One long day

I didn’t mention this in my previous post, but yesterday was Inspection Day here at the campground. Over the past week, everything was mowed and trimmed and scrubbed and spit-shined, in anticipation of a visit from the national office in Billings.

Deb and I did our part, quietly and voluntarily, helping with the spruce-up and gathering Tuesday morning’s bagged trash.

On cue, around 9am a man and a woman (and a coonhound) showed up in a pickup truck with familiar badging and Montana plates. The annual white-glove ritual began thereafter and stretched into late afternoon.

I’m sure it all went fine. We’ll ask our hosts the next time we visit the park office.

While I’m on the subject of The Campground Life, here’s an image (below) of what’s parked on the site across from Ernie — an F350 (not a dually) pulling a fifth-wheel and an enclosed trailer hauling a Harley trike. We’ve seen rigs like that on the road, but this is the first one we’ve noticed here.

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Last night was a late one for me — the software I’ve used for the last 17 years to edit and process photos quit working, suddenly incompatible with my computer’s latest system update. I decided to upgrade from that slimmed-down program to the full version of Photoshop, but downloading and installing it took two hours in a chat with tech support.

I’m still learning the new software. I hope it doesn’t show.

We’d set our alarms for 5:30am this morning — it was Spay Day for Smudge, and we had to get her to the vet (over an hour’s drive away) by 8:30am. We made it on time, gave her hugs goodbye and ventured into nearby Mountain Home.

After a hearty breakfast at a random diner, we dropped by Harbor Freight — we left without buying a thing, believe it or not — and then began working our way back west. We took note of the antiques shops, secondhand stores and flea markets we passed, for future reference.

We did stop along US Route 62 at a roadside yard specializing in wood salvaged from old barns, cleared land and other sources. It’s all but certain that the interior walls of our house will be paneled in material like that, at least in part. This place was a real find for us.

And then it was on to The Mountain — not on our way, exactly, but we had time to kill. A few hours of chatting with Deb’s cousin had us relaxed and in a good mood.

We paused at the homesite as we rolled out so I could snap photos of the enormous pile of wood left behind after clearing the site. Earlier we’d spoken with the proprietor of that wood-salvage yard about selling it to her, or having her mill it for us, or a combination of the two. The prospect of large cedar logs appealed to her.

The longer I looked at the pile, the more I realized that it doesn’t hold that much substantial red cedar. What hardwood there is appears to be relatively small (with a couple of exceptions) and not terribly mill-worthy. The lumber potential wasn’t what I’d remembered.

That said, this monstrous mound of oak, hickory and cedar is a hundred-foot drag from where our woodshed will be. Much of what I saw could be processed to heat our house. We haven’t yet decided what (or what all) we’ll do, but clearly we have several options.

Deb got a call from the vet clinic — Smudge was out of surgery. All had gone well. The puppy was awake, alert and eating her post-op meal. We drove up to fetch her, paid for the clinic’s services and brought her home to the bus.

The spay cost less than a third of what we would’ve paid at our vet in central Ohio. That included implanting a microchip.

We love it here.

A good day. A long day. We all need a good night’s sleep.

Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.

#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath

#LetsGoBrandon #FJB

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