MEATLOAF

Nope, not the musician of rock and roll fame. We went to Osier for lunch with Candy and Russ. Russ and I had the meatloaf and was it ever good !Candy and Betty had the Turkey and dressing and really bragged up it’s quality.

Beautiful wood work in this 1800’s train station located up high in the Rocky Mountains.

It was a rainy day, up high at near 10 thousand feet, but, when we came down lower it wasn’t raining.

The fire truck on rails, nicknamed “sparky” is always trailing along behind the train. Sparky is sitting on the right. The operator / fireman, Max Pacheco, is inside eating lunch. He told me he had gotten a bit wet during a rain storm while climbing up to Osier behind the train. Max has been with the rail road for many years and has a love of steam trains that shows in his broad smile.

Here is a closer look at Max’s fire truck.

Doesn’t Max have one of the coolest jobs ever !

CARVE

One fishing trip to lake Greeson two years ago, I picked up a “beaver stick”.  The water was high and it had been deposited with others on the shoreline.

It caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First I noted that it was nearly twelve feet long. A very long length for a beaver stick.

Then, since the bark had been stripped, it was easy to see that it was a hickory, definitely not a preferred bark meal for a beaver.

I picked it up and began to ponder all of the odd things about the long, straight, hickory stick.

Eventually, it wound up at home, sitting in a corner of the living room, curing out.

Next year while at home, I cut it off to a length that suited me, for a hiking stick, carrying it sixteen thousand miles in the Kawabunga truck’s bed.

Full length view.

The hickory stick is cured and very hard to carve.

This year, Candy is carving a face in to the handle end. Though it is a slow process because of the wood’s hardness, the nose is beginning to show.

Carvin’ Candy !

Woo Hoo ! Lookin’ good !

Candy’s current work, in the much softer Bass Wood, tentatively called “Zombie Guy”, because he has no eyes at this point.

This photo was taken about a month ago and it now has much greater detail.

18

Here is the way our campsite, # 18, Aspen Glade, looks for the fourth of July weekend.

Yep the stars and stripes !

Even in the screen house.

Firewood ready for campfire and SMORES !

As I type this, Betty has the aroma of sausage, biscuits and gravy filling the air.

We slept like a rock last night with the windows open. It was 41* when we got up.

Russ and Candy are here from Denver to make the weekend go super swell. You can see where we wrapped up last evening, in the lawn chairs.

As we sat and chatted Candy was carving a face into my hiking stick. I can’t wait to see the finished look !

Hey ! It’s a tough job, but some body has to do it, it might as well be us   .   .   .   .   .   .  .

We can do this because   .  .  .  .

All gave some, and some gave all  .  .  .  .  . Freedom isn’t free  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

REFUGEES

Yeah, I know, some high profile activist types take exception to the term refugee. However I believe that if officials require that you abandon your home immediately, just ahead of a rapidly growing disaster of monster size, you are a refugee.

Both National forests in Northern New Mexico are officially closed because of fire danger. That means that folks who are fleeing fire and smoke are

rapidly filling up the campgrounds in Southern Colorado.

We have received calls today from other forest districts further South that are trying to find places for folks to go to.

I copied this from the Weather channels twitter post today:

The Las Conchas wildfire (100,000+ acres) is now the LARGEST wildfire in NM history, per Los Alamos Co., NM Fire Chief.

One of our campers that is from the fire evacuation area brought their camper van, so when we went to town to pick up a few groceries before the fourth of July holiday, we took their grocery list with us so that they wouldn’t have to break camp just to go to town.

The fourth is our nation’s birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY America !

And thank you to all that serve America, keeping it the greatest free nation on earth.

SMOKE

A few days ago we were having smoke that had traveled all of the way from Arizona. That fire came under control and the smoke ceased.

This morning early, before daylight, the wind shifted and we started getting smoke from the Los Alamos New Mexico fire.

Officials at the fire area had put in place a mandatory evacuation order and by mid morning we began receiving refugees from the evacuation area, here in the campground.

Most had grabbed important papers, medications, pets and fled the area in their camper.

The great American “bug out” or “bail out”, kit or bag, is often times the family RV !

Our extra phone line with internet dsl has been busy helping refugees connect with family members and make necessary arrangements.

It looks like our normally busy fourth of July weekend will be extended by a forest fire, that’s over a hundred miles away !

LEVER

Will it ever run again ? Can I remember where all of those parts go ?

The wireless remote start/stop has a small servo motor that activates the choke if needed during the start process. The plastic lever on that servo motor broke off.

As you can see, I have pretty well scattered the generator during the process of  cyphering it out.

Betty just shakes her head every time she walks past my tailgate work bench here in the campground.

Here is the final result, will it ever run again ?

Plastic choke arm broke, home made choke cable added.

WooHoo !, that sweet little Yamaha generator is hummin’ again !

W5TX

 

The photo’s pretty much say it all, Bob, W5TX is ready for field day !

Here is where the business is conducted.

All of the activity starts today at noon.