Friday, January 30, 2009

Modeling my bicycle

Thursday I had a photo shoot. The Great Falls newspaper had earlier interviewed me via email about my bicycling and what I feel are health and environmental reasons for me to bicycle as much as I do. Then Erin, the writer, wanted photos of me and my bicycle. She lined up Dave, a local photographer, to take the photos.

Now I had rambled on in my emails about my reasons for bicycling but when Erin wanted photos it reminded me that all this was for an article to be published. Duh. My natural aversion to the spotlight earlier had left me but now it was back. Too late. I agreed to the photo shoot.

One of the photos ideas they had was to show me carrying groceries on my bicycle. As some of you know, I use my bicycle for all sorts of errands and have carried stuff on my bicycle that would somewhat remind you of people in third world countries and the odd stuff they have carried. But I had no grocery shopping planned. Instead, to help Dave I filled a grocery bag with groceries I had around the house and placed it on my bicycle just as if I was returning from a trip to a grocery store.

To get actions shots I rode back and forth on the road outside the ranch as Dave took various photos with several fancy looking cameras and with various settings. Lots of photos. I rode almost 2 miles back and forth and back and forth as Dave took photos. I didn't mind; it was for a good cause.

And for those of you who know me well, I did wear a bicycle helmet. Knowing how some people get really worked up and on their soapbox when they see a bicyclist in a magazine or newspaper photo without a helmet I warned Erin and Dave that I didn't have a helmet. Dave brought a helmet for me to wear. So, yes, if you see the photo that is me wearing a bicycle helmet.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

On the skis again

The weather forecast was for a trace up to 2 inches of snow. We got 4 inches. Wednesday after I shoveled off my driveway and around my yard I decided to test my cross country shoe repair for my skis. My glue job worked excellently as the sole stayed on the whole time. It helped that I did not crash once.

The temperature was near freezing and while, with calm wind and sun, this made for a perfect afternoon, the snow was touch sticky. I know... last time I went skiing the snow was a touch too slippery for my skis. Today when I kept moving my skis glided beautifully. When I stopped the snow would stick until it eventually wore off from skiing again. The nice thing was that I had traction when going up steeper inclines.

I skied all the pasture boundaries and even the hayfield boundary. I could have skied more. It was great skiing.

The last week or so the view from the house had me thinking that some large tree branches had broken off and/or down. I confirmed my suspicion.





Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Loading corral gate

Before I forget, here are photos of the gate I built in my loading corral last year after the ground froze but before Winter arrived.

I decided to create this gate because the distance - at a little over 5 ft - was shorter than the other 8 foot sections. And I wanted a second gate in the loading ramp part of the corral. Extra gates can always be useful. There have been times I have been in the corral and want to get into the loading ramp corral but do not want to go through the cattle that are in the loading corral.

First I had to finish making a gate out of some boards strung together.



Completed gate: closed and open


I made a latch to lock the gate.
First photo shows the latch when the gate is closed.
Second photo shows the three holes I carved into the railroad tie to slide the latch into.
I carved three holes to make the gate solid to hold up to the cattle.


The gate is pretty solid and I am pleased at how it turned out. I think it will keep the cattle in the loading ramp corral when needed.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Colder, etc.

The temperature got colder the past few nights than what the weather forecasts predicted. This morning and the previous morning I woke up to -14 F. Normally I just use a light bulb to heat the pump house for my well and switch to adding a space heater when it is below zero. I now found that just using a light bulb works to -14 F - when there is no wind. Nothing froze, which is good. I read on the Many Glacier Winter blog they were not so lucky as they got caught with frozen water pipes.

With the cold weather came clear skies. It is nice to see blue sky and the mountains.

The past few days I have seen eight to ten Hungarian partridges out in the back yard. It is nice to see them as I have not seen them for a very long time. Unlike in the summer when the partridges waddle/run off when I come outside the house, in the winter snow they fly off suddenly in a flurry of noise.

Over at Bob and Jan's place they have almost a dozen pheasants wintering among their caragana and pine tree hedges. Several bands of coyotes were howling to one another late yesterday afternoon NW along the river and ridge. Still no sign of deer tracks.

This morning another weather change as it is snowing lightly. This is not so bad as we could use some fresh snow. The recent warmer weather half melted and iced up the snow. Not so good for cross country skiing.

Even though I do not need more firewood every few days I take a half hour or more and split some of my logs. They need to be split eventually; it gives me something to do outside; and I could use the exercise. As the ground is frozen I found that I do not need to place the logs on my splitting stump. Setting the logs on the ground works just fine. The ground is much harder than my splitting stump. For the times my splitting maul goes all the through the log I wonder if the hard ground will dull my maul?

Monday, January 26, 2009

Dominic

The other day I finally got around to reading Dominic's blog. Dominic was a bicyclist I met riding by when I was at my mailbox last July 25. Ya, six months ago.

Dominic is from London, England and was on a bicycle tour from Washington, D.C. to Seattle, Washington - coast to coast. A long cross country bicycle trip. While he has been on a number of bicycle tours this was his first in the U.S.

Making it more interesting to me was that he had ridden through North Dakota and then across Montana on the HiLine. I had bicycled from Tacoma, Washington to North Dakota on much of the same route he was taking. My tour was in 1979 - 29 years prior. Wow! Time flies. So it was interesting to talk with him about his adventures and find out what has changed.

The equipment available now is so much more than my early tours. Lycra clothing for example. And he had a GPS unit for a bicycle computer. All the maps he needed were on it. Far different than when I would look for maps when I crossing into a new state. And he had a laptop computer for communication and a solar panel on his bicycle to charge batteries. My communication home was postcards and an occasional long distance phone call. How did I manage back then?!

We had a nice chat before he was off again.

Dominci's blog entry where he met me: click here. It appears I am not much of a rancher as it seems me being a former IBM engineer made more of an impression on him.

You know, it is a small world as Dominic had met and ridden with other bicyclists across Montana. One of those bicyclists' blogs talked about their bicycling adventures across North Dakota including a visit to my hometown. There they met Harold. Harold is a person I inspired to go on bicycle tours after he read about my bicycling adventures in the local newspaper. I'll have to look up Harold when I am back in North Dakota again.

Dominic has a job as an illustrator. His other blog, with photos of his work, can be found here.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Like old times

The wind is still blowing! So much so that in parts of the valley closer to Glacier Park the weather service put out a wind chill warning for tonight. For my Minnesota and North Dakota friends this would be a typical winter day, but here... not so.

I had a letter to mail today and no stamp. I decided this morning, before the nearby postal branch closed at noon, I would ride my bicycle to mail the letter. By local I mean the branch is a little over three miles away versus going over six miles uptown to a post office.

The temperature was in the low teens and the wind was blowing. No problem for a guy who commuted to work on a bicycle in Minnesota all winter long over many, many winters, right?

I found I don't miss those "good ol' days". It was cold. My fingers certainly felt it. At the branch I suppressed an inclination to get annoyed at being after a woman with over a dozen packages and a decision on each package whether to use regular or priority mail when all I had was a quick task: buy one stamp with the exact change ready. I used the time waiting to warm up.

I suppose it wasn't that cold as I took a longer way back home and not the shortest route. To achieve the mileage I wanted for the week I wanted those two extra miles.

Still, that was the extent of my outside activity today. I've kept the wood stove going and the house warm and had a big bowl of soup for supper.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Meal

Friday night members of the hiking group were invited over to Joyce and Edley's home for supper and to discuss hiking plans for this summer. I decided to burn a CD with photos of our trips this past year and found I needed to do some weeding of photos. I was late to the get together by almost a half hour. I did call Joyce to let her know I would be late.

Edley and Joyce's driveway was icy. And very bumpy. To rough up the ice Edley had driven his caterpillar back and forth on it. Otherwise it would be very slick and easy to slide off the road.

Bill and Arnie and their wives were there. Sue Ann was not. Apparently her vehicle is dead.

Arnie - in his 80s! - had been downhill skiing at Big Mountain a few days ago. He said it was sunny and warm and beautiful up above the inversion cloud.

The meal was a typical ranch meal: meat and potatoes. The meat choices were beef and elk. Potatoes were mashed with gravy. Joyce picked carrots from her garden earlier that day. She covers them with tarps and straw and uses the ground to keep them over winter. It works great as they taste very good and don't get old. And she had a salad that had a hint of an oriental flavor. And bread. Dessert was huckleberry cobbler. The entire meal was homemade and was excellent and there was plenty of food so everyone could have seconds.

Afterward we looked at the couple hundred photos I had put on a CD of our hikes. Not everyone went on all our hikes so they could see what they missed.

It was a nice relaxing time with friends. When we left Joyce gave each of us some fresh carrots from her garden. Yum!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Sunset after the inversion left

Mid afternoon the inversion started to break up. Is that the outline of the sun I see?

By late afternoon the sun came out and shone creating things I hadn't seen in a week: shadows. Everything was still frosted so it looked nice.

After dark the wind started. The cold air from the arctic is now rushing over the mountain passes and into the valley from east of the mountains where it is cold. On the left side of the photo below you can see the edge of the inversion as it being blown southwards. Good riddance.

The wind is really blowing for here. A steady 29 mph. Actually, after the inversion and calm stillness of the past week the wind is a refreshing change. And the wind is making me a bit nostalgic for my days back in North Dakota and Minnesota where the wind almost always blows. My soft spot must be because I am relishing the change from the inversion.

Of course with the inversion breaking up that means a clear sky at night and that means cold.

Here is tonight's sunset. I was a little late catching it as I am not used to seeing them lately.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Middling gray

I guess every winter I get like this. Maybe it is the mid winter thaw. One isn't hunkering down and enduring winter. The warmer weather moves my mind to thoughts of Spring. But there is still snow on the ground and Spring is a ways off. I am feeling out of sorts waiting... waiting. Being indoors all day on a cold gray inversion day doesn't help. Nor does attending to life's boring responsibilities such as reading over health insurance info and other stuff whose memory left me once I finished with them. What did I do today? Do I really want to remember?

I did shake the dust off a blanket and pillows on the couch and washed the dust off the couch and table. Didn't I just clean them last month? A downside of using a wood stove is that dust accumulates quite fast.

Speaking of wood stoves I read over a copy of the info the county has on the house and ranch buildings. The guy doing a ranch insurance estimate gave me a copy. It lists the house's heat as baseboard electric and no mention of the wood stove. It also has the house as being built in 1965 which is wrong. The house is older. It lists the dates of other buildings so I am questioning those dates. Especially as the dates in the paper are not as old as I expected as this has been a working ranch since 1941, which, by the way, is when the house was started. As the house was built in sections maybe 1965 was the date of the last section added to the house?

And the descriptions of the other buildings! Some I could figure out, others .... ? Poultry building? And which building is the barn?

I don't have the paper in front of me but I seem to remember the house's square footage listed as a little over 1200. It is probably right but is a little bigger than I expected as sometimes I think the house is only a little larger than the two bedroom apartment I had last rented in Minnesota.

Our temperature today ranged from a low of 21 to a high of 23. That's inversions for you. The weather forecasters are predicting a change by the weekend and an end to the inversion. Colder and snow. I guess I shouldn't complain as it will be a change. And maybe we'll get some decent snow to ski on.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Uneasy

Maybe it is just one of my Cancerian moods but I am feeling uneasy. Part of it is this time of year as I can't really work on projects outside and inside-the-house stuff gets old as I want more physical activity.

And I am juggling a few balls in the air.
  • Today I spent an hour on the phone with several workers at Mom's former medigap insurance company. They owe mom for some home health aide bills. Today I learned that they did get the papers I had sent them September 2008. Since December they had been claiming they had not gotten the papers. They claimed they sent me a letter in October 2008 - which I never received - turning the reimbursement down. When I asked for more data I was instead told they would forward my information to another claim representative for review and that would take two more weeks. *argh*

  • I just learned my health insurance premium would be increased by 29%. Today I met with my insurance agent about switching to another plan. The good news there is another company/plan that is cheaper. The bad news is going through the application process again.

  • I also chatted about home owners insurance and started the ball on getting an estimate from them.

  • I paid my car insurance premium. I have a new agent whom I met for the first time. The person in the agent's office whom I always deal with was on her honeymoon as she had just gotten married. I am a bit bummed as she never mentioned her upcoming marriage when I was chatting with her after paying my pickup insurance premium in December. The new agent went on a sales pitch for me to increase my car coverage and get their home owners insurance and other insurance and other financial services from them.

  • All this insurance talk and horror stories of what could happen without the right insurance certainly didn't help my mood.

  • My new insurance agent is attractive and had no rings on her hands. She did tell me that she used to help her father with cattle back in Texas and enjoyed it. Oh? But she was focused on work and the conversation went back to insurance. I was thrown for a loop as I didn't imagine her being a cattle person and I needed time to absorb that information.

    To further show my being "out of sync" lately, she turned out to be younger than I subconsciously thought. I know, a bad thing to think. Maybe I thought she was older as she was the business owner and all insurance business owners I have dealt with in the past have been older. Maybe I was hoping she was closer in age to me. Anyway she had said she decided to make a life change before she turned 40 and made the change when she was 37. She took over the insurance business in 2008. Montana is a long way from Texas.
  • I turned in my ag property application renewal. I hadn't a copy of the last application from a few years ago and had questions. The ag assessor was gone for the day but another woman in the office helped and was very friendly. Every so often she would call me 'dear' or 'hon' or something like that which threw me as she didn't seem to be older than me. It's not bad but I am not used to it. To complete the ag application I had to fill out another form I didn't need to fill out except I needed to fill it out to complete the ag application. Bureaucracy. I still left a note for the ag assessor as this woman couldn't answer whether I should check yes or no for one of the questions.

    I learned the assessor's office was behind in sending out to all the ag property owners the satellite photos and ag property descriptions for verification. Apparently this has not been done for decades now. I was told, and it was on the news, we would be getting the info in December. Guess not. The last time another government agency did something similar they had the wrong info for the ranch and I had to get it corrected.

  • I called and spoke with Sue Ann's friend. The conversation seemed to go well. We didn't finish our conversation as she had to keep a promise to her son to do something with him. Supposedly she will call me as she needs help with her computer. So I am kind of in a limbo waiting state.

  • I am going to North Dakota in February to visit my brother and work more on mom's stuff. Amtrak has a fare sale going on right now and I had to purchase my tickets by tomorrow to get the sale price. I purchased the tickets tonight. I ended up buying the return ticket too to get the sale price. I hate locking in dates in the future. I don't know how much time I will need so I don't know if I'll be twiddling my thumbs by the end of my North Dakota visit or whether I need more time.

  • And I have more dry dull stuff to do before I go to North Dakota and I seem to be putting them off.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Inversions, etc.

Since Friday we have had inversions. High pressure means cold air sinks. With no wind and the mountains blocking the air flow, the cold air is trapped in the valleys and form fog, which from the mountain tops look like clouds. No sun during the day as it is gray and dreary. At night sometimes it thins and I can see the moon and stars.

I've seen weather cam photos from the mountain tops and the mountains rise from clouds into the clear blue skies. Apparently if one goes above 5000 ft it is clear. And warmer. The warm Pacific air is floating over the top of us and to the east of the mountains. Where we were once warmer than eastern Montana, they are now in the 50s and low 60s and our temperature now varies between 24 and 28 day and night.

After 4 pm today I could see the mountains north of Badrock Canyon, and those farther into Glacier Park, were all shining in the sun. That was odd to see given the Valley was gray and dark.

With the calm weather I've gotten some bicycle riding in. Sunday I rode out a mile father than usual and on ahead from a side gravel road another bicyclist came. He was surprised to see another bicyclist out and about. With the inversion he was concerned there may be freezing fog and so he rode a bicycle with studded tires. He also was decked out in bicycle clothing and gear. He wasn't a snob about it as he slowed up to chat with me. Me: wearing non-bicycling clothes and riding a beat up old bicycle with almost 40,000 miles on it.

Since the heavy snow the beginning of the year I have not seen deer tracks in my pastures. Today when out riding my bicycle I saw one whitetail deer run up the road then hop the fence to stand among the trees on the ridge side. He/she stopped once it was off the road then stood and stared at me as I rode by.

I also split a few logs for firewood. Not that I need any more firewood split as I have a big pile. I split the logs to get some exercise and to be outside. Today I seriously washed the kitchen and dining room floors. I mean serious. The floors needed a good cleaning. I swept, washed with a mop, scrubbed on my hands and knees using a rag, mopped using pine sol cleaner, then mopped again to wash and rinse. I moved all the furniture out of the room. I also did some washing of cupboards and odds and ends of things in the rooms. Someday I am going to hang the large framed prints I have sitting on the dining room floor.

I have electric baseboard heaters as the house used to be heated solely by electricity. I've turned them off - or down as two heaters do not have an off switch. The heater in the dining room does not have an off switch. It started to heat after I washed it. I didn't seem to be able to turn it down (off) so I decided to unhook the wires to the control. The heater apparently is 220 and not 110. I unhooked one wire and taped it with electrical tape. Later I noticed from the faded control that low (40 degrees) and high were reverse from what one expected. No wonder I couldn't turn it down to stop heating.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Glacier talk on a nice day and women

The weather back in North Dakota and Minnesota may be frightful but here in Montana it was nice. Our high temperature today was 42 F with sun at times. I did some repairs on my bicycle then rode it uptown to drop a couple DVDs off at the library then go over to a church to attend a meal and a lecture on Glacier Park and the Sun Road. My biggest problem riding my bicycle was the wet roads and the water/mud thrown on me by my rear bicycle wheel. It is nice to have a break from Winter and all that snow.

The meal and lecture was for a group Joyce, Bill, Marilyn, Peter and Edwina belong to. I think it is for older retired people and I noticed that, other than the help in the kitchen with preparing and serving the meal, I was by far the youngest person in attendance. Peter, a former pastor, was leading the group now that the former pastor had a stroke and retired from leading the group.

I arrived after the meal started and was surprised to find the room full of people. Joyce found me a place at the table Bill and Marilyn sat at.

The speaker was a former park employee who had worked on the road. He knew the history of the road's creation 75 years ago and had spoken both at 2008's 75th anniversary of the road's completion and at the 1983 50th anniversary. He was a good speaker.

After catching up with everyone, and also getting to meet Joyce's eldest daughter, I headed back home.

I have to get to bed earlier tonight as we plan to cross country ski Friday in area of the Park I just learned has a cross country ski trail. And I still have yet to write up and select the photos from our 14.5 mile cross country ski adventure in the Park last Monday.

Plus Sue Ann has been after me to call a friend of hers and introduce myself and wish her Happy Birthday. I am ambivalent about it. I have seen her once and she is very attractive. But overall I am happy with my life, and even though meeting her may be good, I am not sure I want change right now. But change can be good, can't it? Well... we'll see.

Which reminds me... apparently there is a woman - whom I have never met - in Columbia Falls that is mad at me because of Sue Ann. Apparently after meeting this woman Sue Ann thought she introduce us. She told this woman this, but later changed her mind thinking this woman was too fat for me. However, instead of telling this woman that she, Sue Ann, changed her mind, Sue Ann told her I was a skinny active guy and didn't want to go out with a fat woman. According to Sue Ann this woman told her something "I am happy with who I am and if he doesn't accept me for who I am..." etc, etc. And now she is apparently mad at me. Me, who has never met her, hasn't known about her, has no opinion on her, etc., etc. I just learned about this situation from Sue Ann Monday when we were skiing. Thanks Sue Ann.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Flowering cactus

These photos were from mid-December when the temperature outside was well below zero F. My cactus was flowering again. In the Winter. Go figure. When the photos were taken the flowers were just past their peak but they still looked nice.


In November Jan gave me an Aloe Vera plant she planned to throw away. I put the plant in a pot and in some dirt, and it lives. It is a monster though.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Pink mountain snow

Here is the view I had Tuesday afternoon at sunset. I was out for a bicycle ride and watched the mountains as I rode. The snow has really brought out the shape of the mountains. In the summer when all is green the mountains blend into one another. I think the shadows on the white is what brings the definition out. But the time I got back home and got my camera the sunset/color was past its peak.


I also have discovered that I can see the Blacktail ski resort from the ranch. I had thought the red light I seen at night was a radio/tv tower on top of the Lone Pine State park mountain. But last weekend I noticed lights as if from buildings and ski runs, similar to what I see at Big Mountain ski area. The next day I looked during the day and noticed the top of Blacktail's ski runs. This is the first I have been here in the winter when Blacktail was open. In the summer one can't make out the ski runs. I believe Blacktail is over 20 miles away from here.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Pumpkin paste

I cooked up two batches of pumpkin paste. One batch Saturday night and a second batch Sunday.

Saturday I found the collection of what I thought were mostly large squash were actually mostly large pumpkins. I had picked them last September before going to North Dakota and placed them in my basement. Over the winter they have turned from green to orange. They are ripe and ready for use.

I don't know where my mind was at when I was cutting up the pumpkins to cook for my second batch as I suddenly realized I was throwing away the pumpkin seeds. Ah-yi-yi! The seeds taste great when roasted with a little salt. And they are good for you. I even save and drink the juice after running the cooked pumpkin through the colander.

I have enough pumpkins left for one to two more batches. Not all of them are completely orange so I plan to wait a bit before cooking the rest of them. It takes time to cook and process them. It takes several hours of cutting up the pumpkins to fill my large pot.

Now to make pumpkin bread, pie, soup, and whatever else I can make.

Cooking the pumpkin paste and using a colander to process it was bittersweet as it brought back memories of Denise. It was she who introduced me to cooking up pumpkins and using a colander many, many years ago. She loved pumpkin pie. I am using her colander now as she gave it to me before she died knowing well that I would use and treasure it.

Here are a couple of photos taken last year when I processed my pumpkins.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Mountains, snow, sun

The view Friday afternoon.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Warmer weather

Warmer weather came for Wednesday and Thursday. The temperature stayed above freezing the entire time (even at night). The temperature was in the upper 30s F. Therefore we had a lot of melting going on.

Prior to the warm weather - and the rain that came with it - I shoveled snow off the house and garage roofs. Some parts of the roofs seemed to have at least three feet of snow on them. I was concerned when the snow soaked up the rain it all may be too heavy for some roofs.

I shoveled part of the roofs. How much I shoveled was dictated by what I could reach when standing on a step ladder. That mean a little under half the snow from the house roofs and about three-fourths from the garage roof.

I had to shovel the snow twice. Once from the roof to the ground, then from the ground to the snow pile. Moving the snow on the ground was harder as the wet heavy snow had compressed when it hit the ground.

By the time I shoveled the snow it had warmed up into the 30s and the snow was heavy and sticky. The sticky part was more annoying as that meant it stuck to my shovel making it heavier.

My work was worth it as now that the temperature has retreated back below freezing I find that most of the snow I had left on the roof has melted. I see on houses where the snow wasn't shoveled that they still have a blanket of snow, albeit much less than before.

For over a day the driveway was part ice and part lake. The first morning I had slipped on the ice as formerly clear areas had a thin clear layer of ice from the freezing rain overnight before the temperature rose high enough to become just rain. No injuries from the fall except to my pride.

Thankfully before the temperature returned below freezing much of the ice has melted. There still are areas of ice around but the ice is no longer one solid sheet everywhere. With care to avoid the ice I am now able to ride my bicycle to the road.

The snow piles are a lot lower which is nice. For future winter snowfalls I will be able to toss the snow on the piles easier. And with this weather change it broke our string of nonstop snowfalls. I haven't shoveled new snow since the beginning of the week. So far for the month we have had over 27 inches of snow, and since it began snowing in December we have had 62 inches of snow. Lots of snow.

After the big melt some of the water remains (under ice), some water ran off, and some water must have gotten absorbed into the ground. I think the ground was frozen less than a half foot prior to all the snow. Such a shallow freeze meant it must have thawed in areas with a large pool of water. Some areas around the valley lost electrical power from falling trees across the power lines when the snow started to melt. With the wet heavy snow and shallow freeze some trees fell over when their roots came out of the ground.

Photo 1: This is what I shoveled from the garage roof before the melting began. There is still a little of that snow left.
Photo 2: I didn't slip on the ice here but left the broom there until that ice did melt.



There is less than half of this ice left.


This warmer weather has got me thinking of Spring.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Semi in the ditch

Tuesday morning I discovered a semi truck and trailer had gone in the ditch. It rolled over on its side and flattened my fence. 98 feet of my fence in fact.

A number of vehicles have gone in the ditch over the years, but as the ditch is deep and narrow none have damaged my fence until now. It took a semi truck to do it.

The accident happened about 10 minutes before I discovered it. I went out to find the driver was not hurt. He said he had been going 15 to 20 mph and when he saw an oncoming car moved over slightly. Once his wheels went off the road there was nothing he could do. He shut off the truck's engine as it started to tip over. The accident happened in the same place as most - where the road straightens out from the bend at my driveway entrance.

The driver was from Florida and his trailer was full of insulation for the business down the road. The driver was not dressed for winter as he was wearing the shorts they wear these days - the pants that go down to a person's knees.

Two vehicles coming from the other direction had stopped. The drivers were related. Eventually the young mother and kids left and the parents stayed in their pickup. The driver got on his cell phone to call his company. He also had contacted the highway patrol. I spoke with his insurance company on his phone and got their 1-800 number and the claim number. The agent said an insurance adjuster would call me in a day or two about compensation for my flattened fence. I have yet to hear from the adjuster.

The highway patrol showed up a half hour or so later. Apparently while the patrol car was sitting there a woman driving a jeep from the other direction drove off the road on the other side. The guy who was waiting in his pickup pulled her out. The semi driver was in the patrol car when the accident happened and we asked the semi driver what the patrol officer said as he never got out when the woman went into the ditch. Apparently the officer just looked over at the jeep and said "Dumbass" and went back to writing the semi driver a ticket.

The semi driver got a ticket for careless driving and a $85 fine and two points on his driver's license. He will also have to take a drug test. The driver is not sure he will have a job when he returns to Florida as his company fires employees when they get a certain number of points on their license.

I thought it was unfair to give the driver a ticket especially when the officer did nothing about the other woman who drove into the ditch.

After he finished with the semi driver the officer stopped at my house to make sure I had gotten the insurance information from the driver. Their patrol cars must run hot as I noticed after he left an area of partially melted snow where his car had sat. At the accident site later I noticed I could see a large area of the pavement where the patrol car had sat and melted the snow.

After noon a large tow truck came to get the truck up and out of the ditch. Once the first two truck driver got the site prepared a second large tow truck came as it took two trucks to get the semi and trailer upright and out of the ditch. I asked the tow truck driver how much the truck cost. For accidents the rate is $275 an hour for each truck. For non-accidents it is $150 an hour. The rate for their smaller (normal) truck is $100 to pull a vehicle out.

It took two hours to get the truck upright and hauled off. During this time traffic had to turn around as they took up the entire road. Some vehicles waited but all eventually turned around due to the time it took. The tow truck drivers must have called the county as a snowplow came shortly before the semi was hauled off. The snowplow cleared the road of snow where the truck had its accident.

I noticed today, now that the snow has melted off the road, the two tow trucks had damaged the pavement as I see two large sections where the pavement was gouged and grooved.













Wednesday morning when I opened my curtains after getting up I saw the same large blue tow truck back again. Near the same spot - but on the other side of the road - a large garage truck had gone into the ditch. The garbage truck remained upright and it took only one tow truck to pull it out of the ditch.


Thursday I went for a bicycle ride of 3 miles now that the snow has mostly melted off the road. I seen indications in the snow where several other vehicles had gone off the road.