The Slow Build Up to the Sydney Beet Harvest Has Begun

We took a last drive in the afternoon the day before we pulled out of the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There's only an up and back road there, so if you're going to see more than that you've got to put your boots on the ground...

It's purt near as pretty a country as the south unit... I just failed to capture any pics of it that caught my imagination.

So... the next morning we loaded up, hitched up and rattled our worn old rig on down the road to Sydney.

They put us up at the fairgrounds just on the edge of town. We've got electric hookup and a tangle of splitters and hoses to supply water... and a pump truck comes every two or three days, so effectively full hookups.

Yesterday was the first time in I don't know how many years that I remembered we HAVE an air conditioner! Took me near a half hour to figure out how to turn the sucker on. ;) and... find the circuit breaker that was stopping it from doin' its coolin'! Yup... it was Warm in Montana!

Ten billion acres of northern plains... but folks still pack things together as soon as you put up a city limits sign... must be a human need for companionship... that I lack :-/

Don't plan on putting out your awning in this workers resort... of course... wind isn't much of a problem. Buuuut... you'd be advised, in consideration of your neighbors... don't eat a lot of beans!

The first week we don't pile any beets... and only work the nights at the Quality Lab. That's where the sugar content of each fields beets is calculated - which is how the farmer gets paid for his crop.

During the first week we only work the lab, and are receiving the samples from what are called "test beets"... university experimental fields I believe...The actual harvest won't begin for a few days.

This is where I spend my evenings... scrambling around this scale and dump station. The beet samples come to me down the line in one of those green tubs you see on the overhead trolley.

I shove the tub onto the scale behind that yellow rail on the left... enter the weight into the computer console in the cabinet... pull the empty tub out of the dump which is that blue railed area at the end of the line... push the full tub onto the dump... hang the empty tub back on the over head trolley... and put the weight/sample ticket from the full tub into a clip on that white belt you see going through the wall on the right hand side...

When that ticket gets to the right position hit a button on that grey box just to the right of the white ticket belt, which dumps the sample beets to be cut for the sample...

Then, turn back to repeat for the next full tub...

Looking back up the line, just as we're getting ready for the evenings festivities... There's two scale lines. One below each row of tubs on the trolley.

When things really get flowing in about a week... that routine I do that I layed out above gets done every few seconds for about four hours... unless... which happens often, there's a problem with a ticket, the computer, a blown air hose or such...

... and then the five or ten seconds has to get sped up... to Catch Up!... :-) yup... That's when it's Time to Jump some gullies!!!

Come Monday or Tuesday we'll start piling beets on the Pile Grounds here at the receiving station here in Sydney... and we'll go from our four hour easy evenings to 8 hours on the pile yard and then our four hours in the evenings... and hopefully, weather permitting... get the job done in a month.

Today, I'm off to Williston to stock up on a few grocery needs. Once the big push starts there's little time if any for supply runs.

Brian

Race Week at PIR Begins

Race weeks at NASCAR always start off slow. Heidi starts her gate job on Sunday... and I don't start Tram work until today... Wednesday.

About nine we'll go to power washing and spit shining the trams so the chemically enhanced NASCAR fans don't get their butts dusty as they move between the track and the campground.

Then tomorrow we start haulin' butts...

The last sunrise over the  Carefree Highway camp was a lot quieter than PIR. You get used to it... sort of... but for somebody who's become attuned to quiet and open space...

The ruckus and commotion of a NASCAR track and campground is a slight mite of a culture shock.

My neighbors in that last camp are juuuuuuust a bit quieter than those here...

At PIR and I'd guess all the other tracks there is a constant drone 24/7. In the day it is rumbling motorcycles, trucks, generators... and a bit later into the weeks... race cars and hollering...

Sunday night the campground was still empty (they open the gate on Monday morning)... though a thousand or so rigs were parked in the "Staging" area a couple of hundred yards away with quite a few folks camped there in their rigs... when lil' Jr. run across the line late in Daytona the hollering echoed across the desert for quite some lil' while. First time that's happened that I recall...

Apparently Jr. has a few fans at Phoenix International Raceway...

Me? I'm sort of torn... The weeks are good... but by the end of 'em... I'm ready to get back to the lonesome far country...

This pic is a lil' deceptive...

*First 2014 PIR NASCAR Sunset*

Looks pretty peaceful don't it? Turn 180 degrees from that view and you're lookin' out over the growing "City" at PIR... it's labeled as I believe the third largest city in Arizona during a lot of the race weeks, once the place fills up!

Peaceful? Not So Much. This is where you let your hair... and on occasion a few other things... down... or up, which ever the case may be and Cut 'er Loose!

This year is the 50th anniversary for PIR here in Avondale... they've got quite a few events planned I guess... though they're keeping me in the dark...

They're trying to get ever'body round here to drop their jeans... literally! ... ;) ... well... in collection bins or some such... some sort of charity where they grind up old blue jeans for insulation? Never heard of it before... but this race it's one of the sponsors... I haven't yet got the full run down on that...

Also supposed to be a concert or two... the Mexican Nascar Race is being run again.... if they get here...

The last one their transport trucks couldn't get across the border cuz they were in such poor shape so they had to send a convoy of trucks to Nogales to get 'em... and when they got here the drivers got in a brawl in the pits over "who hit Juan"... sooooo... it should be a curious week...

Time to go fast and turn left
Brian

Back to Phoenix International Raceway...

... For the first race of their 50th anniversary year.

Pulling out of my Carefree Highway camp in a short while to make the 45 mile run to the track.
Heidi flies in late tonight and starts her work week tomorrow. Mine begins on Wednesday.

Been told all sorts of things are planned for the big PIR 50th anniversary but no specifics... We shall see.

On the way to NASCAR
Brian

Leather and Nascar in the Arizona Desert

Though we always get here to PIR for her to start her chores on Sunday... I don't start until Wednesday. So... today I go to work as a pro-fesh-unal Nascar Driver...

... or... more lately... Tram Host... 'cause I have a tendency to want to just run over the illiterate bozos that can't read the NO PEDESTRIANS PERMITTED ON THE TRAMWAY signs...

I figure I can just use the same argument cagers use when they run down an Ol' boy on a motorcycle with their Buick... "Why Officer! He came out of nowhere! I never saw him!"...

So... what to do 'tween Sunday and Wednesday?

How about continue to march on the Leather Craft revival, now that the Beet harvest is done... The "Mystery Meet" up in Glacier that is still cloaked in legalese secrecy... and while I wait on the start up of my chores here?

Collected a few more bits and pieces here... collected a fresh piece of leather from Leather Factory while we were in Denver... and the first Journal is truly starting to take shape...

 I cut the leather for the cover on Monday... and doodled and schemed on what I wanted to do for the tooling design...

*Custom Journal in the Making*

Then I mocked up a test fit to see how it was all coming together as well as working at getting my leather carving muscles working again... It's starting to feel pretty good... been too long since I worked a piece of leather. I've determined that it was a mistake, to leave it behind.

So... knowing that it's never too late... I'm going back and picking it up again... Hoping that it will contribute eventually to the pantry...

*Tooling leather in the sunshine*

I sat out in the sun, amongst the rigs in the lot here at PIR and tooled up the cover for this first of my custom journals...

I've realized a couple of things; One, I need new glasses! ;) and Two... Leather Craft is a perishable skill... it takes a bit to warm all the muscle memories back up when they've been left dormant for a while... but still... they come back quick... So all is good.

With the leather drying from tooling... I went to town to pick up a couple more bits to shape into a tool I'll need... For some more work on the book block, the shaping of the spine etc... I need what's called a "Lying Press"...

I'm laminating up a couple pieces of Poplar... to be used with some decent Irwin Quick Clamps to serve that job...

*Lying Press under Construction*

This tool building keeps up... and I'm gonna need either a bigger trailer... or a base camp to put it all ;)

The trams are calling and I must go...
Brian

Winding down... and Making Ready for the Road

Coming up on a month here now, and the job is winding down. Rain almost every night slowing things down.

We're down to two Pilers operating now from the five that started out. Dan and I keep working the Bobcats to deal with the mud so everybody else can continue to function. The rain though it's been coming almost every night for the past few, has slacked off light enough so though it keeps things impeded, we're catching up.

Rumor is we'll shut another Piler down in the next day or so... There seems to be a bit of hopeful rumoring on the part of the crew that is contended with by drivers that say they've got another whole week of hauling. ;)

I think for most, the long days are tallyin' up and their endurance is running low, at least mentally. It's a tough go if you've never really experienced this sort of routine before... and can be enlightening if you go in with the right attitude.

Most have never worked this sort of a job where you're in a constant sea of mud, noise, wind, rain, dust and fatigue. The folks are PGA Golfers, retired cops, contractors, chefs... you name it. They've come from lives that run across the board.

But me... I'm the only pussgut, ditch digging, blizzard bashing, cow chasing, leather carving, ignorant mountain cowboy in the bunch! so... this isn't much of a change for me. :)

I'm getting tired... but then... I've gotten re-tired nearly every day of my life. 

It's looking pretty strong that Monday or Tuesday I'll be turning my windshield south for the annual migration to our Arizona Desert Retreats...

Got our first payday deposited into the account the other day... and of course a call that day from the accountant... announcing the Feds... were requiring nearly HALF of that check to pay the extortion for 2012... yup... I'd just as soon have kept those worthless mudsuckers shut down... I'm betting I can do for myself... a whole lot cheaper, what they CLAIM to do... and SELDOM perform on.

Those that believe those D.C. parasites are doing ANY of us any good, I believe, are living in a wonderland of denial. Buuuut then, that is your right to believe how you choose.

The past several days, we've been dealing with a "new" burp in the truck... this time starting. The batteries have been going waaaay low... rode a couple circuits with Dale and Jo in their jeep when the Dodge couldn't get going... not sure totally where the "issue" lays.

It's an intermittent "Voltage" issue... and of course... the batteries are from costco... with the nearest one being Billings I believe... well... a careful use of a small borrowed battery charger got 'em fully juiced... and the alternator is cranking out the voltage... but it don't seem to last overnight... bad batteries? Which are less than 25% into their 100 month lifetime... or something else that made the batteries go bad?

No time here really to fiddle and diagnose the thing... and of course, it's in my mind that, we make some dollars and Physics says the costs have to swell up to consume those... right? :)

So... When we had a late start yesterday... I took the borrowed battery charger off and ran the truck to a local hardware store and secured a small charger to add to our load... On our roll south, I'll be able to fire up the generator to run the charger to get the truck going needs be... or the compressor to air up that iffy tire ;)

Making it to Denver, we'll be back into the country of America's Tire, Costcos and time to diagnose things I don't "Get" well... and where I can get the warranties with the companies that have done me good in the past! From there on south, with fresh rubber and the "Batteries?" warrantied... we'll be able to make a relaxed run to the races in Phoenix...

It all Depends on the Weather
Brian

You Can't Screech to a Halt... In the Mud...

More a slip slidin' along... until you stop moving...

Started raining 'bout midnite the night before last... and rained all day. Not Hard... just that constant, slow, soaking rain...

... just got the phone word that the "Beet Yard" is closed all weekend... It'll take that long for the fields to dry out enough for the farmers to get back to pulling beets.

It's not that they just need dry enough for the equipment to get through the fields, it's if they're too wet they compact. When you run equipment across wet fields, down deep the ground gets compacted hard as concrete. You won't know something is wrong until next year when you try to grow a crop... and little happens. The ground was compacted so hard the roots can't penetrate...

... so we wait...

There's only maybe five days of work left... if we can get to it. The weather man holds promise. Kind of hoping for wind today to help dry things up.

Then Monday morning we'll hit it hard and run for the finish. There are some piling stations that have been able to get in a few loads so the Tare Lab operated... a whole hour last night! Buuuuut... work an hour... get paid for four... can't grouse too hard.

I'm ready to roll south with our accounts a bit healthier than they were. It's some easier to go down the road knowing there's tire money in the bank if you shred one.

It's looking good for a few days with the kids in Denver... and doing some truck work while there... to get us south and through the winter...

Tires, and a growing starting issue... Batteries? A Mis-operating pre-heater? another alternator? something is intermittently taking amperage so I'll try to find that... Then in the southland this winter those house/solar batteries are aged... been gonna replace 'em for two years! :) this winter should see it done.

But first... we gotta roll through Colorado and get to Avondale for another week of work at PIR (Phoenix International Raceway)

With all those jobs out of the way I've got this winter marked down to a single minded focus on writing. I won't be doing much of anything else. I've got it in my mind to create the next two volumes THIS winter.

 One for the Jeb Taylor series, and the next to continue Ben Jensen's tribulations.

Those will be published if all goes well sometime around  March/April 2014.

I foolishly took it easy for too long and lost the momentum I'd gained with the first three books...  Now with #4, Shadow on the Mountain  just released, that activity is coming back.

So with that lesson well in mind this is to be a winter of words! ;) and that means Work son! Sit down, engage the brain pan and get the movie reel in my head spinning in high gear.

Both series seem to be gaining some momentum on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble's Nook store. They look to be gaining a bit of ground with their ranking dropping into far lower numbers with the two FREE books. That's juuuuust starting to carry through to the next two that are for sale. Sweet!

So... lots going on... lots yet to come...

I Just Need the Weather to Cooperate!
Brian

The Beet Harvest is in Full Swing

We did our first yard shift today, in this Sugar Beet Harvest, starting the Beet Piles... First thing I discovered is that they discovered just what a genuine western hero I truly was... so they gave me a promotion 'fore I'd even worked a day in the yard.

*Sydney Sugars Beet Piling Station*

Yup... ya gotta have a lot of respect for folks bright enough to put me in a skidsteer...

...since that is requiring of such a high IQ and quick reflexes... ;)

... and I think we'll probably find that 24' pipe I lost too...

It should likely be somewhere behind the pile of others! :)

Hell... it can't have rolled THAT far! :)

*My Bobcat with a grapple setting tubes for pile ventilation*

 So... the day started off cool... for a few minutes... but when that Montana sun climbed high enough it got warm enough to have stuff leaking outa my hide... and I since I hadn't put that awful much on, I was running out of stuff to take off... at least and have the women folk still able to keep their attention on the BEETS! ;)

So... here's a quick, rough lil' clip from my phone to give ya some perspective of the operation...

 My... don't it look all bright and sunny? ...

Montana's like a lot of the rest of the west... wait a minute or six and things'll change...

The wind from the storm had the dust so thick for a bit you couldn't see 'cross the lot... and then the rain that came behind it had that gumbo stick to your feet so's you gained 3" with every step...

... of course... some guys were sitting inside the nice dry, warm cab of his Bobcat, listening to the radio :) while herself was out in it wading around in the mud and the crud.

I felt terrible about it too. Just plumb terrible ... but what could I do?! I juuuuuust had to sit there all dry and cozy... in that job I was assigned! :)

Then come the afternoon... we walked back to the truck to move over for our night shift in the "Tare Lab" ... and the truck wouldn't start! oooooffffffffTA!

Second crank it turned over... just...

Rolled back to the fairgrounds for our short break between shifts, left it running until we left for the Lab... and only shut it back off when we returned to the factory and did that shift.

When we walked back out to the rig after  the shift, I crossed my eyes and gritted my fingers ??? huh??? yeah, don't worry... I don't know what the hell that means either... but, when I cranked it over... the gremlin took a nap and she fired right up just like normal.

So...Tomorrow in the A.M. we do it all over again. 12 hour days... and only 20 of 'em left... give or take.

Piling Beets to pile cash
Brian

Last of the Easy Days... Tomorrow It's Time to Jump Some Gullies!

Finished up the early "training" bit with the "research" beets from the USDA Friday evening... and then had the weekend "off"... to be ready to Rock and Roll the 12 hour days, seven days a week... starting Monday morning!

I have a bit of a sneaky suspicion that Monday is gonna get a mite western. The past three nights we'd had a bit of an "escapade" with co-ordination  'tween all the moving parts. Uh huh.. getting juuuuust a touch out of the proper rhythm ~ As in the bovine processed vegetable matter was coming into opposition with the air recirculation device. Uh Huh... can you spell SPLATTER?

Ha ha... yeah... each tub of beets to be tested has a ticket... specific to it... and they can't be allowed to get crossed up with some other bucket... and... yup... they did... DEFCON 5! DIVE DIVE DIVE!!! HONNNNK HONNNNNK HONNNNNNK!!! INCOMING INCOMING!!! MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!!! :)

WHOOOOOEE! Kind of a grinner to see ever'body scramblin' 'round with a look on their face like Mother Theresa just got caught at the Motel 6 with a schoolboy.

Soooo... Monday we hit the pilers in the stackyard for six hours or so... then an hour break and crank up the "tare lab" come sundown and work that till the work is done... Hopefully not much after ten or so... then...

Get up the next morning for the next 18 or 23 days and do it all over again!

Yesterday afternoon we had a bit of a camp/crew potluck here at the fairgrounds for all the folks camped here working the harvest.

Had a bit of a downer this week as well. A long time reader of this blog turned up here unexpectedly to work the harvest.

John Davidson walked up our first day here and introduced himself. I'd no idea he was going to be here. I've "known" John for five or six years, though I'd never seen his face, only his truck! ;)

He sent me the confidence that my idea to "retard" the hitch on the truck so I could carry my motorcycle behind the cab would work just fine; contrary to all the nay sayers warning me of catastrophe. His old truck has been a part of the main website for several years! (yeah... I know... in finding the page his rig was posted on... I discovered yet another page requiring rebuilding ~ no rest for the wicked huh?)

Well, his wife Colleen got sick the very first night of work in the lab. The next thing we knew she was in Intensive care in the local hospital. They turned her loose yesterday and this morning they hitched up their toad and headed for home over in Washington with a weeks worth of medication to get 'em there.

We're all wishin' 'em well, safe travels and a quick mending from the infection she suffered. They had a nice sunrise this morning to send 'em off on their journey west...

*Sunrise over the sugar beet harvest*

'Course... red sky in the morning, sailor's warning... kinda says they might be drivin' into a bit of weather 'tween here and home.

In amongst all the things goin' on I got my latest volume of the Ben Jensen Series published and up live at Amazon where it's selling modestly well. Considering all the competition a guy has, that's a pretty pleasant place to be.

Mary left this review today on the first story of the series ~ A Pair of Second Chances~ ;  "I could not get Sam Elliott out of my head! Love to read westerns and love stories. So add suspense and real life adventure -I'm hooked! Usually not interested in a love story written by a guy. This one is different. Not sourly sweet. Could not put this down. Love me some cowboy and this just proves old cowboys never die. Highly recommended."

Wow... There's a lady who knows how to make a writer feel damn Fine! I'm gonna have to exercise some extra care to keep my ego under control! ;)

If you haven't got your copy or have never read the first volume, follow that link and you can get Your copy of ~ A Pair of Second Chances ~ FREE at Amazon! Then you'll be in great shape for the continuing story in ~ Shadow on the Mountain~. ... "A Pair" is also available free at Barnes & Noble for those of you with NOOKS. "Shadow" will be coming up Live in the NOOK store shortly as well. It just hasn't worked it's way through the distribution channels yet.

Be sure to pass on the links for the FREE series Starters and the next books to your mystery and suspense with a bit of action and romance loving friends. This Ol' Buster will be forever grateful! ...

If you read the stories, please, Remember to travel back to the store where you bought it and leave a review. Many many people make their purchases based on those. So authors are Very Grateful for the ones you leave... But, Be Honest with 'em too!

Well... It's what we used to call "Ruck Time" in the army... gotta check my gear bag to make sure I'm set up for whatever weather comes down on us tomorrow when we get to Pilin' sugar beets!

Writin' and Pilin' and Weighin' and Grinnin'
Brian

Working , Wandering and Writing

We took a run the other day, before our evening shift in the Tare Lab, up to Williston, North Dakota and killed two birds with one run.

Fort Union is up that way, right near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. Soooo... we rolled our way through the heavy road construction and made our first stop there.

The fort sits on a low rise above the Missouri and was at one time THE place on the upper Missouri.

The place has the look of the "Hollywood" forts with the stockades, though, the Bastions built with rock are a lil' fancier.

With two bastions, set in diagonally opposite corners, the walls of the stockade would be pretty much impregnable to a fella on a horse with nothing but arrows...

If you were foolish enough to come at 'em with a bad attitude... 'tween the cannons protecting the walls... and all the firing ports for riflemen... You were bound to have a bad day...

Even at the main gate they had some pretty good protection. Traders might be allowed inside the first gate...

Just inside the first gate is a second... with the trading area the building on the left... in especially rough times... they kept the gate shut and you did your "trading" through that lil' window in the stockade wall...

 Inside that Trading Area is a pretty fine great room... if you were allowed in! :)

From the parapets they had a 360 degree view from the river to the rolling country to the north... though... "rolling" might be a little bit of an exaggeration. 

I believe they called the fella running the place the Bourgeois... and even back in the Missouri River Wilderness, in 1820 something... they guy lived pretty fine...

A lil' display of the difference in housing twixt the "Traders" and the Souix, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Flathead et al.

On the left of that frame and another set over behind the Tipi... is the foundation beams of where they had warehouses, stores and quarters for the people living/working there. One of the tasks was to take buffalo robes and other furs too I suppose and compress them into 100 lb bales for shipment back to the settlements...

They got pretty high tech there... Big Log... a couple of fat guys hoppin' on the end and Wa La! Compressed fur!

Well, with the tourista stuff done for the day we moved on up to the Oil Boomtown of Williston, North Dakota... where you'd never know there was any sort of economic hard times... There or Sydney for that matter. There's not hardly a store front without a "Help Wanted" sign... and the stores and shops are all bustling...

The Walmart in Williston, where we stocked up for the next few weeks of work is supposed to be the #1 profitable store in the country... the goods don't hardly stop moving... they just flow off the trucks and right on up to the registers. :)

The road construction slowed us down so much I was a mite afeared we could be late getting back for our shift, but... clever guy I am... I read the map and found another way around that had us sailing back into the fairgrounds in plenty of time to get ready and roll on over to the Sugar Factory to add some more sweetness to your morning coffee!

*Sydney Sugars Factory*

It's laundry day before we work tonight... and I may not get another for a while... so I'd better get at it! annnnnd I'm trying to get the initial setup for writing the NEXT Book started! Sometimes I feel like one of those Egyptian things with the six arms...

... only trouble is... I got one slow brain trying to keep track of 'em all!

It's work work work
Brian

Breakin' in Easy at the Beet Harvest...

"OK here's the deal... the tub comes down the conveyor like that one... you grab it, pull out its tag, check it for rocks, pull it on here, don't get caught in that chain, make sure it's clear, read the weight here, Don't CLIMB on ANYTHING! read the weight there, check it here, write it on there, throw it over there if it's wrong, shove it to the end, DON'T CLIMB on ANYTHING! stick the ticket in this, every third one, make sure it's straight! wait till it gets HERE then PUSH THAT BUTTON! grab the empty tub hang it on the chain, oops! you put it on back'ards! pull another tub... Hurry! Here comes four more!... go! Go! GO!"

"HUH? Where's the tub? I count what and put it where? Climb up on where? I didn't hear you! over all the machinery!" ;)

Inside the "Lab" the gals are wrappin', blenderizing, filtering and weighing and who knows what else to them poor sliced diced and beat up sugar beets.

Clear down at the other end of the line, on past the washer and dryer :) is where the bags of test beets come in. A nice shiny spot that looks kinda like what you'd expect a southern grease monkeys 75 year old backwoods auto repair shop to look like... if he's sittin' barefoot on a bench with a beer in one hand, a chunk of grass hangin' out of his mouth, no shirt and his other hand in his coveralls...

Yes sir... don't think "Brewery tour" when you think sugar beet factories. No stainless steel or polished copper vats here. Dust, noise and hub bub.

So... for a guy that's been pretty much keeping to the quieter and more serene parts of the west the past 37 months or so... it's a mite of an eye opener! but then... not so far different than the majority of his life...

Though... that "lab" is a lot quieter than a 105 mm. Howitzer! About like a set of corrals when you're sortin' off calves and ever'body's bawlin' for their mommas.

I guess you could describe the doin's as a bit of an organized cluster F... andango. ;) It's one of those deals where, when you only do something for a short while once a year... it takes a bit to get back in the rhythm... Especially when you're startin' off the first night with a crew that's never danced to that tune before!

Ended up the night at the far end loading the beets, where they come in for testing, into the tubs going up the conveyor to the washer for a bath. I think I'll push for that job in the future. It's a lot quieter out there!

... and a fella can actually see the sky... guess I'm gonna have to keep on paying my taxes right... just bein' inside that building with no windows to see out... tells me prison isn't a place I'd do well. ;)

So... this week, whatever work they've got for us will be there in the "Lab"... we'll orientate for the stacking yard at the end of the week and then next it's pilin' beets. Oh Yes... an Orgy of anticipation!

and why am I doin' this? ... um... tires, batteries, windshields and debt... pieces and parts...

...To Keep it Keepin' On...
Brian

Limited Experience as a Beet Picker

Limited as in None...

Actually, "Beet Picker" is a fib... we'll be working the area where the trucks deliver the Beets from the field to the Sugar Plant, after they've been ripped from the ground by the machinery. They have to dump 'em into a hopper setup that then shakes the mud and crud off of 'em and lifts the things up into a great tall stack.

So... a better Moniker;  Truck Guide? Beet Stacker? Moving Target? Gen'l Step an' Fetchit? 

They'll sit there through most of the winter before they actually get to 'em all to extract the sugar.

So... somebody has to control the truck traffic, keep the machinery clear... and also do the testing work in what they call the lab. We managed to snag a lil' of both jobs. We'll be working our 8 hours out under the sunny Montana sky... which today is hiding behind a grey curtain called CLOUDS... and then 'bout 5 in the evening we'll move over into the "Lab" for four to whatever hours until that chore is complete.

My guess is that at the end of three weeks? I'll be purt near the end of my desire to bust hump working for dollars and will be ready to roll south for the Arizona Desert!

Today we'll be starting our first "day"... but it doesn't happen till 'bout 5 tonight. We'll be training in the "lab"... which they say ISN'T a white coat geek retreat... but really just a dirty old building where they process the samples from the trucks. It's from those samples that they really figure out how much the farmer is gonna get paid...

So... an easy week this week... and then they turn the dogs loose next Monday. :)

I took a break from editing yesterday and was walking down to the end of the row of rigs here in the county fairgrounds... to visit with a blog reader... and never got there.

I was walking past a rig and another guy introduced himself (I'd never seen a pic)... He's the guy that re-enforced my own belief... a bunch of years ago now, that I could haul my bike behind the cab the way I do... We ended up sitting in front of his rig fixing all the ills of the world with a lil' "horse sense".

Today... I gotta make it all the way to the end of the row!... Have you any idea how tough a job that is for an itinerant, inveterate Bucket Mouth? ...

Maybe if I sneak along behind 'em all... 

So... I better go make another pot of Joe... so I'm well coffeed up for the Journey!

Readying to Get Beeted
Brian

Wading Into an Unsure and Hectic Future...

We've chosen to pull out a day earlier than originally planned. It's only 200 miles and a bit to Sydney, "but since we aren't sure where we are and don't know where we're goin'... there's no use bein' late."

We'll leave late and stop early somewhere around the Fort Peck Dam. That'll leave us a pretty short run tomorrow so that we can get in with plenty of time to find out where we need to be, get our paperwork filled out and... GULP... be ready to work come Monday morning.

Not knowing where we'll truly be or what the situation there is... I've no way of knowing what my ability to "Connect" will be... so that's just another unknown... soon to be discovered.

I'm hopeful that the weather that has mostly been gentle with us all season will continue to smile. We've mostly managed to avoid the rains and fogs along the coast, the fires through the mountains and all the tribulations our folks down home have endured the past several days.

Now, with 12 hour days standing in a piling station of some sort coming up... I'd just as soon have the good weather hold. Truth be known they can't operate in bad weather so it's not so much that, but that if bad weather arrives it will hold up the works and we HAVE to leave for our Phoenix gig by midweek the last week of October...

So... if the three week harvest gets drug out much... things could get a mite tight...

In amongst all that... I'm working on the final edits and text work so I can Publish the newest Novel sometime in Early October...

I finished the cover for that story yesterday... and appropriately, since much of the story takes place there... the photograph that is the foundation of the cover is looking north toward the western side of the Bob Marshall wilderness from a position on the SW corner of the Scapegoat Wilderness east of Seeley Lake, Montana.

... and there's an announcement to be made! In preparation for the release of book #2 of the Ben Jensen series...

I have rolled the prices for my first two novels, A Matter of Honor and A Pair of Second Chances, each the starters for their series, back to FREE at Smashwords.

That Price should be reflected at other retailers in the near future including Amazon as the change circulates up through the distribution chain.

This is a permanent change. If you've been waiting to try one of the series... you'll never get a better price! ;) So if you know somebody whose got a liking for Westerns (Honor) or more modern Mystery/suspense (Pair) pass the word on that they can get a good book for a pretty fair price!

So... I'd better get back to my journal making, manuscript editing, rig loading and tourista imitations... if I'm gonna git where I'm a goin'!

Life for a lazy man is truly getting difficult! ;)
Brian

Across the Wide Missouri to Malta

We left Hungry Horse bound for Sydney Montana with just under two weeks to get there and no real "plan" on route or stops... just go where it feels right.

The first possibility was a short haul to a spot on the southeast border of Glacier... but as we approached that... the little voice just whispered; "Keep Rolling" ... and so I did.

We ended up asphalt boondocking at the Great Falls Wally World resort after a few stops for some supplies and a software program I needed to replace so I can get this next Novel published...

The next morning found us bound for the Missouri River above Lewistown. There's a BLM camp there on the river right beside hwy 191... it's only real drawback was zero signal...

The Missouri is quite a change from the rivers and lakes of western Montana and Idaho. There you look down into crystal water... the Missouri? If it would stop flowing I believe you could plant corn in it.

With all the muddy water running lazily down that stream the other day... and knowing how long it's been flowin'... it' a wonder there's any of Montana that hasn't already been carried down to the gulf!

*The Missouri Breaks*

*The Missouri River ~ Keel Boat Highway of the Mountain Men*

Just a mile up the highway and four or five back in along the river is an area of the Charles Russle Wildlife Refuge that the elk use this time of year for their annual amorous pursuits. We fought skeeters the size of beagles that were so thick four tourists were hauled off in ambulances from blood loss...

while I tried to capture some photographs...

This here isn't like down in Rocky Mountain National Park... these guys pretty much hung back in the timber along the river and made capturing a portrait kind of iffy...

Any other time I'd have just laid up for a couple of days... but we were expecting contact from our future beet picking employers...

... so I thought we should move on in the morning to get back into a service area...

... That and with a 1000 year storm tearing up our home country in Colorado and threatening family and Friends, I just wasn't willing to be out of contact more than overnight.

So on we rolled and found signal just a bit south of Malta... and a $3 a day park on the edge of this lil' Montana Burg.

*Malta, Montana community Park*

Not a bad spot... even if it is so badly crowded as you can see...

Even had some neighbors for a few hours...

 Some folks were hauling some mares and colts from somewhere to somewhere else...

Part of the park is the local fairgrounds/Rodeo arena setup.

They pulled in here to give the horses a break from the road and move around on ground that wasn't moving around under them!

 This is starting to be an issue... One I hadn't expected...

Horses...

I'd moved "away" from them the last few years in that old life... with life having got a hold of parts of me I never should have allowed...

Now... more and more... I find a longing for the feel of a horse under me again...

I'm telling you... it's a difficult thing to be a split personality with so many of the personalities totally ignorant of the existence of all the others!

Well, in amongst all of that, Contact got made with the Beet Pickers... and when they heard how close we were they said; "Well come on over and we'll put you to work!" sooooo... next Monday we'll be goin' to work 'bout a week earlier than we'd thought... which won't do any damage to the poke at all.

While sitting here I've put together the first signature block of the first Journal in my Leather Shop restart effort...

*Signatures being stitched*

*Completed Signature Block*

Now all I have to do is find the leather to carver the cover... not an easy task in these small towns it seems...

So... with that lil' project suspended for lack of materials... I went to work carving on the Cover for my Newest Novel, to take a break from editing... and can't decided which one I prefer...

Since I'm straddling the fence of indecision... and wearing a hole in a sensitive spot on my new wranglers...

... I'll probably take most of the day off and go check out the Charles Russell Memorial... and maybe Fort Peck Dam...

That'll help the aches of Cowboyin' nostalgia I'm sure!

Oh lordy... I wonder if I'll ever learn to NOT stir the pot?

Till that joyous day... I guess I'll just keep on ridin' out the storms as they come up...

Saddling Up another day

~ Brian

"The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go"

... so now we're camped quite some lil' bit closer to those snow fields. Looking north along where our trail will stretch, I can see more snow capped peaks waiting for us... but that's another couple weeks away.

Tuttle Creek was a unique and shining time. More friends were gained there I think than any other previous camp. And the feeling of opportunities gained is strong... kind of an odd thing. I'm curious to see how "things" work out in the future... 

There was one guy, Dale, who's living, and been living for quite a while, on an 80's Honda NightHawk Motorcycle. As soon as he qualified to gather in his social security... he saddled up and left!... then there was Frank... fifteen years or so younger and "Burnt" from the demands of Soh-sigh-uh-tee...

He's been a film/video editor/producer for most of his working life... He took a break for a while hunting for some inspiration and ideas... and his way forward. He was traveling on a KLR. As we were pulling out he was saddled up and riding back to L.A. for another go. ;)

There was Joe, with an old "wilderness" looking trailer.  Just living cheap and digging out of debt... and breathing free... along with several others. The camp was full of folks just soakin' up an Alternative to what's generally force fed by the man...

There was even one fella in the Tuttle camp who spouted long and windy about what it meant if your name was capitalized on your birth certificate... and how he owned his rig, unlike the rest of us. Because he'd bought it with GOLD and not whatever we used... :) How he'd traveled around for years teaching people how to dodge this and that, and how to put judges and such in their place... I think he maybe he needs his meds adjusted.  ;)

It was actually ok though... he provided the rest with some pretty good giggles standing by the campfire! :)

A bunch of guys proving that you don't have to have deep pockets to be Free. You only have to commit to the idea.

Me? I just keep tappin' the keyboard. My 'work kamping'/RV Boondocking income writing just keeps rolling along. I'm at that point in book #4 where the story starts accelerating in my head and all the lines start to converge. This should be a good camp for that effort as well as some web work with the shiny signal we have here...

Even the Air Force got in the show for our departure from Tuttle. 

We were saying our good byes to another full timer that's been seeking a "better" way...

... When I spotted 'em coming up the Valley..


We got us a flyover to celebrate our moving camp. ;)

The plan for this move was to only bump up maybe 80 miles... maybe even "K-mart Kamp" for a night.

The rule in California is if you got more than two axles, 55 mph is your top speed... so my rolling road block fits right in to their legalities. What I don't understand is the split personality when I go from ten wheels to two...

Plant my but on the storm deck of that truck and trailer and I'm just pokey joe. No hurry... no rush... just drift along...

Now... Sling my leg over the seat of that Yamaha and a transformation happens. What's left of my teeth start showin'... my heart starts pumpin'... the wind starts whistlin' past my helmet. I gotta work to keep 'er legal.

It's kind of a cowboy time machine... back to those days on the sunny slopes when I was young and purty... 

Guess I should just be happy that I get to ride at both ends of the beauty "spectrum" huh?

We stocked up some groceries at Vons in Bishop... enough to buy us a tank at their fuel station with a 20 cent discount. Been a while since I bought diesel for $3.79!

Being still only mid afternoon, it made no sense to asphalt it for the night... so, hammerin' head or not I rolled us the rest of the thirty miles or a bit less to another BLM camp at Crowley Lake.

Again, with water and outhouses; a damn fine view from camp and two dollars and fifty cents a night... it hardly makes trying to find a "Free" camp worth the effort! :) With the wide spaced sites, most of which are empty and sizzling internet signal so I can punch away at the buttons getting some work done... this'll work fine for another long setup.

It puts us closer to some places we want to check out from Bishop to above Mammoth Lakes as well... cutting the diesel needed to get here from Lone Pine...

Maybe, if we dawdle long enough, they'll even open Tioga pass over into Yosemite. and we can go the short drive over the mountain rather than the all day drive to get around it.

It's a lot cooler up here. We're near to 3000 feet higher than the camps down there in the Alabama Hills... but what's a feller to do? Ya Gotta go where the Mountains are!

*A New Camp and a New View*

*Sunrise lights up our New Mountain*

This camp has long views in every direction... and some of  'em have that strange, pull you feel inside... that aching, longing hunger for something the full understanding of which hangs just out of reach...

Not a bad feeling... just that sort of mysterious urge that keeps you curious, keeps you moving... keeps you searching...

The desert is mostly behind us for this season... it waits for us to return in the fall. Up ahead are the coastal ranges along the Pacific. The beaches of Oregon and Washington... Mountains, roads and trails to explore...

Summer is close and like Mr. Muir said;

"The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go"
Brian

The Digital Sawdust and Eraser Shavings are Piling Up Deep in this RV!

I've juuuuus 'bout wound that lil' rubberband that energizes my brain pan to the poppin' point! Some fellas just don't pay no attention atall to how much they is bitin' off at one time. Yes sir. the kaleidoscope in my head is in Hiiigh Gear!

I don't choose to just fire up a new laptop. Nah... I gotta go complicatin' that with the new and genuinely awkward windows 8 I was warned off of... and rightly so. Then throw in a new whole dang system I build the websites with, while trying to learn two parts of Adobe, elements and premier elements... at the same time!

All while sittin' in a frigid Arizona desert schemin' a restart of a couple of our old cottage industry enterprises...

While high twenties and low thirties ain't cold by northern standards... it's become cold enough for me to be feelin' frigid! Tween the cold and the brain strain... I'm 'bout done for the day!

Progress is happening though! While NOT burning gunpowder on ee-lek-trawniks, kickin' any dogs or chuckin' rocks at the neighbors. Maybe I'm finally maturing! ... riiiight... I'd not go bettin' on that scenario just yet. ;)

Yesterday I rebuilt the homepage to Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road. Today I fought my way a lil' further up the learning curve and converted the goin' RV Boondocking home page to the new system. Tonight... I'm crosseyed!

While takin' a break from tryin' to pull the knots out of all that technology... I looked out the window, boondocked out here in the desert. Plain and simple, there's a lot fewer rigs here than in past years... buuuut... there's still a few folks that flat entertain a personality like myself.

So... I look off across the desert and I see these two fellas steppin' around a short ways from their rigs, like they're in pursuit of some real enterprise. They walk a lil' bit and bend over... Walk a lil' bit and bend over... go back a ways... do it again... and the whole time they're maybe, 30 or 40 feet from each other...

Finally, I pulled out the camera and zoomed in close enough to see what they were up to... Aw lordy...

We're parked out here in a few thousand acres of sand and rocks... stop your rig and roll out the awning kind of set up... and they are... MEASURING OFF PARKING PLACES... for the few rigs of their buddies who are comin' to join 'em!

Like... Truly? You can't just pull up and say WHOA! This is good right here? Out in all this desert, eyeball good enough, ain't good enough? You need a Tape Measure? Seriously? :) These guys have GOT to be Engineers! :) Tickled my funny bone.

So, gigglin' along, I've also been scratchin' on paper, workin', out of necessity, at lining out how we can make do, as we have for the past few years, with the rig we have.

I've come up with a "plan" for movin' things around again, and building/rebuilding a few parts to allow us a decent space to work so we can diversify and hopefully supplement our income a lil' bit.

And... do it in a lot more short term time than a total rig replacement would take... (if that could even happen)

The things I'm workin' at designing up and figuring the arrangement of are;

1. A complete new Bed rebuild for the truck; Needed to allow the generator and compressor to be moved to the truck(from their current locations on the 5er), as well as adding function with built in Fuel, Fresh Water and Waste water tanks to make things a lil' more convenient. (This'll be the Biggest and toughest nut to crack of the whole deal)

But once it's done I could fairly quickly build the rest of the job right in camp with the tools I have on hand.

2. A "Tailbox" Outdoor kitchen on the fiver. I'll mount it back on the cargo deck I built last year. This'll clear one of the bed boxes on the truck of the grill and coleman stove for our camp cooking. And provide hardside enclosure of 'em for those "Bear Areas". Not exactly Bear Proof... but hell, the Fiver itself ain't that! and neither are the cars the rangers make folks lock their coolers in. Then Grizz yank the doors off of Subarus with regularity! ;)

3. One of those fiberglass roof pods to mount on the roof of the fiver to hold my "Bike Camp" gear between trips.This will clear the second truck bed box allowing that space to be occupied by...

4. ...Two "Camp Desks". One a Camp Writing Desk and the other a Camp Leather Working "desk". I figure to make some sort of a version drawing from these two setups I've found online.

 5. Very likely another "Roof Pod", this time to go on the cab of the truck to stow and transport our camp tables in an aerodynamic box that will also help kick the wind up over the fiver when we're on the road.

6. A hardware bin chest built into the forward compartment in the space now occupied by the compressor. This will be mostly the hardware, rivets, buckles and bits I use for building my pieces.

7. The new "Camp furniture" still require some sort of "Auxilliary" living space where we can work.
The only options we have there are to add either an Add-a-Room awning room, or a totally separate canvas workspace (which strikes me as the most flexible)

... something like one of these OUTWELL tents...

... or some variety of Elk Camp type wall tent like this'un from Montana Canvas that I've used in the past...

Put a propane heater in there, a power line from the battery bank for LED lights, and either'll provide lots of warm, dry workspace for a leather carvin' gypsy biker cowboy; as well as a nice spot to set up that Camp Desk to write on...
    

Oh Momma... Listen to the Hummin'! :)
Brian

Dang... Is There a Fire in Quartzsite?

Nah... the smoke is just me... schemin' again!

Ha Ha... the more things change the more they stay the same.

Yesterday's post stirred a couple of responses from readers that helped me knock some of the wobble out of my git along. ;)

When you can't afford new and improved... you go with Old and reworked! :)

Who said; "this rig just don't lend itself to providing the work space we're gonna require to do a true and proper job"??

Oh... that was me huh? :) Well... on occasion I've been known to get wired up and be found jumpin' off the cliff  'fore I was certain sure there was water in the crick!

The thing is... Out of the Box and Unconventional and Unorthodox thinking has to be just that. If you spend all your time Only working and thinking in the approved manner and with the accepted wisdoms... innovation ain't about to happen.

So... I spent a lil' while yesterday and this morning, perusing some of my old pages as I'm relearning computer bits and pieces in preparation for THAT rebuilding job... and warming up my scheming genes to come up with something new for THIS rig; Since it's what we have and will for the foreseeable future.

Some reminding words from Mr. Peters (on of my long term readers here) kept rattlin' around in my head about things he's seen... and told me of before! ;)

Well... the upstart is... with a lil' whacked out imagination... a mite of cowboy ingenuity and some boondockers alchemy... I do believe I CAN whittle on this Ol' Rig to carve out a workable Bead and Leather Studio for us... and... do it in the more short term... rather than some long lost day in the future.

It wouldn't set up in a Wal Mart Parking lot... but in any of our long camps it should be a pretty comfortable arrangement. more on that in the coming days as I work on the idea...

Progress is coming on multiple trails... I'm slowly getting my head around the new technology that my internet provider has imposed on me. Unlike MS... Sitesell/Sitebuilder has built a very good new software for building our websites... The only downside is, it requires dusty old brains to shake off the cobwebs and get to work. ;)

I'm slowly finding my way through the ambiguous maze MS created to put the tools that DO work to work... I'm consuming lots of paper sketching up an unorthodox boondocking cowboy alchemy Art Studio to load onto the 5er... to help keep us fed and I'm stringin' words on the fourth novel...

hmmmm... likely... if I wasn't also a schizo Biker Cowboy... and was possessed of the ability to concentrate on one thing for more than 12 minutes... I'd get more done!

Reworking to circle back to my roots
Brian

Dinero and Weightloss

Don't it just make your sittin' parts itchy to always have worthless paper circlin' around to fool with the trail you mapped out?

Same old same old... We rail against allowing material things to get in the way of livin'... and then get ambushed and beat right back into that place where our trail choosing options are dictated by... uh huh... Dinero and THINGS.

Well boys and girls... that's life in the west! and the crew of goin' RV Boodocking is facing up to that ree-al-i-Tee one more time.

The whole point of this day's tirade is... Don't Ever quit. Never give up. Keep on Keepin' on. Like Ol' Dumbledore said; "Do or Do not... there is no Try!" :) If you want it, there's a way. You only need to keep searching till you find it.

I've got all sorts of ideas and schemes bangin' around the ol' brain pan. No fewer than ever was in my life. If I had the cash I could work 24/7 for a decade and not get 'em all done. I think they call it hyper active schizophrenic cowboy itis with a piggy backing complicatory infection of arbitrary authority aversion.

Anyhoo... here's the deal. Income is down the past year especially... and as ever'body knows, cost of living is up a good deal. That budget string is pulled so tight she's singin' like a banjo; and that's if you don't even take into account the series of repairs we've had to do.

So... one project I really wanted to pursue in the short term is pushed to a back burner... that being the layin' out of some sort of a long term/base camp.

Then there's my writing. It's a funny deal. Some word whittlers can write, and write well, sitting on a street corner under an umbrella in the rain, with their laptop on their knees and cabs honkin' and folks hollerin... I'm impressed with their ability to tune all that stuff out. Me? Not so much. I require an almost hermit like solitude where I can inject myself into the story without interruption or distraction.

Let somebody crumple paper, cough... slam a cabinet door... and... well... let's just say; Writing is not what happens! ;) Needless to say, of late my "Production" has been slow... but I'm workin' on it!

So... we're needful of lining out some supplementary contributions to the pantry. The first off and short term is hunting up another job or two like our Nascar weeks. Not going back to full time regular jobs, but something rather short term with a scheduled termination date! ;) We both fear the Trap that "Jobs" can be. A day becomes a week, becomes a year... and too soon you're looking back at a life that got derailed... So... Temporary is the key for us.

... and secondly, Herself and I, in the interest of shoring up our subsistence a bit are laying out a trail to fall back on some mostly dormant and portable skills that have paid us in the past. Well... at least that's the longer term plan. ;) (Longer term being 'tween now and next winter)

Heidi is one of the better Artisan Level, Jewelry Artists around and I do a fair job of leather carvng... so... we're working the bugs out of how to harness up those arts and skills, in our current sitchy-ashun to keep from losing an excessive amount of weight!

As I do the reconstruction of my websites that I've mentioned a couple times... I believe I'll finally get around to building the online Gallery I've also mentioned a time or two.

We're thinking of calling it... ~Artistic Provisions~; Your source for Journals, Albums, Jewelry and Canine Accessories. Basically all that our Imaginations can conjure up.

The pieces will all be hand stitched and carved Journals and Albums, Collars and leashes and Heidi's jewelry of Improvisational Bead Embroidery of Semi-Precious Stones and fine glass beads; Pendants, Bracelets, Earrings.

To provide the work space to fill that gallery, one of the issues we've got to find a way around is the rig itself. Plainly put, this rig just don't lend itself to providing the work space we're gonna require to do a true and proper job... So of course that dinero thing comes back around again since the only value to change out the rig to a more workable situation... lies in the rig itself.

But, a feller can't sell the house he's livin' in... to swap out to a better fit... without having the "other" house ready to move in to... and that takes dollars... and I've not found a single one layin' out there in the desert! ;)

The sort of rig that's gonna suit our needs is going to be an Oldie but Goodie Motorhome pulling about a 23' cargo box type trailer (That will give us the studio space)... others have found what they need and I by God will too!

'course a MH will require acquiring another oldie but goodie sidekick/tracker to put in the trailer for our runabout transport. all of which still requires that scarce commodity... the Dinero I rail against allowing a commanding place in life.

Yeah? Well... life is full of compromises ain't it?

So... as we continue this journey... watchin' close for some sort of opportunity and workin' hard to get ourselves into the position to take advantage of an opportunity... 

...The Bottom line is... It's a horse race. Re-outfit, on the cheap and get our shops/studios restarted... before we lose so much weight we're too weak to work! :)

Like Fall Leaves in a Swirling Wind...
I'm goin' fourteen directions! ;)
Brian

After Most of a Month in Town Finally Returned...

...To the Far Country where I belong. We landed, out of that force of habit that threatens to become a rut ;) ... in our favored spot along the edge of the RV boondocking area on the south side of Plomosa road.

What can I say? It makes a real convenient spot for a couple of weeks for herself to use the rock shop... and the signal's good for me to get quite a bit of work done on this new laptop... more on THAT in a bit.

That's pretty much the view out my window in the morning here in Freedom Camp ;) Kinda cool huh? 'course, I took it just as sunset was starting from the roof where I was tilting the solar panels up for the morning sunrise! ... hmmmm... I wonder what nut job coulda spent so much time pilin' rocks? ;)

Got here a day later than expected. A few lil' fumbles as we were preparing to haul out set us back a day... one of which was trying to track down some bolts for the bike... it somehow lost one out of a fairly critical spot... and the Biggest Dealership I've Ever been in... didn't have the bolt! ... so... They is ordered! ... "for lack of a bolt the truck was lost... for lack of the truck a battle was lost... for loss of the battle the war was lost...".... DA DA DA DUM!    :) HA HA!

Soooo, about the new Laptop... I've been sortin' my way through this New Toshiba laptop for the past couple of days. As far as the computer is concerned, with it I am plenty happy. It does what it is supposed to and newegg.com did what they promised to, getting it to me...

... Microsoft on the other hand... continues its apparently deliberate effort to be unseated from its position as the supplier of the dominant and premier operating system.What a bunch of bozos.

Windows 8 is a discombobulated, mish mash of two different worlds all shoved together in a dis-harmonious, awkward setup of pretty tiles and confusion.

Here's the deal; Microsoft, apparently, has a psychotic obsession with getting a grip on the tablet/smartphone market that has avoided it... and continues to. Sooooo Micro crap sent out this Thing into the world. I expect, if you've got it on a tablet or phone, using your fingers and flippin' tiles around... for those minimal lil' things that you do on a tablet or phone... it works just fine.

Buuuuuuut... embedded in it is... for all intents and purposes, the old Windows 7. Only, they've taken out quite a bit of the Navigation... and made what's left kind of awkward to access... For those of us actually trying to work... and NOT playing games and fiddling with fooferaw... it's a troublesome, NON inutuitive flub.

Yeah... the guys that told me to steer clear of Windows 8 were right... I took a chance and KERWHAP! :) learnt my lesson one more time.

I'm sortin' things out and can/will over time, make Windows 8 functional/usable for what I do... but a puss gut, biker cowboy fella who just bought the New and Improved Windows 8... shouldn't have to FIX WHAT THE ENGINEERS DESIGNED one more time... should he?

I wonder, do they ever have regular people do a test run on their junk before they shove it off on folks? They might save themselves some lil' bit of difficulty, embarrassment and wraps on their knuckles for playin' the fool if they did! ;)

Soooo... IF... you get a new computer do one of two things. Order it with Windows 7... or ... seek out one of the up and coming Alternative Operating Systems that are Finally, from what I hear, threatening to give Microsoft a run for their money and a lil' competition. Microsoft fired another Dud with Windows 8.

It's cool here on the desert by Quartzsite. The crowds, if they're comin' have not yet arrived. The country layin' about our camp might not be empty, but it sure ain't filled up!

On to my chores... and a good bit of hikin' and walkin'... a month of lethargy, cooped up in town has my busted parts achin' and hollerin'. Time to beat 'em back into some sort of reasonable shape.

Puttin' One foot in front of the other... I'm RV Boondocking for LIFE!
Brian