Getting High in Missouri

My Daughter wanted a big chicken coop on the new place they're building... So, delayed by getting bad sick on arriving here to heal up from gettin' banged up, we got started on that about a week ago.

Tinkered along for a while building up some stamina. Got the base beams set and leveled. The floor on. The walls up and sheathed with OSB and a layer of insulation wrap... Then the past two days Keriann and I got the roof trusses built and with Josh home over the weekend got them up and the metal roofing set...

Interesting lil bit of trivia. Ol' Josh is a bit of an outlaw. He's a second or third cousin or some such to Jesse James... plus he's got a tad of Indian in his blood. IDK... does that make him an Indian Outlaw?

"Rustled Feathers Roost*

It's been kind of engineered on the fly. Sort of a__"I think this'll look mighty nice over here like this..."

Ended up with a chicken coop that from a mile away on the road that leads in from the highway it looks like a country church goin' up :)

My, ain't it purty up here!

There's been a challenge or three on the deal.

You can't really see the wind blowing in that pic can you... wrasslin' the roof sheathing and the metal roofing panels was close to fun in the breeze... perched up on a... ahem... "parts stressing" peak.

But not too shabby for a one armed cowboy still draggin' from hackin' up a lung eh?

Gettin' up there's not a real tough deal...

The difficult part comes later... when tender parts better left un-abused...

...Find themselves between you and a hard place...

I think I heard something pop...

...and then you just say... OOOOOFFFFF!

Good thing I already had all the kids I wanted.

That roof peak was juuuuuust a might steep and sharp!

Denim jeans don't give a fella all the protection you might think...

We were hoping to get it buttoned up... buuuut... the wind has been blowing non stop for a few days slowing down progress... and rain is coming in today... so the chickens have to wait another few days to move in.

Didn't occur to me at the time... but I'm thinkin' bruising my "stuff" was a pre-payback. Arlo goes in tomorrow to get his own junk bobbed.

There's been a great improvement in his behavior in the weeks we've been here. Being able to run free almost all day every day on this lil Missouri acreage has shown his needs pretty clear. Reducing his testosterone I believe will be the final "key" to the deal.

Then, about the time he's healed up from that it'll be time to move back west and get on with gettin' on.

-Brian

The Endless Road That Pulls Me On... Does it Stretch Out to the Horizon...

Or does that trail fade into the distance behind my eyes?

Six weeks or so and restless. This bit of Missouri is soft and beautiful, lush and green. But it is a place that is not mine or me. I am not Home. My place is farther on__somewhere__ but where?

I've wandered countless miles now lost in the haze of the past. I see ever more countless miles stretching out ahead. But why? What is it I seek?

What is it that Rovers and Drifters seek? Adventure? Serenity?

Is it just adding to a list of 'places', for the list's sake? Is it only a variation of the same disease suffered by those who toil away their lives stacking up possessions they don't need and will never use? Or is it to satiate an aching hunger inside that craves an indefinable 'something'.

He has no doubt of the existence of what he seeks because he can feel it's constant weight on his chest. Yet it is a thing he can not see but as a moving shadow in the mists of sunrise.

It is a tangible, real 'thing' that he knows, for sure and for certain... yet a thing he can not describe.

The road calls to Rovers and Drifters... but is that where what they seek is to be found? On the Road?

Or__ is their serenity found at 'Home'? Does the road that leads them home actually run deep within themselves? Is that where they got lost? Seeking a road they can never seem to find__ because it's not on a map or winding across the landscape?

A Drifters Road__ is it hidden within himself?

Has he run the roads and trails to exhaustion chasing his serenity... only to find in the end that it was carried along right there in his ruck with every wandering step he's taken.

...Following a road... but I'm pretty sure it's not been mapped.

...so back to toiling on that chicken coop while I cogitate on where I'll be heading from here...

- Brian

Tax Man Tears Off A Chunk... But the Sun Still Rises

Got the arm/shoulder to maybe 50%... it needs to keep on mending, I signed up for another season of sugar beets up in Sidney. I'll be needing that shoulder come October.

The latest tax extortion pretty much requires that bit of labor. Got that calculated yesterday. Another couple of grand, I don't have, to feed socialism... Michelle Obama needs another vacation... life in the west.

*Tool case for leather tools*

Pretty much finished the case for my leather tools I started back before the pneumonia knocked me down.

It doesn't compact the storage space any__

__ but it does make the tools a hell of a lot more accessible and functional. With any luck that'll help get a project or two done now and again.

 The sunrise came along soft and nice this morning... I love the sunrise with my music and coffee...

*Missouri Sunrise*

Honestly, I miss my scooter on mornings like this... and the ability to break their grip and ride through the sunrise leaving the users and players behind.

We're supposed to get started on erecting a chicken coop this morning. My daughter has a dozen chicks well started inside. They're gonna be needing some permanent housing in the very near future.

After that's complete I have to pull the solar panels and parts off the old fiver to take with me back to Fort Collins to install on a rig there. Heading that way around the first of May.

Then I'm  bound for... not quite sure where yet. I'll be moving toward Montana to ride out the summer writing and waiting on the October Beet Harvest job. May is still some little bit too early to go that far north...

... maybe over to Dinosaur and Flaming Gorge... See where the lonesome wind blows me.

- Brian