I'm a Shar-Pei... I'm a Pit Bull...

Pam and I just spent the past five days horse camping in Lake Luzerne.  I have a few good photos a few yarns to spin, but its late.  And Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent running around Troy and Albany for medical appointments, and Thursday is my neck surgery, with an overnight in the hospital.  But I'll do the best I can to keep you updated.

In the meanwhile, we had our dogs at camp.   Chevy, our mixed pit bull rescue, was a lot of entertainment for those easily amused.

This is Chevy.

This is Chevy as a Shar-Pei...

Pit bull...

Shar-Pei...

Pit bull...

Seriously, you can do anything to this dog.  He loves the attention.  Pam dressed him up in a tu-tu and he was strutting his stuff.

More to come later.

Generator Problems

While living aboard our trawler in Brunswick, Georgia I bought a generator from a cruising friend.  He had it shipped here from Great Britain.  Its a cheap Chinese made generator with no identifying markings.  No manufacturer's name, no model number, no serial number.  Nothing.  But I got a good deal on it.  $1,000 for a large generator with less than one hour on it's Yanmar diesel engine.

I brought it north and stuck it at the end of our storage trailer.  I used it last year and it ran flawlessly.  I fired it up this year to power a drill to predrill holes for nailing a deck together.  After an hour, it stopped generating electricity.  The Yanmar kept running fine, but no power.  After some experimentation, I figure that its heat related.  It will generate power for a few minutes when started cold, and then it stops.

Yesterday, I decided to look inside.  This is the control panel.

This is the inside of the control panel.

Yep.  Look at all them wires...

I have a hunch that the circuit breaker may be the problem.  Why?  Because I googled it, and on the third page it was referenced as a "thermal trip" circuit breaker.

I had a hard time finding a place to buy a replacement.  I finally went to my old standby, eBay.  Are you ready for this?  $8.96 and free shipping from Hong Kong.  Free shipping?  Yep.

The U.S. Postal Service has initiated a new service with Hong Kong Post that is structured to foster growth in e-commerce. The new ePacket service expands the array of options offered to e-commerce merchants in Hong Kong seeking to reach consumer markets in the United States.

Can you believe this?  Is it any wonder that the US is flooding with cheap Chinese crap, like lousy tools at Harbor Freight, crummy merchandise at Walmart, and defective non-labeled generators?

Back In The Neck Brace

If you recall, I lost the use of 90% of my right arm about a month ago.  I went to see my doc, who sent me to an orthopedic surgeon, who looked at things, shook his head, and referred me to a neurosurgeon.

I went to the neurologist today.  He reviewed my MRIs, looked at my xrays, and declared that I needed surgery on my neck.  Something in there is pinching a nerve.  Probably two somethings, he said.   No, he didn't call them somethings.   He was spouting all kinds of medical jargon.  All I heard was blah blah blah disks blah blah blah fracture blah blah blah surgery blah blah blah I need a new sports car blah blah blah.

This is more damage from getting whacked with the tree last August.  It will be done on July 3rd.  The doc is going to remove the disks in my neck and replace them with bone grafts and screws.  I'm going to ask him to replace them with springs so I can be a bobble head.

It looks like another eight weeks in a neck brace for me.   ~sigh~.

Dog Gone Fun

We spent Sunday on our property with the dogs.  They really enjoy being able to run free.  Well, as good as one can run while wearing a tu-tu.

Our friend Trish came up with her pitbull Valiant.  Val doesn't get a chance to run too often, and when he does, he does it to the max.  It wasn't too long before he found mud.  Mud?  Where do we have mud?

Oh.  We siphon water out of the well and let it run to water the grass and apple trees.  I didn't realize that we had any  dirt there.  I though it was all rocks and stones.  I was wrong.

Trish and Pam toweled Val off as best they could.  Trish put a blanket on her car seats, loaded up Val, and that was enough fun for one day.

Where Have All the Hippies Gone?

I was around during the 1960s and the anti-Vietnam peace movement.  It was also a time of  "if it feels good, do it", "don't trust anyone over 35", and "make love, not war".  Where did all those people go?

Well, thanks to social media and Facebook, Pam and I were invited to a summer solstice party.  I found the hippies, and I mean that in the best sort of way.  We're all still here, we're just old.

Jim worked construction, and he knows what he's doing.  For his own house, he and Laurie chose straw bale, covered in cob (which is something like stucco).  Dig the moon.

The attached greenhouse, which faces south, helps solar gain, as does the stone fireplace and chimney.  Laurie built the fireplace and chimney.

The event started with everyone holding hands, and one by one giving their name and a short statement of who they were, or what they were grateful for.

Bees!

Jim and Laurie's house.  Totally off the grid.

No.  Hippies haven't gone away.

On a side note, back in the 1960s there was a radical left group called "Students for a Democratic Society", or SDS.  On Facebook, I found "Seniors for a Democratic Society".  See?  We've just all gotten older.  But we still care.

Stacking Photos

Bleecker has no light pollution.  It would be a perfect place to put an observatory.  Of course, Hubble made those obsolete, but still.

Below are three photos.  The top two are 30 second exposures.  The last one is many 30 second exposures "stacked".  The reason for the difference in exposure (brightness) is that the first one stacked was taken right after dusk.  The next was the last one I took.  The third is a composite of all of them.

I'm night blind, so night photography, for me, is both challenging and wonderful.  Just look at all I'm missing!

Off to the doctor tomorrow (Friday) for nerve evaluation.  It looks like I might be headed off to a neurosurgeon in Albany on Monday.  My right arm is only running at 5%.  I can't even lift a can of beer with it.  They might kick me out of Bleecker.

Drinking Wine In The Adirondacks. Drink Fast.

This afternoon, Pam and I visited our friend James who has a lovely place on Canada Lake.  We sat on his porch drinking chardonnay and discussed everything from the Adirondack Park to, well, just about everything.

I guess we spent too much time talking and not enough time drinking because this happened....

Yes.  That would be ice in the wine.

OK OK.  It wasn't really that cold.  I brought that bottle of wine and it was warm, and so I asked James to put it in his freezer.  It must be set for -50F because within a couple of hours it was frozen solid.  James had to microwave it to thaw it out.