Today was another one of those days. Earlier I ran to the store for a few things. I had my dogs with me since they have been locked up in the house; they needed to get out of the house, too. We had not been out since Friday.

I took a back road and I was about three miles from the house; cue the weirdness. I saw a lone Canada goose take flight out of a field out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head a little to the right to look, then suddenly the goose started to flail about and fell from the sky. He was about 30 feet in the air and gravity has a profound effect from 30 feet up even if you ARE covered in feathers.

This was only 50 feet or so from my truck so I pulled up and saw the goose in the ditch. I switched on my emergency flashers and got out to see if it was okay. It was a huge Canada goose – a full-grown adult – so you know it did not just “…float gently to the earth” (again, feathers don’t matter…). When I got up to him I did a quick once-over and saw a wing was a bit askew, but the feathers were moving back into place when he moved.

Otherwise, he was calm but looked up at me with a “Dude…WTF just happened?” dazed look on his face. He waddled up next to me and looked at me again like I was supposed to tell him what happened. One of his eyes was a little glazed and not sure what that was about, but with bird flu going crazy and what I learned about those diseases at the wildlife refuge, I don’t touch wildlife as a rule. Nature does what nature does and we should not interfere.

I was living in an AFLAC commercial, only this was a goose…and it did not have that annoying voice.

He kinda stood by me for a couple of minutes and just kinda looked at me with that “Well…what next?” look, then turned away and waddled back to the ditch to go back up the other side into the field. My dogs sure wanted him to come with us! I am sure there would have been some “ruff-housing” in his future!

It is windy today and I wonder if he got blown into the power lines on take-off by how he reacted – it was like he hit something and started flailing his wings around as he fell. I never heard a gunshot or see some redneck with a gun running & yelling at me. The goose did not seem to be injured other than gravity happening.

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I have been in & out of the trailer a bit more the last few days. I watched a little TV and one day I consolidated my dinner utensils in a little basket that fits perfectly in a tight spot. I had them in a drawer and my cooking utensils were in a shoe storage bin with latching lid stored in the bunkhouse storage. Once I moved them into the small basket, I emptied the utensil bin into the drawer the dinner utensils were in. Less stuff stored in bins/tubs, and I still have room for groceries. I had already gone through the utensils to get rid of what I did not need to pack along. I may get a few more things out of there but it is much better than it was.

Since I took out the over-the-door coatrack, I will be putting my folding clothes rack in the bathtub when stationery to put wet gear on so it drains & dries. I have another hanging thing to hang over the door for things as needed. It is actually for the back of a front seat of a car or truck to put things in, like games, maps, gloves, books, etc. It was $2 at a thrift store and was clean and in good shape. I will probably get a couple of pairs of single coat hooks or a double one and use that for coats inside the door. I also have a couple of good places to put hooks for hats that would be out of the way. That will leave the overhead shelf above the bed for clothes, blankets and whatever. The bin for my utensils will now be storage for some of my clothes above the bed.

One thing I should really have is my heated water hose. Unfortunately, it is safe and secure in South Dakota in storage. I shoulda grabbed it last trip I made up with Meghan but I just did not think about it. I can just fill my tank up and have the tank heater on so there is a workaround. The heated water hose gets pretty hot actually and I never had it freeze in Ellensburg, Washington. It got damn cold when I was there a few times and I actually bought the hose from them for same price they got it off of Amazon for – there was no markup and it was end of season. I am glad I had it by the looks of some of the rigs around me with icicles hanging off the corner of one rig.

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I certainly did not want to go I-90 west in winter, but it is looking like that is how I might be going so I can get a few things (like my heated water hose) out of storage and drop off a few other things. At least I am not on a schedule so it can take as long as it takes.

I try not to jump ahead too much with any plans because there are so many variables affecting everything else downstream. I try to be patient and keep the house cleaned constantly and do any other things that need done. I still need to get down into the basement for some more work, but I am not ready to tackle that quite yet. I probably should, though, and get any remaining trash out soon because after the holidays the dump will be a fiasco.

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Got some nice days coming up so I need to get more wood cut while I don’t have to bundle up. I hope I can find the extra chains so I can put a new, sharp one on the saw. The tree I took down is really good for a fire. It might be a maple but I am not sure – I DO know it is not oak or walnut. All I really know is the wood is dense, heavy, and burns fairly hot but slow. Hopefully I can split some of it but we will see. I have some yard clean-up to do from taking the tree down so I need to do that first. It kind of blocks the path to drive back to the pond and the rest of the lot plus I am selling the house so it will look a little better. Plus, I can roll the blocks over to the barn to stay dry.

It was pretty cold over the weekend but I had a fire going nearly 24/7 and it was toasty in the house. I would load some of these logs in and they burn hot a long time when you close the damper down. I can load it up at bedtime and in the morning it is just a few pieces of wood left but a lot of coals. I scoop around the coals to get the ashes out, level out. the coals, and add a new batch of firewood. It was another reason I stayed home. Kept the garage door closed to save heat and fed a fire all day. Saved a bunch of propane and house was pretty warm!

That is it for this post. See you next time!

Shawn