Cold dogs and lots and lots of trains

Otis is not a cold weather dog. 

Yesterday it rained and was cold. I drove to the field I have been planting to remove a leaking hydraulic hose from the grain drill. I put Otis in the pickup with the engine running and heater on as he was getting rather muddy. I am not sure why I am worried about mud as the inside of my pickup is full of shredded cardboard and coats that Otis has drug into the back seat area. 

I returned to find that Otis had climbed onto the dash and on top of the heater vent. He actually rode home that way and only would move when I shut off the truck and left.

Later he dropped a double deuce in the laundry room. I guess he feels more relaxed there... I do love a warm place to go to the bathroom. 

 

There are hobbies and then there are obsessions. We went to look at a 1955 Minneapolis-Moline G which was almost started once in the past twenty years. 

The fellow and his wife are into trains. We spent several hours viewing their HO scale train layout. It is bigger than my house. Of course they also have pigs, make their own feed which they grow on 40 acres, that they farm with a vintage Stieger tractor, and have a threshing machine. Plus they collect tractors and farm implements and are involved with a museum and steam trains.

You can see where they cut Grandpa's layout into sections. In this photo is looks like a waterfall. I moved one of the cars to see how much dust had accumulated. Not as much as I expected. I think they play with it fairly often.

 

It started with his Grandfather's massive layout in the basement. When his Grandfather died, they cut the train tables in pieces and got friends from work to help carry them out of the basement. 

His Grandfather lived in the city at the end of a cul-de-sack. Our hero backed a 40 ft van trailer down the street to Grandpa's house. (much to the surprise of the neighbors-also, this was a farm truck and trailer so not new I assume) They loaded the train layout sections on new mattresses the farm had bought for their bunkhouses, and had "about 20 helpers."

I think about the hours spent building this and all the detail. I am not sure where you find those hours. 

Train people have an odd sense of humor... Not a bad sense of humor!

Since then he and his wife have added on. His father's train club closed and they took that layout and a lot of donated kits, they have added their own sections, there is another set of tracks under the main layout for spare cars. There are black and yellow plastic tubs full of scenery, kits, track, train boxes, and wiring.

Then there is a wall of toy tractors.

Out is the shed he showed us an Allison out of a P-40 that had been at Pearl Harbor during the attack. 

He has a friend who is an alumni of Benson High School in Portland. It is a technical/vocation high school which has a 91 percent graduation rate. Apparently, kids actually learn something there. (Hopefully they don't have the shite-useless National Honor Society) 

When the school was renovating they were going to junk their nicely restored Model T truck, another Model T coupe, and a running Alison on a skid. I am happy they went to a good home.

Of course they also know Jay Leno...

We got home late...

The tractor will be delivered Saturday... 

It is going to be another wonderful day, like yesterday, and the day before, and every day!

 If if were anywhere from 1990 to the year 2000, and we had the this equipment I would feel a little more optimistic about life. However, without foreknowledge, I would most likely make the same stupid calculated risk decisions...

Sometimes I just stop and wonder at the age of the crap I run on the farm...

 

Gratuitous Puppy Pictures

 

Otis has adapted well to planting season. 

This puppy has the ability to sleep through anything and to awaken instantly if I try to sneak a potatoe chip. As all dogs tend to do.

He does fall over quite a bit. I have to keep him away from open doors and windows. Not skilled at navigating steps.

Give him a bone and he is good for the ride

You meet the nicest people when your puppy looks like a pit and you stop at Dad's Market

Yesterday I stopped at Dad's Market for a beef and bean burrito. They are not great nor are they 99 cents anymore. But I do like the hot sauce. 

They were out so I opted for the chicken strips instead.

While waiting in line a 30-something local lady came in very excited and wanted to know who had the Pit Puppy in the pickup outside, because it was "sooo cute! And adorable!) I instantly responded as "Cute and Adorable," are generally the terms used by gravely voiced hay ladies when I load their pickups with hay. Usually prefaced by "don't climb that stack you will break your hip!"

Actually, I had momentary panic that Otis had jumped fallen out the window and hurt himself on day three of his farm adventure.

She followed me out and gave me lots of advice on raising "American Blue-Nosed Pits." I missed about 3.4 of the advice as she was sucking on her tongue ring in between words and it was very distracting.

Apparently you need to socialize your Pit or he will rip the faces of random children. 

I am choosing to believe that Otis is a happy combination of Bulldog, Terrier, and Lab and will only rip the face of rodents, tennis balls, his bed, Rosco's favorite toys, and maybe (when he is older) a Nutria!

I must admit I was leaning towards the Ralph view that dogs take a lot of commitment and probably would not have committed to another dog had not I been put in a situation where I had an option to opt out. I still think I should have just said no as soon as my wife said, "My friend needs to get rid of a puppy..." I should rehearse saying "No!" It would save me so much frustration in life... 

 

Otis spent much of yesterday planting with me. There will be some interesting patterns when he discovered that I dropped peanuts on the floor yesterday and he needed to find them. Generally, he just laid beside me on a pile of coats. As soon as I got out of the tractor to load seed he stole my seat. But... When he would see me climbing back in he would move. This was not entirely successful for him as half the time he would fall over and get stuck. But I do appreciate the sentiment.

It this the face of a Pit Bull? From this view it looks that way but generally he looks more Bulldog/Boxer type to me. Maybe I am just prejudiced.

 

I get a dog, or perhaps, a dog adopts me

Sunday I got a new puppy. His name is Otis. 

He is a mixture. Very calm and smart dog. Probably less than a year old. 

He was rescued from Tweakers so I assume he has Pit in his heritage. 

The story was that he came running out of the woods to people who were sitting at an outside restaurant and sat down with them. Shortly afterwards, a crazy tweaker lady came running out of the woods screaming at the dog. Turns out she wasn't actually the owner, just generally agitated about the dog. The folks did not return the dog to the Tweaker but also were unable to find the actual owner.

They also could not keep him so they called my lovely and gracious wife who talked me into going to "look" at Otis.

He seems to like me. Follows simple commands. Wants to be loved. Goes to sleep in the tractor. 

I had him in a pen by my pickup as I was planting for a neighbor. Otis heard them talking and escaped from his pen to go hang out with the farmer and the crop insurance guy.The crop insurance guy gave me a pack of gum business card so that turned out good. But I thought I better just put Otis in the tractor. 

Not much room in a White 2-155...

I do wish dogs smelled a little better, he probably wished I didn't smell like diesel. 

This morning I couldn't find my shoes. I looked for half an hour. I am prone to losing things. I would lose my head if it wasn't generally up my arse. I decided to check Otis's kennel. He was sleeping on my shoes. Didn't chew them up. I don't know if this means he likes me or if it means I found a dog that is going to drag dead things home and roll in them. 

 

 

September 12 we hiked from Biella to Fanes, day 2 of my Alta Via One

The morning of September 12 was beautiful. Day two started from rifugio Biella and would be an eight mile hike to rifugio Fanes. It didn't sound so bad. We were already pretty high up and according to the itinerary, we would only see a 200ft gain in altitude over the day and there would be a great stop for lunch half way.

It turned out to be 3,000ft down for lunch and then 2,200 ft back up...

The day started chilly. We watched the sunrise over the neighboring peaks. Breakfast was a choice of ham, spec, boiled eggs, bread and jam, yogurt, and cereal. I had a couple cups of strong coffee to fortify me for the day. 

There had been a frost that night. But the sun was out and I never needed a coat. We started out through rocky meadows blooming with tiny flowers. The trail was not difficult although I was a little stiff from the previous day. 

I was pretty amazed when one of the group pulled out a little Olympus XA camera. I used to have one of those! It was an awesome camera. This fellow's name is Ron and he lives on the same block as my friend in NYC. He is a "producer," and I think he writes for Saturday Night Live. Super nice guy. 

I got excited when we started seeing signs of civilization after a couple hours. Not really recent civilization but it gave me a false hope.

It was a long and winding road...

 

We dropped down through cow pastures and a few scattered buildings. This seems to be a pretty popular day hike but most of the traffic seemed to be going up past us.

We were headed for Pederu which is a popular mountain inn and a starting spot to hike up to Fanes. There is a shuttle bus service to this spot and lots of day hikers. The food is good and you think it will be an easy day. In fact I kept meeting rather chubby families on their way down as I was heading up. It was a bit disconcerting as I was sweating buckets. 

I made the mistake of ordering schitzel instead of the goulash. The Schnitzel was kind of dry and breaded and pretty much that is all you get. The Goulash was basically gravy and meat with a couple carrots. Very tasty. 

 

Rocks and occasional tiny flowers was the view

It was a warm day. It was nice to know I was half way but then again, I was only half way... Last half was better than the first half

The hike up from Pederu just kept getting steeper. I soon realized that I just needed to take small steps and focus one foot in front of the other. The trees disappeared and we headed into a wandering rock landscape which was beautiful but hard to follow. I kept dropping back and was soon plugging away by myself.

All of a sudden we were out of the boulders and into trees. Soon there were bells and then there were cows. If you observe the photo they stack cows on top of each other to say pasture space

I was following a couple America hikers who were from Pacific Northwest via Texas. They were worn out and kept stopping. I hated to pass them but I also did not want to get terribly behind. Fortunately a good part of the group were waiting for stragglers and the last part of the hike was mostly level and and easy walk. 

Everyone in the group was interesting and generally positive guys with a good sense of humor.  So the group hikes were interesting. I generally focused on one foot in front of the other and tried not to bore people with farming stories.

Fanes was beautiful. It was in a little valley surrounded by cow pastures. There was even a ice cold lake which I missed swimming in as I went and took a shower and a handful of advil. 

The rifugio was more of a resort. There was an outdoor deck and a rustic dining room. Supper was wonderful. I had Spaghetti Carbonara for first course, pork loin with polenta (of course) for second and a raspberry mousse four desert.

Spaghetti Carbonara with a tasty piece of bacon was my choice for first course. 

 

It was a small pork loin but the polenta was generous, as usual..

 

Desserts were generally pretty wonderful. Raspberry Mousse with a little crunch waffle.

 

 

 

I thought this was funny. One of the few actual lawns I saw on the hike. The robot mower has ran into a large rock and just dug itself a hole. Probably just exgroundskeeper humor. Sort of like training stoned workstudy kids at the almost broke local university

 

 

Rosco gives me a hand with the hay

The end of the season should be a time when you look forward to a slow down. But now there is late season hay, feed to make, wheat to plant, and farm equipment to clean and put away. Maybe I should have had more kids...

I need a sidekick...

 

This is an incredibly modern hay raking setup. Rosco is  a very helpful dog.