Smokin’ And Chokin’

 Posted by at 1:26 am  Nick's Blog
Dec 032023
 

Yesterday was a wet and dreary day here in Alabama, and I spent most of it at my computer, writing another 3,500 words in my next John Lee Quarrels novel. So I thought I would dust off an old blog from our days as fulltime RVers, when I taught some rude jerks a lesson.

Years ago, we were staying at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, which is a combination campground, equestrian facility, and museum dedicated to horses and horse racing. It was in October and decidedly chilly, and the only reason we hadn’t headed further south yet was because I had a couple of appointments at the VA hospital there.

Though I’m not really into the grand sport of horse racing, the museums and displays at Kentucky Horse Park were certainly interesting, and several famous retired racing horses live on the grounds, where you can visit them and learn about their multi-million dollar careers.

We had prepaid for four days and planned to leave the Horse Park on a Wednesday, well before the noon checkout time. When we arrived back at our old MCI bus conversion that Monday afternoon after running some errands, we discovered that just about every space in the park was reserved by people coming to town for the Kentucky-Alabama football game that weekend, which is apparently a big rivalry.

Several Alabama fans were parked in our section of the park, and we were no sooner out of our truck than a couple came by to ask when we would be leaving, since they had reserved that whole section. I told them we were paid up thorough Tuesday night, and one fellow said we would have to move to another site because they had more friends coming in who wanted our site. He was not very polite about it.

I checked with the RV park office, where I was told their friend’s reservation did not take effect until after we had vacated the site on Wednesday at noon, and returned to tell Miss Terry we were okay to remain where we were parked. That wasn’t good enough for these football fans, who demanded we move anyway. Being a bit stubborn (and this being a perfect occasion for it) I told them we were perfectly comfortable right where we were until Wednesday morning.

Now, I was never a spoiled college kid, and this crowd sure seemed like an aging bunch of frat boys and sorority girls, very used to getting whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. Several held an impromptu meeting on the street right in front of our bus Tuesday afternoon, and when it became apparent we were not going to move, they cast us nasty glances every time we looked out the window or went outside. We ignored them and went about our business, turning in early to get ready to take off the next morning.

When we were leaving a place, we usually waited until the morning rush hour was over before hitting the road somewhere between 9 and 10 a.m. Bright and early Wednesday morning, several of our football fan friends from the day before gathered outside our bedroom window to speculate (very loudly) about when we would be leaving. My first instinct was to roll over and hit the snooze button, but Miss Terry has civilized me quite a bit over the years, so I decided to go ahead and get up and get ready to go.

The minute I stepped outside, the nasty remarks started. “I wonder if this old piece of junk will even start? Maybe we’ll have to have it towed away.” “Some people just have no respect for others, do they?” “Respect? Anyone with any self-respect at all wouldn’t be seen in a piece of crap like this.” and such nonsense. It was a chilly morning, and several of these jerks followed me around the bus making rude remarks as I unhooked the water and electric, turned off our propane tank, and made ready to leave.

I ignored them, but in my head a plan was forming. If you have never been around an old two-stroke Detroit diesel engine when they start up, especially on a cold morning, you have no idea how much thick blue smoke they can put out. For the first ten or fifteen seconds, your typical Detroit can kill every mosquito in an area the size of a Texas cattle ranch, and a couple of longhorns to boot! Conscientious bus owners always warn their campground neighbors about this and advise them to close their windows for a couple of minutes while they air up and leave. I usually try to be a nice guy, you all know that. But sometimes things happen and a character my shrink back home in Arizona called Bad Nick emerges.

As it turns out, Bad Nick was with us that chilly morning in Lexington. I climbed up in the bus, glanced out my rearview mirror, and that crowd of jock jerks were standing at the back of my bus, right at my exhaust pipe. (Can you see this coming?) I know I should have warned them, but by now Bad Nick was in complete control. He flipped on the master switch, hit the starter button, and that trusty old Detroit diesel rumbled to life with a roar, belching out an immense cloud of smoke.

Our unfriendly neighbors were instantly, engulfed in a thick blue cloud of smoke, and before long, shadowy figures began stumbling out, coughing and choking. Guys, if you were ever in the military and had to experience a tear gas training tent, you have some idea of the sight that I beheld that morning. Bad Nick gave an evil chuckle, shifted the bus into drive, and pulled out of the campsite, having made his contribution to American football traditions.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Voodoo Vendetta: Culture That Kills, the first book in the Aubrey Greigh mystery series by Gene Jurrens. The culturally quirky story begins one steamy summer a few years into the future that stinks of blood and greed. Occultism permeates a high-profile murder, then an even more mysterious and atrocious murder confounds the police. They need help and savvy amateur sleuth Aubrey Greigh reluctantly agrees to assist, but only because the beautiful but hard-boiled detective working the case looks like his deceased wife – his Kryptonite. Then, all hell breaks loose.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Here we have a lucky trash panda headed to the promoised land.

Thought For The Day – Never marry a woman who was captain of the debate team.

Chips And Banana Bread

 Posted by at 12:25 am  Nick's Blog
Dec 022023
 

Sounds like a good snack, doesn’t it? Read on, you might be wrong. 😊

The other day I told you about trying out the new DK2 wood chipper and being impressed with the way it worked. By the time I finished, I had a pretty nice pile of wood chips. Now what to do with them?

I know Terry is going to use a lot of them in her garden next spring, and I’m not sure how well they will handle sitting out in the weather between now and then. So I filled up the two big horse watering tubs we used for growing potatoes last summer with some chips and put them inside our storage shed. I figure they will have plenty of time to dry out and I will go out and turn them over every couple of weeks. I’ve still got a lot of limbs and trees down to chop up, so I’m sure we will put the rest of the chips to use.

Now, about that banana bread. One of my favorite treats is Terry’s banana nut bread, especially warmed up in the toaster oven with a bit of powdered sugar on it. Yummy for the tummy. She made a loaf the other day and we’ve been having a slice for our evening treat every night. Sort of delayed dessert after dinner.

We’re supposed to have a lot of rain this weekend, and I sure hope we get it. The heavy rains that were forecast for Thursday night and into Friday didn’t turn out to be much more than a drizzle. Certainly not enough to break the drought we’re under throughout this area. I’ve got nothing to do all weekend but stay home and work on my new John Lee Quarrels book, so let it rain!

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Voodoo Vendetta: Culture That Kills, the first book in the Aubrey Greigh mystery series by Gene Jurrens. The culturally quirky story begins one steamy summer a few years into the future that stinks of blood and greed. Occultism permeates a high-profile murder, then an even more mysterious and atrocious murders confounds the police. They need help and savvy amateur sleuth Aubrey Greigh reluctantly agrees to assist, but only because the beautiful but hard-boiled detective working the case looks like his deceased wife – his Kryptonite. Then, all hell breaks loose.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Old age has come at a very inconvenient time for me. Just as I was beginning to know everything, I’m now forgetting everything I knew.

Latest Project Finished

 Posted by at 12:25 am  Nick's Blog
Dec 012023
 

Scott and Alan Banks, the father and son team that run Banks Construction, were back yesterday morning to finish the new flat deck we had installed off our bedroom to accommodate a hot tub.

They got so much done the day before that there really wasn’t all that much left. It didn’t take long for them to lay the last of the deck boards down and secure them with long screws. Alan said they use screws instead of nails because they hold things more securely.

The last board had to be notched on either end to fit on around the upright 4×4 that is holding the pergola over where the hot tub will be placed.

Then Scott got up on a ladder and trimmed the ends of the pergola boards.

Now all that’s left is to have the wiring run for the hot tub and then to get it delivered and installed. The deck will need to be stained, but the wood has to sit and cure for a while first. Meanwhile, we will put the tub down because the area where it’s sitting will be protected anyway, and we will mask everything before we stain.

As we were checking out the new deck, I noticed a knot in the wood that looks just like a dragonfly to me. In many cultures, the dragonfly has been a symbol of happiness, new beginnings, hope, change, and love. I’ll take it.

With that done, they did us a couple of big favors. The first was Scott checking out my Stihl chainsaw to figure out why it was jammed. There seemed to be a problem with the adjuster for the chain that he was able to set properly, then he put a new chain on it and it was good to go.

Besides that, they loaded my treadmill, which has been sitting in the garage since we moved here in January, onto the back of their utility trailer, then brought it around the house to the new back deck and moved it inside our bedroom. That was not as easy as it sounds, because first Terry and Alan had to take off both the sliding door and the screen door to make room for it to fit. Even then there wasn’t a lot of room, but they got it done. Thanks Scott and Alan, we really appreciate you guys and all of your hard work.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Voodoo Vendetta: Culture That Kills, the first book in the Aubrey Greigh mystery series by Gene Jurrens. The culturally quirky story begins one steamy summer a few years into the future that stinks of blood and greed. Occultism permeates a high-profile murder, then an even more mysterious and atrocious murders confounds the police. They need help and savvy amateur sleuth Aubrey Greigh reluctantly agrees to assist, but only because the beautiful but hard-boiled detective working the case looks like his deceased wife – his Kryptonite. Then, all hell breaks loose.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Legend says that when you can’t sleep, it’s because you’re awake in someone’s dream. So if everyone could stop dreaming about me, that would be great.

Another Deck Project

 Posted by at 12:15 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 302023
 

When we left our home in Show Low, Arizona to become fulltime RVers back in 1999, there were many changes in our lives, and while we had to give up some things to live our dream, the tradeoff was well worth it.

If there was one thing we both missed most of all it would be the hot tub we had on our deck. Terry and I both have bad backs, and there was nothing more relaxing than soaking in the tub and letting the jets massage our aches and pains away. Over the years we occasionally found a hot tub in an RV park or a hotel where we were staying that we could take advantage of, and every time we did, we lamented the fact that we couldn’t fit one into our motorhome. We always said if we ever got off the road we would have another one. Then when we bought our place in Florida, the lot was too small to put one in.

Now we have lots of room here at our new place in Alabama, and it’s time to get another hot tub. But before we could do that, we wanted a flat low profile deck built outside of our bedroom that we could access by way of our sliding door to put it on.

I called Alan Banks from Banks Construction, who built our big deck this past summer, and told him what we needed done. Yesterday morning Alan and his dad Scott showed up and went to work. When finished, the new deck will be 12×16 feet with a pergola on the end where the hot tub will be installed. The first step was framing in the deck.

Then they built the pergola, leaving plenty of room for the hot tub to slide into place.

Blocks will be placed under the deck to support the weight of the hot tub. Here’s what it looks like now from our bedroom door. They will be back today to finish the construction. Then we need to let it sit for a while before we stain the deck. We’re looking forward to getting it all done and breaking in the new year soaking under the stars.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Voodoo Vendetta: Culture That Kills, the first book in the Aubrey Greigh mystery series by Gene Jurrens. The culturally quirky story begins one steamy summer a few years into the future that stinks of blood and greed. Occultism permeates a high-profile murder, then an even more mysterious and atrocious murder confounds the police. They need help and savvy amateur sleuth Aubrey Greigh reluctantly agrees to assist, but only because the beautiful but hard-boiled detective working the case looks like his deceased wife – his Kryptonite. Then, all hell breaks loose.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. – Will Rogers

You Win Some, You Break Some

 Posted by at 12:58 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 292023
 

It was chilly here in Gordo, Alabama yesterday. I don’t think the high got over 50 and there was a steady breeze blowing most of the day. But I really wanted to see how the new DK2 wood chipper would perform, so I towed it to one of the perimeter roads where we had a couple of trees down and fired it up.

The machine started immediately and I began by feeding some small branches into the hopper, which it quickly ground up and shot out the chipper exhaust port. Okay, that was nice. Let’s try something a little bigger. I put in some slightly larger branches with no problem, and as I got more confident, I kept increasing the size. It seemed like no matter what I fed it, the DK2 was more than up to the job.

Eventually I worked my way up to some five-inch diameter limbs, some pine and some hardwood. A couple of times with the hardwood, I had to pull it back a bit because as it was self-feeding, it would bog the engine down. Because it is self-feeding, I could put some long branches, some as much as 14-feet long, into the hopper. With the long ones, I had to hold the other end up as the chipper was working, otherwise they would hang up on the ground and bog it down.

I have to say I’m really impressed with this machine, and it didn’t take long to have a nice pile of wood chips that Terry can use in her garden next season.

Once I ran out of broken limbs, I wanted to cut more limbs off of the downed trees, and that’s where I ran into trouble. I had not used my new Stihl chainsaw yet, and I fired it up and started to cut one limb. I quickly realized that I had something wet hitting my hand, so I turned it off and saw that the cap for the bar oil had come off. That’s strange because I know they filled it up at the shop when I bought the chainsaw.

I went to the garage and got some more of the proper oil for it and refilled the reservoir and tightened the cap back on, but as soon as I started the engine, oil began pouring out again. Shutting the saw down again, I noticed that the cap for the oil reservoir that I had just tightened was loose again and almost ready to fall out. I got a paper towel and cleaned the threads of both the cap and the reservoir entrance and did not see any obvious problems. After refilling the reservoir a second time, I tightened the cap again and that time it seemed to work, because I didn’t have any more oil leaking out.

However, now there was another problem. I tried to cut a limb that was not much over two inches in diameter, and it seemed like I was using the dull side of a butter knife. It took a long time to cut through, and when I started on the next limb, the chain wouldn’t move. Now what the heck is wrong?

The light was fading by then, so I called it a day and put the chipper in the barn and the chainsaw back in the garage. My son-in-law Kenny used to work at Ace Hardware and was trained in Stihl chainsaws, so last night I talked to him and then went out to the garage and showed him on my phone what was happening. As it turns out, the chain had jumped out of the track it’s supposed to run in. There is an adjuster that’s supposed to loosen or tighten the chain, but it won’t move in either direction. Kenny suggested I either take it back to the shop or get somebody who knows more about chainsaws than I do to look at it. That sounds like a good idea to me.

We have a couple of clear but cold days ahead of us before rain sets in on Thursday and it is supposed to last through the weekend. Scott and Alan Banks from Banks Construction, who built our back deck, are coming by again today to start another quick project that we want to get done. I’ll tell you more about that as things progress.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This sounds like a rough place to work.

Thought For The Day – I’ve often wondered what people have against the horse I rode in on.

Wood Chipper Assembly

 Posted by at 1:17 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 282023
 

As I said in yesterday’s blog, the DK2 wood chipper I ordered from Lowes was delivered on Saturday, and we assembled it on Sunday. And when I say we assembled it, we all know that as with every project we undertake, Terry did most of the work. She has more mechanical ability in her pinky finger than I have in my whole overstuffed body.

The chipper came in a large wooden crate sitting on a pallet and the first step was bending all the metal fasteners out of the way so we could start taking the wood off the top and sides.

Once that was done we could see the individual components that we would attach during the assembly process.

I was impressed with the size of the 14 horsepower Kohler four-cycle engine.

One of the first steps was attaching the large intake chute on the right side and the chip exhaust chute on the left side. That one is rotatable and has a deflector head on top so I can direct where I want the wood chips to go while using the machine.

Next, we attached the tires to the axle. As we saw in several YouTube reviews people had posted about these machines, the inner bearing rings had to be tapped with a rubber mallet to seat them on each end before we put the tires on. The tires are DOT rated for road use up to 25 miles per hour, though I don’t expect to be taking the chipper anywhere except on our own property.

There were several nuts and bolts to attach for things like the axle, the tongue for towing, and the tongue stand when the chipper is not attached to a vehicle.

Overall, things went fairly smooth, but this is one heavy piece of equipment and it was all the two of us could do to move it while putting it together. A couple of times we both wished that we had Travis on hand to help us muscle things around.

We ran into a couple of snags that delayed completing the assembly on Sunday. There were no bolts and nuts to attach the battery cables for the electric start, and since we didn’t have anything that would fit, we made a quick stop at Lowe’s when we went to town to eat that evening. Then, yesterday, we discovered that the coupler that attaches to the hitch ball for towing is very cheap metal, and try as we might we could not get it to fit onto a two-inch ball, which it was supposed to be sized for. When we did finally get it on, it didn’t want to come back off. After trying to get it to work for quite a while on Monday afternoon, I took it to the auto parts store in Gordo to see if they could figure it out. Three men there messed with it for half an hour or more and could not get it to open and release properly. I plan to replace it with a better coupler unit.

It was late in the day yesterday by the time I filled it with the proper level of oil, filled the gas tank, and pulled it out of the garage. After I set the choke and speed adjustments, I turned the key and the engine started right up.

I had a couple of large hardwood branches from downed trees, both about ten feet long with smaller branches and dead leaves on them, and fed them into the chipper. It gobbled them right up without a problem. One was close to three inches in diameter, but the chipper is rated for up to six inches, so that was not a problem. It stalled out at one point and I thought I had jammed it, but I realized I had forgotten to readjust the choke once it was running. I moved it back to the run position and restarted the engine and everything was ready. This machine is going to make life a lot easier around here!

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This isn’t the way they explained things to me in biology class.

Thought For The Day – You never run out of things that can go wrong.

That Was An Experience!

 Posted by at 12:57 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 272023
 

The Earthquake 33968 K32 wood chipper/shredder I bought from Amazon back in June is an excellent unit for what it is designed for. It handles branches up to three inches and assorted brush fine, but it proved inadequate for the larger branches and limbs we have down on our property from a windstorm a few months ago. It is also designed to be pulled by hand, and at 118 pounds is too heavy for me to lift into the back of the Kawasaki Mule, so getting it back into our woodlot and out on our trails is almost impossible. It was time to kick things up a notch.

After doing a lot of research online, including watching YouTube video reviews from owners of different brands and models of wood chippers, I ordered a larger, heavier duty DK2 chipper from Lowes that can be pulled behind the Mule. It’s rated for logs up to six inches and has a fourteen-horsepower electric start Kohler engine. All the reviews I have read or viewed about it have been favorable, and I think it will handle the jobs I need it to do.

They said when I ordered it that the chipper would be here by November 30th, but the next day I got a message saying that it was scheduled to be here on the 25th, which was Saturday. The delivery person, a very nice lady named Demetra, called me on Friday and said that she was coming from Atlanta and would be here early the next morning. Sure enough, at 6:10 Saturday morning, she called to say she would be here within 15 to 20 minutes, and she was right on time.

I don’t know what whoever planned this delivery was thinking, but they loaded it into the back of a high-top Ford van, sitting on top of a fire ring to be delivered to somebody else. Since the chipper weighs over 400 pounds in its crate, it’s a good thing I have a forklift attachment for my Kubota tractor. Otherwise, I don’t have any idea how they would expect it to be unloaded.

Even with the forklift it was pretty tense getting it out of the van, and I was wishing our son Travis was here because he’s much better on the forklift than I am. But Demetra said she worked driving a forklift before, and following her patient directions I slowly got the tips of the forks under the pallet it was on and managed to move it back a little at a time to avoid damaging the fire ring underneath of it. When I finally got it out of the van, the weight shifted and the tractor leaned heavily to the left side. I was afraid it was going to tip over, but the young man with Demetra quickly grabbed the heavy loading strap attached to the box and pulled it in the opposite direction to stabilize things until I could lower the forks enough to change the center of gravity. I don’t mind telling you that one upped the pucker factor a bit! I think we all breathed big sighs of relief when I finally had the crate sitting in the garage.

It was a little after 7 o’clock when Demetra left and Terry and I were both shivering because it was as cold as my ex-wife’s divorce lawyer’s heart. We went inside and jumped back into bed to snuggle up and get warm.

That was on Saturday, and yesterday Terry and I unpacked and assembled the wood chipper. That was an adventure in itself, that I will tell you about in tomorrow’s blog.

Congratulations Melinda Lower, winner of our drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day. We had 26 entries this time around. Stay tunes, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Tomorrow isn’t promised. Cuss them out today.

Mystery of the Centreville Revolver

 Posted by at 12:15 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 262023
 

In the tiny community of Centreville, Mississippi, just a few miles north of the Louisiana state line, we came across a mystery that dates back to the days of the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Embedded in the concrete of one of the town’s street is an old Colt .38 revolver. The weapon has been there since the Depression-era Works Progress Administration originally built the road. Many people in Centreville don’t even know about the gun, and of those who do, everybody seems to have his or her own story about where the gun came from.

One story says that a husband found his wife with another man and shot them both dead, then dropped the gun in the wet concrete of the road, hoping to hide the evidence. Another tale of murder and mayhem has the Colt being used in a bank robbery and shootout, then dumped by fleeing outlaws.

A church that stands at the curb near where the revolver is located plays a role in one explanation for the mystery. Supposedly a notorious moonshiner got religion at the church and walked outside and threw his gun and whiskey bottle into the new roadway as a testament to his newfound faith.

Still another story has it that the road was being built as war clouds were looming over Europe and everybody was talking about the rise of Hitler’s Germany. A highly decorated but emotionally scarred World War I veteran threw the gun down into the wet concrete as a protest against further bloodshed.

I don’t know which story is true, if any of them are. Perhaps the true story has been lost in the dusty pages of time. But I have been to Centreville, and the gun is indeed there. I can even give you the GPS coordinates where still it lies in the middle of the road: N 31° 05.419 and W 091° 04.027. The next time you are in southern Mississippi, stop by this charming little town and see if you can solve the mystery of the Centreville Revolver.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Not everyone is meant to stay in your life forever. Sometimes they are only there long enough to teach you the lesson that you needed to learn.

Saturday Q&A

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 252023
 

I’m back with more questions from blog readers about RVing, my writing activities, what’s happening in our lives since we hung up the keys, and all kinds of other things. While I try to answer all questions individually, I also share some here occasionally.

Q.Where can I find The War Years? I have been trying to read all of your books on Kindle.

A. The War Years, the sixth book in my Tinder Street saga, will be out early next year.

Q.Do you get a commission or something from Amazon when I go through your blog to buy something? With Christmas coming, I will be ordering quite a bit and would like to help you guys make a buck if I can.

A. Yes, if you click the Shop Amazon button on the right sidebar of the blog we make a small commission from anything you order. It’s not much, but it helps offset the cost of maintaining the blog.

Q. If Miss Terry has a recycle bin, why not take the cardboard you want to recycle and run it through your wood chipper? Add that to the recycle section and it’ll decompose from the moisture along with everything else you throw in.

A. I thought about that, but the owner’s manual specifically says not to shred cardboard. The glue in it will gum up the chipper blades.

Q.With all that room you guys have now, have you thought about getting any horses? I know you said your granddaughter is a barrel racer and remember seeing a picture of horses in the pasture before you bought the place.

A. There are no horses in our future. Two cats and a dog are enough to take care of. Terry had horses years ago and has no interest in having them again. As for me, the ASPCA would crucify me if I put my fat butt on a horse, and deservedly so. I’ve always made it a policy not to ride anything I can’t put gas or diesel in.

Q. Do you and Miss Terry ever fly your kites anymore? You have not written about that in a long time.

A. It has been a long time since we have flown our quad line kites and we were talking about that a while ago. With our big pasture, if the wind kicks up enough, we certainly have room for it.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.

Avoid The Scale For Now

 Posted by at 12:15 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 242023
 

Did you all have a good Thanksgiving? Did you fill up on turkey and ham and pumpkin pie and lots of other goodies? Take my advice. Do yourself a favor and avoid the bathroom scale for a while. Nobody needs to have that kind of disappointment and self-loathing at the holidays.

We had a quiet holiday, just Terry and me and the critters. My bad back has been acting up, and yesterday morning I really threw it out. I could barely move around. After taking some pain meds, I managed to read through and correct the new chapter of my book that I wrote on Wednesday. Then I spent most of the day sleeping and being pretty much useless.

Not Terry. That girl never slows down. While I was in my recliner she made delicious lemon bars, two huge chicken breasts along with baked potatoes for dinner, and kept the animals from tearing down the house, which in itself can be a full-time job. Hopefully today I will be more productive.

I wanted to share something interesting and a bit thrilling with you. German shepherds are energetic dogs and they need plenty of activity, so several times a day I go out and throw a Kong or ball for Alli to chase, the last time being right before we go to bed for the night. One ball I throw for her is a Max Glow Ball, which is made with a safe photoluminescent material that glows in the dark and bounces all over the place. Alli loves it. It’s one of her favorite toys. The ball has a hole on either side and makes a whistling sound when thrown through the air.

A few nights ago, before bedtime, I was out on the back deck throwing the ball for her when something huge seemed to go right over my head. I looked up, and it was the biggest owl I have ever seen, not more than a few feet above me. It swooped back up in the air and then flew off and landed on the carport down the hill. I put my rechargeable spotlight on it and called Terry outside, but it had flown away before she got outside. We could both hear it hooting in the trees. Terry said maybe the owl heard the whistling sound of the ball and saw it moving as I threw it and thought it was some kind of prey. What an experience!

It’s that time of year, but before you go Black Friday shopping, read my book Black Friday and find out how one man’s search for bargains on the busiest shopping day of the year changed his life forever.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Apparently RSVP’ing back to a wedding invite ‘maybe next time’ isn’t the correct response.

Two Shots And A Chimichanga

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 232023
 

Now tell me that’s not a great Thanksgiving meal! But that’s not what I’m talking about. Yesterday, Terry and I had our regular three-month checkups at Pickens County Primary Care in Reform, which is about 13 miles east of us.

It always surprises the medical people that a fat old guy like me has such good blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Then again, they always cover their faces to protect themselves from shrapnel when I step on the scale. I guess all things even out, don’t they?

We both had good reports and don’t seem to have anything to worry about health wise except the normal aches and pains of getting old. While we were there, we both got the latest COVID booster and flu shots. The only effects either of us noticed was a bit of tenderness in our shoulders where we got the shots. Our appointments were scheduled for 1:00 and 1:30, but we always go in together and they work us up at the same time, and we had exams and labs done and were out the door by 2:30.

Terry loves good Mexican food, and several people have recommended a place called Barrigas Grill in Reform. Since we had not had breakfast we decided to stop there and check it out. I went with a shrimp chimichanga and Terry had a combo plate with a little bit of everything. I wouldn’t say it was bad food, but we also agreed that it didn’t hold a candle to Pastor’s Kitchen in Northport.

Speaking of food, several readers have asked me what we are doing for Thanksgiving. Nothing, really. Our son Travis and his wife are vegans, and neither Terry nor I are really into the holiday, so we are staying home and she is making her delicious fried chicken. It’s kind of like a turkey, only smaller. Whatever you’re doing for Thanksgiving, I hope you’re with people you love, even if it’s only the one person you love.

It’s that time of year, but before you go Black Friday shopping, read my book Black Friday and find out how one man’s search for bargains on the busiest shopping day of the year changed his life forever.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Be sure to talk about politics and religion at Thanksgiving dinner. You’ll save a ton of money on Christmas shopping. Follow me for more helpful hints.

Measuring Up

 Posted by at 1:02 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 222023
 

When it comes to being able to do manly things like using tools, home or auto maintenance, or repairing something, I will be the first to admit that I do not measure up. I never have had any kind of mechanical ability.

I remember when I first got my first car, one of the “cool” things to do was to replace the original spark plug wires with clear wires that glowed when the engine was running. So I ran out and bought a set, came home and pulled all the wires off of my old Chevy V-8 engine, and started slapping new wires on in their place. Then I wondered why it wouldn’t start. When my dad asked me if I had paid attention to the firing order, I had no idea what he was talking about. How was I to know that certain wires went from certain spark plugs to specific holes in the distributor cap? It took my dad and older brother a couple of hours to figure everything out and get the car running again.

That’s when my dad gave me a piece of advice that I’ve always tried to adhere to. He said, “Son, there are men who can fix things, and then there are guys like you. The best thing guys like you can do is get to know men who can fix things, or else make enough money that you can pay men who can fix things for you.” Experience has taught me that Dad was telling me the truth.

There are certain things I just can’t do. My son-in-law Kenny is a mechanic, and he can look at a bolt or nut and tell you that it’s a 9/16 or 3/8 or whatever. Not me. I have to try every wrench or socket I have until I find the one that fits. And it’s always the very last one in the toolbox. My buddy Jesse Bolton can read a tape measure like other people can read a book. Not me. I can look at a tape measure and tell you that something is two lines under ¼ inch, but that’s about the best I can do. Thank God for Miss Terry or our house would fall apart around us.

However, I just got a couple of new toys that are going to help me measure things. Not nuts and bolts, but at least distances. The first is a Leica DISTO D1 laser measure that will reach out 120 feet and even has Bluetooth capabilities and an app to allow you to lay out a floor plan on your computer. I spent an hour or so measuring things like rooms in our house and doorway widths and such and then checked them against the tape measure and it was right on the money. It’s definitely going to come in handy when we remodel the barn.

I also found an AOFAR HX-700N hunting range finder on Amazon and ordered it. Now I know that from our deck to the light pole out by the barn is 101 yards, and the barn itself is 135 yards. Even if he’s not a hunter, a guy needs to know these kind of things, right? At least that’s what I told Terry. The range finder is small, accurate out to 700 yards, easy to use, and comes with a nice carrying case.

These may seem like wasteful expenditures to some people, but the way I look at it, I don’t drink or smoke or use drugs, and I don’t chase women because if I ever caught one I wouldn’t know what to do with her anyway, so I’ve got a have something to occupy my time, don’t I?

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Any dog can be a guide dog if you don’t care where you’re going.

Cats, Cardboard, And Carrollton

 Posted by at 12:55 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 212023
 

We got Terry’s cats, BeeBee and Mai Lyn, spayed a week ago today, and as I wrote in a blog afterward, Mai Lyn was fine after a couple of hours rest. BeeBee seemed to be having some kind of reaction to the medication and hissed and growled at the other critters for a couple of days before she settled back down.

Things seemed to be back to normal after that, but then Sunday night Terry noticed a bulge in BeeBee’s stomach near her incision. We thought it might be a hernia, so first thing Monday morning I called Western Alabama Animal Hospital and they said to bring her in. We took both cats, just to have them checked out, and after examining them Doctor Lowe said it wasn’t a hernia, just the result of the thin wall cats have in their abdomen puckering ans puffing out due to the tight stitches necessary for active cats. He said it is not uncommon and to keep an eye on it, but he was sure it would be okay and will shrink up fairly soon.

I wrote in a blog a week or so ago that we had a lot of cardboard and paper that needed to be recycled but couldn’t find a place to do it around here. I called the city hall of several of the small towns in the area and nobody seemed to have any suggestions, except for one lady, who told me to just burn it. I responded that there is a statewide burn ban in effect because of the drought, but her reply was, “Oh, don’t worry about that. Everybody does it.” Maybe so, but not me.

Fortunately, I discovered that Pickens County has a recycling center just south of Carrollton, which is where we had to go for the vet. So before we left, I loaded all the cardboard into the back of Terry’s van, and after we had the cats checked out we drove over there and dropped everything off. Now the cardboard can be recycled instead of going up in smoke, and I have a lot more room in the garage.

The weatherman had been predicting a storm front coming through the area Monday night and today, with the slight possibility of a tornado, and definitely lots of rain and high wind. When we got home we spent some time securing things, taking the chairs and fire pit off the deck, taking down Terry’s wind chimes, and putting anything else that might be blown about in the garage.

The last thing we did was move the Husqvarna riding lawn mower and Kawasaki Mule from the carport up near the house back to the barn. Instead of staying on the barn road walking back to the house, we came up through the back pasture. That’s when eagle eyed Terry found an arrow I had lost a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t believe it because Terry and I have both been over that area several times, even taking my metal detector out there, with no luck. In fact, just an hour or so before that, when we got back from our trip to the vet and recycling center in Carrollton, I had taken Alli out of her outdoor kennel and we walked around the pasture for a while so she could get some exercise, and I had been looking for the arrow in the same place. It’s amazing how you can walk right over something and not know it’s there, and then suddenly it’s easy to spot. Easy for Terry, anyway.

With all of that done, I got to work again and knocked out another chapter in my new John Lee Quarrels book while Terry was editing and proofreading some previous chapters I had finished. After making her corrections, I sent them off to my other two proofreaders, Judy and Roberta.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. It seems like you won’t get bored while washing you skivvies here.

Thought For The Day – Never judge a book by its movie.

The Man In The Cave

 Posted by at 12:15 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 202023
 

When a family searching for arrowheads in a cave in eastern Idaho way back in 1979 stumbled upon the dismembered torso of a man buried in a shallow grave, no one thought it would take forty years to determine his identity. And when it was finally revealed, it shocked everyone involved in the mystery.

The body was wrapped in burlap and missing its limbs and head when Earl Holden, the Clark County Sheriff at the time, arrived in response to the family’s panicked call. Holden ordered an immediate search of the area, looking for the rest of the body, but deputies and volunteer searchers were not able to find anything.

Based upon the condition of the body, which still had some skin left on it, the local coroner said he believed it had been in the semi-arid cave for about ten years. When the Smithsonian Institute’s Dr. Doug Ubelaker, considered the top forensic anthropologist in the world, examined the torso, he stated that while the coroner’s ten year determination was possible, the death could have been as recent as a few months. With no identification found with the body, he was listed as a John Doe.

More than a decade later, in 1991, a young girl exploring the same cave found a human hand sticking out of the ground. Excavating the area, the man’s missing arms and legs were recovered by searchers. His severed head was never located.

The grisly remains were stored for many years until March, 2019, when the Idaho State University Anthropology Department asked the nonprofit DNA Doe Project for help identifying the man from the cave. The DNA Doe Project uses emerging technology called genetic genealogy to identify unknown people by using their DNA to create a reverse family tree.

A team of investigators, including volunteer genealogists, spent over 2,000 hours researching the case, comparing DNA from their John Doe with other DNA found online before identifying the remains as Joseph Henry Loveless. His identity was confirmed by a DNA comparison with his grandson, who was 87 years old. But what shocked the world was the announcement that he had died somewhere around 1916, long before it was first believed he had met his fate!

Born on December 3, 1870, in Payson, Utah Territory, to a polygamist family of Latter-day Saints pioneers, Loveless was by all accounts a very bad man. An outlaw, a bootlegger, an armed robber, and a bigamist, Loveless abhorred honest work, preferring to earn a living on the shady side of society. He used several aliases, including Charles Smith, Walter Garron, Walter Cairins, and Walter Curens, to name just a few.

Abandoning his first wife and child in Salt Lake City, Utah, he was supposedly married to a woman named Stahl or Stahlings for a short time before running out on her while she was pregnant. Those two women were more fortunate than his third wife, Agnes Caldwell, whom he married in Idaho in 1900, using the alias Charles Smith. Over the next few years, he was arrested numerous times for bootlegging and other crimes, escaping from jails and prison almost every time.

That marriage went sour, too, but in a horrific manner. On May 5, 1916, he murdered Agnes with an ax in front of their eight year old son and disappeared. He was arrested by a posse a week later and charged with murder. But again, his stay in jail would be short-lived. Less than two weeks later he sawed through the bars of his cell and escaped, never to be seen again until his mutilated corpse was discovered in the cave 63 years later.

Who killed Joseph Henry Loveless, and why? We will probably never know. It may have been an act of revenge by someone he had cheated or robbed. Or, it may have been in retaliation for the brutal murder of his wife, Agnes. Given her manner of death and the state of his own body when it was discovered, that seems likely. But the crime happened so long ago that whoever killed Loveless and dismembered his body no doubt took the secret to his own grave.

Congratulations Pamela Stapleton, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words by my friend Ken Rossignol. These are tales of real pirates, not Hollywood in the Caribbean, but actual bloodthirsty pirates, who, when captured and put on trial, confessed to their brutality in shocking detail to the horror of all those in the courtroom. These accounts of real crime on the high seas committed by pirates who were brought to justice in England, Scotland, Canada and the United States are true and provide precise narratives of their actions in the courtroom, including the drama of the high seas barbarism and the death march to the gibbet and gallows.

We had 15 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – The best apology is changed behavior.

Keeping Busy

 Posted by at 12:40 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 192023
 

After our day in town on Friday, we stayed busy at home yesterday. After a light breakfast of mixed berries and a half bagel each, I spent an hour or so answering emails. One was from an old friend who lives in Minnesota, telling me that she was not ready for their long, cold winter to begin. Our winters here in Alabama are not nearly as severe, but I’m not ready for it to begin either.

It was actually pretty nice during the day yesterday, and I spent some time out in the barn unboxing and setting up the Forklift Safety Cage Work Platform I recently purchased from Vevor products. Then I did some measuring and thinking about some renovations I plan to do out in the barn this winter.

One of the first steps will be to get electric power hooked up again back there. There is power to the building, but the meter was taken out at some point in the past. Before I can get it connected again, I have to update the main breaker box.

I also want to pull off the old warped and weathered wood lap siding on the front side and replace it, then cover the other three sides that are pretty much bare. There are also two freestanding rooms in the barn that I’m going to tear out with the help of our son Travis. I also want to enlarge the door on one end of the barn so I can drive in one end and out the other if I want to. I probably won’t get around to any of that until sometime after Christmas.

But for now, I’m busy playing author. In the last few days I’ve written another three chapters in my new John Lee Quarrels book. Today I will proofread them and then print them out for Terry to edit before sending them on to my other proofreaders.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words by my friend Ken Rossignol. These are tales of real pirates, not Hollywood in the Caribbean, but actual bloodthirsty pirates, who, when captured and put on trial, confessed to their brutality in shocking detail to the horror of all those in the courtroom. These accounts of real crime on the high seas committed by pirates who were brought to justice in England, Scotland, Canada and the United States are true and provide precise narratives of their actions in the courtroom, including the drama of the high seas barbarism and the death march to the gibbet and gallows.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Look at all the things you own but never use and think, “This used to be money.”

Archibald’s BBQ

 Posted by at 12:25 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 182023
 

We needed to stock up on groceries, and since this is a home football game weekend for the University of Alabama, along with Thanksgiving coming up next week, we knew if we didn’t get to town yesterday we would regret it because the crowds would only get worse.

A while back Terry and I were chatting with a young lady who told us that her family owned a good barbecue restaurant that we should try out, and since we really like barbecue we made a note of it. But then things got busy and we never got around to doing so until yesterday, when we went to Archibald’s BBQ in Northport before we did our grocery shopping. Now we’re wondering why we waited so long.

George and Betty Archibald opened their little restaurant in a small cinderblock building tucked away on a side street in 1962 and quickly made a name for themselves serving delicious hickory smoked ribs basted with a special sauce that created a crispy outer layer while leaving the pork underneath moist and tender. They raised their kids cooking ribs, and today the third generation of the family is still using the same recipe in the same location, and draws fans from far and wide. The little family business has been featured in both the New York Times and Southern Living magazine.

If you’re looking for fancy dining, this isn’t the place. They have a small area with a few tables inside, but most folks sit on the picnic tables outside of the small unassuming building. The temperature was about 70, which made it very pleasant while we enjoyed our food.

Terry wanted pulled pork, but actually wound up with sliced pork, which she said was very good.

I chose some ribs, along with their wings, which I had heard were absolutely delicious. No question about it, both the ribs and the wings were excellent, even though the wings were very tiny. I laughed and told Terry that no one said they were chicken wings, maybe they came from sparrows.

Judging by the crowds of people that were there ordering food to eat or take with them, I think Archibald’s is going to be keeping future generations of the family busy cooking for a very long time.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words by my friend Ken Rossignol. These are tales of real pirates, not Hollywood in the Caribbean, but actual bloodthirsty pirates, who, when captured and put on trial, confessed to their brutality in shocking detail to the horror of all those in the courtroom. These accounts of real crime on the high seas committed by pirates who were brought to justice in England, Scotland, Canada and the United States are true and provided precise narratives of their actions in the courtroom, including the drama of the high seas barbarism and the death march to the gibbet and gallows.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Happiness is not a place; it’s a state of mind. You can have it anywhere.

Who Needs A Gun?

 Posted by at 1:06 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 172023
 

It’s deer season here in Alabama and it will continue in one form or another into February. At different times, hunters can use everything from bows and arrows to muzzle loading black powder rifles to modern firearms. While I don’t hunt anymore, I did in my younger days and I know it’s necessary to keep wildlife populations in check. When I was in the Army in New York I saw what happened when hunting seasons were restricted and the deer population soared to where there was not enough habitat to sustain them. And while I don’t hunt, I also don’t turn down any venison one of my friends who take to the woods offers.

Get together with any group of hunters and there’s always going to be a debate about what is the best method, archery, muzzleloader, or conventional guns. And even among the fans of a particular method, there are friendly arguments. Some traditional bow hunters look down on those who use modern compound bows, saying it really should be done with an old recurve bow. I’ve heard black powder shooters say that the only way to go is with a flintlock, not a later designed cap and ball smoke stick. And don’t get me started on the modern long gun hunters. Which is better, a rifle or a shotgun? What caliber or gauge? A scope or open sights. Everybody has their own opinion and they are all correct for themselves, even if not for the next guy.

But who really needs a gun to go hunting, anyway? Not born and bred country girls like our daughter-in-law Geli. On her way to work earlier this week she slowed down for several deer she saw on the shoulder of the road, but then another one came out of nowhere and slammed into the side of her Honda. She wasn’t hurt, but there was some body damage to her car. Geli said the deer kept going so here’s hoping it wasn’t injured so badly that it wandered off to suffer and die somewhere in the woods.

Moving on, I told you in yesterday’s blog that we had Terry’s cats, BeeBee and Mai Lyn, spayed and that they seemed to be doing well when we got them home. Well, not exactly. While Mai Lyn needed a few hours’ rest, she was soon back to normal. But BeeBee seems to be having some kind of reaction to the anesthesia and has been hissing and growling ever since we got her home. At first it was to anybody, Terry, myself, or our other animals. By yesterday afternoon, she had calmed down with us, but she still goes off anytime she sees the other cat or Alli. I did some research on Google, and it said that this is not uncommon for cats after surgery, so hopefully it will pass before too much longer.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words by my friend Ken Rossignol. These are tales of real pirates, not Hollywood in the Caribbean, but actual bloodthirsty pirates, who, when captured and put on trial, confessed to their brutality in shocking detail to the horror of all those in the courtroom. These accounts of real crime on the high seas committed by pirates who were brought to justice in England, Scotland, Canada and the United States are true and provided precise narratives of their actions in the courtroom, including the drama of the high seas barbarism and the death march to the gibbet and gallows.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.

 

Cats In The Cradle

 Posted by at 12:15 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 162023
 

We were up early yesterday morning because we had to be at Western Alabama Animal Hospital in Carrollton by 7:30 to drop off BeeBee and Mai Lyn, Terry’s cats, to be spayed. They are both indoor cats, so we’re not worried about them having kittens, but BeeBee has been in heat twice now and it’s about time for Mai Lyn to do the same, and the yowling for a week or more at a time is something neither one of us want to put up with again. Nor do they need to deal with that discomfort on a regular basis.

Not that they were all that comfortable being put in their carriers, either. Talk about yowling! They let us know all the way to the veterinarian’s that they were not happy.

Doctor Lowe and his staff are great people who have been taking care of all three of our animals since we got them. Even so, Terry was still a bit nervous, though she knew they were in excellent hands.

The cats did well with their procedures, and we went back in the afternoon to pick them up. I know that Terry was relieved to have them back home. While Mai Lyn seemed none the worse for wear and was pretty much back to herself by the evening, BeeBee started snarling and hissing at Mai Lyn as soon as they were out of their respective carriers and continued doing it so much that Terry separated them for the rest of the day and night. Hopefully the medication will wear off and she’ll be back to herself today.

In other news, we have some projects in the planning stages that are going to require doing some work up high. Neither Travis nor I are fans of ladders, so I ordered a Forklift Safety Cage Work Platform from Vevor on Monday and it was delivered yesterday morning. That was quick! Vevor sells all kind sof tools and gadgers for everything from agricultural and industrial work to auto repair and more.  The safety cage measures 36X36 inches, has a 1200-pound capacity, and fits my Kubota tractor’s fork attachments. A nice feature is that when we’re not using it, it folds up for easy storage.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words by my friend Ken Rossignol. These are tales of real pirates, not Hollywood in the Caribbean, but actual bloodthirsty pirates, who, when captured and put on trial, confessed to their brutality in shocking detail to the horror of all those in the courtroom. These accounts of real crime on the high seas committed by pirates who were brought to justice in England, Scotland, Canada and the United States are true and provided precise narratives of their actions in the courtroom, including the drama of the high seas barbarism and the death march to the gibbet and gallows.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – God didn’t give pets the ability to speak to teach us that love and loyalty are shown by actions, not words.

Pioneer Grave

 Posted by at 12:15 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 152023
 

Note: This is a story from my book Highway History And Back Road Mystery.

In a tiny roadside park sandwiched between U.S. Highway 26 and the Burlington Northern railroad tracks on the eastern edge of Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, sits the lonely grave of Rebecca Winters, one of the thousands of pioneers who set out in search of a better life in the west and never made it.

But unlike so many of her fellow travelers who succumbed to disease, injury, and Indian attack on the westward trek and were often buried in unmarked graves, Rebecca Winters’ final resting place is commemorated with a metal historical marker and a gravestone in tribute to the respect she earned from her family and fellow pioneers. Her story is a prime example of the hardships and perils that faced the early settlers making their way westward.

Rebecca Winters was born in New York state in 1802, the daughter of Gideon Burdick, who had fought in the Revolutionary War. Rebecca, a very warm and caring person, and her husband Hiram were among the earliest members of the Mormon Church, being baptized into the faith in June of 1833. In those days of intolerance, Mormons often faced severe persecution at the hands of non-believers, and the Winters family was no exception. They were forced to relocate several times, seeking new homes in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. Finally, in June of 1852, the family joined with other members of the Mormon Church to make the trip west to Utah, part of the great exodus to the new land where they hoped they could live in peace.

The frontier held many perils for the hapless immigrants making their way west. Flooded rivers could sweep a wagon away and pull its occupants under. Bears, wolves, and rattlesnakes sometimes lay in wait of the careless trespasser, and there was always the threat of marauding Indians. But the biggest danger was cholera. The dreaded disease killed thousands during the course of the westward migration. Somewhere along the Platte Valley, several people in the Winters’ wagon train contracted the disease, among them Rebecca. She died on August 15, 1852.

Usually, when an emigrant died, their graves were hidden by their family, often dug directly in the roadway, and wagons were driven over the grave to destroy all signs of its presence. This may seem callous to us, but there was a practical reason for the practice, as it reduced the chances of wild animals finding and disturbing the grave. There was seldom time materials to erect any sort of grave marker.

Rebecca Winters was a rare exception. Her husband and a close family friend, William Reynolds, went to great lengths to preserve her grave, a testament to how well she was loved by all who knew her. They dug an unusually deep grave, then lined the bottom with a layer of planks from abandoned wagons. Rebecca’s friends and family couldn’t bear the thought of dirt touching her, so her body was carefully wrapped in blankets, and a second layer of planks was placed over it.

After the grave was filled in, William Reynolds chiseled the words “Rebecca Winters, Age 50” into a metal wagon rim. Reynolds’ daughter Ellis held a candle for him to see by as he worked into the night. The rim was bent into an oval, approximating the outline of a tombstone and embedded over Rebecca’s grave. Their sad chore done, the family and their companions continued on their journey west, finally settling in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

The crude grave marker that William Reynolds fashioned stood through decades of prairie winters, fierce summer storms, and wildfires, and in 1899 it led to the rediscovery of the grave by a team of surveyors planning a route for the Burlington Northern railroad. The tale goes that, out of respect for the grave, the railroad’s original route was changed slightly to protect it, and the tracks were laid a few feet away from the grave.

At the end of the twentieth century, expanding rail traffic and an increasing number of visitors to the gravesite raised concerns for visitor safety, and the railroad contacted the Winters family descendants for permission to move the grave to a safer, more accessible location. The family agreed, and on September 5, 1995, a team of archaeologists from the Nebraska State Historical Society opened the grave, with 65 members of the Winters family looking on.

Rebecca’s remains were removed to a new site only 400 yards away, just off Highway 26, where she was again laid to rest in a beautiful mahogany casket on October 14, 1995. Some 125 of Rebecca’s descendants were on hand for the solemn ceremony, including her 16-year-old great-great-great-granddaughter, also named Rebecca Winters. Also attending the service was the great-granddaughter of William Reynolds, the man who had chiseled the metal marker at the original burial, 143 years before. Today the wagon rim still stands over the grave as it has for 168 years, a tribute to a much loved pioneer woman, and the respect in which she was held by those who knew her.

Thought For The Day – Never let the sadness of your past or the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present.

Fire Pit

 Posted by at 1:22 am  Nick's Blog
Nov 142023
 

We enjoy sitting out on our back deck, but with cooler weather coming we knew that would limit how much we could take advantage of it. So we decided to look into getting a propane heater or fire pit to use in the coming months. Terry did a lot of research online and settled on a Legacy Heating 28-inch square fire pit table with a 50,000 Btu output from Amazon.

It came with a built-in piezo to light the fire, a knob to adjust how much flame we want, a lid, and lava stone. It only took about an hour for Terry to put it together. That’s because I pretty much stayed out of the way and let her do her thing.

The first step was unboxing everything and making sure nothing was missing.

Then she attached the corners, using a drill with a screwdriver bit.

Once that was done, the next step was to put the sides on, then put the burner in place on the top and add the lava rocks.

All done!

We already had a couple of 20-pound propane tanks, and yesterday we set one in place in the bottom of the fire pit and attached the hose, then fired it up. This is going to be really nice when we are sitting outside in the evenings. 😊

Since I’m pretty much worthless when it comes to doing anything that involves tools, I have to find other ways to earn my keep around here besides just being eye candy. So yesterday I wrote another couple of chapters in my new John Lee Quarrels book, a total of about 4,500 words. As so often happens, the story is already taking a couple of turns I didn’t anticipate because the darn characters seem to have their own opinion of how things should go.

Okay, I’ll just sit back and watch what they do and tell you about the outcome. Sometimes I think they consider me about as superfluous as I am to Terry when she takes on a new project. 😊

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – I’m really getting into the Thanksgiving spirit this year. I gave two people the bird yesterday.

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