web site, I discovered an order I had placed had been delivered, so I’ll run to town and pick it up. The Air Show is also in town, so I’ll get a chance to watch the Blue Angels do their routine.
After my morning coffee and some brunch, Zack and I played and then drove into town to pick up my order and watch the air show. It is being held at the airport, which is at the exit I take to pick up my mail. I also need to pick up some more water filters for my system. I noticed that the water smelled dusty and that is usually because the filters can’t filter out all the slit. I always filter my drinking, coffee, and ice cube water through my Brita water filter, so I have clear clean water, but brushing my teeth and showering, the water has just gone through the ultra violet filter, killing 99.99% all bacteria, after having passed through the silt and carbon filters.
It is a beautiful, clear, warm day in town and as I approached my exit, I could see some activity over the airport and noticed the large amount of traffic. I had checked online to see what the schedule of events were, and the Blue Angels were scheduled to perform at 2 and 4 PM, and it was now 1:30, so I had time to pick up my mail, the filters, and still get to the airport to watch the show.
I was going to pay the $5.00 parking fee, which supports the event, with entrance to the show being free, but there were no signs pointing to the location. There is the old air terminal, where the college has an aeronautics program and the reserves have some aircraft, and then there is the public terminal for commercial aircraft, and at the far end is the UPS cargo and Forest Service aircraft. After I crossed the freeway, I noticed a large number of cars parked on the grass near the airport authority facility, so followed the crowd and pulled in.
It turns out that it was just people that found a good place to watch the show from and nothing to do with the organized show at all. When I found out where the actual show was, and saw the stop and go traffic, I decided to stay where I was and watch the show. As far as I know, there wasn’t much in the way of aircraft on the ground, so the big event was watching the Blue Angels, which I could do from almost anywhere in the area.
By 2 O’clock, nothing was happening, so I walked over and struck up a conversation with a man that was driving a bright orange 1967 Road Runner. As we visited, a F-115 and WW II spitfire started doing air maneuvers overhead. We watched and visited but the Blue Angels never got airborne. Not being in a location where we could hear an announcement, it is hard to say why the show didn’t take place at the scheduled time. I ran another quick errand before heading home and when I came out of the store, I noticed the Blue Angles performing. I drove back to the same spot and watched, taking a few pictures before my camera malfunctioned for the last time.
The routine of the Blue Angels seemed to be the same as when I watched them several years ago, so I was a little disappointed, but it was a good show. When they landed, all of the people tried to leave at once, and no one wanted to let cars into the line going out to the road. I had to force my way in and then because I wanted to turn left, while all the others were turning right, I drove on the shoulder and got out on the road. I was basically across the road from the U.S. Forestry Service office and I wanted to see if the new law enforcement person was on station yet. The last I knew was that it was a young woman that they were sending through the academy and she wouldn’t be out in the field until mid to late summer of this year.
As chance would have it, there was only one person in the office and it was the new officer. Her name is Jennifer Thomas and she is in her mid twenties. After introducing myself and explaining my reason for stopping by, we visited briefly and then I left. She is still doing her training and it will be late July or some time in August before she’ll be out and about in the forest.
Because I am planning on rerouting my road, I wanted to make sure I had befriended the only person that might give me problems, and now I know that they don’t have anyone to patrol the entire Helena National Forest, so don’t need to worry about being stopped in progress.
Zack and I drove home, unloaded the car, played, and then I fed him and opened my package. I had purchased a crossbow and it needed to be put together. I spent the evening doing that and then showered and had some dinner before watching a little television. I got tired long before my normal bedtime and retired at 10:15.

Monday, June 22, 2009 -
It rained, off and on, all night and this morning, clearing in the late afternoon. Since yesterday morning, I have received almost a half-inch of rain, according to my rain gauge. NWS is still predicting chances of thundershowers through tonight and at the end of the week.
I spent the entire morning reading my owners manual on the inverter, to find out why it was loading the generator down while I tried to recharge the batteries. None of the settings had been changed from before, and yet the generator would kick in and then after a few minutes, bog down and kick out. It would continue to do that no matter what things I had on or running. It has been five years since I set the inverter up, so I needed to go through the entire manual again and reset several things.
I turns out that the setting for the charger portion of the inverter, had the maximum charge amps AC at 30, which meant if anything, and I mean anything, else was using amps, it loaded the generator down. I reduced the amps to half of that, but even at 15 amps, it would drag the generator down. I finally got it to stay online and charge the batteries while set at 12 amps.
In my reading, I discovered that the AGM sealed type batteries require less amps and time to charge, due to the way they are constructed. So far, it has been charging the batteries without a problem and I can still run electrical items in the cabin. When I did my research on batteries, I thought that I had read that it could be charged faster and at a lower rate, meaning using less generator time, but I didn’t consider the amperage and how it would affect the system.
Anyway, It seems to be working fine and I have moved on to other things. I have mainly been doing additional research on the Fair Access Policies of other satellite providers and compiling information for my letter to the CEO.
Now it is time to go play with Zack for the fourth time this afternoon, and then feed him. The breaks in the rain have allowed us to have some quality playtime today. Right now the wind is blowing hard and it makes the flight of the disc interesting to say the least. Just when Zack thinks it is within his grasp, it goes up and away from him. He has managed to move quickly enough to still snag many of them, but a few have taken a detour into the creek.
I will be doing my usual evening things, i.e. shower, dinner, watch television, and then head for some sleep time. I have my chiropractor and doctor appointment tomorrow, so will be spending most of the day in town.

Sunday, June 21, 2009 - Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to all you Fathers
Some clouds and cool enough to have a small fire this morning. I expect an afternoon thunderstorm, as predicted by NWS, as I have had one each afternoon or early evening this past week.
I spent the entire day writing and doing a small amount of research, as I didn’t want to be slowed to a snails crawl on the Internet. I’ll finish my letter to the Hughes CEO, with copies to others, tomorrow and mail it when I go to town on Tuesday. I still have research to do, but it appears as I expected, Hughes has over sold the ability to provide service with their current satellites and now we all pay for it. Several of the sites lamenting this problem, simply say to change service, but that isn’t possible for me, unless I hear from Dish Network about providing me with the service. It would be my only other provider besides Hughes.
I really hate that the government is in everyone’s business and now even going to produce cars, but I think someone needs to regulate the service providers for the Internet. They do it for satellite television, so why not the Internet too. There should be standards set and upheld for what service they provide, the speeds and bandwidths, and their contracts. After I read through the Hughes Terms Of Service agreement for the fourth time, there isn’t one single word or section that protects my rights as a paying using, but page after page protecting their rights and telling you what they will do to you if you don’t follow their rules and regulations, which they change at their whim and don’t even bother to notify you.
Enough of that for now, and I wish I could tell you about all of my wonderful accomplishments today, but as I said, I just wrote and did a little research, that’s it, nothing more.
It is now a little past 7 PM, and a peal of thunder has just rolled through and made the cabin vibrate. The sky has turned ominous and I expect rain to come down soon. I am ready to build another fire, take a shower, eat dinner and then veg out in front of the television.

Saturday, June 20, 2009 -
It rained off and on most of the night, and woke me early this morning as it increased. I have been enjoying the morning in front of a nice fire, watching the chipmunks play and get the hidden peanuts and sunflower seeds. Zack has been snoozing in front of the fire all morning, not even asking to go out and play.
An attempt on my life was made again last night, but I didn’t realize it until the early morning hours. It happens once or twice, sometimes even three times a year. The effects are always the same as the poison enters my system and flows through my body. My fight with this invisible foe has continued for several years and you might think that I would be ever vigilant, but after I recover from my near death experience, some time goes by and I forget to watch for the signs. I have vowed to be more careful in the future, and have gone through and thrown out all of the suspect items in my refrigerator.
I am, of course, talking about food poisoning. I have a tendency to keep things longer than I should, and if it isn’t discolored, or has the aroma of garbage, I eat it. I checked the expiration dates and both the salad dressing and the green salad olives said they were still good, yet I believe that they were the cause of my stomach violently telling me that something was wrong. At first, I thought it was the new medication I am on (Hydrochlorot 25 mg), as I almost passed out from dizziness when I got up to go to bed last night. I remembered reading that another possible side affect was nausea, so I chalked it up to the meds. When I carefully made my way to the bathroom at three O’clock in the morning, it dawned on me that it could be a mild case of food poisoning, and not the medication. I survived the night and have no ill affects this morning, but still, I have promised my self to be more diligent in my choices of food from the refrigerator.
Hughes has slowed my service down again this morning, saying I have exceeded their FAP. On Monday, I will be making some telephone calls and sending a letter to the CEO. I am spending some research time today to find out exactly who controls the Fair Access Policy of the internet, or is it just some excuse the satellite providers dreamed up to cram more user on less equipment. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about FAP. “Fair Access Policy or Fair Use Policy is a ISP-promoted term for a bandwidth cap. It may limit a user to a daily or monthly cap and once that cap is reached it may result in slowing, a complete cut-off, or overage fees.
Large uses of bandwidth, such as P2P and streaming video, and have led to increased bandwidth usage. In an effort to increase profit many ISPs instituted complicated bandwidth schemes limiting users from the bandwidths they were advertised.
Broadband has long been a market based on overselling. As video services have become widespread, users have started using the bandwidth they were sold, threatening and changing consumer ISP's business models.”
Based upon that information, I’d say Hughes is setting and changing the bandwidth cap to suit their needs. I have started my research, slow as it is, and will be compiling my information. I will then write my letters and complain to those that might have the power to do something about it.
Other than switching between being too warm with a fire after the sun came out, to being too cold without the fire after the sun disappeared, I have played with Zack, done some writing and a little research. I am not going to take a shower and have something to eat . . . other than leftovers.

Thursday, June 18, 2009 -
It is partly cloudy with the chance of a thundershower this morning, and after my morning coffee, I hope the weather will hold long enough to install the new batteries.
Just as I was changing into my work clothes to go outside, it poured rain and the wind started blowing at about 12 mph. I decided I would wait for the rain to pass before I would try to tackle the batteries. By two O’clock, the rain had stopped but the wind hadn’t. I put on a sweatshirt and went out to get the job done.
First, I needed to disconnect all of the old batteries and remove them from the battery box. My doctor told me that I shouldn’t be doing any thing that might pull the stitches, but I told her I would have to, but I’d be careful. I managed to slide each of the 135-pound batteries off the edge of the battery box, controlling their drop to the ground. Once they were all removed, I focused on removing the old foam insulation and putting in the new blue board insulation. Blue board, which can also be pink in color depending on where you purchase it, has almost three times the protection that regular foam or fiberglass insulation has. I want to make sure that these batteries are well protected from the cold during winter.
After replacing the insulation in the walls, I put down two layers of blue board on the floor. Not only for added protection, but also to raise the new lower profile batteries, up to my cable height. After removing the shrink-wrap from the pallet, I found that each battery was in its own box. The boxes had no bottoms, so I could just lift each one off the battery. To my shock, the batteries had automotive posts and not the L-shaped connectors with holes to bolt the cables on. I looked at so many sites and read so much information when I researched the batteries that I thought I had specifically ordered the L-posts, but I guess not. Now I had no way to connect the cables and hook them up.
I would have to make a quick run to town for adapters, but it was already 3:50 PM. I knew that if I couldn’t make the follow me truck departure time, I’d end up getting into town too late to get the necessary parts. The only place that I knew would carry them was Northwest Battery as they are the ones that made up all of the cables for me originally. I figured they closed at 5 PM, so I would probably have to buy a less desirable type connector at Wal-Mart and adapt it to work.
Zack and I jumped into the Jeep and roared down the mountain, hoping to catch the follow me truck at the quarter past departure time, but we missed it by five minutes. We now had to sit and wait for 25 minutes, which would put us in town after 5 PM. I decided that I would find something in town that would work, and because the days are so long up here, I’d have time to get home and finish the job. I also needed to mail a box to my sister, which I had taken to town with me yesterday, but forgot to mail it. Too much was happening and when I got home . . . there it was, in the back seat.
I decided not to stress about any of it and just go with the flow, so sat and listened to the radio while we waited for the follow me truck. At 4:45, the truck appeared and we followed it out Marysville Road to the Lincoln Highway. The road work appears to be finished as they are putting the last of the guardrails up today, but my conversation with the follow me truck driver, Alicia, yesterday told me that they still have to put down a coat of chip and then seal it, which will cause them to repaint the lines before it is finished. All of Marysville will be glad it is over with . . . for now. I say for now because they are planning on paving past Marysville and up to the ski run in the near future. I would bet that they won’t be able to find the money to complete the job and it will remain as it is, but we’ll see.
I went into Helena and knew that the Post Office would be closed, as it was 5:15, so headed to the UPS Store, knowing they are open until 6 PM. I mailed the package to my sister and then hurried over to the Northwest Battery shop to see if by chance they were still open. Well, my luck held out and because he had a customer in the shop, he hadn’t locked up. I managed to get the battery post connectors and was on my way. I stopped in at Burger King for a quick dinner, knowing that by the time I got home and finished the job, it would be late.
Out of necessity, I ate while driving back to Marysville. I hate to do that more than talk on the phone and drive, but felt that it was about the only choice I would have to eat. We got back to the Marysville Road at 6:15 and the work crew had quit for the day, so we didn’t have to wait for the follow me truck.
Once back at the cabin, I was able to finish installing the batteries. The new batteries are 165 pounds each, but I was able to back the truck up to the battery box and then just slide each one off the tailgate and onto the battery box. After connecting all of the cables, I carefully threw the circuit breaker and went inside to read the inverter panel. Bad news, I had 36.5-volts for my 24-volt inverter. I shut it down and got the inverter manual to see the different configurations for batteries. Having switched from eight 6-volt batteries, to four 12-volt batteries, got me confused and I had connected them incorrectly. I redid the cables according to the manual and flipped the breaker again. Inside, the panel indicated that the inverter was working, with 25.8-volts coming in from the batteries, and 120-volts going out. The only problem was that I still didn’t have electricity. I read the trouble shooting section of the manual and rechecked absolutely every cable and connector to make sure they were tight and correct, but still no power.
After reading the trouble shooting section several times, and then looking at the diagrams in the manual, it showed a fuse or circuit breaker in the system, but I didn’t remember any, other than the breaker I installed when I first put the system in. Upon closer inspection, I found an obvious 30-amp pop out circuit breaker on the end of the inverter. Once I had reset that breaker, I had power. These are just a few of challenges that must be faced if one wishes to live the lifestyle I do.
It was now 8 O’clock and I hadn’t fed Zack his dinner yet. I played with him one last time and then prepared his dinner. I started a fire, took a shower, and fixed myself a drink before sitting down to relax and enjoy the fruit of my labor.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 -
Aside from a few high wispy clouds, the sky is a clear deep blue and the sun is shining brightly. NWS is still predicting the possibility of thundershowers, but I hope it stays clear and helps dry out the road a little.
I won’t be working the road today, as I have my doctor’s appointment in town, and trips to town usually end up taking all day. I didn’t get a tracking number for the delivery of my new batteries, but I am hoping they are in town for me to pick up. If not, I’ll call and get an ETA on them. I will also be calling Hughes and upgrading my account so they don’t continuously slow me down.
Here I am, two days later, just now getting back to this. The trip to town was close, but I made it to my doctor’s appointment with five minutes to spare. They took me right in and after the preliminary weight, temperature, blood pressure and updating medications, the doctor came in and we discussed Cat Scratch Disease. I was pleased to see that she actually knew what it was and pulled up all the information from the database on her laptop computer. After examining my foot and talking about the wound, she examined my lymph glands and we agreed that unless there were other complications, all symptoms should pass in the next month or so.
She prepped my arm to remove the spot and then gave me an injection to numb the area. The new young assistant that had taken my history had commented that it would be cool to watch the procedure, so I told my doctor, Jennifer, and she invited her in to observe and assist.
Jennifer draped the area and began cutting an almond shaped area around the spot, to insure she got all of the possible cancerous cells. As she got to the outer edges, it wasn’t numb and I could feel her cutting. It didn’t hurt, as the scalpel was very sharp, so I told her to just go ahead and finish it, which she did. When she removed the piece, she placed it in a medium to be sent to the lab. Three stitches later and it was all finished.
We discussed my blood pressure, which was down from the last visit, but not where she thinks it should be, so she increased the water pill dosage, telling me that I needed to have another blood draw when I came back to have the stitches removed, which is in 7 days. I am feeling some of the side affects of the new medication, but nothing serious, so she wants to keep tabs on my potassium levels. The last thing on my visit was to update my tetanus shot. I hadn’t had one since 1999 and she wants to make sure I have the booster. I don’t remember tetanus shots hurting so much, but it was by far worse than having the spot cut out of my arm.
Zack and I left the doctor’s office, heading to pick up my mail, but first I stopped at Taco Bell to relieve the hunger from fasting for the blood draw. As I pulled in to the drive through, my phone rang. I answered and it was the delivery person with my new batteries. He was at the UPS Store, where I get all of my mail, wanting to know what to do with 660 pounds of batteries. I told him I would be there in a minute and he could simply load them into the back of the truck.
Talk about luck and timing, I had planned on driving the Jeep to town today, but at the last minute decided to switch and take the truck. And then to have him at my mail pick up at the same time I was going there was good luck. I got my food order and drove to the UPS Store. He was waiting with the pallet of batteries on the lift gate of his truck. I simply backed up to his truck and he lowered them into the truck bed. I signed for them and then picked up my mail and we headed to Safeway to get a few items and have my new prescription filled.
Once I was done at Safeway, I filled the gas cans and we stopped at Home Depot for a new 6’ long digging bar. This is the third one I’ve bought since living here. The other two had been taken from the back of my truck the two different times it was stuck in the snow. I could have used it to help with the repair of the dozer tracks, so wanted to buy another to have available for the next time I need it.
From there, we headed for home and I had visions of exchanging the new batteries for the old ones, and actually having power without having to run the generator. By the time we waited for the follow me truck and got home, it was after 7 PM, threatening rain and had become cold and windy. I was tired so after playing with and feeding Zack, I decided to leave the task until tomorrow. I showered, built a fire and had a light dinner, before sitting down to watch television.