November 2015 ramblings

Haven't posted in a long time. I hate posting this.....Jolene died in June of 2014 from complications of Cushings Disease. She was being treated and her kidneys failed. I miss her to this day. Stephanie Bilger rescued a black GSD mixed with a tad of heeler. Molly is an older female that had been in rural Saluda county, and lived outside with virtually no shelter and fed only rarely. She gets to live inside and I thought she would bond with Mickey who was missing his Jolene. NO....Molly bonded to ME. She tolerates and BOSSES ( a good thing) Mickey. Gallman, the black Lab / Border Collie mix I got from the shelter decided he would rather be inside than the outside pen. He, when he needs to go out in the AM or PM, has a special bark. My friend Kevin Redding says his bark is like an old Chrysler car with a weak battery trying to start. Yep.....that's stuck in my head. 

     October and the start of November has been really wet. Leaves this fall have been not nearly as pretty as the NC mountains. 

     As I get closer to 70 (October 2016) I feel myself getting feeble.  I guess it is due to the scar tissue from repeated bronchitis events. Though I have not had one in sometime, the damage is there, and asthma has returned.  I guess I am not going to be a sled dog racer in Alaska now. Mickey is 10 and he would not have the stamina to race with JJay Levy. In 2011 I told her he would win races for her. In November 2013 he got to race with her Alaskan race dogs in a demo and he showed them up. Jolene was busy flirting with the biggest dog she could find.  

    Well that's all for now. 

Dogs and more dogs.....

     I have not written about my Siberian Husky I got from Chapin Burgess. He was under 40 pounds when I got him. Can we say neglect? I thought so. He hangs in around 55 pounds and immediately decided he loved living inside. He loves everybody, and loves to go to places and he greets folks like he is your long lost friend he hasn't seen in years.  He and Jolene are bonded.  Both dogs love to ride. The get in the back seat of the car and curl up. The rarely even look at the scenery going by. They just love to ride.  They love going to Tractor Supply. 

Now I have a foster dog who resides in my foster kennel outside. He is from the Newberry Shelter. 1 year old  Black lab, some Border Collie and tad of GSD maybe. He is 1 year old and still wide open. He loves to be with people, but he has never been taught any manners.  Pictures on my facebook page, and Newberry County Animal and Care...................... 

A roller coaster spring and cold !

It's been a roller coaster ride Spring.  Cold and warm. At least this is the first time since 2007 we have had above average rainfall, and the trees are the greenest since I moved here in 2007.  Rainfall has been above average and we are out of drought.  Yestereday morning the low was 38, but the low this morning was 54. From barely cracking 70 ( if we actually did) early in the week, highs across central and upstate South Carolina should be in the upper 80's.  

28 years ago today

"The Carolinas Outbreak" started here. It actually likely started just a few miles from my current back yard and did severe damage to Newberry. If the tornado had been "mature" it is likely that downtown Newberry would have been completely destroyed. We don't have outbreaks like this very often, and thank goodness for that.

Spring is trying to be early

Many plants have already bloomed. The Bradford Pears in Newberry are about finished, but out here they have just started. It's still dry.

The last blast of weather had a doppler indicated tornado in a severe thunderstorm sail by at 60 miles to my north by about 6 miles. It was 4 AM and I dressed and had the dogs on the leashes, but it was already by me as I was on the phone to the weather bureau.

Daytime temperature readings have been in the mid 80s multiple times. Too warm too early.

It's ALMOST Christmas

This year it is much warmer and there will not be snow and a White Christmas as we had last year.

This morning Carol Murray played The Singing Dogs doing Jingle Bells. Mickey, my silly sibe was asleep on the sofa on his dog bed. He got up, walked over to the radio on the mantle and howled along for the entire song.

Jolene, my heart dog has really learned a lot from him. He so outgoing and loving and she now will sit on the sofa with me and I can rub her paws.

Not much going on. I am going to get a cart or 2 wheeled something so they can learn to pull me. Mickey has done sled dog racing, and I would have loaned him out to be able to race in Alaska, but Jolene would have to have been part of the team. The lady that has Chapin Burgess' Kenai would not take his "Bear" who looks like Jolene so that means Mickey stays home.

New stuff.

Well, I surely didn't keep the 2006 Ranger that long. The 1996 Ranger, AKA the Gutless Wonder was QUIETER on the road and rode better than the newer one. I now have a Ford F150. It's a 2009 XL 4X4. It had only 6000 miles when I got it from Stokes Trainor. $16,900. It's like new.

I am so glad I have Mickey, the Siberian Husky from Chapin Burgess' rescue. I have made him an inside dog and he has done so well. And Jolene is happier and has learned from him. He's Wolf Gray and White with blue eyes. At least he is not wide open as he was when found in Savannah as a stray.

He's a working line Siberian, and if you show him a racing harness he goes wild. Now, over Christmas, we also taught Jolene to race. They were both in a team who brought Santa into town.

If gas gets to be $6.00 a gallon ..... HMMMMM !

More later!

A VIOLENT Spring in the South

We had some tornado activity here in SC and in Newberry County, and ONE started right here. It was beginning circulation that I was surrounded in. I was on the phone to the weather bureau and said the wind was whipping around. I decided to look and go onto the little porch I have and I was in the middle of a very week circulation with shredded rain circling the house at a about 40 MPH. I should have said I was in the middle of beginning circulation. THIS MICRO-NADO went out into the woods and made an EF0 or EF1 on Spearman road.

The NC outbreak was somewhat a replay of the March 28,1984 series of tornadoes called "The Carolinas Outbreak, that started a few miles west of my place, tore up Newberry and ended many hours later in the North Carolina Coastal plain. The next system was forced up more NorthEast into eastern NC and coastal Virginia. It also had a high risk forecast.

The system that tore up MS, AL, TN,GA and NC also had a high risk with PDS warnings and statements. With a strong EF5 tornado bearing down, the only safe place is underground or NOT THERE in the path.


I have all of those people in my thoughts and prayers!



The bad thing is we are just now going into May, often a very bad tornado month!

The backside of Fall

The leaves have been prettier this year than I originally thought. The drought we had this summer made the colors less vibrant, though they are nice. Now everything is fading to brown. The leaves are falling fast from the Winged Elms. The few White Oaks are a deep red. The Sweet Gums, those that have leaves left have a slate of color from bright yellow to deep purple, often on ONE tree. The Red Maples that have leaves have turned a deep red. The Sugar Maples that have leaves in the Mechanics Creek basin are bright yellow. The Willow Oaks are mostly either green or brown with most of them about 75% bare. The one in my front yard steadfastly and stubbornly holds on to Summer colors as long as possible, but the leaves are going from the top 1/4 now. The rest of the tree remains stubbornly brown, but time and colder temperatures will take its toll, and the tree will generally then release the remaining leaves in a snow of swirling brown leaves.


Powell

Jolene's Birthday treat

I thought about this all afternoon at the radio station. When I got off at 6 PM, I went to BI-LO one of our grocery stores and looked at the meat. I chose a large very inexpensive piece. I have this slow smokeless electric grill that lets the grease dropping fall into the cone shaped reflector that has water in it. It cooked the meat up so nicely. I had some New Potatoes with the feast, and Jolene was hand fed 4 pieces. She is sitting nearby happily.


Powell

Happy 4th Birthday dearest Jolene

found you at Pets INC where I volunteered when you were about 4 months old. You had come there as a mortified and abused pup from another rescue who had no room. They put you in the cat room for awhile. You were mortified of men, but that didn't stop me. I cornered you and took you for long walks. You became social to *ME*.... and when I moved they were going to give you to me. I paid full fee. They told me, that though they generally a no kill, she was unadoptable and her mental state would have eventually gotten so bad that euthanizing you would have been merciful. I took you to the woods of Silverstreet, and decided you had to be an inside dog. I also decided we had to walk at least a mile a day, and the first time I tried this, I thought on that long uphill back that, honestly, I wasn't going to make it back. Now it's a snap. I took you everywhere I went, and EVERY man I met had to pet you, even if I had to pick you up. I took you to all the events at Full Moon Farm, and socializing with all the people and canines there has done wonders for you. And you sure do like the big boys up there. and there's a couple that adore you.
You are quietly lying under the table where I type this.

It kills me that you are skitty of me in the house, and won't come in my bedroom and sleep there. You prefer your own dog pillow bed, your fluffy dog bed, or YOUR sofa ( was my sofa.......


Yes, dear girl, we ARE going for a walk after I eat my grits!

The Gutless Wonder is retired.

On the October 25th postiing I mentioned that The "Gutless Wonder" is retired. 10 years and almost 230,000 miles I retired my 1996 Ranger extended cab truck. Only 118 horsepower it went and went, but never got very good mileage for a 4. On the interstate at 70 around 23 and 60 around 23 and no matter if you drove hard or not. It was time, and I was considering trading the Taurus wagon with the 24 valve 3 liter V-6 on a pristine Outlander van, but they more or less wanted me to give them the car. THEN the 2006 V-6 extended cab Ranger got reduced from $14,000 to around $11,000 something. HMMMM! It has 50,000 miles and is in superb condition. So the old one went for the new one. I expect around 21 miles per gallon. On the trip Friday a week ago to Camden, SC from here round trip is 161 miles and I got 25 miles per gallon. It's 2 lane SC 34 all the way, so I never got to 70. The speed limit is 55. That's what I did. I may drive it to Black Mountain this weekend.

TOO Many Losses on "The Mountain"

As a few of you may know, I volunteer at Full Moon Farm, a rescue for Wolves and Wolfdogs. This has been a year of too many losses. This will be hard to write Delaware one of my heart canines died, from cancer that was not found during his bloat surgery. I have my memorial Delaware coffee cup as well as my Pete one. Pete was another heart dog. Nancy Brown who runs and owns Full Moon Farm says I am a mixture of Pete and Delaware.... a talkative, cranky old man. I guess she is right. I can't drink out of either cup. The coffee for some reason gets too salty. I'm not putting salt in my coffee.....
Pete died a few years ago. Annie, Nancy's first rescue finally died from her mamary tumors. I could give her treats, and she would make funny "squeally" noises of joy, take them from me and store them in her dog house. I never got to pet her. And then recently Zodiac finally went. The last Howl In he looked so old. He was overweight from his thyroid condition, and last Christmas was his last. I thought he was going to drop dead on me. He was around 10, and for the mix he came from that was good, especially being that out of that rescue some died of starvation and Zodiac weighed a breath of what he should have.
Nancy has a new outreach animal and his name is River. Jolene adores him. She also REALLY adores Lobo. I can let River take treats out of my mouth like Zodiac would.
Well that's all right now. Just this much has bummed me out rather badly!

Sliding into Fall

It is November now, and we are back on Eastern Standard Time. The Sugar Maple trees have finally changed color, and right abruptly I might add. My small Sugar Maple in the front yard is a pinkish red. The larger tree in the back yard has become bright yellow. The large Sugar Maple in the Mechanics Creek bed turned orange, but the tree also dropped a lot of the leaves. The Winged Elms are dropping leaves and turning a rather pale washed out yellow, then to brown and on the ground!
It's been quite wet and rainy, though the rainfall totals have not been substantial this time. At least the forecast for now gives us cooler than normal and dry until next week. That will give the standing water and boggy yard time to dry out and the water to soak down into the ground.
Jolene goes to the vet in the morning to see why she has bloodshot eyes. It might be "Pink Eye" but she shows no symptoms other than looking like she's a drunk. And she now has a kitty. It was my neighbor, John's kitten, but he fed him outside, but when he wasn't home he got food if I fed him. John calls him "AC" but I think ACE is a better name. He's an orange tabby with no black pigments.... pink nose and pads. This boy is wide open and plays VERY rough with Jolene which SHE likes. She plays rough back, but never hurts him. I am afraid Ace will try to attack a Coyote, thinking it's a dog. That is not good. Ace is going to be a rather large cat, and he is loving. You can hear him purr in the next county. I bought him a nice cat bed and he didn't want to get in it until I placed him in it on his back. THEN it clicked. So he does like it.

OOPS....I've been away too long.....

Well it has been quite some time since I wrote....so a short update. It's fall and the colors appear they are NOT going to be as vivid as last year. The stunning Sugar Maple down in the Mechanics Creek bed is turning color mostly but a lot if the leaves have dropped. My 2 Sugar Maples are just hinting, and the Winged Elms are dropping leaves and certainly won't be as pretty as last year. A couple weeks ago my 1996 Ranger was retired in favor of a 2006. This one has 50,000 miles and is almost like new. It has the 3 liter V-6 and automatic. It has an aftermarket Kenwood radio, and it was a suprize as the AM part is actually better than the stock radio. On a trip to Camden, SC I got 25 MPG which is better than the older truck did and it was a 4 cylinder. I do another post shortly.

What a difference a week makes!

In the previous blog post, I mentioned the beauty of the fall. Well this past weekend the leaves were falling like snow. And then now we had 20 degrees this morning, and a forecast of another hard freeze this coming weekend will likely take all the leaves from the trees.

November 18 was Jolene's 3rd birthday. I got a cheap piece of meat, and cooked it. It was large enough for both of us, and she got fed each piece by hand, and she had to sit, stay and wait for each one.

This morning I was awake as the sun was coming up and tuned in to WKDK, and Jimmy said it was 21, and was 20 JUST as the sun came up. That is generally when the low occurs. I ran and checked mine and had 21 degrees out here. The high struggled to 49, but it wasn't so blustery as Tuesday when we had winds to 25 miles per hour, and that made the 47 degrees seem much colder. Of course Mount Mitchell, NC had a 4 degree low this morning and yesterday struggled to get into the teens. BRRRR!

Into mid fall

I had thought the leaves on the trees would be a repeat of last year. PFFFT went the leaves on the Winged Elms last year. This year, with a bit more rain, they have turned a bright yellow. The couple of below freezing mornings aided to the color change, but some large Oak trees were still green and these trees are just going to drop brown leaves. Now those trees, luckily are in the minority. I have 2 Sugar Maple trees. My brother and I cleaned out around them. Well the one in the back is beatiful, however it's NOW in the open. I may cut down the 2 pine trees nearby. They both have rather damaged trunks, and will clean out that space even better. In the front yard, that Sugar Maple is crowded by a couple of Winged Elms. And it needed to be watered, and really didn't get a lot of it, so it's not as pretty. The one in back is a vivid yellow, while the one in front wants to be orange. As I walk down Alpha Martha with Jolene, the colors are maximum. Sweet Gum trees have vivid colors ranging from bright yellow to a deep purple. Some of these Sweet Gum trees have the entire range of spectrum. As we turn down Sandy Run Creek road on the way down the hill to Mechanics Creek, the Red Maples are blazing red. Some of the other Oak trees also are a deep red. The granddaddy Sugar Maple in the basin of Mechanics Creek is a blazing orange. I would love to have that tree on my land. It has to be 60 feet tall. I bet you could get a lot of sap to make Maple Syrup. Down in the basin there are quite a few smaller Sugar Maples. I may get down there and get me a small one to transplant
Now, the trees actually, once we get a rain and another freeze will start dropping leaves and we shall head toward winter. But for now, it's a blaze of color. And the smell of fallen leaves is in the air. Walking the mile down and back to Mechanics Creek with Jolene is great. It's the most beautiful time of the year. The fall flowers are blooming also. Jolene is getting her winter coat in. Yes, the summer coat keeps showing up on the living room carpet. That's what the vacuum is for. Jolene, is my rescue, and is a German Shepherd / Sheltie mix. She's currently curled up on "her sofa" .
Speaking of her, I may get my friend who has the Husky rescue to make me a cart. He makes racing (sled dog) equipment. I think she would do well. I found out she can drag me if she really wants to, and she loves to RUN RUN RUN !!!! She does get to go to the radio station with me when I have to work evenings for ball games and I get to leave a bit early to come home and pick her up. She curls up in the control room with me.

Catching up

Summer was hot, and dry, but not record setting like last year. We had some more severe weather but nothing to write about. Some late summer and early fall rains helped a lot but this year we are around 6 to 10 inches of rain below normal unlike last year when here on Alpha Martha it was closer to 30. We had no record breaking temperatures. Just a boring summer.

March was a BLAST

The Storm Prediction Center first put us in a "Moderate Risk for severe weather then gave us a VERY rare High Risk category. Were they ever right. SC had 17 tornadoes and 40++ million dollars damage. These storms were very fast moving and had multiple tornadoes in the long lived supercell thunderstorms. It went from lightly overcast to dark enough to turn on the security lamps, and then there was golf ball sized hail and 75 MPH wind. The sky was this dark purple green. I was not amused. being a storm chaser, being THE CHASED! The sky was smeared over and there was no storm structure visible in these storms.

We had a minor repeat of this stuff on Friday night April4, while I was at the radio station. The worst here went through Jalapa, SC and did some damage.
Powell

In to the new year we go

Well the new year has come. 2007 ended on a wet note, but we need well above normal precipitation for some time to work on this drought. Had some more rain, and the coldest temperatures of the winter season. Here on Alpha Martha the low one morning was 13. We are now in another warm spell. The middle part of the country has had this warm weather, but with a large tornado outbreak. Tornadoes in January in Illinois is execptionally unusual. The system that is spawning this outbreak is tempering and that is a good thing.


I am going to be a cooperative weather observer for the National Weather Service. They will be installing stuff on Friday. I have always been a weather watcher. I took and passed the NWS Advanced Skywarn class. Steve Naglic at the NWS office said I could teach the course.


I took Snoppy the so called Chihuahua mix back. There is more Terrier in him than anything. I figured he's mostly Rat Terrier. I saw an article on them in Dog Fancy. Yep, one of the dogs in the picture is his spitting image. Jolene was not unhappy that he went back. IF he had been housetrained, and IF Jolene would have played with him inside, I might have considered him. Rat Terriers can be difficult to housebreak. Also I have to leave Jolene's food out at night for her. Snoopy would eat on her food also, and then left me little "presents".
I am now also writing letters. In the Yahoo FPC (Fountain Pen Collecting) there is also a writing list. I hope my writing gets better as time goes on. IF I have fountain pens, I need to actually use them. I hope it will make my writing better. It's too easy on a computer. The hard choice is what pen and ink when you put ink to paper.


Sunday I got my brother to assist me in getting rid of some of the small trees that clog up parts of my yard. I especially wanted to get the jumble out of and around my 2 Sugar Maples. Note: raw Sugar Maple sap tastes like very watered down sugar water.


Powell