Wednesday, November 23, 2016

an UN-political post

   
I'm really tired of hearing all the political rants especially when they are backed up with internet "facts" and memes. So what am I gonna do-  be a hypocrite and give you my two cents.
    First of all, I believe we ALL want the same thing. We really do. A better world for us and our families. The problem is we all have different beliefs on what is going to get us there. These differences can be healthy in keeping a balanced society. Problem is, the two point of views are getting farther apart and more unwilling to work or even consider the other side. I don't have the answers but I will share one thing that I contemplate regularly.
     This is Philosophy. It can be applied in all avenues of life. One main philosophical question is "Does the end justify the means?"  I happen to believe it doesn't however, I would be a hypocrite in certain situations. In politics, "does the end justify the mean?" is a great question. Do we want a better country for our families no matter who or what we trample? Do we want wealth and security at any cost?  Does it matter if it takes longer to achieve our goals or if we even achieve them at all as long as we play fair? Even when other don't play fair?
    I guess what I am saying is that if maybe we take a deep breath, open our hearts and minds, and do a little soul searching, that gap between the two side may tighten together. I don't think it should come together, but just come towards each other a little. That would be a step in the right direction.
    I'm going to breathe and think about my part.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

My experiences with real horsepower

   I've always enjoyed riding horses but I have never had any formal training. I was self taught which means I have taught myself a whole lot of bad habits. Another thing I self taught was my knowledge of horse facts. I felt like if I treat a horse well, that horse will do what I want.
  I have had a retired horse trainer from Texas trying to teach me a few things and I have bee training to cattle sort. That is when you ride into a pin with 10 numbered calves and they call out a number and you herd that calf into another pin then turn around and go after the next consecutive numbered calf till you get all 10. You only get 60 seconds to do this.
   I had been training for about 2 weeks for this with the same horse- JB. We were getting pretty good I thought so I decided to film it and show off. Well the only good thing I can say was I didn't get thrown. Here is the video-
   The more I tried to make the horse do what I wanted, the more the horse fought it. I truly felt like if I pushed it any farther, he was going to turn into a bucking bronco. It was all I could do to stay in the saddle. I worked with him when we got back to the ranch and I'll be riding him again today until one of us figures out who the boss is. It is a whole different concept for The Mayor of Fun but it is a challenge and I just may learn something from it. Isn't that what life is suppose to be after all?

Friday, November 4, 2016

My Cabin in the Woods

   For over 25 years I have dreamed of owning a campground and cabins. I followed this dream 10 years ago when I got a piece of property in the Cherokee National Forest. I was going to build a small cabin to live in but when I talked to a bank about getting a loan to build the business they said they would only loan on a completed structure and not the land. I decided to build a large 6 bedroom bed and breakfast FIRST when I really wanted to do that last. I used up all my money framing it up and drying it any but I never finished it. Without it being finished, I couldn't get the loan but I really didn't want to go in debt. That was 8 years ago when I stopped working on it.
   With my bike being broke down recently and needing basically another motor rebuild, I decided to make use of my down time and do some more work on it. First thing I had to do was clean the roof. It had 8 years of mildew and looked pretty bad. I scrubbed it with bleach and was amazed at how well it looked under that grime. 
  
  Next I was trying to button it up and to keep the animals out since I haven't had doors and many of the windows are out.  I actually had a bear hibernate in it one winter before, I finished a couple pieces of missing metal on the red roof but water had gotten under the felt paper and rotted some plywood so I had to replace 4 sheets.

 I installed a couple of windows then I got distracted. You see when I work on my place, my ideas change as well as the materials I come up with. 
   It started with a Craigslist add for some vinyl windows for sale. I went to look at them and they were a huge savings. Over 1000 dollars in windows for only 200 dollars. They would mean changing the design do I worked a few days and got it ready. The original window opening was 36 inches wide by 52 inches tall. My new window ( for the master bedroom) are 11 feet wide and 6 feet (72 inches) talk! Oh yea! 
   This is the old bedroom window opening. The small window opening is for the bathroom.

    But now with all this view, I needed to clear some of the mountain side. You couldn't see the forest through the trees! I cleared about 1/4 of an acre just for a better view. I plan on planting some fruit trees that will attract wildlife.
   Now that the view was taken care of, I moved into the bathroom area and tried to figure out the layout. I was going to put in a Jacuzzi tub but I never really liked those.  I started searching for other ideas and came across this baby. A claw footed cast iron tub from the 1800's. Perfect for my place.
  Of course, soaking in this tub with only one window to look out just isn't as soothing as if I had TWO windows so I went to work opening another window. Problem is, this window would be going through the roof side so I had to build a new dormer but hey, I built the other 5 already. How hard could number six be?
  If you noticed on my picture above when I was washing the roof, the left dormer and window was not there.
Here you can see the two bathroom windows, same size 3 foot by 3 foot each. Will be a nice view of the forest when I bathe. Just following my dreams one day at a time.