Timmmmmmmmmm-berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So what have we learned that we constantly need to re-learn? No, not “I” before “E” except after “C” (like the word SCIENCE, beige, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign, dreidel, eider, eight, either, einglish, feign, feint, feisty, foreign, forfeit, freight, gleization, gneiss, heifer, heigh, height, heinous, heir, heist, leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir, prescient, rein, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik, society, sovereign, surfeit, speilling, teiid, veil, vein, weight, weir, weird…)
Just don’t trust the weatherman- or at least, look at what he is trying to tell you. When he says that the high is going to be 70- just figure on it being 65. When he says the low is 45- just figure on 40 degrees. But this is where he really got me- he said 20% chance of showers- an don’t you know it- it rained about 15% of the day! Granted, these rain showers were dished out in 10-15 minute sessions throughout the day. It was sunny, then windy, then raining, then sunny and windy, then raining then mostly sunny then raining… you get the idea.

So, why the lumberjacks? Well, this is what we did on Saturday. We moved about 80 trees, mostly pines and a few oak, that had fallen over and were cluttering up the grounds around the camping area at El Rancho De Mahoney. There is probably 3 to 4 times this many that need to be cleared- anyone want to volunteer their back and hands for a weekend? The payoff is going to be great fires throughout the summer and one HUGE bonfire this winter.

Eliana, Nicole, Tim, Jill and I loaded the trailer and Tim’s Chevy with enough stuff for a week to go over night camping in their oh so much better than a tent camper. When you don’t know what the weather is going to be like or when you do know what it is going to be like and you don’t like the weather, having a camper really makes the time more enjoyable. Here are the top ten highlights:

#10 Using bratwurst grease to season the pan for cooking pancakes in the morning
#9 Watching Jill plow through the underbrush on her ATV – in reverse- to get lined up to haul a log
#8 Starting a fire with only 1 match (and no gasoline/cheating stuff)
#7 Nicole learned a new skill
#6 I got to use all the cool lifting techniques I learned from watching numerous World’s Strongest Man competitions
#5 Listening to Eliana recite every name she has learned - over and over and...
#4 Watching Tim cook 4 brats at once
#3 Watching Eliana try to eat (and wear) a cooked marshmallow
#2 We were using chainsaws all weekend
#1 First listening, then watching Eliana climb out of her pack and play while we were watching a movie. Once out of the pack and play, she crawled under the curtain with a big smile on her face. We couldn't resist- we let her cuddle with us for most of the movie. She would start on one end of the bed and cuddle with each person for a few minutes before going on to the next. When she got to the last person, she went back the other way. She probably did 5-6 cuddle laps.

Pictures will come later this week- I brought the film camera and need to drop the roll off to get developed.

I just got my camcorder back from Canon. The tape loading mechanism had an error and although it is out of warranty, it is a known issue for Canon camcorders. I let them know that I knew that they knew about this issue with their camcorders and that they have a flat rate to fix this issue (they originally wanted $145 but I reminded them that it is only $50) – short story short- I have a working camcorder again!