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Since I didn't have the wherewithal to make camping reservations early and everyone seems to be taking camping vacations this year, Derien and I got the idea to skip trying to camp on the weekend and head out to find a spot this morning instead. We figured if we could get an early start today, we should be able to find a spot at one of the campgrounds which does first-come, first-serve. Mondays and Tuesday are usually the least popular days at the campgrounds.

We decided to make this a test run for multi-day backpack camping, as opposed to car camping. That meant different meal prep and different stuff to pack (less and in a smaller space).

So yesterday evening we started packing and preparing, starting last minute because we had been trying to get stuff done around the house and yard all day. We started by preparing camping meals from our dried components: five different meals from dried/dehydrated components. That took a while because some of the products had gone from being ground to being rocks in the time since we last any. We have a tomato rock. It reminds me of the old U2 video for Sunday, Bloody Sunday, live at red rocks.

After that we went through the hiking checklist and made sure we found everything to go in our packs. Then got our clothing together and got that into our packs. By the time we were done it was after 10pm and we were exhausted. Still possible to get a fair amount of sleep, get up a little after 5am, have breakfast, and be out in the mountains before 9am.

I was just sitting down to make sure I had directions to our possible campgrounds when my cell phone rang. It was sister #2 letting me know that sister #1 had taken a fall yesterday: cut on head, broken collarbone, admitted to hospital in MA. Tests so far all negative. MRI to be done. Didn't even get off the phone with her and sister #1 called, she sounded pretty good, clear headed, but didn't have any idea why she just dropped as she stood up. She has given the hospital my name and number in the event things go pear shaped.

So yeah, didn't get to sleep until midnight last night, didn't leave for camping this morning. We'll see if things define themselves today. Crisis may mean a trip to MA. Not crisis may provide an abbreviated camping trip. Vacation plans just don't seem to be working for me this year.

I decided to try to make lemonade out of the lemons, so I started working on replacing the rotted boards around the garage doors. That is rapidly turning into a nightmare of epic proportions. To replace eight boards (2 on each side of 2 garage bays) I'm going to have to disassembly most of the side of the garage, destroying maybe 25 other boards in the process. To quote Worf: "I am not a merry man!"

It has been a crazy month and a half.

Item 1: Family Visits
Derien's family came to visit first. Right after I got back from camping, Derien's brother, his wife, and the niece arrived along with a stray aunt. They left in stages and we had I think three days before the stray aunt came back. The day after she, left one of my sisters arrived in state. She stayed until the day before my other sister arrived with my niece. During the visits various parties got to visit with other local or semi-local relatives and we did some showing of the benefits of Maine as possible.

All the visits were good. My family hadn't gotten together in years and I think Derien and I pulled off a passable job visitor appropriate of hosting. We managed to mostly walk around the minefield of divergent political orientations and lifestyles. Having everyone come at different times was good because we could visit with each group, but it did take up a lot of the summer. And honestly, we haven't had a chance to relax since the solstice.

Somewhere in there we managed to get the garlic harvested and put 3 1/2 cords of wood into the wood shed. Derien's family got to enjoy peapods from the garden and my family got some radishes and garlic from the garden.

Item 2: Work

For three years now my group at work has been trying to find and implement new employee scheduling software. We did vendor selection and started initial meetings with the selected vendor, but it very quickly became apparent that they couldn't meeting our needs. So we went back to vendor selection and the sales team for the second vendor we selected assured us they could do all the things we itemized as required. We were supposed to go live with that solution in January, but last fall it became very obvious that they couldn't do all the things we needed simultaneously (there were solutions which would meet each of our requirements, but they weren't all the same solution). We burned a lot of time trying to make their software work for us.

With no solution from the first two vendors and no likely third vendor, we set about building our own solution. We've been building and testing that solution and all the related interfaces to users and other systems for the last six months. We went live with that system last Tuesday evening, almost precisely 24 hours after the last of our visitors left (see item 1 above). Last week was of course crazy. The preparation for implementation was rushed because I had time off from work the prior and the tasks I expected would be done in my absence were not done. The implementation was rough from my perspective, although it sounds like the impression to the employees and leaders was still good. It was long days all week.

After all of that I was totally and completely knackered.

Yesterday we had our first real day off in ages. So we spent it doing housework. Laundry, check. Splitting and stacking wood, check. Mowing some of the lawn, check. Brush burn, check.

Unfortunately, this morning I woke up to the knob on my right wrist being swollen, sore, and limited wrist mobility/strength. Not sure what I did to it. It might have been when I was pulling things during the brush burn. Or I might have hit it without realizing it. Either way, it's a pain in the arm. Unfortunately, it's the opposite arm as the frozen shoulder, so I have one arm that doesn't work at the shoulder and another that doesn't work at which doesn't work at the wrist. I need more arms.

Today, I want to finish mowing the lawn, if at all possible. It has been months since we've managed to get it all done. Portions are long enough to bale.

I want to get two more cords of wood (seasoned this time) to supplement the wood up put up last fall and ensure we don't run out this winter. Then the wood for this winter and next winter will be done.

If this is scattered, it's because I'm scattered. I probably need a week of sleep before I'll be completely coherent again.

Fell asleep before posting this last night, so a little delayed:

This has been a busy and exhausting weekend. Pretty much all of it can be summed up as yard work. The big accomplishments were getting the lawn almost all mowed and getting about 400sq ft cleared of invasive species. That bit was the largest chunk remaining in which we still had rose, Japanese barberry, and honeysuckle. It was mostly barberry, so I was pretty well perforated by very tiny thorns.

I also got my new sit stand desk assembled. Working from home I spend way too much time sitting in front of the computer. I decided to get the desk and try it out before deciding on things like keyboard tray and monitor mounts. It's an Uplift commercial model, which is not cheap! I got the 24x48 because I want a narrow desk. So far I'm impressed. The raise/lower is quick and quiet. Because I don't have everything set up yet, my monitor is on it's cheesy little feet standing on the surface. It doesn't wobble going up and down. Nor do I have to worry about a partially filled glass of water. I am a hard typer, which on flimsy setups will create resonance and monitor bounce. So far I'm not seeing any of that. If I intentionally hit the front of the desk I can see some vibration, but typing seems to be rock solid. So, overall, so far so good.

I do plan to get a pole to mount the monitor. That will allow me to bring it up into a little more ergo appropriate position (right now I'm looking down too far). I'm also planning to add a keyboard/mouse tray, so they won't take up much of the desk real estate.

What I will miss is having the small drawers which the repurposed Singer sewing machine cabinet provides (three, two usable in my config, on each side). I will probably work on pimping out my new ride a bit, maybe fuzzy dice and shag carpet.

It's springtime in New England. That means one day will be sunny, warm, and t-shirt weather and the next the temps will never get above layering levels.

For the last two weeks I've been working on extracting as many buckthorn trees from the lower part of the property as possible. Buckthorns are invasive, have thorny structures, and make berries that birds don't digest well. We have a lot of them. Now that we've removed almost all of the rose, grape, Virginia creeper, bittersweet, and honeysuckle, the buckthorn becomes the next in line. Spring is the perfect time to remove them roots and all if you can get them leaning first one way then another until the roots start to let go.

Today I clipped and transported the 20 or so small trees we had uprooted in the last few weeks (buckthorns don't usually get over about 20ft tall). It doesn't make good firewood because it gives off a nasty smell, but I couldn't pass up that much wood, so I hauled the trunks which were big enough to bother with up to the sawing areas. The roots, smaller parts of trunk, and twigs all went to the burn area. I'm not sure how many wheelbarrow loads of clipped stuff I took over, but it was a lot. That was about my entire day.

We still have probably ten or fifteen more to pull down in that area, but I don't know if I'm going to get to them this year. It would feel good to finish off the area, but that's a lot of work.

The garlic in the garden has sprouted and every day seems to grow half an inch or so. We got our first few flowers in the yard over the last couple of days. More are getting ready. The flowers which Derien transplanted in front of the house last year are coming up, not ready to flower yet, but probably in the next week. Buds are swelling on lots of bushes and trees so pretty soon everything will be leafing out.

I've gotten a slow start on seedlings this year. Much of my first batch was held seed from '17. Not good germination rates on that. Although I was amazed I did actually get some germination on lettuce from '17. Not much, but I was amazed any of those little tiny seeds could last that long! So I've got about 10 tiny lettuce seedlings and about 14 pepper seedlings which are in the two proto-leaves stage. I've started a second batch of lettuce with seed from last year and have a second round of peppers soaking tonight for starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow I hope to start the peas and the first round of radishes out in the garden. This time of year there is so much to do and this year I'm particularly out of shape. I haven't been exercising as much as last year and my left shoulder is frozen so I'm trying to everything with severe limitations on one arm.

Over the last few weekends I've been picking away at the pile of twigs to be clipped up for subsequent bundling into firestarters. It was a big pile and at the beginning of each weekend I'd say to myself, "oh, I can finish it up this weekend!" Then at the end of the weekend I'd say, "Well, maybe only one more weekend." Well, on Monday I managed to get the last of them clipped and swept up the barn floor. Now maybe I can work on some of the other stuff out in the barn. It's a mess out there right now, with a lot of half finished things laying around. Which is about the state of the house as well. And the state of work as well. At least I'm consistent.

Had my cardio appointment this week. Just routine annual follow-up. Nothing new there, which is good news. But I need to start upping my exercise because I want to get in shape for the mountains this summer. I'm counting on being able to travel again by the time the weather gets better around here.

Yesterday we did some work out in the barn, Derien bundling twigs and me clipping them to length for bundling. Today I went out again and did some more clipping because Derien had run out of bundle ready items. Still a big pile to deal with, but if I go out and put a CD on, the time passes fairly easily. Today I listened to Hiss & Chambers, Jasper's band.

The day started out frosty, but the sun warmed up to a beautiful day. The driveway was treacherous with black ice when I first went out. I waited until afternoon to fill the wood box, which had gotten all the way down to the bottom over the last week. We've been trying to use the stove to build up heat in the center of the house in the evening so the furnace doesn't run for most of the night.

I'm trying to multitask today on several endless tasks. I'm recording some of my old 78's, a task which requires a minute or two of attention followed by a few minutes of idleness. It's really hard to get anything else done and remain productive on that task. I did figure out that I can pick away at stripping the copper from of the old electrical wires while each song is playing. I've got an awful lot of wires to strip, so the two jobs fit well together.

We've started working on our holiday cards. We start on overseas cards first then work our way geographically closer as the season goes along.

The flock of chickadees, nuthatches, and titmice are feeding frantically. Even with the short days, they can empty the two feeders twice a day if I refill them near noon. When I refill the feeders it takes them about a minute to notice and start in again. I like to watch them zip in and out, each only spending a fraction of a second grabbing a seed then flying off to the plum trees to work the kernel from the seed.

This week was little fun. Still had things cropping up from last weekend throughout the week. No show stoppers, but things that had to be addressed which ate up time like starved piranha. I think I have finally tracked down the last of the problems now, have changes in for review and implementation.

Took the van up for a visit to the van guys on Friday. Not much has changed since we were last there, just that everyone has gotten older. They still have work backed up all over the place. Got our names on the list for spring/early summer engine work and next fall or later paint job. Yesterday took the van to storage for the winter.

This morning I started up the heat out in the barn and we did some clipping and bundling of plum tree prunings. We have a pretty impressive stack of twigs small limbs in the barn, but it is a good thing to do at this time of year. These bundles probably won't get used for another two years.

I wasted time today sorting through books on our bookshelves looking for things we either won't read, won't read again, or don't really want to have a physical copy. I've got a stack of about a dozen books which we can give away when the town library opens again. I also dug out some of the old technical books that are old enough now that they aren't good to anyone (technology that's no longer supported, but not old enough to be interesting as vintage). Those will be going to recycling. The result of these efforts is there might be enough room on our shelves to store the books which couldn't find a home on shelves before. I also dug out a few things I haven't read before to put on my bedside table.

I've been slowly filling the Kobo I bought earlier this year (or was it last?). Derien seems to like how it works, so it will probably become our go to ebook technology. Barnes & Noble no longer supports our nooks and I've slowly become less and less impressed with their offers. I like having an ebook to read and I will not join the empire and buy a Kindle. So the Kobo Forma seems to fit the bill: paperbackish size, light, purpose-built, capable of taking all sorts of non-drm content, decent storage capacity. It gives me a sense of security to know I can carry around more books than I could possibly read in my lifetime.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here already. I did see some turkeys walking across the lower yard headed for the forest earlier this week. They didn't come up and check under the bird feeders so they must be feeling well fed.

Powell's is releasing the smell of books: https://www.powells.com/book/powells-unisex-fragrance-1110000347670/18-0

Could be part of a whole line of geek scents: the smell of solder and 3D printer extrusion, ozone from the ham radio.

The bird feeders we have outside the kitchen window are the sort which accommodate small birds. Finches stand on the the little perch sticking out and stick their beak in the hole above it. Pretty straightforward. These aren't so accommodating to bigger birds. Generally anything cardinal size or larger can't use them because they can't scrunch down enough to reach in the hole. I've seen some birds try to hang on sideways and flap with one wing, but most give up after a while because it is just tiring.

But this year we have some smart bluejays. One of them learned to grip the end (not the center) of the little perch, face the feeder, tuck the tail against the lower part of the feeder under the perch, and reach in to the hole. Most bluejays faced with sunflower seeds will take one, fly off to a branch, put the seed between their feet, and get the kernel out by drilling with their beak (this is chickadee style). This clever bluejay has decided that a little roughage is fine. He'll grab a seed, stick his head straight up and gulp. Seed gone, no wasted effort of flying or pecking. He'll do five or six seeds in a row very quickly then fly off, I suppose to digest. Some of the other jays have caught on to how to get a seed, but I don't think they've all learned to swallow them whole. The jays can't do that trick on the lower perch on the feeder, so the small birds do still get some of the food.

I saw a bunch of blackbirds taking turns with a good trick to get around the same problem. They couldn't reach the hole for the seeds, but one would grab the perch, lean over, and flap like hell for a while then stop. This had the effect of propelling them and the bird feeder around in a circle violently. As soon as they stopped flapping they'd go just as violently backward around the circle. The violently part was the key. All the friends on the ground would get sprayed with mana from heaven. After a while the bird that was spinning would get tired and hop off to the ground and another would take the place of the first. They emptied that bird feeder faster than squirrels do.

The last few days I've been trying to avoid the news for some portion of the day by listening to random odd podcasts. Derien thinks me strange for listening to Marketplace episodes from years ago, but I can still learn things. And the comedy shows from years ago are comforting. Remember that one where the Scottish people voted to stay in the UK because they didn't want to lose EU membership?! Ah, those were good times.

What is most striking listening to those old shows from four or five years ago or even sometimes a year ago is how much the tone has changed. Those old shows talked about the future. Not just talked about it, they assumed a future. The people in them often had plans or at least were trying to have plans.

Today I can't say I have any plan longer than "I might live through tomorrow." And if you listen between the lines of what people say today, you know it's pretty much the same all over. (For a given value of western centric all over, admittedly)

Do you have a plan for anything beyond breakfast? Not that a plan for breakfast is a bad thing.

The random player just decided to play Zevon "Lawyers, Guns, and Money". Probably be a better song for tomorrow evening.