WHICH SEEMS a silly thing to do while we’re at war with Russia, which, let’s face it, we are. Peter the Great spent the last decade of the 17th century trying to get Russia to gaze west and imagine itself a part of Europe. Which it could have been even under a Putin, albeit a less corrupt Putin, less of a murderous authoritarian, but a borderline bad actor, a Russian Erdogan, yeah that could have worked if it was all the remains of the empire could manage.
Russia’s a vast nation but not a great nation. Nobody wants anything Russia makes. It’s a resource-extraction economy that’s not going to do well in the post-carbon future. All the more reason to be incorporated into the west and not another hermit kingdom in retreat from modernity, a pariah state armed with doomsday weapons.
With better leadership, Russia could have worked through its security paranoia and joined NATO. Unthinkable in 1989 but plenty of people who mattered were talking about it a decade later. NATO and the Russian military even held joint exercises in the century’s first decade. People don’t remember that, but what do people ever remember about anything?
That’s all I have to say about third-rate Russia bringing its painted rust to bear on its neighbors, betting, in reliably backward fashion, that the authoritarian east is the way forward over the democratic west.
A sucker bet, MRGA man.
And now on to the usual piffle.
One night in the woods can’t begin to scratch the itch, but just by dumb luck we happened to hit a dry 40-degree night last Friday, as opposed to the 20F driven-snow night soon to follow.
D2’s husband, Jonny (SL2), had set up two early-morning meetings in Vermont, one with the site engineer working on their property, the other with the concrete guy who’s going to pour the frost walls and slab for the garage. We needed to get up there anyway to run a tape to the property lines and locate the garage on paper for the building permit.
That didn’t take any time at all. The property lines are apparent, no need to hunt for them anymore. Last summer, you may recall, I found the corners and cut a 1,600-foot walking trail around the perimeter.
The van I camped in while doing so has been in Arizona all winter. The kids left it in Yuma with their aunt and uncle, now they’re flying out of Boston the day after tomorrow to go retrieve it. Ten days from AZ to RI with the first six in CO. They expect to camp in Sedona, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Telluride, Rocky Mountain National Park, then east to Pawnee State Park in Nebraska, Indiana Dunes National Park in Illinois, Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, then home to Little Rhody.
At the work site in Vermont last weekend, Jonny camped in the lean-to we built last fall (started building), the one Adam the human bulldozer had bled all over. I made my camp 30 or 40 yards farther up the hill.
The wintry limbs of the sky view over my tent site…
Later on, near dusk.
Then came moonrise, and coyotes yipping, owls hooting.
I was in my sleeping bag before 9, slept like the dead until 6. Awoke to a campfire crackling down the hill, the sound of morning coffee.
It’s mud season in Vermont. Ordinarily the ground’s going to try to confiscate your boots but we found this year’s mud fairly walkable, with minimal squish.
Here at home we’re getting 70 degrees one day, 20 the next, but summer’s coming fast and will get here all at once. It’ll be time to bolt the radiator fan and its belt pulley back onto the flathead V8.
I was planning to sheetrock the second-floor porch ceiling this week. Jonny said no need to run after materials, I have an appointment nearby Wednesday morning, I’ll drop off a dozen sheets of green board at the house.
So that happened this morning. Jonny and master carpenter Eduardo dropped off the rock. Then he says don’t bother hanging it, Eduardo and Jesus will come by Friday and knock out a ceiling for you in no time.
Everybody ought to have a daughter who marries into a construction company, huh? Now I get to wander around Friday drinking coffee, compromising productivity, yakking with Eduardo and Jesus while they’re trying to get work done…
Birds had no interest in the open rafters over the winter but now they’re looking for places to raise their young. That’s why it’s time to get the ceiling up.
I’ve kept that ladder handy in recent weeks because I’m always pulling grass and twigs out of the soffit and off the rafter ties.
Wrens came first, then robins, then doves.
We’ve tried putting the cat out on the porch as a deterrent but she appears uninterested in working for a living.
There’s birds out here! They keep sneaking up on me! Let me in let me in!
Tony DePaul, April 20, 2022, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
Must have been your cold weather comments, this posting did not wish to open for many days in sunny Texas. Finally tonight it relented…
The house is looking great, love the double porch looking out over the ravine.
Thanks, amigo. The welcome mat’s always out. Stop by on your motorcycle run from Key West to Deadhorse, I doubt it would add more than 2,000 miles 🙂 The foliage out back is pretty crunchy, hasn’t greened up yet. I was standing by the back fence a few evenings ago and six deer walked right by me. First one saw me, last one saw me, they both bolted. One in the middle saw me and didn’t seem to care. Got ’em on video, will post it next time. Your mypacks.net address has bounced messages before, maybe it doesn’t like my Bluehost server. I’ll switch the Nickels heads-up to your gmail. Thanks for reading! Hi to Amparo.
Great writing, as usual. Love reading everything you write.
Dan & Judy
Thanks, Dan and Judy! You wouldn’t believe how fast the muchachos banged out that porch ceiling. They were done in two hours, it would have taken me two days working alone. Now they’re building the stair stringers I was planning to build over the weekend.
Thanks for checking in, Tony, always great to read your rambling (as in traveling and writing)! I thought my cat was the only one that beat on the door like that, must be the species, huh?
I like the winter view of the sky in Vermont, though I don’t share your love of cold winter night camping. Somehow I missed the write-up of Adam cutting himself; that guy really is a machine.
Your perspective of Putin, and Russia as a whole, couldn’t be said better. It’s a pity they keep winding up with these narcissistic leaders.
Anyway, sounds like your daughter has your camping blood in her as well, God speed to them in their travels and camping.
Kind regards,
Will
Thanks for reading, Will. If Jenna & Jonny send pics of their travels I’ll post them here. I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll get even a bit of regional travel in this year let alone national or international. The to-do jar just keeps getting fuller! Today I discovered some rot in the little side porch I built just eight years ago. Rot in the stair stringers, mainly. It’s treated lumber but decayed about as fast as untreated would have. Will run after some 2X12s and cut out a new set. It’s not a long run, just four steps. Also demolished the wood railings today, which I’ll have Jonny’s guys replace with the composite system they used last fall on the two new back porches.
I hope you do get to travel; it’s hard to suppress the wanderlust in us motorcyclists. Plus, I then get to read about your travels!
Maybe a different species of lumber for the stringers, like Fir?
Possibly. I’m going to have Eduardo and Jesus take a look when they get here this morning. I suspect it might have been because I had painted the stringers everywhere except where the treads make contact. Maybe rainwater infiltrated there and that surface was never able to dry out? I might have basically simulated the conditions of ground contact, which the dimensional 2X stock is never rated for. Or if some is I’ve never seen it. I’ve only ever seen 4X & 6X & 8X rated for ground contact.
I love the update on your home renovations, it looks like you’re almost there. The porches are beautiful, even without the sheet rock. And lucky you, to have such handy relatives.
Thanks, Ellie. Jonny and Adam are building quite a business. Lots of people around here know them from their TV commercials and billboards. They had a booth at the home show a few weeks ago at the Providence Convention Center, got quite a few new customers. Lots of people said they recognized them from the ads. A bunch wanted to meet Godzilla, the company mascot. He’s the big black doberman who’s been known to race across the equipment yard full speed and knock the wind out of me if he can catch me by surprise.
Tony, your home is sure looking good!…….Bob
Thank you, Bob. One floor to go on interior work but I hope to get distracted by motorcycling before that can be accomplished. You must be just about ready to get out on the road yourself. My best to you and Janey. I often think of the kind hospitality I’ve enjoyed at your house in my travels through the great Canadian West.
Dear Tony, You might tell the kids coming from Yuma to stop and take a look at a National Park with the dreadful name of “Montezuma’s Castle”. It is a one thousand year old Sinaqua cliff dwelling off of I-17, at exit 289 near Sonoma. My wife and I were going to the Grand Canyon, saw it and took a chance that it might be something.
While my wife checked out the gift shop, I sat on a bench and meditated what might existence have been like in the cliff dwelling apartments (no other word) that were a thousand years old. The Sinaqua finally abandoned these dwellings, possibly because of a water shortage. Its not as impressive as Mesa Verde, but it is still moving to see.
I hope to make it out to Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon some day.
Thanks, Robert. That’s a great tip. I’ll pass it on.
Thanks, Robert! I’ll check it out, sounds like a cool stop!
HA! Hey old man, you do NOT want to hang ceiling sheetrock…OMG, that’s for the young bucks to do. You’d be like two sheets screwed to the joists and have to take a break (so would I). Go have lunch, take a nap, check your email, watch a few TikToks, then hoist one more and that’s going to be it before dinner. Repeat the next day. Would take a week, at least…..but you’ve EARNED the slow pace and less heavy lifting.
True, Eduardo’s the grand old man of Team Eduardo & Jesus and I think he might be 30. When they were working here last fall I dubbed Jesus El gato after I saw him descending a ladder off the second floor facing forwards as if the ladder were a stairway. Plus he had his hands in his pockets. Talk about Joe Cool…
Good to hear from you, and am enjoying the Phantom strips.
Regarding Russia, my evolving view is that, somehow, Russia regaining democracy and, eventually, NATO membership should be the endgame that Washington and the West ought to be working on. If that has any chance of happening, however, we will for the time being have to help Ukraine hang on.
Thanks, Stephen. Ukrainians are tough. Two of my nephews were in Iraq with the U.S. Marines, spent some time camped next door to Ukrainian troops and came away with a few stories to tell. Putin must know them well enough to know they’d fight as ferociously as they are.
His thinking seems stuck in 1940, Panzers rolling unopposed through the Ardennes. Except nowadays a 14-year-old girl can roast a tank crew from a hidey hole 800 meters out.
I hope Eric Idle sees the humor in the video that is edited to fit his tune.
It looks like you’re having a grand time in Vermont!
We shoveled snow here this morning north of Calgary. Twenty two centimeters of it. I might even come to like squishy mud.
Have a great summer!
Thanks, Bill. With the border reopened I’ll bet you and the family must be ready to resume your annual camping adventure in Idaho.
Still too many restrictions in place coming back into Canada. So until they ease up we will be adventuring north of the 49th.
Ah. I wasn’t aware of that. I’ve heard from motorcyclist friends in the States who are planning to converge on Dawson City for the solstice. Sounds like it might not be possible. Or if possible, maybe not advisable.
Good to hear you again. The art of the ordinary wears well.
Thanks, Sheila. Hey, I was hoping I might see you at Mark Arsenault’s signing for The Imposter’s War at Books On The Square. There was quite a Projo turnout.