This is one of those “catch up” posts covering a variety of topics.

We received our driveway permit. It contains some terms we don’t understand, but we hope the contractor we called will be able to decipher them. We would like to get started on the drive, but for the rest of this year the construction may consist of just leveling out a path we can drive on. We have a year to get the driveway completed.

I had my follow-up visit with the dermatologist. The nose is healing OK, but there are a couple of rough spots. I go back again to have the nose numbed and have the edges of the rough spots “sanded” and “blended”  so my nose looks better. Is the cure worse than the disease?

Pam hurt her foot while helping me move the trailer. Three toes on the right foot now have some pretty colorful bruises as a result of the back edge of the trailer hitting her foot. No broken bones or toe nails, as far as Pam can tell. The swelling is going down (Pam put on a regular shoe this morning) but the foot still aches and has some healing to do.

Toby made it to South Bend, Indiana, on the 4th. He met his landlord and received his keys. Toby was unpacking when Pam called to see how he was doing. The reply is he is OK but very tired. After unpacking it was going to be nap time then get some groceries. We hope Toby does OK in his new location/job search/life.

I received a few tractor parts and will try to get the brakes on the right side of the tractor fixed this weekend. If I have time I will pull the left side and see how bad the brakes are on that side.  I expected to have to buy some parts in addition to the new brake shoes and seals, but a few items have surprised me. For example, Ford used special bolts to hold the brakes and axle onto the tractor. Six per side, $10.50 per bolt. The right side had 2 of these bolts broken, and at some point someone had substituted a couple standard bolts for a few of the special ones. I want to fix it correctly so I’ve obtained a few of the Ford bolts. I hope I don’t need many more!

Fall chores have begun. I drained and covered the swamp cooler and started checking out my snowplow rig, which is a garden tractor with a blade mounted up front. Forecast calls for a low of 29 and a slight chance of snow this weekend. Guess I better pull out the snowmobile and see if it will start. 🙂

I have added counters to our home page and this blog page. The home page counter is at the bottom of the screen, and the blog page counters are on the right side of this page. I was just curious as to how many times people look at either page, and Pam thought counters might be a Good Idea, so I added them in.

For all you pet lovers out there who have ever had to take your animal(s) to the vet, here is a cartoon you might enjoy. Click on it to bring it up full-size.

Carpool Syndrome

Days are getting shorter, leaves beginning to fall on our lawn, and Christmas(!) decorations are already on the shelves. September went by quickly, it seems. (Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Quickly go the days…) As usual we are busy with work, chores around the house, animal care, and projects that keep us active. I guess we would not have it any other way.

And, for Elli, who is always looking for “pet” photos, a few recent shots of some of our menagerie:

Velvet (“Vel”) plays cute on the sideboard

London on his favorite kitchen table chair.

Blondie doing her “circus dog” sit.

Bru and Jo sharing the couch.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Monday was quite a day.

Pam and I had taken the day off so we could apply for our driveway permit. This required us to stop in Fairplay at the Park County offices. After that it was back to the lot to continue our driveway clearing work. That was the plan, anyway. The day kinda went like this:

(Stopped in Fairplay, looking at address on form. County employee comes past us.) “Sir, can you tell me where the Planing Office is?”

“Big red building on the south side of 285.”

(Find the building by driving around and spotting a red roof. Go into the office. Sign in. No one at desk.)

Man comes out of the back of the office, looks at me. “Driveway permit.” said I. “I’ll try to find Rebecca” says he. A few minutes later, no Rebecca. “Follow me,”  says he. “I’ll get you started.”

Turns out this guy, named John, is a county planner. One does not normally meet with county planners, but he took pity on us. I handed him all the papers. (We had downloaded and filled out the application form at home.) John looked though them, added a couple comments, stamped them with an “Approved” stamp, and we were 1/2 done. Next we had to go upstairs to the Environmental Health Office and speak to Sarah.

Before I get to that encounter, John had some interesting information about our lot. Looking at a topographical map he determined the lowest part of our lot is at about 9,680 feet, and the high part is at about 9, 860 feet. The map lines represent 20 foot changes, so the numbers could be slightly higher or lower, but are close enough for us. We also found the back lot line follows a north-south alignment, which means the spot where we want to put a cabin faces more south than west. These elevation figures are a bit higher than we expected, and help explain why we have to stop and catch our breath frequently.

After thanking John for his time, we headed upstairs to see Sarah.

“Can I help you?” “We need a driveway permit.  John sent us.” (Handed Sarah the paperwork. She starts checking everything. We sit down at a near by table to wait. Papers rustle.) “Well, I can schedule the initial inspection for tomorrow. Do you have the address posted on the lot yet? (We had read about this in the paperwork, need information.) “We plan to get that done today. Where can we get the sign as specified in the paperwork?” “Northwest Fire, south of town on 285, will make it while you wait for $10.00. I just need to verify the physical address you gave me.” Pam, aside to me: “If  it isn’t 179 Sanderling Court we are screwed, as that is the address on all the paperwork, including the warranty deed.”  Back to table. Guy with a Park County shirt comes out of the back office. His name is Bob, and he will be doing the initial inspection of our driveway. We strike up a conversation.

Long story short, Bob will take a look at our proposed driveway, make recommendations as to culverts and their placement, determine the grades do not exceed County standards, and issue the actual permit. We had a lively time talking about culverts, swales, set backs, and other  items of interest, complete with hand-drawn diagrams on the back of sheets of paper. Bob looked at our plat map and we pointed out some of the features we were concerned with, such as saving a large pine and large spruce tree that are in the vicinity of the proposed drive. The conversation was very informative, and we left thinking there is hope the County will work with us during the permitting process. Sarah has verified the address. We gave her a check for $50.00. The paperwork is all in order. Bob can proceed with his inspection on the morrow.

We still had to get the address sign. After thanking both Sarah and Bob, off we went to Northwest Fire. A rather large and bald gentleman greeted us: “What can I do for your?” “Address sign.” we reply. “3 digits or 4?” “3.” “I’ll fix you right up!” Out comes the green sign board, a template, and a box of white numbers. $10.00 later we had our sign and some information on local fire districts. “Here’s your sign!” (Not kidding.)

I had not planned to put up an address sign today so had not brought over any screws to mount a sign to our 4×4 treated post. Off to TrueValue to get a couple screws suitable for this task. (I did have a screwdriver with me.)

By now it is after 1:30 PM. With our in-town work done we headed for the lot.

First order of business: Lunch. We had brought our sandwiches from home, so we sat in the car and ate quickly. Second order: Put up post and address sign. I began digging the post hole. Pam started to load brush on the trailer. I finished the hole, mounted the sign to the post, then set the post in place using QuickCrete I mixed up in a bucket.

Just about the time I finished Pam had the load of brush ready to go. I tied it down with straps and headed for the burn pit. Pam stayed behind to drag the rest of the tree tops down to the road.

It took me about 45 minutes to drive to the pit, unload the brush, then get back to the lot. While there is still more brush to haul, it was getting late in the afternoon. We decided to forego hauling the last of the brush and instead began loading the trees I had cut on Saturday into the trailer. (As before, we would take these home and cut them into firewood for Kathy Hall.) This left us enough time to walk up to the saddle where the cabin will sit, enjoy the view, and talk about how quickly the driveway inspection was scheduled. We really would like to be able to get started on construction so we could drive onto the lot. This dragging and hauling for up to 190 feet is old news, and we need to shorten the route to be able to continue removing dead and downed wood as well as clearing the upper end of the driveway.  I have a plan.

The next time over we will bring the ATV. I will use it to tow the trailer up the cleared driveway path to the area we are working, then tow the trailer back down to the road, unload, then go back for another load. If we ‘stage’ enough stuff, we can take the ATV every-other trip. The non-ATV trips will see us hauling to the burn pit and bringing home firewood. There can’t be many trips left this year; fresh new snow has fallen above timberline!

Why not use the tractor instead of the ATV, you might ask? I worked on the tractor brakes on Sunday, beginning with the right side. Once I had cleaned out the considerable grease and dirt and removed the old brake shoes I found some broken bolts and a broken rod. Repair parts will have to be ordered. I need to pull the left side to see if it need additional parts, and I won’t have a chance to do that for a week or better. The ATV gets the towing job.

It was an interesting day, and rewarding as well. While we did not get all the brush hauled, we did get our address sign up and our driveway permit started. We met with some of the locals, picked up some handy information, and feel more confident about moving ahead with access onto the lot.  It was a good day!

No post is complete without a few photos, so here are a couple from this outing:

Jerry digging hole for address post

Pam surveying the cabin location

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

There are a couple of things to catch up on, but none really big enough for a dedicated post. I’m lumping in a bunch of stuff this time: medical, tractor, land hunt, and around the house.

Medical:

I saw the doctor yesterday and he says the nose is healing OK. I have to keep it greased with Vaseline or similar to help keep the joint between the skin graft and the rest of the nose pliable and not crusty. My next check-up  is October 1st.

Tractor:

The 8N can now roll around again, thanks to a new ($374.00) rear tire.

New rear tire on the 8N

After the problems I had with trying to find a good used tire I decided to go new. The tire is on a used rim, as the original was rusted beyond use. I took the tractor for a spin – no brakes yet so utmost care is required – and took some yard and grass clippings down to a spot the town has designated as a dropping point for such items. Brake repair is next, but will have to wait for my next pay check.

Land Hunt:

Paperwork is progressing. There have been some small errors that have needed correcting. For example, the title company put the wrong purchase price on their forms. They had used the seller’s counter offer instead of our final offer. The credit union had double-entered one of our credit accounts, showing us with 2 cards and 2 balances instead of 1. That had to be fixed. Anyway, it looks like we are still “on” to close September 14. We are looking forward to it (let the finance circus be over)!

In the photo below, our lot is to the right of the primitive road break. Way back in the photo (middle-right) there is a pine tree, in front of the mountain, and our drive would go to the right of this tree. Photo was taken last February from the adjoining lot. There is not a lot of snow for that time of the year.

Lot 174 is to the right of this break

Name for the lot:

How does “Serendipity at Sanderling” strike ya?

Around the house:

I was playing with my old Canon digital camera and took a few photos around the outside of the house. One morning it had rained and I decided to take some morning glory blossom shots. Here are a few results:

Front yard and privacy fence

Another front yard photo

Raindrops on morning glory

Morning glory on fence line

We don’t have much planned for the next couple weeks, although I want to get out on another ATV ride in the Ouray area before the snow falls. The next big event should be the land closing, not very photogenic in itself but we will be back on Sanderling taking more “before” photos (and deciding where the porta potty should go…)!

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

My nose hurts.

I had a basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer, removed from the end of my nose on Thursday the 16th. This turned out to be a bigger deal than I though it would be.

The Doc had to “numb” the nose with a local, then cut out the carcinoma. I waited for about an hour and a half for the lab results. The Doc missed some the first time around, had to cut a little more. Another hour wait and the lab thinks the Doc got all of it this time. The surgical process included cauterizing some capillaries to help reduce the bleeding. Nothing like that smell, believe me.

Now to close the hole left by the surgury.

I have a Burroughs skin graft in place to cover the pit left by the removal of the carcinoma, which was actually a small tumor. Stiches. I dislike getting stitches, even if the area is under a local. 2 layers of stitches. The removal had left a pit about three-eights of an inch in diameter and below the bottom layer of dermis. The Doc took some skin off another part of my nose, put it in the pit where the carcinoma had been, and stitched me up.

In a week I will be back in the Doc’s office and have the dressing removed. He may have to sand down the skin graft edges to make the joint with the surrounding skin more even. Oh Joy! The top layer of the graft will probaly turn black or grey as new capillaries grow from the bottom up and the top layer of skin will most likly be dead before the capillaries get that far. Prognosis is 3 – 4 weeks to heal, then a while longer for the scars to fade.

I realize this is not major surgury or even close. Still, my nose hurts. Its giving me headaches. Sleeping – I sleep on my stomach – stops every time I roll over and hit my nose on the pillow. Taking a shower and trying to keep my nose dry is interesting, but it can be done.

Pam helped by cutting down a large Band-Aid and putting it over the white gauze and tape that decorates the end of my schnoz. The brown color is a little less obtrusive. I went to work with the Band-Aid in place.

Jerry and his taped-up nose

Moral of this tale: Don’t wait, as I did, or the problem just gets bigger and more painful to fix.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!