Stormy Weather

"The only thing that stay's the same, is that every thing changes"!

This is my 13th spring here, and all have been different.  Most were dry, but not this year. We have been in a nasty drought for the last three years, with last year being the worst. Almost all of the springs and ponds back in the Sheepsheads dried up. We lost Bone reservoir. When the drought started there were trout in it that were several pounds. It went totally dry. We really didn't have any moisture during the winter, but this spring it has RAINED! I believe our average rainfall is about 4.5 inches. I cannot tell for sure but I think we have gotten more than two inches in the last two weeks. Perhaps more. It has rained at least twice a day every day, for the last two weeks. Highly unusual in this part of the desert, but it is nature's way to make up for past dereliction. 

It has been so dark and gloomy that the sun cannot break through for either Sunsets, or Sunrises, so the chance for pictures has been pretty bleak. It was windy with a big storm brewing, so I decided to get some firewood to take the chill off. I didn't see anything of interest when I went out to chop wood. When I loaded the wheelbarrow with wood, I was able to look East, and there was a peculiar light show going on in the sky. I dropped the wheel barrow and ran for the camera, but I missed the best part anyway.

I took several bracketing shots and put the camera up, so that I could put the wheel barrow in the wood shed. Then I noticed the sky in the west. Another run for the camera.  

Looks like rain!

Sunrise this morning

It did of course rain a bit last night. There is a temporary upside to all this water however, and that is the plant life. The weeds are growing like crazy. I have never seen them so high, I can hardly wait till the sun comes out and they really take off. Naturally most of them are noxious, but hey, nobody's perfect. I did get lucky this year and I managed to lay down some "ground sterilizer" at just the right time and weather. It has to be applied so that the rain can soak it into the ground. I put it down in a drizzle that continued for a day and half afterward. It is supposed to last for 5 years. We will see.

The Mallow is coming up in profusion this year. When the pictures were taken the blooms had not opened up yet.  Mostly it is one or two plants here and there, but this time they are in big bunches. The bloom is just beginning, and things are likely to get really pretty for a while soon as the rains fade and the Sun comes out.

 The first Night Hawk this year.

 This one has a "seed" called a Goat head. I think it
was the pattern for a "Caltrops". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrop

Mallow and Foxtails

 This is what they do while I am getting my exercise- dig for Squirrels

The runway looks nice doesn't it. I am so pleased that I won't be spending all my time digging weeds out of the runway.

Shoshone Falls

There is not a lot going on that I can share with you, but I am well and healthy. So this is going to be mostly photos. We have had some great weather and then wonder of wonders, some spring rain.

They made for some nice Sunrises

Connie left for Glacier Park the beginning of this month. Leaving me to fend for myself again. So I am back on the search for a partner. Unfortunately all most all the misguided women of the world do not see the value of being able to piss off my porch or shoot in any direction without having to worry about someone being in danger from that shot. So while I have made a few new friends, none of them want to live here. One of those women is a gal from Alabama who is as comfortable to be around as any one that I ever called a friend. I know it sounds a bit "trite" but there are people in this world who you seem to have known and trusted in another life somewhere. Carole is one of those that make you so comfortable that you lower your guard, knowing that you can have all the warts in the world and its OK. She lost her husband the same month that I lost Karen.

This last week Carole took me to Shoshone Falls. I of course have been past there, but was on my way somewhere else, so the result was "zooooome" right on by. ( Thanks Dennis) The winter melt has the Snake running pretty full, so it was about as pretty as it gets. Here are some pictures for you-

New parking, rodeo

Life goes on, and thankfully I am still blessed with Connie's presence, at least for a while. In case you are wondering, she is aware of my adventures, but chooses to grace me with her presence from time to time anyway.

Connie wanted to see the bridge over the Owyhee, So I took her down there and while we were there met Jack, who owns the Pillars. I asked for permission to take Connie down there. I had a new spot that I wanted to take her, and there was no time like the present.

It has been raining a bit and the ground here is a bit gooey. I made it up the bank, but Connie wasn't prepared and sat down. Brick was right there with her to comfort her however.

After we finished our walk we went over to Rome Station to see if they had gotten the gas pumps installed. They had, and while I was a bit saddened by the price for non ethanol, at least there was some available. These are set up with airplanes in mind, and one can taxi right up to the pump.

On Sunday we went back to Jack's place for a branding, as Connie likes to watch. The way all this works is that a group of Ranchers get together and each helps with the others branding's. Each week until all their calves have been branded, and worked, they help each other at their places. They all gather at the designated spot, the host provides refreshments and a dinner afterward. All the kids come along and are allowed to learn how it is done from the older ones. They are allowed to take their turn at roping either on horse back or on foot. I have never heard even one get yelled at for anything. It is all encouragement. The really small ones can play there in the dirt and help as they want to. Just a bit unlike my childhood. The level of patience is both remarkable and commendable.

Sunday Connie and I went over to the ranch and picked up a tractor with a brush hog on it, and I "hogged the brush off the spot that I want to put the plane parking. Today I went back and got the road grader and leveled it out, then took the quad and a drag and smoothed it out. Now I will only have to install some cables for a tie down.

Now if I can get a good rain on the ground, this will set up nicely and the planes will not have to be pulled to the top of the hill so that they can take off with out all the dust storm that has accompanied it.

Senior dating redux:

As you can imagine I have had several comments about this blog. One that both tickled and amazed me was that if I would send him a picture of me holding the Burns paper and show my left man boob, he would send me $5.oo. What the hell, here goes.

                                       If you need to wire it, I can give you the routing number.

                                                       I am hoping for a cessna 182.

On Line dating, or the search for the elusive new partner! Rated risque.

I been a bit quiet for several reasons. One, I am doing very little because of the time of the year, and two because I have been busy trying to find someone who could possibly live with me, and of course dodging scammers. Spring is coming however, the weeds have really greened up over here.

 I have heard all my life from my female acquaintances about how unscrupulous some men are, and how men treat them as "meat" or prey. I of course have at first hand noticed how unwilling most women are to share the bounty that nature has bestowed upon them, being occasionally a bit unscrupulous myself. Prior of course to meeting Karen. Ahem! At this point I am beginning to resemble the Gazelle surrounded by hungry lionesses. I feel your pain ladies.

As I mentioned this post is likely to touch on subjects best not discussed if you still live with your mother, So Barbara if you are reading this- quit!

A bit about myself before I get too far. I am secure enough in my own mind that I don't have a problem sometimes looking foolish. We all are, on occasion. The difference is that I don't mind exposing my failings all that much, if fact I find them pretty funny. I can still out do and whip most of you so its just not that hard on me to be honest and see the humor in  my failings. If my honesty can lead others to see some of themselves in my "comedy" then good! If not, that's your problem.

Probably other than the obvious fact that I am 74, (an age when most sensible men are sitting in their rocker watching sit coms.) live in the most remote part of Oregon, and have a house that will go to a reverse mortgage company when I die. This might have a bit to do with my success rate, maybe not. The rest of my problem is the plane that I have. My plane, Dart, is a one and half seater. As such I can only carry a passenger that weighs less than 150 lbs. Have you any idea how scarce 150 pound women are of my age group? I have about decided that I need to start a "go fund me" page to enable me to buy a bigger plane so that I can branch out on my search.

Now most of you know that I have been seeing Connie most of this last year. She is a lot of fun and I would take her in a minute if she would have me, but I am not enough for Connie. She still has a bit of "fiddle foot" in her make up and besides, she doesn't want to live here. Her year is already planned, and if you are in Glacier Park and later  Grand Canyon, this year you may see her.

So my only recourse is to try another online dating site. I've been through Match, and two sessions of Farmers only. I did meet one nice lady on Match, but she didn't want to live here either. I met Connie on Farmers and she has been a godsend, but alas, considering Connie's plans, I still am looking. I met another gal on Farmers, after Connie and I began to see each other, that quite frankly seemed to be too good to be true. She was gorgeous, and professed to be madly in love with me. At about the same time there was another gal in her fifties of all things, whose idea seemed to be that a 74 year old couldn't last all that long and when I died she would own her very own Stud ranch for her 7 horses. She called me on the home phone and was pretty bossy, and actually so down right scary that I hung up on her. You might say that I was rude.  Her main problem was that I knew Connie. I did let her call me right back and  let her call me the last expletive however. Whew, that one wore me out.

I met another, that to this day I cannot say if she-he was scamming me or not. Either she is real, or a damn egotistical ass that cannot believe that ?he? cannot convince an old dottering fool to part with his "life savings". I was suspicious from the vary start, because she fell all over me, and she said just the vary words that I wanted to hear. This went on for quite a long time. She was an interior decorator that worked out of her home, a widow. She had a big contract coming that would allow her to do as she wished, was willing to move, every thing I wanted to hear. Then all of a sudden her accounts were hacked and bank account emptied, she was in the middle of full filling a contract that she had already been paid for, could I send her some money. I was sad, but I had been expecting it. So I decided to see how it was going to turn out, I was a bit bored any way, so I explained to her that I would not send money to someone that I had never met. Of course that was "terrible" how could I not trust her enough to give her money. I expected her to move on, but in a few days she contacted me again.

One of the "interesting facts" besides the fact that she was a mute but could hear, (that way I couldn't talk to her )  was that her phone's camera didn't work. She could however still text. She had all kinds of pictures of a very luscious ( Dottering fool talk for beautiful senior citizen) woman. Those however were pictures on her tablet. She never explained whether or not her tablet had a phone, but any way, gobs of great pictures, and she would have fit into my plane!

So for a while the talk on text were consistent with nagging, and the ones through email were flowery and sometimes suggestive. Now I have long ago learned my lesson, and I avoided any mention of a sexual nature. Then after a while, she gets almost done, but has one more expense to finish and is willing to settle for 5 K.  Part of that is to be the ticket that will bring her into my arms. She is in Georgia, so I ask her the address where she is working. Another blow up about how I don't trust her. Hell I don't trust my brother, and I have known him for a lot longer than her.

I have nothing better to do than have all this crap running circles in my head, and I began to rationalize, that maybe she is real, so I send her another text. I had been asking her to supply me with a picture that would verify that it was current. Pissed again, "don't trust her"!

 So during this time I try "Ourtime", and on the first day I get four women in their late 60's and early 70's that would make any woman of that age green with envy, and they all love my profile and are willing to relocate and think that I am so very hansom. They will each fit in the plane as well.  Now, I have a mirror and I have to look in it when I shave. I have never seen this fella that they are talking about.

Each and every one of them loves the outdoors and likes to cuddle! Damn, how could one guy be so lucky? At least two of them are interior decorators that work out of their home and I don't think either one of their phones do any thing more than text. Hummmmmmmmm!

This was on March 31st that I signed up, and one of them has already asked me for money to fulfill their pending contract that they ran out of funds for. I'm wondering if she might be a relative of the first gal, maybe they could pool their efforts and be more effective? She had sent me a page of 30 questions to get to know me better. I of course answered it.

So today another one of them sent me a page of 30 questions for me to answer so she could get to know me better, Strangely enough her answers were the same as the first gal. So I just copied and pasted the first ones email to her with the questions that I had answered. She? is probably mad at me!

So in the mean time the original gal and I began "talking" again, and this time she had gotten her contract for well over 3 M, and she was so happy. This time in her happiness that we were back together again she was a bit risque in her texts, and of course the pictures in my head were the stuff of fevered hormonal teenage dreams, but way back in my head was this little guy of reality, going but,but,but, wait! Is there really any woman that wants to do that to you? Has there ever been? Can't remember if there was. Almost to the last I have never known a woman like that. I have been around a while, odds are that it would have happened at least once during all that time.

Anyway I began to believe her again. With reservations, but it was possible that she was real and I would have to apologize for not believing. She in the mean time in coming back home had gotten her daughter to take some pictures of her to send to me to prove that she was real. I ask her for one with a calendar so that I could tell that it was current, but I didn't want her to smile in it. After quite a while I got the picture, but with the same radiant smile. She explained that she smiled because it wouldn't be "photogenic" to not smile. The date from the camera was about three days off, but plausible. Then the next day I got another picture with her holding a sheet of paper with the words "Trust me Larry" the page was a bit close so I couldn't really tell if it was real or not, but it was very plausible. Then it turns out that they are going to inspect her warehouse and some of her machines were faulty and she needed 3,500 before the fifth to fix them. Imagine that! So here we go again. In a stroke of ?brilliance? I told her that all of her pictures were of her radiant smile and this time I wanted her to take a picture with no smile and one breast exposed (see Barbara, I told you to not read this.) I figured that if she was indeed real and could manufacture a picture like that immediately she could actually be real and I would send her the money. Well she was of course outraged, and said, she didn't do nudity. I told her it wasn't nudity and after what she promised to do every morning, it didn't seem like such a big deal. She of course refused, said I was mean. I told her good bye and blocked her, or who ever she is.

So the moral of all this guy's, is that you should get down on your knees and thank the good lord that you have a woman that will tolerate your worthless ass. Cherish her and take care of her. You do not know the blessing that you have.

If any of you happen to have some spare change  to go towards a two seat airplane, I could lower my sights to a bit more realistic type of woman.

The circus continues!

March 6th, 2019

Today was Karen's birthday, but who the hell pays attention to things like that? Its a bit funny, I always confused Karen's Birthday with my Mom's which was the 9th of April. So I would miss Karen's birthday by 3 days, which of course made her very happy with me. Now when it doesn't matter I can't forget. Life and the human mind is a very funny thing.

I shall from now forward think of this day as High Desert Spring. It has of course been slowly creeping up on us here, but today the signs were unmistakable. I now have lots of time to pay attention to the little things of life that one can easily ignore when the drama of every day life intrudes upon our conscious thoughts.

Monday there was a skeen of about 40 Geese heading North just at the limits of sight as the day faded to black. I wondered where they started from on that morning. There was a good tail wind at their altitude and it didn't take long for their calls to fade to nothing. My neighbor to the South has been catching some of the Starlings that have descended on his ranch. They are replenishing my summer food supply for the Hawks. Today was the first day that I have seen one here at the house.

I went to the hot tub just after daylight as is my habit. Today I left the jets off and just sat in the water and listened and watched. The morning was foggy. The creek had a layer of fog on it that almost came up to the house, a bit skimpy, but somehow comforting. I watched a single jet drawing an arrow in the sky and as usual the sound didn't catch up until he was directly overhead. In the early mornings the birds begin to greet the day as the morning brightens, and today there was a call that I had not heard for some time. The Say's Phoebe was back. They nest under the porch and hunt off the coat rack for the tub. Then I heard a Kingfisher down at the creek. The two Red Tails were cleaning out their nest for the first time as well. Then it finally dawned on me- Spring is coming! Apparently that realization must have become apparent to the Coyotes as well since they began to greet the new day with howls of glee. The joy of their sing along was lost on Brick (the love bug) as he began to look over his shoulder and "burf" in warning.

It has been a mild winter for sure, for me at least, but I am ready for the renewal of spring. Of course its not all over, but the light is visible at the end of this tunnel. Take the time to stop and pay attention to the little things around you. Not the obvious distractions, but the little signs of nature that tell you to cherish what you have, strive for better, and above all love those around you.