I looked up at the sky last night and saw glimpses of the full moon creeping behind the thick rain clouds, and I thought back to a month ago and the full moon I saw in Washington. It doesn't seem like we have done a lot since then, but we have experienced so many things and interacted with a variety of awesome and interesting people.
It's getting damn cold in Montana. Too cold for me and my joints. Too many aches in this kind of weather. Time to head south for the winter.
And now it's almost time to move on, to head onto the road again, racing the weather, on our way to the next stop; Kentucky.
Oct 2, 2009
Oct 1, 2009
Advice to my young cousin. . .
I was crocheting a hat yesterday, and I started thinking about my young cousin who I'm making the hat for. She's a teenager now and I started thinking of a list of advice that I would have given myself if I were that age again, such an old person thing to do hehe. But here's the list, I don't think I'll ever give it to her, what do you think about it?
Listen to the news.
Get out of the country as soon as you can.
Feel deeply the joys and heartaches of your life.
Don't worry.
Support your opinions with fact.
Read.
Learn to do something useful with your hands.
Follow your heart wherever it leads.
Meditate.
Remember: you can find a way to do anything you want to do.
Don't worry too much about your body.
Find and develop your style.
Be aware of why you react to things the way that you do.
If you don't like something about yourself, change it.
Don't worry about what others think of you, your opinion matters more than theirs.
Say "yes" to things more than "no".
Stay positive, life is too short to waste time being negative.
Do things that make you uncomfortable.
Get your heart good and broken, then learn from it and move on.
See music played live whenever you can, especially international music.
Talk to people, and decide what kind of company you want to keep.
Always be interested in the other side of an argument.
Change your mind.
and above all, enjoy your individuality.
Listen to the news.
Get out of the country as soon as you can.
Feel deeply the joys and heartaches of your life.
Don't worry.
Support your opinions with fact.
Read.
Learn to do something useful with your hands.
Follow your heart wherever it leads.
Meditate.
Remember: you can find a way to do anything you want to do.
Don't worry too much about your body.
Find and develop your style.
Be aware of why you react to things the way that you do.
If you don't like something about yourself, change it.
Don't worry about what others think of you, your opinion matters more than theirs.
Say "yes" to things more than "no".
Stay positive, life is too short to waste time being negative.
Do things that make you uncomfortable.
Get your heart good and broken, then learn from it and move on.
See music played live whenever you can, especially international music.
Talk to people, and decide what kind of company you want to keep.
Always be interested in the other side of an argument.
Change your mind.
and above all, enjoy your individuality.
Portraits
Man 1
Come see my room
full of elk
By the way
I have a job for you
And
why dont you stay
for dinner
Woman 1
Well here's a latte and a crepe for lunch
use my bathroom if you need a shower
You need to stop smoking
I remember when I was young
my parents smoked all the time
they rolled their own cigarettes
I think it's a disgusting habit
Well there's a long story behind why I started to smoke.
It's just disgusting and you shouldn't do it
Man 2
There're just gettin t' be too many laws
When I was young
you use t' get days off school for hunin
excused days
for hunin
and you use 't be able t' go way back in the hills
wherever you wanted
now they've got fences up
now I don't go to church
but when I go up in them hills there
that's my church
Man 3
Oh i'm alright
The cows are gettin through the fence
down there
an' I gotta go get em back
Come on Skeet!
Good boy!
Come see my room
full of elk
By the way
I have a job for you
And
why dont you stay
for dinner
Woman 1
Well here's a latte and a crepe for lunch
use my bathroom if you need a shower
You need to stop smoking
I remember when I was young
my parents smoked all the time
they rolled their own cigarettes
I think it's a disgusting habit
Well there's a long story behind why I started to smoke.
It's just disgusting and you shouldn't do it
Man 2
There're just gettin t' be too many laws
When I was young
you use t' get days off school for hunin
excused days
for hunin
and you use 't be able t' go way back in the hills
wherever you wanted
now they've got fences up
now I don't go to church
but when I go up in them hills there
that's my church
Man 3
Oh i'm alright
The cows are gettin through the fence
down there
an' I gotta go get em back
Come on Skeet!
Good boy!
Sep 29, 2009
"Alex"dote: 80's Rock
Never in my life have I heard as much non-essential 80's rock, as I have in Montana.
Sep 28, 2009
Pies, Guns n' Fun
Last night we had dinner with Kay, the lady Candice is working for. She cooked us Cajun chicken and bought chocolate pie for desert. It was all very tasty and we had a good night. When we got back to 'DA SLUM', we were chilling outside when something dawned on me:
This woman was the first person I had met since being in Montana that didn't own a rack of guns or kill and eat their own food.
Now, I'm all for people having guns.
Sorry, I mean I'm all for people with some kind of a brain, and/or a reasonable level of training, having guns to shoot things for a reason.
When we stopped at our first campsite in Oregon, we met the lovely old couple. Like so many aged American couples, they toured around their home state in an unnecessarily large RV, stopping at a campground and sitting there for a week, socializing with all the other old couples who are doing exactly the same thing. Every one of them I've come across have travelled around America, seen everything, etc, etc. In the middle of a conversation with this particular old guy about how excited I was about traveling and camping around the country, he informs me that dispersed campsites are dangerous places where everyone wants to rob you and he would never dream of staying at one [Note: this might have something to do with the fact that his giant fucking RV wouldn't fit there]. He always carries a shotgun with him when he drives because the beautiful country he was just raving about, is only filled with evil people who want to take everything from two old people pulling an RV. He continued to back this up with some kind of story where some time, some place someone of some color ALMOST robbed him when they looked at him in a funny way and he ALMOST had to pull out his gun, blah, blah, blah. He also said that even if he's in a state where his license isn't valid, he still carries his gun, for 'protection'.
There's no need to have a gun "to protect yourself". You don't need to protect yourself from evil criminals who don't live anywhere near you and aren't planning on stopping by to rob you, rape you or kill you. And do you really think having a gun hidden somewhere in a lock box will help you if they do come knocking? Oh please.
You are idiots. You should probably just dirty a bullet with your own simple brains.
I have a problem with all the older Republicans waving their .44's and screaming about their 'right to bear arms'. Really?! Have you actually read it?
Amendment #4: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
Meaning, in my mind, weapons for the armed forces, and the right for people to KEEP and bear their arms. This in a time when men needed to form militias to protect land, or were traveling in wagons (not RV's) and people out there were really trying to kill them.
I don't see you picking up your gun, joining the army and running off to find bin Laden, who you've also conveniently forgotten that you haven't found in your stupid "War on Terror".
How the living fuck to you have a war against a noun?
All the people I've met in York are Republican, own guns, shoot guns, and kill animals; which they subsequently eat. Game tastes damn good. However most people here kill their animals with a bow and arrow. They just sit in a tree, make a few sounds, wait for it to come along, then shoot it in the lungs.
I've met people here who are amazed there is so little gun crime in England, and that cops don't carry guns. I explain that if you don't let people have guns, less people have guns, therefore police don't need to protect themselves, and the public, with guns.
Like I say, I'm not against guns. Guns are fun.
This woman was the first person I had met since being in Montana that didn't own a rack of guns or kill and eat their own food.
Now, I'm all for people having guns.
Sorry, I mean I'm all for people with some kind of a brain, and/or a reasonable level of training, having guns to shoot things for a reason.
When we stopped at our first campsite in Oregon, we met the lovely old couple. Like so many aged American couples, they toured around their home state in an unnecessarily large RV, stopping at a campground and sitting there for a week, socializing with all the other old couples who are doing exactly the same thing. Every one of them I've come across have travelled around America, seen everything, etc, etc. In the middle of a conversation with this particular old guy about how excited I was about traveling and camping around the country, he informs me that dispersed campsites are dangerous places where everyone wants to rob you and he would never dream of staying at one [Note: this might have something to do with the fact that his giant fucking RV wouldn't fit there]. He always carries a shotgun with him when he drives because the beautiful country he was just raving about, is only filled with evil people who want to take everything from two old people pulling an RV. He continued to back this up with some kind of story where some time, some place someone of some color ALMOST robbed him when they looked at him in a funny way and he ALMOST had to pull out his gun, blah, blah, blah. He also said that even if he's in a state where his license isn't valid, he still carries his gun, for 'protection'.
There's no need to have a gun "to protect yourself". You don't need to protect yourself from evil criminals who don't live anywhere near you and aren't planning on stopping by to rob you, rape you or kill you. And do you really think having a gun hidden somewhere in a lock box will help you if they do come knocking? Oh please.
You are idiots. You should probably just dirty a bullet with your own simple brains.
I have a problem with all the older Republicans waving their .44's and screaming about their 'right to bear arms'. Really?! Have you actually read it?
Amendment #4: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
Meaning, in my mind, weapons for the armed forces, and the right for people to KEEP and bear their arms. This in a time when men needed to form militias to protect land, or were traveling in wagons (not RV's) and people out there were really trying to kill them.
I don't see you picking up your gun, joining the army and running off to find bin Laden, who you've also conveniently forgotten that you haven't found in your stupid "War on Terror".
How the living fuck to you have a war against a noun?
All the people I've met in York are Republican, own guns, shoot guns, and kill animals; which they subsequently eat. Game tastes damn good. However most people here kill their animals with a bow and arrow. They just sit in a tree, make a few sounds, wait for it to come along, then shoot it in the lungs.
I've met people here who are amazed there is so little gun crime in England, and that cops don't carry guns. I explain that if you don't let people have guns, less people have guns, therefore police don't need to protect themselves, and the public, with guns.
Like I say, I'm not against guns. Guns are fun.
Sep 27, 2009
Second Week In York
So, on Monday Bill informs me that Steve (the Elk man) wants to get in contact with us. As cell phone reception is non-existent in York, Steve leaves a message at the bar, they pass it on to Bill, who in turn is giving it to us. Steve needed us to stop over in the morning to split some wood for him, he said he'd treat us right if we could help him out.
So there we are at 8:30 in the morning, staring at a HUGE pile of tree (Steve cuts down the trees himself and splits them up to sell as fire wood). Thankfully he has a motorized splitter, thus removing the need for an axe, and a lot of the effort/work!
"Just work your way through towards the back," Steve says pointing at the pile of tree after showing us how to operate the splitter, "I've gotta go see a dog walking client, and then I've got another one this evening, so I like to eat around 4:30pm, I'll cook you dinner."
We wave goodbye to Steve and start to split up the wood. What looked like it would take a couple of hours, in fact took 7 (with breaks), but there was a mother fucking shit load of wood. Steve had said if we had any problems to go and talk to the neighbors, a nice old couple.
But, within an hour, the old guy had popped out to make sure we were OK, and the woman had brought us fresh baked muffins.
Fucking tasty fresh baked muffins.
Like I say though, we did manage to do nearly all of it before Steve returned. He told us to take a quick shower whilst he finished getting dinner ready. Dinner tonight was a kind of roast, but made with deer. It was fucking awesome!
White tail deer is my new favorite thing you can kill and eat.
Got to spend the rest of the week working on the cabin with Bill. This is really good work as it gives me a better idea of building a place when me and Candice get round to settling somewhere (see Candy blog: )
I've been insulating, paneling and trimming. I already know how to do these, but they're all good things to know how to do, and to see how people do differently. The cabin is coming along nicely, with only the kitchen and bathroom, plus a few smaller places, left to go. Then it's on to staining and varnishing. Should be completed by the end of next weekend.
Then, the weather starts to change for the worse, so who knows where the next story will come from...
So there we are at 8:30 in the morning, staring at a HUGE pile of tree (Steve cuts down the trees himself and splits them up to sell as fire wood). Thankfully he has a motorized splitter, thus removing the need for an axe, and a lot of the effort/work!
"Just work your way through towards the back," Steve says pointing at the pile of tree after showing us how to operate the splitter, "I've gotta go see a dog walking client, and then I've got another one this evening, so I like to eat around 4:30pm, I'll cook you dinner."
We wave goodbye to Steve and start to split up the wood. What looked like it would take a couple of hours, in fact took 7 (with breaks), but there was a mother fucking shit load of wood. Steve had said if we had any problems to go and talk to the neighbors, a nice old couple.
But, within an hour, the old guy had popped out to make sure we were OK, and the woman had brought us fresh baked muffins.
Fucking tasty fresh baked muffins.
Like I say though, we did manage to do nearly all of it before Steve returned. He told us to take a quick shower whilst he finished getting dinner ready. Dinner tonight was a kind of roast, but made with deer. It was fucking awesome!
White tail deer is my new favorite thing you can kill and eat.
Got to spend the rest of the week working on the cabin with Bill. This is really good work as it gives me a better idea of building a place when me and Candice get round to settling somewhere (see Candy blog: )
I've been insulating, paneling and trimming. I already know how to do these, but they're all good things to know how to do, and to see how people do differently. The cabin is coming along nicely, with only the kitchen and bathroom, plus a few smaller places, left to go. Then it's on to staining and varnishing. Should be completed by the end of next weekend.
Then, the weather starts to change for the worse, so who knows where the next story will come from...
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