Early Morning Fun (NOT)

Ring came down Monday and brought a new motor for the charger and it turns out to be a real good thing. We got that changed out yesterday and after all the cloudy to partly cloudy days I was in bad need of it. Solar just wasn't cutting the mustard. Now I'd also failed to check the watter in the batteries and they aren't holding voltage near as long as they should be. I did top the batteries off yesterday also, but they are still loosing voltage way to soon. That caused me to wake up at 3:40 AM to go fire up the charger because the inverter had cut out. I've had the charger running for about an hour and will run it for another hour and then MAYBE I can get some more sleep.

We also got the two new/used tires I'd bought from Gill on the falcon and I also bought a spare from him so I hope to be driving it again pretty soon. In the mean time the Jeep is doing real good after Gill worked on it. Maybe I'll show the trike some attention before long. We took it out to the swimming hole and I intended to take the camera, but forgot it so no pictures from there.

Memorial Day Weekend

First off I want to thank all vets who have served this country (Whether they are still alive or not.) A special thanks to those who paid the supreme price for this country. I hope they will never be forgotten. Also thanks to the families who lost them and had to deal with the loss.

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A photo from last night with the moon rising over Red Bluff. Didn't turn out too good, but it was sure beautiful here!

And now a few ramblings...

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A potential disaster was averted yesterday after the bar manager at the legion forgot to order beer for the 6th Legiondary Jam coming up tomorrow (The 26th) Thanks to Judy for making the trip to Alpine to get the order! Now there should be enough beer to go around for the musicians who give of their time and talent for free to help others and those who attend the Jam. Thanks MUCH to the musicians and Pat O'Bryan for promoting the event.

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Booger was spotted by one of my friends yesterday about a quarter mile north of the legion so a couple of us jumped in the keep with a beef stick for a lure. We drove around the vacant buildings and the area and saw no sign of him at all. Later that afternoon I was sitting on the patio at the legion and saw him traveling at a fast run northwest in to the desert. I called him by name in hopes of getting him to come to me, but instead he stopped, looked my way and then took off like a rocket through the desert. Its at least comforting to know he is still alive and obviously coming up with food and water somewhere.

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In years past (many years) on Memorial Day weekend the ex, myself and the granddaughters spent the weekend listening to the top 500 countdown on a Dallas radio station. We danced and had a good time the whole weekend. Now its that time again and as usual I miss that a lot and am a little saddened. The Legion Jam will surely help out there.

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Got a couple of the above yesterday morning thanks to the Family Outreach Center via a friend. Neither were frozen so I put one in the freezer and one in the fridge. I plan to butcher the one in the fridge in to smaller chunks and make it available to locals out here when needed. Will probably do the same with the other one later. Problem is that having to chill and freeze so much meat over powered the battery bank last night so the inverter shut down about 6:00 AM this morning. The gas charger is broken (Still) so all I could do is wait until the sun was up good enough to start the inverter again to get the fridge working. All is well for now, but its starting to cloud up so I may have to move both of the hams to the freezer at the legion until the cloudy days are over. Too bad we aren't getting some decent rain out of them, but it could also be large hail so I'll try not to gripe much.

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Got tired of the long hair (Not real long) and decided it would be a lot cooler to buzz my head. It worked, but now I'm trying to avoid getting a red dome. (Sunburned head)

In case your wonder why all pictures of me show my head leaning to my right its like this... Years ago I had to have surgery on my neck after a fall off of a ladder. Unfortunately when they used cadaver bone to fuse my neck together it has caused my neck to be crooked every since.

And on the Homefront

The Foots got here Friday and we were able to spend a good bit of quality time visiting both here with hot dogs for lunch and at the Legion also. They  brought yet another house (Cabin warming) gift on this trip. They were heading back home today and neither wanted to go. Sure wish they could have stayed a lot longer. I think they will be back again next weekend and should be here for the 6th Legiondary Jam. For anyone in the area that wants to go it will be Sunday the 26th. According to the online forecast its only supposed to get up to 93 that day so if that holds true then it should be real nice by the time it starts that evening. Winds are supposed to be light which should help to with all the people who will be outside on the patio.

This fan will come in real handy at night since it will come from a different power source than the main power system which means I'll be able to run it all night without worrying about it and the fridge running the batteries down enough to cause inverter cutout.
The high here so far for this summer has been 108 and its going to get a lot warmer so I need to get the little refrigerated window unit installed pretty quick. I'll only be able to run it in the heat of the day though. (When there is enough sun on the solar panels to power it and the fridge.) The gas powered charger is broken down now and I haven't been able to figure out the problem so I wouldn't be able to extend the run time of the window unit at night if needed. It will sure be nice to stay halfway cool during the heat of the day though!

On another note... The New Used computer I bought off of ebay a few short months ago was a referb and was also  supposed to come with a brand new battery pack and large hard drive. The battery  pack DIED day before yesterday so I can no longer run it at night without drawing power from the inverter. Its supposed to have a guarantee on it, but getting it warranted would be out of the question if I had to send the whole computer in. Grrrr....

I took the two rear tires off of the falcon this morning and took them and the blown out spare over to Gill's where I'd bought a couple of real good used tires. I should get them back in a few days if not sooner. That with using the one tire that was still pretty good for a spare will pretty near put the falcon back in road worthy condition and I plan to register it again so I'll have a backup vehicle when needed. Being without a vehicle down here really sucks and I'd really like to avoid that situation again. Of course I still need to get the trike running again to have something cheap to putt around on out here.


Still no sign of Booger the dog and I still haven't heard of anyone else seeing him. I'd imagine his time is running out (if it hasn't already)

Lost Dog

He was last seen on the 16th headed south east through the desert. He is part chiwawa so is a fairly small dog.

 He was supposed to be my new dog and was dropped off here by my friend Susi along with a carrier like the one above. He hadn't been here to long and it was starting to get dark so I was going to put him in the carrier since I had the door to this cabin open. I couldn't get him to go in the carrier so tied his leash to the handle on the top and stepped out to use the facilities in the trailer. I hadn't no more than got around the corner when I heard a loud CRASH Bang and the sound of the carrier being dragged along. I ran back around to the front and saw him running around in circles with the carrier in tow so tried to grab him without success. I grabbed the carrier and he turned facing the carrier and pulled his head out of the leash and was gone in a flash. I assume he had thought the carrier was a monster chasing him.

He is a good little dog, but is extremely skiddish and had probably been abused before he was rescued by Susi.

Catchment / Legion

What a rain! A whooping .20th inche. I got my first catchment since the gutter was put up and catchment was installed, but would guess it yielded less than  20 gallons I'll take it though.

As far as the legion goes I can already see that it is going to be a pain in the ass to run. Too many people have too many ideas of which way  it should go.

Hands Across The River

There is a Hands across the river event planned for today. I think its supposed to start about 2:00 PM and last until ??? What it is supposed to consist of is musicians on both sides of the river at Lejitas with people joining hands across the river. This is supposed to be a joint effort between Mexican and American citizens. I think this is to help get another border crossing opened up there.

I think there is a 40% chance of rain in the area so hopefully that will hold off another day. Not sure whether I'll go or not, but that's probably NOT. Would sure be a good photo opp though!

Another Terlingua Ranch Lawsuit

Posted from a new comment from an older blog. More TR info by Don Mahan The Old Post

By Jessica Upton

"By Texas State Law every body is supposed to pay a per acre fee not a jacked up flat fee. The small landowners are paying for the large landowners. This is not legal by state law I will be filing a Class Action Lawsuit against the past and present board members and the POATRI. The large landowner want a flat fee so they don't have to pay there share and the board also posted that the large landowners don't have to pay any fee."

Just Lovely!

NOT!

I've been having a lot of trouble getting the Jeep to start lately so a couple of days ago I decided to take the falcon out of mothballs, register it and start driving it again. It wouldn't start and further investigation showed that the battery is bad and on top of that the starter is out.

I took the Jeep over to Gill's yesterday and got the bad news today that the engine is a goner in it. Now the jeep is at his place so I'm afoot until I can get it back and get the falcon on the road. Problem is my tools and jack are in the Jeep so I can't change the starter on the falcon until I can get the Jeep back here.

I've pretty well hunkered down in here all day because of the cool temp and high wind. The wind has been real high most of last night and all day today so I probably wouldn't have done anything anyway. (Looks like it will be again all night tonight) Even though the front part of the roof is secured now it still rattles a lot when the wind is out of the east. That kept me awake for a good part of last night since the wind is out of the north east. Its also been another damn sand storm all day. I still haven't fixed the charger and it was also cloudy all day so the solar hasn't done too good which means hitting the rack real early tonight. (No movies for me to watch.) This is one of the times when I think this place really SUCKS!

Legiondary Jam # 5

Laying down on the job.

Drunk? Maybe mildly, but I think this was more of a protest for lack of donations to a real worthy cause. Never the less these musicians and others managed to bring in $375 to fund trips to Odessa for a cancer patient to have chemo treatment. The trip each time is a 225 mile trip one way. I  say give a BIG hand to all that played for NO $ at all on their part. Thanks guys and gals!

Stuff done before the Jam. tomahawk throwing and skeet shooting.

Other pictures from the Jam. BTW there were a total of 80 people at the Jam which broke a record.

Note the guy holding the water. He is Pat O'Bryan and the brain child and promoter of the Legiondary Jams. Thanks Pat!