Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Friday night and I’m wrangling again with another Norseman’s article. It was going to be called "The Year of Renovation " mainly because my ambitions have been fired to salvage and repair the best of my past accomplishments over the last 20 or so years and combine them onto one grand unified operation that is some semblance of everything I wanted and maybe easier to manage and enjoy. Like this article I’ve written which is a shorter version of a much longer one.

Yeah right.

However it actually looks doable even though efforts to reorganize the indoor part of my operation more or less remains stalled by indecision and time constraints. The weather at least has been a bit kinder than last winter and so far I’ve managed to keep my head above water in that regard. The original title was to be "Year of Renovation". However with enemies of Freedom and Prosperity currently doubling down with the Green New Deal bandwagon and a near miss with winter related existential danger earlier today—I decided on a title change that is more timely in regard to my personal situation and current events.

I could go back to Winter Storm Harper that the Weather Channel was raving about the middle of last month but it was more or less a flop as far as being the storm of the century is concerned. The cold end of it was pretty brutal and I took some epic measures to cover the palmettos in front of the greenhouse to give them a little better chance to preserve as much green leaf tissue as possible that is key to a good rebound come spring. Especially after producing an abundant seed crop last fall!

The vacant 300 Rubbermaids were worth a try to give some short term protection from an extreme cold spell with subzero lows. The verdict is out but it probably helped.

2/4/19

The February Thaw

Day went well and this may be the turning point for the winter doldrums that have been sapping my energy and morale lately.

Was glad to find that the way was clear going in.

The ice sheet on my driveway is cause for concern but so far I’ve been able to shoot in ok and back up and get my to swing around so I’m aimed to head out without getting hung up. I did have a close call last week.

To get up to the greenhouse site I walked around the backside of the furnace and up that way. Noticed the deer have been browsing one of the rhododendrons pretty bad. In future years I’ll be investing in some fencing I can put up to protect those and other shrubs in the winter.

The Gulf Coast pen was a great place to be today. A far cry from just a few days ago when it was way below freezing and everything blanketed in white stuff.

On my way out of C’ville I’d been thinking about that girl referred to as "Pennsylvania Snowflake" on the Deplorable Climate Science Blog who was whining about the 58 degree temperature variance that is supposably making life too difficult in the region. If anything it is currently making life more bearable in the way of shirtsleeve conditions vs life threatening cold that can cause frostbite to exposed flesh in a very short time and even kill—as it did my two male Gulfs last winter.

Can’t beat it when the weather in Western Pennsylvania is the same as the normally mild conditions prevailing in the Florida Panhandle this time of year. Quite amiable to most forms of terrestrial life—both reptilian and mammalian. This turtle was happy to get out of the crate he traveled in and start ambling around the outdoor habitat he and the female that came with him from California last summer got to spend just a month in after the transfer from the quarantine setup at the beginning of October.

It felt very good as I sat there and two of the cats; Tom and Boots came along to hang out in the warm sun beating down on the site. It made me think of days past when the three kittens that showed up in the summer of 15 while the pen was under construction used to play all over the structure as I worked. I have quite a few pictures of them from those days that I’ll have to share some day.

02/12/19

This may be the week of weather gone wild.

From snow to rain overnight Sunday and this morning it’s wind.

Still had to sweep the remainder of the heavy stuff off the ramp going out yesterday. I left early so I could stop by the Credit Union and take care of that refinancing set up on Friday. A signature loan to pay off most of my Chase Card balance that was eating me alive at 20% interest and next to impossible to make any headway with. From that to $76 a pay deduction for a 5 year payoff at 8%! Then I can bring my next statement in and they will transfer the remaining balance to another card with a lower rate. Finally I will have breathing room again and be able to handle seasonal and unexpected expenses without a major juggling act and maybe even start building a nest egg again. This looks like the turning point I’ve been hoping for.

That was the high point of my day. Then it went downhill from there. Work was rather hectic much of the day. Almost didn’t bother stopping by home except for the sake of the cats and to look for Uncle Budd’s grocery money envelope that I was unable to find on my way out on the morning. Feared the worst—that I’d dropped it somewhere. It was not at home but I did find it on the bedroom floor of my room back in C’ville putting to rest another issue that haunted me through the day.

Now one more crunch remains. Oil. The cookie in the gauge was resting a little above empty when I eyeballed it last night. Fortunately the weather is not extreme frigid so it should last long enough to get it filled again later this week. I have to call before I head off to work today.

Sounds like Ray is getting buried by a snowpocalypse in Wisconsin. I hope we miss out on that this year in my region. Right now it’s the winds. The power was interrupted briefly a few seconds and earlier I was wondering if the pilot light on the furnace had been blown out by an updraft but it flamed on while I was downstairs feeding the newts this morning and I still have hot water too. The house is a few degrees cooler than set temp but the radiators are hot so I’m guessing in the absence of extreme cold outside it might be infiltration from the wind. I can feel drafts in my room and the bathroom.

2/14/19

Today the best day of the week I’m committed to taking Uncle for his checkup. Near 50 today and 40s tomorrow and above freezing overnight I might be able to get the netting off the ponds and stowed away after I deal with the oil man in the morning. Have $400 worth / 150 gallons coming. That may be enough to get me to warmer days—though the long term does not look encouraging. It may be another late and chilly spring like last year—though we’ll have to wait and see.

This morning I was texting a lady friend after sending her a link to Isaac Arthur’s Valentine’s Day special episode about " Happily Ever After" in the future. I also sent a message to Mark asking if he can get me some grandipinnis and escambiae plus a clump of giant hatpins on his next Florida trip. I’d sure love going down there with him. Maybe in about 5 years. That’s when the signature loan is paid off.

Hoping to make some leaps and bound in the way of getting my home front back in order this season beginning with the Florida Room and ending with the watercourse and some new turtle pens for good measure. I’m thinking now of an open air pen with an electric fence that will start out as a nesting pen for the Euro Ponds and eventually become a habitat for Gulf Coasts when I can move the Euros on to a permanent setup. Probably a satellite pond to the big one I want to build in the dip by the greenhouse.

Spent the morning and early afternoon tending critters and started the next Norseman’s Diaries which seems to be going together pretty well. I hope to have the latter finished by the weekend.

Then we were off for the 3 PM appointment. Stopped at the bank and got cash and the numbers for my book. Starting out pretty decent with more than $100 left over from the previous pay to cover the withdraw for cash and gas money. On the way back from the Dr’s office I ran into Busy Beaver to get two sizes of screws to fit the metal pieces that will fasten the legs onto the Turtle Table. Then dropped Uncle off at Walmart to start his shopping while I made a quick run out home to check on things and drop off the hardware so it will be there tomorrow. Then I fed the cats and did a brief walkabout to check the ponds and greenhouse. Missed the perfect day for things outside though tomorrow still offers hope. There was still a little slushy ice on the pond that at least won’t get worse because it will remain above freezing all night long and get back up near 50 again in the afternoon. I should be able to break up whatever does not dissolve away in meantime enough to get the nets off the water and should be able to drain and remove the leaves from both pools in the watercourse.

If not there will be another warm spell by next weekend so eventually I’ll get it off. If only my back hadn’t given out on me I’d’ve gotten it off during the January thaw.

Checked the level on the oil tank and its nearly empty. Was going to turn it down to 50 but didn’t want to chance running dry and having to reprime the fuel pump so I took it off line altogether. Only going down to the 40s tonight so letting the house get a little more chilly is no big issue. However I just hope I can get my order tomorrow because I need it desperately. It’s going down into the 20s for lows over the weekend and I’m concerned because the delivery company tried to call while I was riding out to my place and when I tried to return their call after getting there they apparently were gone for the day. Worried now that they’re going to tell me they’re unable to deliver. Always something.

Now that I’m getting back my financial wiggle room the plan is to get the tank filled and a stockpile of firewood built up over the summer so there is no more squeezing and juggling to keep my head above water next winter. I want everything I need to get through it without having to bring anything in for the duration! No more having to worry or reaching for the plastic which was what helped dig the hole I’m getting out of now.

Speaking of—I got a new statement from Chase. Which unfortunately does not reflect the $8,000 signature loan payoff yet but does reflect the recent payments I made. It probably went out the same time as the check was mailed from the Credit Union. I’ll be looking for my new card from them so I can transfer my remaining balance onto it and dump Chase.

I would be feeling pretty good right now were it not for the news of the Green Raw Deal that came across my phone to spoil my dinner at Long Johns. A surreal contrast to the atmosphere of wall murals of beach scenes from the late 50s / early 60s—cars with tail fins and a Jukebox playing songs of that era. While one of Michael Savage’s rants about how he liked back when the chrome was thick and the cars were fast and powerful and THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS AN ENVIRONMENTALIST echoes in my brain. The better fuel economy of modern vehicles is a good thing up to a point—but the "Green Raw Deal" as I’m calling it; is lunacy. They want to force us all into public transit and eliminate air travel altogether. And I’m sure they’ll find some excuse to kill privately funded space development too in order to block all the exits that people might try to use to escape their dystopian vision of a shithole planet. Which is what all of Earth will become if they get to rule it.

The one article that really sends shivers up my spine reads something like: Coming to a Community Near You. YIKES! Whenever they say that you know you’re in trouble!

They’re coming for my greenhouse and the Florida Room and my outside furnace too!
https://townhall.com/columnists/kenblackwell/2019/02/13/the-green-new-deal-is-coming-to-a-community-near-you-n2541338

Forget worrying about the next Ice Age. If we let this new crop of leftist lunatics get the reins of power we won’t live to see it.

Oh boy. We’ve got our work cut out come 2020 and beyond.

But the Year of Renovation must go on. In the event the battle is lost , I’d still like to get my own affairs into a better state of order. At least I might be able to enjoy the finished product of my labors before they come to take it away or ruin things so badly that it all becomes untenable. Then it becomes a matter of fulfilling a legacy. A collection of ideas and accomplishments that can be passed on to future generations.

02/15/19—11:41 AM

Major crisis on my doorstep. As I feared the reason the oil supplier tried to call yesterday was because they are down a driver and won’t be able to get to me until Monday!

I explained my situation and they might be able to work me in somewhere so now I’m waiting and hoping. Not sure what to do. If they can’t. Call another supplier or see if I can run a kerosene heater or borrow one of Uncle Budd’s propane ones to keep the house from freezing the next three nights. It might even be ok without heat but I’m worried because since I took the furnace off line it has dropped to 52 inside which is only a couple degrees above the outside temp and it’s going into the 20s overnight so plumbing and aquariums might freeze.

Currently I’m running a small electric heater in my bedroom to keep warm while I wait. Does not do much as the situation is still miserable. 52 degrees may be balmy outside on an unseasonably mild winter day but indoors it’s absolutely miserable. It’s a fortaste of the future portended in yesterday’s news up close and personal. Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk can take their Green Raw Deal rationing economy and shove it! The idea of living without warmth is a lot like living without electric lighting. It plain sucks because without either you are more likely to want to stay in bed under coversto keep warm and won’t want to take a bath. I attribute a lot of funkiness of patients we see in the ER to a reluctance to bathe without heat in the wintertime. Whenever you combine poverty with a cold or a desert climate you get less cleanliness because either comfort or availability of water for bathing is an issue.

Which is why you don’t want the government taking over energy production. Which at best will be incompetent management and more likely will be deliberate intent to do harm and use deprivation and shortages of resources to destroy people. How can you trust any left wing ideologue? Since so many of them have made the argument that there are too many people on the planet and that population must be reduced. And have openly admitted to wanting to overload the system in order to collapse it. Not much different than the religious fanatic wanting to hasten the advent of Judgement Day. You certainly don’t want these fiends in power where they can actually do harm.

Going on noon. Will try to get something done while I wait but it is hard. I just want to run back to C’ville where it’s warm and comfortable.

02/15/19—1:34 PM

Coming up on noon the sun made its appearance to lift my spirits. Along with news that the oil truck was headed my way. I called to follow up before moving out to work on stuff outside. Quite a turnabout after an unsuccessful attempt to ignite the old kerosene heater and the prospect of fetching diesel oil or kerosene in 5 gallon containers to tide me over to Monday. That’s almost as pleasant as the carving up the family dog for thanksgiving scenario!

So I’ll be ok for maybe another month depending on how cold it gets.

Now to get back outside and finish pulling the net off the main pond I started before the truck arrived. Not sure if I’ll try shifting the Redbreast / Bullhead tank today but I kind of want to so I can make room for the Turtle Table around which the rest of the room will be arranged.

At least I don’t have to tread water like I thought I was going to have to be doing this weekend on top of working my real job!

02/15/19—11:54 PM

Update at end of a productive day that started out a bit scary to put it nicely.

Very fortunate my weather is nothing like what Ray describes coming through the gates of Hell into Wisconsin. That and a poor old fellow about the same age as Uncle Budd who is trying to tough it out on the job when maybe he ought to go to see a doctor. Bless him—hope he will be ok. I can see myself working when I’m that old. Preferably I’ll be doing a seasonal thing like a small garden center selling rock garden and pond plants in the warmer months after I retiree and just deal with winter in the winter time.

Luckily it’s being a lot easier on me this year than it has been for you—or even me in some past years considering some of the stories I’ve written down in the Diaries. If it had been something the likes of some of the storms in 2009 through 17 I would be screwed. Especially today without the outside furnace to fall back on. I really need both so I can fall back on one or the other depending on the situation. Such as extreme frigid spells when the outside one has trouble keeping up. When the boiler falls behind and can only get the house into the low 60s—good old reliable oil heat gets it back up pretty quickly and keeps pace with the demand because there’s no efficiency loss that comes with pushing water through the ground and then a heat exchanger. It goes strait from the boiler tank on the furnace into the plumbing. Of course I burn through more oil but it makes a nice backup and when I get back to my old routine I plan on keeping the oil tanks filled so there is no worry when I have to default.

Really glad I didn’t have to fall back on the kerosene heater but I decided today that there is no time like the present to get that back into working order and maybe even get another one so I can heat two floors. The igniter was still functional after all these years (since the October Surprise blizzard in 2005) but the wick would not ignite. Either because fuel is almost gone or it needs a new wick. It will be worth keeping some jugs of kerosene on hand for such contingencies and I can turn that over like my plan for the gasoline generator by dumping it onto the furnace tank and replace with fresh stuff every year. We actually used kerosene for the inside furnace before fuel got expensive and I switched to the cheaper fuel oil. Uncle Budd says kerosene is better because it has more BTUs. Guess you get what you pay for.

Finally got the nets off the two ponds.

Gathered up the leaves I pulled ashore along with the others I scooped off the net several weeks ago and whatever else had accumulated on the breast of the pond. Looks so clean now and I saw at least 3 goldfish. I’m confident all made it because I’ve seen no floaters so far which were evident last winter even before I got the net off. While this was ongoing I stated the process of emptying the Rosyside Pool again.

Got it cleaned out and the upper pool too. Thought about deploying the Hurricane but decided that would be a bit much on top of an already exhausting day working under raw conditions. Even though it turned sunny for a while and got well up into the 50s the water and the muck were cold. At least it’s over and done with for the season. Got the nets from both ponds rolled up and stowed in their bags which I brought with me to C’ville where they’ll dry out in the warmth of my bedroom and them I’ll spread them out again in the yard on a calm sunny day to clean them a little better and take them back home for storage.

Might not need the aeration system if the weather remains on the mild side or near normal but I used a brick to anchor it where I want it to stay and leave it go for a while. At least until March.

Saw more signs of spring today and yesterday in addition to snowdrops which are up and blooming as is normal this time of year; there are some crocuses and Reticulated iris starting to poke through the ground. In a few weeks there may be a good day to hook up the Hurricane and plug in the two Pondmasters that always remain in situ and run the watercourse. Get some good pics and maybe a perfect day in before I do the almost unthinkable. Drain the pond and try repositioning the liner. Kind of like to do that early so I only have to move fish around once. Would be best if the occupants of the pond could go to the Rubbermaids and back and the fish from the greenhouse and indoors could move outside after that is all finished. Going to attempt to shift the liner around to hopefully gain a little more depth and get the cutout where I used to have a bulkhead drain going to the 150 raised above the high water mark so it can’t leak. I’m not sure if it was contributing to leakage but I have my suspicions.

I fixed a significant area of sagging liner near the ingress of the inlet last summer that was causing waterlogged soil and probably contributed to the death of a couple lady slipper orchids planted there. Going to work my way around the entire circumference of the pond and find and break all contacts between the shoreline planting pockets and the earth outside the liner. Going to revamp the bog and reposition the cedars so they won’t be casting shade on the main part of the pond. Those Chamaecyparis thyoides var andelyensis “Conica” are supposed to be a dwarf cultivar but mine are getting pretty tall and need moved. They can also use some pruning. Wish I had done that when they were younger.

Checked the greenhouse briefly. All was well there. Attempted to burn a brush pile but it was too wet to sustain a burn. Now that I have more financial breathing room I’m going to take the saws up to the shop on the mountain and get them serviced so I can start cleaning up the pasture and collect enough slash to burn off that area above the Gulf Coast pen where I want to plant blueberries. Going to get a 20# propane tank and a hand truck for the weed dragon so I can start using it to get rid of cold season weeds and burn off the sand gardens which need serious rejuvenation.

Regrettably I have yet to get at the Florida Room. I was just too fatigued by evening to get into that. Again I’d like to devote a day to that task since it involves transferring and holding fish while I move their tank and I want to be at my best and not tired or hurried and prone to make mistakes. Maybe some day next week when it’s too cold or miserable to work outside.

After the recent turn of fortune and my narrow brush with catastrophe it was worth celebrating. If you can call the local Chinese restaurant—which is not as good as the New City Buffet—celebrating. I though about going to the later but I was just too worn out and figured it better to just go somewhere closer and get home safely and get some rest.

What a day!

NOTES