Dead Trees in the Dirty Ground...

The effects of the drought continue to make themselves know around my property. I have been watching a cedar that seems to be half dead and a big pine out behind my outbuildings on the little wooded patch of my property just suddenly died this week.

Someone told me it takes a lot to kill a cedar. I guess this is a lot. There is actually another one closer to the house that is half dead but there are not too many limbs that could fall on something. This one could take out electricity. It's small enough that with the help of a son, a son in law or a brother in law we could at least shear all dead limbs. I think once I counted 19 cedars on my property. Some that make a sort of cedar cave that serves as a privacy shield for my back deck have had quite a few lower dead limbs for years. Occasionally I trim when I need materials for a wretchedly ethnic percussion instrument I've invented or a spear. A few are actually beginning to look like they could be walking sticks. 

Several years ago I lost an oak tree near the house and I had to employ professionals to take it down. They told me it was killed by a fungus and advised that anytime I cut a limb or knocked the bark off an oak to treat with hydrogen peroxide to prevent the fungus. That oak and these cedars all had roots disturbed several years ago during the installation of a new septic system and the fill in of the old one.          

Speaking of several years ago and professionals I had a big pine die close to the house. This was 25 or 30 years ago.  A friend said he had a neighbor that could cut it. I said OK and a drunk Cajun guy came over and laid it down as pretty as you please. I cut it up, piled and burnt myself and paid the drunk guy $50. We were both happy. The debris made a fire so big the other backyard trees exhibited signs of singeing for years.  

Here's a big pine behind an outbuilding which I have been letting return to the Earth for a few years. I'm not worried about that but it could go toward my tool barn which has been starting to lean so it might be a toss up which one lasts the longest.     

This pine is not in a easy place to work so I estimate it would be a pricy job to cut. There is another pine and I wish I could have documented the year it died but it's been standing quite awhile. Every time there is a big blow I go out to see if it fell and so far still standing. As large as the latest big pine is I suspect it might stand till after I'm gone. Old dead trees like this ensure a good woodpecker and owl population. There are probably a few critters that I never see also making a good living off the rotten wood.  

I might get my son the engineer to do calculations on direction and length of fall. He's good at that kind of stuff. Maybe I'll get someone to fell it and let it lay so it returns to the soil.  

 

Fill Dirt Wanted But Just a Little Bit...

A few months before my mom passed she was still pretty spry. She could hardly see and had recently had a surgery but with the aid of a cane she walked around the yard and I shot two short videos of her pointing out various plants that grew in her yard, what they were, who gave them to her and where they came from. Back in the old days plants in your yard were not bought at the store. You took a cutting from a plant your friend had, put it in a pot and nursed it along till it had roots good enough to be transplanted into the yard and survive. It's kind of something people did before cell phones. I later tried to make some more oral history recordings with my mom but I guess nothing interested her like the plants because she dismissed it as unimportant. 

I can recall where many of the plants in my yard came from also. There's the ones my mom gave me, a tree here and there that was a prize for taking a used up Christmas tree to the recycle, the two oaks Darwin brought from Austin, the rain lilies from Cathy's old Houston house grown by her mom, some I dug at the lake or in the woods and more. I don't remember when this oak tree that disrupted my water pipe from the meter to the house came from. It has not always been here. It grew on my watch of this property. I don't know if I should blame the tree or the long forgotten workman that ran the pipe away from the house instead of using a direct path and then angled back in an unexpected way and when the tree came along it embroiled the pipe in it's roots.     

I had the plumbers out for a little repair of the aerobic septic system which took all of 15 minutes to complete. I had already noticed this leak before their arrival and began digging but like I say, things with the water pipe were not as expected. The tree roots were just too big and too many and the pipe path too screwy so after a lot of digging and root cutting this over the ground path is what we settled on. I was warned that a reroute would be expensive. I asked will this be ok as a permanent solution? As long as it does not freeze. 

I figure I have at least 5 months to prepare against that possibility. I'm looking for fill dirt. 

This tree makes one end of a flower bed that in spring grows wild onions I sometimes cook with, blubs, an azalea and a gardenia that a home health patient gave me. A tallow tree that was a volunteer grows on the other end and there is a holly tree growing out a crack in the roots of it that can't be separated but tallows usually don't live so long and maybe I can wait it out to enjoy the holly. There are no other ones around here. 

Before all these trees were here and this was a pretty sunny area I planted tomatoes in a raised bed along here. Best ones I ever grew. I remember it was the year the Chernobyl reactor in Russia blew. Big old red tomatoes that makes me wonder if the radiation had anything to do with it. I don't use that spot anymore because it's too shady and I like me some shade. My tomatoes have been fair this year. I have some big bushy plants with lots of blooms but not much fruit. Maybe they can hang on till the next blast which also might help the pipe to not freeze.  

    

 

Let's Work on Cars...

 This is a photo from the old collection of family photos assembled by my cousin Mary Lou and her husband Mike. An unidentifiable man works on a Ford automobile. I believe it's a very late 1930s or possibly 1940s model. There's a lot to take in on this photo. 

First off if I stood on my car's bumper it would probably come off or the plastic it's made of would shatter. My little hybrid car (yeah this is that dreaded liberal virtue signal running up the flagpole) is a discontinued model because some very smart man decided to lower gas mileage requirements a few years ago and automobile manufacturers made a decision to build only cars larger than WW2 armored tanks that get about the same MPG so I probably could not get the part and if I could it wouldn't be the same color as my car is now.  

Also if I look under the hoods of my car or truck, both coming up on 10 years old or more I see warnings that if it's not yellow don't touch it. They are talking about oil dipsticks, windshield washer fluid and such that have yellow handles. I would imagine on a new car if you touch something you are not supposed to your phone dings. 

This guy's arm has disappeared completely up to his shoulder as he grapples with some demon in the very depths of the engine compartment. There's no way my arm will penetrate to this depth and if it could get past the inner circle of unknown auto part hell it would quickly encounter the Earth's surface because generally vehicle clearance is so poor that an encounter with a large racoon on a Texas Farm Road will end with severe damage or completely upends the car.  Don't ask how I know this because that's another blog post. 

Also it's amazing to me that he's doing this and I don't see his phone propped up somewhere showing a youtube video of how to do whatever it is. I suppose they had youtube and maybe they had phones because the number of views these videos get indicate they have been watched a lot, a long time or something. 

Oh yeah, one more thing about the hybrid. Unlike this old Ford (hybrid is a Ford) it has been very maintenance (knock on wood) free. I've taken it to my guy a few times for an occasional minor issue and I'll think and tell him "hey why don't you check the such and such for me, it's never been checked." He'll call me back and say, "It didn't have on of those."   

After all this talk about about modern cars I am a little closer to cars like the old ones than you think. My neighbor to the north east a yard over has hauled several rusting hulks of similar vintage onto his property. He must consider these valuable because he put them close to his house which is better than along the generous back border we share and if I stand on small stool at the kitchen window I can just see their roofs above the privacy fence me and the side neighbor share. 

If I can't work on cars I figure watching these old cars sit in the yard will give me something to do for the rest of my life.          

Macho Mockingbird and Other Spicy Stories...

 I though I would flesh out the story of the Macho Mockingbird a little more. I have been thinking about a new tattoo and this certainly is a candidate because it does hold some transcendental meaning. It has a back story and could be related to events that may or may not or could or did not happen. Or maybe they did. People tell me stuff I said and did all the time. Like the facts involved here I don't always remember. Maybe I did, maybe I said, maybe not.

Some years ago before blogs and internet influencing, before conspiracy theories and when global warming had not come to the attention of certified YouTube researchers me and Scott Smith (yes that's his real name) came up with an apocalyptic sci-fi novel idea. It started when Mr. Smith saw a mockingbird, the State Bird of Texas, eating habanero peppers from his garden. That was a macho mockingbird for sure and when it came time to bottle hot sauce Mr. Smith got his artist friend, Jon Stuart Anderson  to draw a logo. I was proud to receive a bottle. I love hot sauce.

Now we know how much trouble it is when something that is so much fun and we love so much happens to be illegal. Like say, catching as many fish as you can or driving as fast as you can. Fun stuff. Pick your own poison. What if hot sauce was made illegal? 

So from these events and ideas the story of a near future where an evil government has outlawed hot sauce. A good old boy is growing banned peppers deep in the pine forests of East Texas. To spread the freedom of the burn to the word he must avoid the authorities by stealing down the Neches Rive in a 12' flat bottom boat powered by a 1954 five and a half horsepower Johnson outboard motors. His destination is a shady connection at the river's mouth near Beaumont, Tx.

In addition to the atom bomb metaphor of peppers and hot sauce being illegal other murky environmental events, wars and domestic terrorism have rendered the river back to it's free flowing state and made many technologies such as modern outboard motors with computer brains that require fancy gas, oils and lubricants useless. 

With the relentless rain and flooding we have had lately I doubt you could find your way down the main river channel so you are probably getting the idea by now. A good, honest man takes on evil, injustice, and global warming. The animals are his allies and are led by the Macho Mockingbird. He wins by being the spiciest guy around.

Actually I think a rough draft or first take on this idea exists on paper somewhere. It's probably in a pretty crude state but it might be an idea that comes to maturity one day. 

In the mean time keep an eye on lawmakers. You never know what they are thinking. 

If I show up with a Macho Mockingbird tattoo maybe you better get one too.             

   

 

What Do They Tell Their Children?...

They kind of look like something you might see at Christmas. Brightly colored, a something you might point out to a child and say look, look. They are all around the woods, neon energy drink cans you would think that with the promises some of these drinks make of increased pep and cognition that people would think to dispose of them properly. They don't and that aint all that's out there. I would hate to explain to a child why I was dumping in the woods. 

So what does a person who dumps in the woods tell their children? What do they tell them about anything? What do the tell them about God, relationships, family, nature, education and so on? I would think that somewhere in the discussion of these topics which are pillars of our world as we know it that the topic of throwing stuff in the woods would eventually come up.  

I know from my own experience that sooner or later on a family picnic a child throws a trash item on the ground because at that time they do not know what to do with it. That's your time to work on all those items listed in the last paragraph. Take your pick. You should be able to work them all in. 

Here's a nice spread, a bird bath base and a coffee maker laid in the dappled sunlight. Now I have trash pick up even though I'm outside the city there are services are available for a fee. Recycle can be hauled to the city of Lufkin or about 4 miles down the road from me my garbage service has recycle available. Five bucks lets you dump a pick up truck load at the city dump. I will admit some things are a bit hard to get rid of such as non working appliances so you need to ask yourself before you dump, "am I trying hard enough?" 

Hi-Fi Stereo? Isn't that an oxymoron? Is there such a thing? Are your ears educated enough to tell the difference? I'm afraid what a future generation will even think about us when they find this.    

Ok and the grand finale. The king's throne. Makes you wonder where he is holding court these days. I can imagine a child asking, "daddy, what did you do with the toilet?" Got your explanation ready? 

When cool fall and spring days come I walk for exercise on a sand road near my house. It's where I saw all these items. It's private land and I have no idea who the owners are.  

I must add a disclaimer. After a fishing trip, when I have cleaned the catch I dump the carcasses in this area. For any amount under 50 carcasses it takes the East Texas Hygiene Committee, a loose federation of racoons, possums, foxes, skunks, coyotes, buzzards, fire ants and possibility a Sasquatch or two about 24 hours to make sure I have left no trace. If it's over 50 it might take about 36 hours. I know because I go and check the federation is holding up it's end of the deal. If they don't I'll think of something else.. 

Maybe someone will take a child and say "let's se if that toilet has decomposed yet."      

 

I Think This was a Scam or Something...

Saturday morning we are getting ready to go to the lake. Misting rain, but we are not discouraged so preparations are underway to brave all elements. As this is ongoing some guy, he has a girl with him pulls up in my drive way. Has what seems to be a legit concern but I soon suspect a scam of some sort.

The guy introduces him self as Austin Barra, there is a girl in the car also, and as if it builds trust he claims to be a youth minster from a church in Tenaha and he is working for some kind of oil field supply company to recover a couple of GPS units that are on rental from another company and that some hand who drug up has made off with. He says, maybe not stolen but just kept by mistake. He shows me a photo of the units. He then shows me a photo of a google Earth type shot of my property that shows a pin dropped right where my pick up is parked in the drive way. He thinks they are in my truck.

I say well, have a look. I have been at the lake several times maybe someone threw them in the back of my truck. He looks there, I'm hitched to the boat and with my permission he kind of looks and in a glance around sort of way at my boat garage and the wood pile. He asks questions have we worked in the oil field, been to West Texas and stuff like that. I don't, I haven't. He gets in the truck and pulls up in the neighbors driveway asks them stuff but does not stay long there and he's back at my house. Here's the guy, of course I made his photo for the blog.

On his return to my drive he thinks the GPS thing is right around. I encourage him to look in the wooded strip of property along the road, the trash can you see in the right of the below photo of his truck just in case the item is tossed there.  He don't look at these places but gets another guy on the phone he claims is the guy that hired him to track down and I talk to this guy, answer same questions about and oil business I might have done and I inform that his man is not really looking in places I have suggested all that well. He is just questioning me and that if it's stolen goods the high sheriff might be better to be involved. This guy on the phone don't want the sheriff involved. He just wants his stuff back.

He seems to get a bit impatient. I am getting my R.E.D. Neck business on because I feel he may not be on the level. I put him on the road with the threat I will call the sheriff. I asked for a photo of his drivers license. He refused this and I would have also but he did let me photo an expired security ID.  

I made sure the house was locked up tight and left for the lake. His truck was sitting in the church parking lot on the farm road when I drove past. I feel like I acted pretty quick getting photos of his ID and plate but what I wish I had done was drive to the lake, get him to follow and see if his GPS pin on his phone still showed in my truck. 

I have not seen this guy or truck around again. Anybody got and input on what he might have been up too? 

 

The Response Was Overwhelming...

So many sent cards, emails, letters, called and of course there were those that actually came over to the house with big pick up trucks to cart away the prizes for our latest big screen give away I was just overwhelmed. So overwhelmed that on my way to play music at church Sunday evening I was distracted by more prizes found by the wayside of the decline of modern civilization.

Here's one for boob, who was worried about a real big big screen TV fitting in the house.


Just a couple of more miles down the road I just had to stop and photograph this great find. I mean what more could you want, it's seat and all. There was also a plastic package discarded nearby that according to the label had held a brand new toilet seat. Figure that one out, they threw out the crapper, but still have a new seat? Smacks of some R.E.D. neck business. I have given out a lot of crap, taken a lot of crap, but never give out the whole crapper.

Thank you, thank you very much for not thinking I am making all this stuff up.

Size Does Matter...

At least that's what these two old boys who were recently sighted driving down Timberland Dr. cuddled up in the cab of a skinned up Chevy think.

Chevys may not be around too many more years, at least in the form we know know them, although I am sure there will be some favored brand that survives to be skinned on the back roads and hog trails in these parts. One thing I am sure will be around is the relationship between men that to judge from popular movies is becoming more and more common, the bromance.

To define bromance, it's the complicated relationship of love and affection shared by two straight males. Now the movies would have you to think this is a pretty new thing, but us artsy types that hang out on blogs and in other similar locations know that art precedes print, music and movies in being a front runner of social change by a long shot. In fact I bet bromances have been depicted in art for two or three hundred years at least. I just can't think of any right now. Maybe I'll call Miguel, he might know some.

Meanwhile there is the school of thought out there that has been put forth that I will get skinned myself one day for making pictures of bromances. I did say bromances were complicated.

Remember That Picture Where WE Were Kicking Mary...

We were kicking Mary out after graduation a few posts back?

Here's her stuff loaded into the truck and trailer.

Actually it's metal scrap from a barn clean out. Her room is kind of full of similar looking items come to think of it and the barn is sure neater than the room at this moment.

I sold this stuff at the recycle place for $20. Going down the road most people viewed this as some R.E.D. Neck Business I am sure. They said " He will have some beer money today." I have not bought beer in so long I do not know how much $20 will buy anymore.

More Pictures...

Here's my Mom at the barbecue a couple of weekends ago. Sorry so slow to get your picture up, but you know how it goes, first $39,000 gets on here first.

By the way, this blog is now linked to my new facebook site so that anything I post here pops up there also. Kind of sci-fi, like a foot in both worlds.
While at my Mother's back yard BBQ I noticed the neighbor directly behind her seems to be involved in some R.E.D. Neck business, judging from the set up he had over the back fence. I would call the law, but reportedly he is the law. Maybe I'll go over there and tell him to leave my momma alone.

Event Alert:
See Miguel and the band Altura Musical play at the Downtown Hoedown this weekend. Time is 11am and I guess location is, well downtown.

My New Cell Phone Camera...

May get me in trouble sooner or later.

At the lake the other day the boat ramp was very crowded with a waiting line to load and unload, an unheard of event in these parts, but I am sure much more common closer to the big city.

I spotted this dude waiting in line ahead of me and I snapped his photo. He did not notice or at least he did not protest so I did not have to kick his butt. The picture really does not capture the moment of all 265lbs of him, wife beater tats, barefoot in ragged blue jeans with gimmie cap waiting to launch on this fine day of 65 degree waters and 15-25 mile an hour winds.

A slow day in line at the boat ramp. I was thinking about stone heads in Rome and he was thinking about, well I guess jet skiing, R.E.D. Neck business, or something.

Lake Scenes...

Big bunch of pelicans and water turkeys rafted up. How many pounds of fish are getting ate up by these guys? The pelicans migrate in from the great lakes area each winter. Found on our lake mostly hanging out over deep or open water areas, probably 20-25 ft deep here they tend to herd up schools of shad. If a bunch of shad are getting cut up I bet there are some cats and stripers hanging out below. We did see one water turkey near our fishing spot trying to swallow a 10 inch bass.

Little closer view of the pelicans. I like them, big old birds with 8 foot wing spans. If I zoom this picture up real close with my photo soft ware it's pretty impressive.



The gulls like to sit on the water down wind of our boat. Creatures of opportunity, Danny King's catfish bait floats to the surface when it's off the hook. I bet he's got a belly full of it.
Some R.E.D. Neck Business here. I thought maybe they were picking up those old mussels exposed by low water for trot line bait, has worked good for me in winter. This was a quick snap, seems that green shirt waded out a little far and sank butt deep in the mud, shouted for help from the others, best I could do was get the camera, but the rescuers were too efficient for me to catch a right comical moment as we say in East Texas. As we left we were nosy and cruised close to the bank, they had two prong scratchers searching the low water edge for arrow heads. I have found an arrow head in this area myself, only one I ever found. The old river makes a big "s" curve, two creeks flow in and the banks were probably steep, I bet it was a scenic place a couple of hundred years ago. People still like it and hang around here. I bet fishing was good then as it still is now.

Signs...

So my neighbor was surprised. You think you know a guy after living next door to him but then he goes and does something like put an Obama sign in his yard.

He asked me, "you really voting for Obama?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "I can't. I just don't think this country is ready to have a Muslim as President."

I said, " I don't think he's a Muslim."

He said,"I don't believe that."

If you watched any of the debates you know that some of the charges leveled back and forth were simply best deflected by much better debaters (can I say that word here?) than me. In this case I just mumbled something about how I thought my candidates had a better social justice agenda that seems like it might come closer to ending problems in society with health care, addressing root causes for the need for a law that legalizes abortion, as well as evening out the tax system in favor for the little guy. I could go on, but as I admit, I mumble. I'm just an old peace queer, what do I know.

My neighbor allowed how he was afraid he would be taxed $50,000 if the Democrats got in office. Not a problem for those making less than that these days.

Let Me Introduce My Redneck Friend...

Still recouping the eye. I am Ok to return to work on the 25th at full speed. No lifting, bouncing, running till then. So I am kind of stuck here at the house. I can take walks, read, cook and so forth but have not been able to do much else for fun. With the weather getting milder and the days longer I'd like to fish, but with Cathy working I better leave straining on boat hook ups and moving batteries around for charging and replacing alone.

Ever wonder about those long gone civilizations that seem to have just picked up and gone leaving all behind? That's kind of how it's starting to look around here. Just before all this eye business started the washing machine quit. Pretty sentimental occasion you know, it was a wedding present and all. I cried. But I dried my tears and marched down to Lowe's with explicit directions from my bride to purchase the cheapest machine available. It's an Amana, a floor model sold to me at a 10% discount by a young man I put the fear of death in long years ago because I caught him as a small mean boy, cornering my dogs in the garage and shooting them with a slingshot. I think the encounter did him some good, not because he gave me a good deal, but because he is now a youth leader at a local church. The old straighten up and fly right worked to great effect. It always does coming from a stranger, where such an encounter can be labeled "life experience" as compared to your own little secure circle where it is known as "family dynamics."

Anyway new washer installed before the eye trouble and the old one rests in peace, it's duty done with it up to me to find the best place for it to begin a new life as useful scrap metal. This is opposed to a night dump (I know, sounds nasty) on a lonely East Texas road where people will pass, point and say "I saw that on the blog."

Since I am limited on lifting for the time being I hope this period of rest does not get too restful. For the old machine that is. It's out to pasture, but it will soon be on to some other pasture as soon as I can lift. Until then, it looks like R.E.D. Neck business around here.

The Ballad of Buford and Brenda...

That's my neighbors. The new ones in the rent house down the road past us. The place where I suspect there might be some R.E.D. Neck business going on. I have not officially met them and have not really laid eyes on Buford, but Cathy has met Brenda.

Seems that Buford and Brenda don't have a phone. They are a young couple with several stair stepped small children and also only have one car. Those two things combined is what led her and Cathy to meet. Brenda has come down and asked to use our phone. These phone calls have been to Buford at work.

The first time she used the phone, it was a pretty quick conversation. I think Cathy said she asked something like "you coming home?" She then hung up, apparently satisfied with the answer. The next time she used the phone it was an emergency and she needed the car. Seems that "bubba" or "booger" I can't remember which had come to injure his head and she thought transport to the hospital was needed. "Bring the car" she said to Buford over the borrowed phone line. Cathy said the injured one really looked none the worse for wear. Just the kind of head skin a kid gets when family pictures are scheduled to be made.

So anyway tonight I got a pretty good look at Brenda. Notice I did not say met her. I was mowing the yard, on the riding lawn mower. The person I suspect to be Brenda and a big teenage boy walked through the yard and passed about 10 yards from the nose of my riding lawn mower. They never looked at me. The only thing I can think is that I was somehow invisible to them. This did not surprise me. I have been invisible a few times in my life, never while piloting something so noisy as a riding lawn mower though. Maybe I am getting better at the invisible thing.

Making our Contributions...

I'm making my contribution to depletion of fossil fuels and global warming again this week. That's the long drive to Kilgore. Just a few more days till graduation. The nightmare of the last three years has the end in sight.

Another contribution was made yesterday. It was by Mary and it is a saying that needs to enter the lexicon of popular slang. I asked Mary about a friend of the family. I said, "What does that guy do for a living?" Mary replied, "He's in the R.E.D. Neck business." I guess you had to be there but it was hilarious. She says it is original.

All I can say is go my child, my work with you is finished. Make the world your own.