BearDrummer's Cave

cute kid

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:42:35 GMT

Nobody likes to see kids having fun... nobody... And since we are all Scrooges, don't bother going to see Simon Dance... Junior did good with these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AfSf2JZAH0 - Simon Dancing with Super Smart Pants

and then

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnTjroIkxyY - Simon Kung Fu Fighting (set at double speed)

first Tatto

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:56:31 GMT

Well, I now have my first Tattoo! All 4 of us went to celebrate Steve’s birthday, and the present was “his” Snow Owl tattoo. With all the planning for the overnight trip, it ended up being a trip for all of us. Robyn’s was her GreyCrow (and red), Shelly’s was her “Geaux Saints” memory Tat for her dad, and mine was a tribal bear paw with a bear face for the pad. They were both Shelly and my first tattoo.

The ORIGINAL plan was to meet with some of Steve and Robyn’s old friends in the Eugene area Saturday, go party at Diablo’s “Fetish Night” (it seems that wearing just black is a fetish?) Saturday night for some people watching and fun, meet my sister, who we haven’t seen for about 8 years for “breakfast” Sunday morning, and then off to High Priestess for our Tattoos. Plans change.

We DID go up to Eugene Saturday (7/18/09, btw). We went to the Saturday Street Fair. It was a laid back, relaxing kind of fun. Shelly bought some lotion, Steve was gifted a tee shirt for providing information to go on the next batch of tees.

We went to Cosmic Pizza. Steve and Robyn rave about it, so expectations were high. The garlic and mushroom pizza was good, but a touch too garlicky for Shelly’s taste. We met Richard there, and then went back to the room to get changed for the evening. Richard in his usual kilt and braided beard – as Robyn puts it, Richard is a “Walking Fetish”, Steve and I in our basic black, and the ladies a bit more provocative… it was Fetish Night after all! We guys left to give the ladies time to primp, and met with a couple that were some of the friends of Steve and Robyn’s that we were planning to meet (I suck at names). We people watched – everyone from the curvy kitty cat that left before the girls got there to the lady in a miniskirt and a large train of lace making a puffed up tail. After the ladies arrived, and the other friends left, we did more people watching, and Shelly and I watched a fire dance put on by the Daughters of Eve – a wonderful show. Then we retired to the room for the rest of the night.

The next morning, we saw my sister at Shari’s on 11th St – we swapped stories for our respective peoples – telling on each other about stunts from childhood… all in all a good time. Then we headed to High Priestess for the tattoos.

We were scheduled for 2 different artists, with appointments for 1:00 pm. The tattoos for Robyn, Steve, and Shelly were all discussed at length when the appointments were made 3 weeks before. Due to a family emergency, Steve’s artist was understandably not there. The problem is that the person he was pushed off on did not even do the kind of work Steve wanted – remember that the tats were described in great detail when the appointments were made. Robyn’s artist wasn’t going to be in until 4. Shelly was quoted a price for hers that was twice what a more local artist quoted for her. I guess the 3 strikes and your out rule applies to more than baseball. We left, disappointed that our birthday present for Steve, and Shelly and my first tattoo just wasn’t going to happen.

Robyn remembered seeing a tattoo parlor, and insisted that we stop and check it out. The end result was that were glad we did. We went toEvolved Ink, where Larie (like Marie, but with an L) was outside, waiting for customers. She heard us out, assigned Steve and Robyn to Wulff, and took the newbies (Shelly and I) for herself. Wulf started working on the details for Steve’s tat, and Larie started on Shelly’s. Shelly had less detail, and mine was tribal, so both of ours were done before Steves. Steve zoned to control pain… Shelly and I talked and ignored. Well, most of the time. I took pictures of everyone else, Shelly took pictures of me. Larie was wonderful – irreverent, spunky, and overall just what we needed to help remove the disappointment from High Priestess. Wulff did wonderful work on Steve and Robyn… He wasn’t as talkative as Larie, but then again, Steve wasn’t looking to chat and Robyn was talking to us.

Check the pics, and you tell me….

s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd92/BearDrummer1970/Family/adults%20mostly/tat%20trip/

interesting read

Wed, 27 May 2009 20:30:27 GMT

Something I stole from a friend of mine from Hattiesburg, MS, a long time ago (you will probably know who you are)b. It does make an interesting read...

>
> I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd
> waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan
> mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
> Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the
> ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is
> taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
> The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
> whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos
> not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a
> wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling
> was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs rpsoet it. OLNY
> RPSOET IF YOU CAN RAED TIHS
>
> "I couldn't belive that I could actually understand
> what I was reading. The paranormal power of the human
> mind, according to a research at Cambridge University,
> it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word
> are, the only important thing is that the first and
> last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a
> total mess and you can still read it without a problem
> This is because the human mind does not read every
> letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing
> huh? Yeah, and I always thought that spelling was
> important! If you can read this, repost it. ONLY
> REPOST IF YOU CAN READ THIS."
>

new to the yard

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:05:05 GMT

I mucked the chicken yard yesterday, in preparation for today’s activity, which was taking the chicks off the Hippie Bus we use as a brooder, and adding them to the actual chicken yard. The Barred Rocks are a few weeks younger than the RIR’s and White Leghorns, and can fit between the wires of the chain link dog run panels that make the primary fence for the chicken yard. They can’t make it through the chicken wire that wraps it (necessary because a housemates dog loves to eat chicken, and the birds are too stupid to not stick their heads through when the dog is there), so they are getting “stuck” and working their way back into the yard. The RIRs are as big as the banties… I believe they and the leghorns are about 8 weeks, and the Rocks are about 6…

I placed a wooden slat twin bedframe on some 4*4 posts in the house so they would have a roosting area until they learn how to climb (one wing’s feathers clipped to prevent escape till they know where home is) to the adult roost. So far today, they ran amongst the adults, eating scratch from the ground and hiding behind the food storage bin until I laid the bedframe down… after that, they all zoomed under the frame, and have stayed hidden. Most of them have had their beaks dipped in the auto-waterer, and several have jumped over the food trough, so I think they will be ok… unless they starve or dehydrate themselves while hiding.

Writer's Block: BFF

Fri, 15 May 2009 22:28:51 GMT

Who was your first friend on LiveJournal? Are they still on your Friends list?

View 501 Answers

I am not even sure why I am answering this "writers block" question... I probably shouldn't.

My first LiveJournal friend was my highschool sweetheart, who I had re-met and started dating again. I discovered that it was good that our highschool relationship was mostly letters back and forth. She has many handles here on LJ, and I am not going to make a link.

Basically, I found out how messed up she really was. When I talked to her mom afterwards, her mom told me she was waiting to see how long it was before she chased me off.

She wrote me back a long while later, apologizing for her insanity, and telling me she was getting her life on track again. I hope so. I didn't respond, simply because I can't take the hurt of when she falls off the sanity wagon again. I have since then been informed that she started talking badly about me again. I don't check.

It really breaks my heart to think about this. I wish her and her (not mine, though I do care very deeply for son she brought with her when we were dating) kids well. I wish them a happy life. Anyway... that's the answer.

trust

Tue, 12 May 2009 19:59:21 GMT

I witnessed trust today. I have decided that I miss it.

My son, who is 5 years old, saw me reach out to him as he climbed across the seat of an old Ford Bronco, and launched himself into my arms. He knew that his daddy had offered to catch him, and he had absolutely no doubt that that is exactly what would happen. He trusted me. There are other examples of his trust I could bring up, but this one is perfect in its elegant simplicity.

As we get older, the vast majority of us reach a point where that simple trust starts to leave us. I had mine shattered when I was just barely older than my son. Many start the process of losing that trust around that age, but some make it up into early adulthood before losing it. Once lost, it is very difficult to regain. I realize that I do not trust anyone like that, not even my life-mate. Sure, I trust her in many areas, but there are those areas that where my doubts start creeping in. I wish I could get there again, I really do.

It is an awesome responsibility. I hope I can live up to it.

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:32:02 GMT

Well, we have our second batch of chicks for the season... The first was about 2 weeks ago, and consisted of 10 White Leghorns (the almost white ones in the pics), and 10 Rhode Island Reds (brownish reds). The new batch are 10 Barred Rocks (black and white), 3 golden sexlinks (yellow), and 3 silver-laced wyandottes (black). Gotta love them! we are more than doubling our egg producers!!

Tabitha approves of the Barred Rocks (They will grow up to have feathers with alternating chevrons of white and black on each feather) and the silver laced wyandottes (feathers edged in white), because they will grow up black and white... so that means we have 13 goth chicks living out in the hippie bus (the chicks cages are in an old bus that IS really a broken down hippie bus!)

the pics that start with 2009-04 are the ones of the new babies...

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd92/BearDrummer1970/Agriculture/Chickens/

First Dream Catcher

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:33:19 GMT

Firefighter 1

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:14:47 GMT

Well, I have finished the course, with one class to make up in June... I have passed FF1; I just can't graduate until I attend that makeup class. Life goes on. For state certification, I have to finish a taskbook at my department, then I am ready to roll. I am going to some of the local fire companies this upcoming week to see if I can get a Tender Driver (water supply truck) position for this upcoming wildland fire season... wish me good fortune!

TabiCat Dribbling

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:28:03 GMT

first fire

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:57:18 GMT

Well, I made my first fire last night... I helped out as the engineer, the person who controls the levers and knobs on the side of the fire truck. The truck was between me and the fire, so I couldn't see anything. Watch the lights, pull the fill lever... see the splash, turn the lever the other way... repeat as necessary. Engineer is not my favorite position. Ah well... It can't be fun and games all the time... so it was ok... at least that is what I am telling myself... The worst part is that I forgot my camera.

It was arson. We don't know a whole lot more at this time.

It will get better after February... I will have my FireFighter 1 certification and will be allowed to fight fires directly at that time... and then in early summer I will have my wildland fire certification, and all will be good.

RF is taking this much better than I though she would... then again, she has some other FF wives to talk to.

moved, aggrivated

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:59:14 GMT

Well, here we are in Oregon. We have been here for about 2 months now, and still no job. I am not happy... Life does go on, but this is difficult. Here we go again....

change in scenery

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:41:04 GMT

For anyone left reading this blog that I have seemed to forsaken, We are now in Oregon! The move was not smooth, but we made it... Settling in is taking a while, and the job hunt is not so good, but I will be making concentrated effort to fix that this week. Keep your toes crossed peoples!

We are living at the foot of a mountian covered in pine. There are a few chickens in a coop and rabbits in a bus on the property - we have been given the job of making these profitable by the owners.

The first step is to get a bigger space for the rabbits and the chickens, at least in my opinion... and more of them. Doing breed research (ok, ok, running around the internet looking at pictures of chicks) has been a lot of fun. Trying to find blueprints for a good chicken coop has been a nightmare. Ah well... we will make it one way or the other.

Today's job is to get the boxes moved, the clothes finished washing and put away... and clean up after the dogs because RF decided to bring them in last night due to the "cold weather"... she really doesn't understand yet... ah well. she will learn soon......

Have fun, everybody, and let me know if you read this, so I know who is watching....

somewhat back

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:47:28 GMT

Well, I sit outside the library, using their internet... it has been a while... We will see what happens....

Hi Everybody

backlog 4/26/08 garden

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:46:12 GMT

4/26/08

I made the first real harvest from our garden. Tabi and I have snacked on a sprout here and there, tested the flavor of a mint or two, and she had a strawberry about as big as a tiny fingernail, but today was an actual harvesting – I picked some of the yellowing sage leaves, and decided to pick a few more and see if I could make a “Smudge Stick”. In my excitement over this, I forgot to be thankful. I went back out and expressed my gratitude.

“Earth, water, air, and also fire and spirit, thank you for providing for us in these ways: the food this garden will provide, the medicinal, and spiritual uses, as well as the simple beauty that the plants in these containers provide.”

RF found some thread for me to tie the sage leaves together. I made a mess of it, and it needs to dry a bit before I try it, but we will see how it turns out. I will have to learn to make them well, as I have dedicated a good bit of space to growing the necessary herbs for making several kinds of sticks.

May my excitement be warranted.

backlog 4/18/08

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:45:20 GMT

4/18/08

I heard something absolutely appalling today. I gave a Canadian couple a ride to the casino today. They told me that several of their friends were turned away and refused entry to the US, because their efforts to volunteer for things like Habitat For Humanity would “take away American jobs.” These people were going to volunteer, not undercut the commercial market! And the more crass comment – A lot of the people down here rebuilding houses aren’t citizens of the good ole USA anyway. What would a few outside volunteers do that the outside contractors and migrant workers doing construction jobs wouldn’t, except be cheaper? There is so much left to do for people who can’t afford to buy enough gas to drive to work and keep a job – these are the people that volunteers help, and we need them.

backlog 4/15/08 badday

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:44:11 GMT

I sit here, exhausted, looking back on a miserable day. My day started earlier than usual – RF called and woke me before my usual time to be awake with the news that our daughters god mother was likely to die of cancer soon; this was later shown to be less severe, and possible to treat. The latter information was not available to me until my day was well run through. Many things piled up, but it was the ill health of Nana that was the primary thought on my mind. As I said to one of the teachers at the dealing school I am refreshing at: “How do you tell a 9 year old what is about to be happening?” His good advice was that you don’t, because most of what you say will not be understood, and that which is will be not accepted. You just have to be there for them as things progress. Hopefully, the hope given later today was the case, and new and different than usual treatments will reverse the cancer and let her be whole again.

Been gone long enough

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:54:36 GMT

Well, I haven't visited in a long time, and the whole format has changed. Ah well... Maybe I will try to post here more often... Anyone still out there?

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:53:35 GMT

Well, I am going to post real quick... I don't really have internet access, but hopefully that will only be for a few more months... there is an end in sight...

moving

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 06:35:15 GMT

Well, it is happening... my mother made life so unbearable that we are moving back in with my mother in law... there we go. I am trying to balance school and work and moving to a different area of the state... wonderful... and the program that allows me to set up my class schedule is down for backup, and won't let me register... Coast friends, here I come, others, I am sorry to see you go...

You know you are old when...

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 04:38:47 GMT

I have had 2 things happen this week that made me feel old.

The first was when I was looking at 2 women walking, and realized that they were a mother/daughter pair... the daughter was a very curvy 16, maybe 17, year old and a pretty face... but I was paying most of my attention to the mother who was probably in her late 30's and maybe even early 40's... oh how times have changed...

The other was running into an old gaming partner who used to bring her prepubescent daughter to the games... who had the daughter, and her daughter's 4 year old daughter, with her... the little girl now hahs a little girl....

I am now officially old. people who I remember as kids when I was already an adult are having kids now. I am now officially old.

Bush is an idiot

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:23:37 GMT

Oh, I just broke his new law!!! oops...

News.com's report on his new law.

Our president is an idiot. He also looks like the kids in pictures of fetal alcohol syndrome. Maybe all those rumors about his mom are true afterall. FAS would explain a lot about him...

talk blog

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:06:26 GMT

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

15% Dixie

15% Upper Midwestern

15% Yankee

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

not much of an update

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 03:19:50 GMT

At the request of some person who will remain nameless until she posts, I am updating my journal... more to be said later...

grr

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 14:25:56 GMT

Well, the car is finally back, and headed back to theh shop for the second time!. Well, maybe it will be ready to pick RavenFox up from the coast tomorrow... we will see....