WK's blog

back south for the winter

2009-09-15T08:49:00.002-04:00

Well life here in Molena was slow and lazy for the summer. The art / craft festival in Newnan, GA (Powers Festival) went fairly well. My booth site was uneven and I had to put wooden blocks under the display table to level everything. Saturday morning it sprinkled and I think that kept some people away. Even so Saturday was my best day. Then Sunday had more people but it was my worst day. All in all it was worth going to and I would go again next year if opportunity arises.

From Molena

my booth

From Molena

These folks were from South Caroilna and they made hand woven sweet grass baskets. This type of venue was not good for them. To me their product was very expensive. The basket in the forground with the fruit in it was marked at over a thousand dollars and the one in the backgroung with the wavey exterior was five hundred. The smallest baskets were $35.00

From Molena

I will be leaving Molena on September 19 for Loxahatchee and I will be taking two days to get there. I see no need to drive 10 hours straight through so I plan to take my own sweet time and arrive on Sunday.

I hope everyone out there is well and Happy as you can be in this economy. I’m Looking forward to seeing my friends in South Florida. This year will tell if I can survive selling jewelry at art fairs. I have at least twenty shows scheduled between the end of September 2009 and end of April 2010.

See ya soon
Ken

lazy crazy daze of summer

2009-08-05T18:11:00.002-04:00

Summer Time and the living is easy

My cousin Bill Shank and his wife Paula threw a Fourth of July party down at the pool. The weather cooperated and the guys put on a great fireworks show.

On July 19th I flew out of Atlanta to visit my daughter’s home in Darien, CT.

From Molena

My Flight leaving Georgia was the roughest that I have ever have been on. The turbulence lasted a good 30 minutes into the flight and I was still ill when I landed in White Plains, NY nearly one hour and thirty minutes later

The weather in Darien was great and we cooked outside Friday evening.

From Molena

The next day Dawn, Mike and I went to an art and craft show an hour or so north of Darien.

From Molena

Then we drove along the waterfront on our way to a rustic seafood restaurant.

From Molena

On Sunday Dawn and I went to an outdoor fine arts show that had some very interesting work.

From Molena

After lunch with Dawn she dropped me off at the airport for my flight back to Georgia. I got back home around 9:00pm. I had a great time except for the flight turbulence.

After a couple of days back I set up my new tent and display to give me experience setting it up.

From Molena

I set it up as if it were a show so that I know I have everything. Then I will load it into the truck and I will be ready for the first show in Newnan, GA (Powers crossing) on Labor Day weekend. It is a three day show Sat, Sun & Mon. Then my schedule is as follows.

Return to West Palm Beach on or about September 22, 2009. Then the shows start.

*Stuart, FL September 26 & 27
*Delray, FL October 3 & 4
*Coconut Creek, FL October 10 & 11
*Sarasota, FL October 17 & 18
*St. Petersburg, FL October 24 & 25
*Lauderdale by The Sea, FL October 31 & November 1
*Juno, FL November 14 & 15
West Palm Beach Gem Show November 21 & 22
*Delray Beach, FL December 26 & 27

* = website for thees shows http://www.artfestival.com/

That is everything that I have confirmed as of August 5, 2009. I have applied for more but have not received confirmation of acceptance.

Hope everyone is well. I am doing good. Hope to see you soon.

Ken

got to chatch up

2009-06-20T08:45:00.002-04:00

I am going to shorten the art show stuff because it’s boring and I need to get up to date with this blog.

I did OK at Delray, about average with the earlier shows. I decided that I needed an item that was lower cost. So Jo and I decided to make earrings that would sell from $15 to $25 per pair. The next show was Coral Springs, which is a larger show than the previous shows and is supposed to be higher end. I did pretty well there. What was most interesting was the percent breakdown of sales. 2% was angles and crosses, 8% was pendants, 15% was rings, 30% was bracelets, and the remaining 45% was earrings, which I would have missed if I hadn’t decided to make some for the show.

The Last show that I had entered for the season was over in Sarasota, in a little city called Siesta Key. Gross sales were about the same as Coral Springs there except that the earring sales were around 75%. I would have died at this show had it not been for the earrings. My E-Z UP display tent finally bit the dust. I had been holding it together with duct tape for the last two shows, so I tossed it into the dumpster as I left town.

All the shows now over I returned to my Aunt’s in Molena, GA. Set up my camper and relaxed for a few days.

From Molena

Then I assembled a portable garage to store some things that I didn’t think I needed to haul around in the truck or to bring back to Florida when I return in September.

From Molena

Before I left West Palm I developed a new friend who also does wire wrapped jewelry. She taught herself, which is an amazing feat if you ask me. She does excellent work, far better than me. Her name is Marilyn Hodges and she has a booth at Sailfish Harbor on Hutchison Island Thursday nights if you want to check her work out. The season starts around October I think. We have decided to share a booth at the West Palm Beach Gem and Mineral Society annual Gem show. Which is the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov 21, 22) for more info click http://www.gemandmineral.cc/ .

I have been cutting a bunch of cabochons in preparation for the show. I hope to have at least 300 cabs for the show. Some I have already photographed and put on my web site http://www.wilstones.com/ .

The weather has been nice up here. I spend my time reading, relaxing, cutting cabs, making more wire inventory and cutting grass. My aunt and her children have around 40 acres of land between them and I have been running the bush hog in the mornings and the evenings (to keep out of the heat of the day) for the past week, I still have some more to cut but I will take a break for awhile. Last week I was browsing through “Craig’s List” looking for another display tent and I found a good used one I liked in Atlanta and picked it up at a good price. I will take a photo of it when I practice setting it up and post it in the blog.

I am going to the Sweat family reunion June 19,20 & 21 in South Daytona. I’m looking forward to that. I think Ann & Candy will be there. Then in july My aunt and her family are doing a fourth cookout and festivities. On July 17 I am flying to Darien, CT. to visit Dawn and Mike in their new house for the weekend. My next scheduled show is in Stuart, FL on September 26 & 27. I have applied for a show in Newnan, GA on Labor Day weekend but I have not heard if I have been accepted or not.

Well that just about catches me up. On the next post I will list all of the shows I am accepted at and anything new that has happened in the interim.

Ken, Wil, gOOch, AV, William, dubyacay, Bill, and whatever else you want to call me.

I'm Back, maybe

2009-04-18T10:27:00.003-04:00

It’s been awhile. I have decided that life and the motivations of the human race is a far too complicated issue for my meager brain to indulge, so I am leaving the pontificating to those who probably have less capacity to unscramble that knot than I do.

Update 2008 / 2009 Loxahatchee, Florida

I arrived in Loxahatchee (West Palm Beach) FL around early December got with friends and family for Christmas. My Daughter notified me that she and her husband were coming to Florida around Christmas time and hoped we could get together. She also informed me that she was pregnant with twins. They never made it down to S.E. Florida due to complications in the pregnancy, which I plan to elaborate on in a future blog entry.

I was able to gain entry into two craft shows scheduled for January and February to sell my jewelry and gain experience into the art / craft fair business. There definitely has been a learning curve.

The first show in mid January was at Hollywood Beach. There seemed to be lots of people roaming the boardwalk but few were spending money, especially at my booth.

From jewelry

That weekend I netted about $300.00. That did not include the time spent there and driving to and from the event. I enjoyed myself as I interacted with the people and developed a sort of explanation of how my work evolved from rock right out of the ground to finished piece of natural art. My friend Joellen helped me set up my tent and display. Only a true friend, a guilty relative or a blackmail victim would get up at 5:00 am, drive 30 miles to assist someone in putting up a flimsy tent in 20 mph winds in the dark (pre DST). Fortunately my spot was somewhat shielded by a large building and the wind factor was greatly reduced. Jo stayed with me most of the day and came back Sunday afternoon to help and to assist in take down. Sure was nice having Jo there.

From jewelry

Gross sales were close to $600.00 I think I made about 2/3 of that on Sunday. According to experienced artists who have done many shows, Saturday is usually the best day and they also indicated that gross sales should be about ten times the entry fee during good economic times. My entry fee was $220.00. Still I was not too discouraged with the result considering the bad economy and all of the French Canadians. Plus jewelry is a luxury item even though my items were not high priced. My inventory consisted of about 60 pendants, 20 bracelets, 10 rings, and a few crosses. Joellen brought about ten pair of earrings that she had made. I think she sold two pair. The interesting part to me was that 9o% of sales was bracelets and rings. I did not sell one pendant. Pendants are what I enjoy making because I enjoy cutting the stones. The wire part is OK, but cutting a stone is like a mini treasure hunt, in that, you never know what you are going to find inside of a rock and bringing out the best in a stone takes skill. So between the two shows I made more bracelets and rings and tried to get into more shows.

From jewelry

The next show in mid February was in Weston Florida, a fairly affluent community due west of Ft Lauderdale International Airport. Jo again showed up at 5 am to help. I love that woman. I changed the display a little but it was basically the same as the Hollywood show. The results of the show were almost the same, the difference being I sold more on Saturday than I did in Hollywood, which had me thinking that this would be a better show. Sunday, however, sold less than Hollywood, each day was about $300.00 gross.

By this time I had heard from the show promoters that I had applied to, the problem was that entry deadlines were long past for many of the shows, so, of the 6 shows that I requested I was put on standby for 4 and was accepted for 2 one near Sarasota at the end of April (that the deadline had not passed) and one put on by the city of Hollywood called “Mardigras Fest and Fat Tuesdays”, a show that my new friend, Donna Wilson, warned me not to enter. But I had already paid my entry fee prior to her warning. I’m not going into detail about this 4 day event except to say, I GROSSED $230.00 and left Sunday night. I would have saved money if I had just forfeited the $400.00 entry fee. Donna is a long time veteran of art festivals and has taken me under her wing so to speak (she’s 4 ft and around 15 inches tall). She is guiding me to the best shows and has been suggesting different changes in my display.

The next show coming up was Sebring, it is just north of Lake Okeechobee on State Rd 27 I was “wait listed” for this show and there were no openings.

The next was Delray Beach, My friend Donna suggested I just show up and hope for a cancelation or hope they could find me a spot. So contacted the promoter and told him my plan and he said that it would be ok if I did that but he could not ensure that I would get a spot. Now, of all the different types of items sold at craft fairs and art shows artist who sell jewelry are in the greatest number. Therefore, when some asks you what your product is and you tell them they roll their eyes and say “not another one”.

I got to Delray just before 5 and the show director told me it would be at least 8 am before she would know anything. So I went to Duncan Donuts and got a dozen donuts and a “Box of Jo”, brought it back, wrote “HEALTH FOOD” on the donut box lid and passed out donuts and coffee to the crafters and made sure the director got some. (a bribe, I told her). When I ran out of donuts and coffee I still had a couple of hours to kill so I began helping the artist set up their tents. At a little after 8 the director came to me and said they had a spot. (the bribe had worked).

I will finish this tale in my next post in December. (a little joke)

I will get to it within a couple of weeks, promise.

Ken

Explanation of sorts

2009-02-06T10:43:00.002-05:00

Hey gang

I may have gone a little “Postal” on that last blog entry. Unfortunately I do believe that Man is, for the most part, arrogant, greedy and selfish. There are exceptions of course.

Jack Grove sent me an E-mail of an interview with a man known to the world as Pastor Rick Warren, Author of “A purpose driven life”. I have summarized from this article (which I will include excerpts in this posting) that the reason Man is arrogant, selfish and greedy, is because he is internally focused, which to me seems to be the natural condition of a sentient being. So the credo of Man would be “My life is about me”. Instead, as I understand Pastor Warren, Man’s life is best suited if the focus is externally, in other words, a focus on a man’s Purpose in life.

Quote PRW: “You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is, my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
What is the purpose of life? Life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one,or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making
your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

I am not trying to make this a religious argument, Your beliefs are yours and these are Pastor Warrens. To me it is very reasonable and logical that whatever I focus on, it is going to manifest it’s self in my life. (ie “The Secrete”) If I focus on my pain and problems, then pain and problems are what I get, if I focus on material wealth, fame and power, this is also what I get. These are internally focused events. That’s why Man (me) is arrogant, selfish and greedy. Man is unlikely to focus on anything other than himself and his loved ones. If he does focus on God it is to see himself as a “better” person. (Internally focused)

Quote PRW: "This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something
bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always
something good you can thank God for.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick,and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years
since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say,God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and
love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do."

That is what Pastor Rick and Kay Warren did.

Now, this is my point with this post. How many People that you know, would have done with the money earned from the book sales, that he and his wife did? How many people in the state of Florida do you think would do what they did? The United States, the world? Would YOU do what they did?

Nada, none, zip.

There aren’t nearly enough Rick and Kay Warrens in this world to make a difference. And I am not saying that if you are so inclined that it is not worth doing. I believe it is. But I doubt that I would actually do it.

One more point. Even though I am for environmental issues and I could ride a bicycle to the grocery store do you think I will? Would you? The earth will be overrun with human beings and its ecology will be destroyed in the next few hundred years. I see no way for it to survive other than for 80% of the human population should disappear. Even that is a short term delaying tatict.

I am not trying to bum every one out. I just think that if we (the human race) do not acknowledge the reality of the situation there is absolutely no hope of doing anything about it and other than this post I don’t think I will do anything about it either. So you see, I don’t believe Man will change even in the face of annihilation.

comments? khatch46@yahoo.com

AV

Happy days?

2009-02-02T10:29:00.002-05:00

I haven't made an entry in my blog since Cutter died, not sure what that's about. I have been busy getting ready for craft shows. I had one in January which I did ok at. Many of the participants indicated that it was a terrible show. Being my first, I have no idea if it was acceptable or not. I suspect not. I have three more scheduled in Feb. and I have applied for several more in Mar & Apr. I plan to stay in West Palm Beach until at least the end of April. I am not liking the traveling thing as much as I thought I would. It seems that I want to put down roots and not move for awhile. Anyway, all is as well as can be expected in this economy.

Hollywood Beach boardwalk, Florida Jan 17 & 18, 2009

My booth

I have really been an optimist for most of my life, but the older I get the more pessimistic I seem to be become, I am not sure if it is age or the stupidity and greed of mankind which conspire to bring me down. I used to believe in the inherent goodness of man. Now I not so sure, or maybe I am sure and that's the problem. However, I have discovered a solution to the Mexican immigration problem. Let them all come over but force them to join the army. Then invade Mexico and have no exit strategy.

I wish there were a happy pill we could take to become oblivious to this mess, but all the drugs I know of have worse side effects or would multiply the problems we all ready have. I would like to cheer you up, but I think am not going to be much help in that arena, because I only see things as getting worse, sorry. It would truly be a miracle if Obama or anyone could turn our economy and world image around.

A few of months back (I think before Obama was elected, not that it matters), I wrote down my current observations of Americans and the world populace in general, and they were not pretty, so I never posted it, nor have I shared it with anyone but one close friend. And since I am in a particularly morose mood today I thought I would share it with all.

The sky IS falling and it is going to flatten us.

We as a nation are not what we believe ourselves to be. We are like self delusional American Idol wannabees and when we are told we suck, we lash out at our detractors.

We see ourselves as strong, benevolent, honorable, when in reality we are fat, petty, arrogant, greedy and self righteous. When Bin Laden sucker punched us we took his bait hook line and sinker. When he scurried under a rock somewhere we lumbered after him and all who we perceived were of his ilk. Like a wounded elephant we expend our energy and resources in ablind rage, confirming to the world what assholes we really are. We stepped right into Bin Laden's trap and he is reveling in our stupidly. What's more unbelievable is that we are a giant waiting to be toppled, a cancerous carcass that doesn't know its dying.

Individually our greed has been like millions termites eating away at the foundational rules and regulations, all the while patting ourselves on the back that were able to circumvent the safeguards in place (the American way). We are sucking the earth's resources dry and to hell with the consequences. Then believing that we are fit and strong, we set out to right where we had been wronged, but in reality was we are old, fat and delusional. In our struggles we have begun to hemorrhage financially, a stroke will soon send us stumbling to our knees. Because we are so huge it will take a while for us to hit the ground, but don't kid yourselves it is coming up faster than you think. I don't see any way we can stop it because we can't repair damage that we don't allow ourselves to see. Even if we could see it, there isn't enough time.

As you may have summarized I have never been a proponent of this war, but if you think we have high unemployment now? Bring home the soldiers. We are in a cluster f**k of galactic proportions. You, I and George and deserve everything that is coming, but unfortunately we will skate away on death's wheels, our children and our children's children will pay the price. I can only pray that I am the delusional one.

So cheer up everything's fine, because if you don't acknowledge it, it doesn't exist.

Now for the bad news, the rest of the world is as bad or worse. Everyone is out to get as much as they can or at the very least hang onto whatever they have, including me. No one wants' to sacrifice and who can blame them, because that other asshole isn't going to give up anything. And those who perceive that they do not have anything (or enough) will kill you to get what you have.

The best line regarding human beings was in the movie the "Matrix" when agent Smith was explaining to Morpheus what he has discovered about humans.

"Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."

One thing agent smith missed in his analysis was, our obsession for more, man's GREED.

I know of only one way that the earth can be spared an early demise and that is if somehow 80% of the earth's population vanished. Me included.
AV

Rest easy friend

2008-11-25T11:19:00.002-05:00

Cutter did not wake up this morning. He had been struggling with his breathing this past week but not as bad as some other times. I was sort of surprised because yesterday his breathing was clear and he seemed pretty spry. We went for a short walk around noon yesterday and he was fine, however he was huffing and puffing by the time we returned. It has been cold here, but I do not think that was a contributing factor, because we stayed in the trailer until the warmer part of the day.
I’m going to miss him.

From cutter

(April 1 the day we left West Palm) Are you sure were doing the right thing dad?

From cutter

(North GA overlook) How many other dogs have been here?

From cutter

Must be Hundreds.

From cutter

Sleeping with his toy.

From cutter

So far it's been fun.

From cutter

I love this lady and she loves me.

From cutter

Having a gteat time, wish you were here.

From cutter

I had a good time and now its time to go.

For more Cutter pics click on any photo

I have been getting things ready for the trip south. Picking up and disassembling my equipment. I will spend Thanksgiving here and pull out on the third of December. I plan to make it a two day trip to West Palm Beach. I’m looking forward to seeing my friends, especially Joellen.

I have been accepted into two craft fairs, one in Hollywood in January and one in Weston in February. I will post the dates in a later blog entry.
I don’t feel much like writing right now, so I’m going to sign off for now.
Love you all
Ken

Slo Daz

2008-11-06T08:50:00.002-05:00

Well not much happening here in Georgia, Cutters health continues to vary, some days he’s good and some days not so much. On the good days we go walking. The trees are starting to change color and mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

From Year one October

It has been cool this past week, but not so much that I haven’t been able to stay warm. I went to a couple of craft shows (not as a vendor) just to see what is being presented. I spoke with several jewelry vendors and asked how sales were doing. Almost all responded not as good as last year but they said they are doing pretty good (paying the bills).

I have been working on a new bracelet design. One thing I noticed at the shows, was that most of the wire wrappers limited the number of designs on each type of product (bracelets, rings, pendants, etc.) to 4 or 5. Perhaps I should do the same, it is worth considering. My problem is I get bored with the same old thing and want to create something new.

Like I said nothing much happening here, will be in Florida early Dec.

Love ya
AV

First craft show

2008-10-20T10:48:00.002-04:00

Well I’m feeling well and Cutter seems to feel good as well. The other day he almost broke his neck trying to get out of the trailer to chase a cat, which was like Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show playing the old fireman coming to the rescue. Cutter never got close to the cat but he came back proud that he had chased it away.

I got my jewelry booth set and had my first show at the “Flint River Fall Festival” in Thomaston GA. on Saturday.

Here is my booth.

From Year one October

They had a pet show and neither of these cute little guys even placed.

From Year one October

There was a pretty good turn out,

From Year one October

but no one was buying. I sold $42.00 worth of merchandise. The space cost $30.00.
I was pretty disappointed, however this type of show is not really the venue for my jewelry. Most of the vendors were selling trinkets and junk. But they even said it was a poor show. Their highest priced items were around $25.00. Mine basically started at $30.oo. The next day, on Sunday, I visited a show in Concord GA. and the vendors there said they did very well on Saturday. I need to find more upscale shows. There are a bunch in Florida but the application process is pretty rigorous. I will keep trying and see what shakes out.

The temperature this morning 38 degrees, but the trailer was nice and warm with my little heater. The trailer is surprisingly well insulated. I’m not sure how cold it gets here in Oct / Nov but I think I can tuff it out until December when I head to Florida.

Hope things are good where you are.

Love ya
AV

Sicker than the dog

2008-10-05T09:31:00.002-04:00

I haven’t had a cold that consisted of more than the sniffles for one day in over ten years. Well I guess I paid for that luxury this past week.

Sunday (September 28) evening I felt a little off and I thought “am I coming down with a cold?”
Then Monday morning I felt fine and figured just a small glitch. By Monday afternoon I crawled into bed and didn’t get out until Thursday morning except to feed Cutter. I was miserable. By Thursday evening I was back in bed. Friday morning I managed to run to the store for provisions and slip back in bed. Saturday I felt pretty good in comparison and there was a craft fair nearby that I wanted to go to, so Sic Fiddy and I ran the twenty miles over to Gay, Georgia and checked out the “Cotton Pickin Fair”

From Year one October

It was pretty nice. Mostly down home country stuff. There were a couple of wire wrap jewelry makers that I checked out. Their stuff was much different than mine but it was interesting to see their work. I got back home a little after noon and slipped back into bed for the rest of the day. Today, (Sunday morning) I feel Blah, worn out, coughing with post nasal drip, bloated head and runny nose. This has got to end soon.

Cutter up date; Cutter seems like he is doing much better. He is getting up much quicker and has even chased a couple of squirrels. I may be down and out but he’s up and at’m.

The Jewelry web site that I mentioned was putting my stuff up is now up and running. Except that the shopping and purchase pages are not operational. But if you want to see it, the web address is http://www.magicalsilverjewelry.com/ . I think it is a beautiful site and I hope we move some jewelry through it. I am happy to be one of the artists on the site and I am honored to be grouped with artists so talented.

When I finish posting I’m going have a cup of chicken soup, lie down and read a book. This crap sucks.

AV

Long time no blog

2008-09-22T12:15:00.002-04:00

Sorry folks, but I just haven’t felt much like making any blog entries lately. The adventure has become somewhat of a bummer. First, I left Old Corundum Campground on September 12th and returned to my aunt Martha’s in Molena, GA. Not that aunt Martha’s is a bummer, there’s a hook-up here and plenty of room to set up my equipment, it’s just that the people at Old Corundum were fun to be around, I made some good friends and the girls on “Estrogen Hill” had adopted me as one of their own. (see definition of Estrogen Hill at end of this blog entry). It was just hard to leave, but with all the medical bills from the accident, (more reason to be bummed) I could no longer afford to pay for camping when I could stay at aunt Martha’s for the cost of electricity. I am welcomed here with open arms and Martha and my multitude of cousins and cousin-in-laws make for an enjoyable stay. The main reason for my bummerness is Cutter. He is getting less and less able to get up on his hind leg; he is in some pain and just scoots his butt across the ground. The part that really tears me up is that other than the physical stuff he is alert and full of joy. I took him to the Vet and he explained that his age and the heart worms are taking their toll and there is not much I can do about it. Cutter is also becoming more dependent on me and doesn’t want to let me out of his sight. I find myself getting angry at him; I want to yell at him to cut the crap and just get up and walk like a normal three legged dog, but instead I pet him and sit with him and talk stupid dog stuff to him. Several times I have had to pick him up and put him into the trailer because he could not navigate the ramp. It feels a lot like when my mom passed away, in that for a long time she was incapacitated and was in pain. By the time she did pass, it was almost a relief that the suffering had ended. It was several years before I was able to grieve her loss. Not that Cutter is as important to me as my mom, but he does mean allot. It’s just that I can foresee, in the not too distant future, that I am going to have to put him down and I am not looking forward to that. He is getting worse much faster than I had expected. This is also placing my own mortality smack in my face. Let’s just say I have been in better spaces.

On the bright side I am getting better and better doing my stone cutting and wire wrapping. I have created several new designs and modifications, which pleases me. Here are a few of the latest.

From Year one September 2008

I really love this piece. It is a piece of rare Tampa Bay Coral.. It's rare because it is currently illegal to harvest this stone from the bay because people were destroying the bay collecting it.

From Year one September 2008

Click on the above pic and you can see more close up's of the other pendants

I have recently negotiated with a couple of ladies in Lauderdale, who are assembling a website featuring several jewelry artists, to include my stuff. As soon as the site is operational I will inform you. They have already taken pictures of some of my stuff and now all I have to do is to write a brief “bio” with a photo and my part is done. I am struggling with the bio, sometimes I have difficulty tooting my own horn.

Soon I will have enough stuff to begin selling at craft and art venues. I will start with local, small town affairs and work my way up to larger art shows. I anticipate things to be rough, with the economy the way it is and jewelry not being an item of necessity, but if I can make this work enough to sustain myself it will be better than crawling around on the ground repairing lifts. I sold a fair amount of my pieces to the campers at Old Corundum, which was nice and it boosted my ego regarding the quality and marketability of my work.

I’m not going to promise, but I will try to make my entries a little more often than in recent weeks and I will keep you apprised of Cutter’s progress. That part will suck but I know you will want to know.

I ended up selling the trailer I bought, mainly to help pay the doctor bills. I really hated doing that but it was the best choice under the circumstances.

Good, bad or indifferent the adventure continues because none of us get out of here alive, not even dogs.

AV.

Estrogen Hill: Old Corundum Campground is basically divided into two areas. There is the main campground which contains at least fifty or more camp sites and then there is an area I call “Estrogen Hill” which is outside the main park and across Nickajack road. There are about nine or ten spaces up on the hill. While I was camped there the occupants of the hill were four single women and myself, (I was in heaven) thus the name Estrogen Hill.

Life and plans

2008-08-22T08:35:00.002-04:00

Sooner or later it happens to us all. We get old. That goes for dogs too. Cutter is definitely slowing down. When we first got to this campground about three month ago, when we went for walks we went for at least a mile sometimes two. Now we are lucky to make it a quarter of a mile. On really good days in the cool morning air we might make a half mile. I have learned to read Cutters body language and I can tell when he wants’ to head back, sometimes it is easy, he just lays down and watches me ride off in the distance other times he looks back to the campground, looks where we are headed, looks at me and looks back at the campground, subtle, huh. I am assuming that he is getting tired, it’s either that or he has decided that there aren’t enough smells in that direction to warrant the effort to head down that road. The Vet said that this heart worm thing would sap his energy and eventually take his life. The other day he could not get up on his rear leg and I had to lift his rear quarters so that he could walk. However sometimes I think he can’t get up because he doesn’t want to do what I want him to do. Increasingly, when I need to go off somewhere and I want him to go into the trailer he acts like he can’t get up the ramp. He makes this half assed effort and looks up at me with a “see I tried look” where I then grab his rear end and shove him up the ramp. You should see the look he gives me then. He looks fine, he eats well or it seems he does. He doesn’t look ill or anything but I think he will be lucky to make it till this time next year. Whatever is in store for he and I, it will have been the best the best dog relationship I have ever had. I don’t plan on getting another dog when he passes. So we enjoy what we have now and when the time comes, the time comes.

Tomorrow is my last wire wrap class. It has been fun and I think I have learned as much, if not more than my students.

I plan to leave the trailer here and run up to Columbus, OH and visit my friends Clyde and Claudia for a couple of days. Cutter and I will take a tent and a few necessities and camp in their back yard. I forgot that this weekend is a holiday weekend. I hope the gas prices keep everyone home so that I have no traffic to deal with. We can all dream.

After that I will return to Old Corundum and start organizing and packing the trailer and truck.

I got Sic Fiddy back and he runs just fine. He needs some minor repairs but other than that he’s good to go.

I signed up for a class on the 11th of September that teaches a new bezel forming technique. (a bezel is the thing that goes around a stone or other item that makes it so that it can be hung from a chain or mounted on a ring.) I have extended my stay just to take this class. It is unusual in that you solder the bezel while the stone is mounted in it. No other process does that. All other systems the bezel is made first and after everything is soldered and assembled the stone is inserted and the bezel is closed by pressing the metal around the stone.

The day following the class I plan to pull out of Old Corundum and head back down to Molina, GA and stay with my Aunt Martha and my cousins for awhile.

I am telling you all this because I may not have time to post another entry until I get to Molina. I have a lot of stuff to sort and pack. Some of the stuff I acquired with the rocks, I will store in the shed at my new trailer. The rest I will load into Cazee and Lyca.

Yesterday we had our monthly Pot-Luck dinner. It was fantastic as unusual. Everyone seemed to have a great time, even me.

AV

Healing well

2008-08-03T09:50:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone
I went to the Doctor on July 21 and he said I was healing remarkably well and I should be able to put some weight on the foot in 6 weeks or so. Well Doc, sorry to tell you, but I have already been hobbling around on it for three or four days now. Some how, during my stay in the hospitable, I got the impression that I was to stay off of it for two weeks, which by my calculations was five days before my appointment on the 21st. I asked him what damage I could do by putting weight on it and he said that it was just a precaution because I damaged some ligaments and they needed time to heal.

Now, everyone who knows me, knows that I always do what I’m told, right? RIGHT. So, since the leg has been feeling good, I’m thinking, I have been exercising the leg and ligaments by putting a little weight on them, it is probably much stronger than it would have been if I hadn’t and as a bonus it has healed faster. Therefore, I have continued to put more and more weight on it as I feel it can comfortably accept. Yesterday I bought a new pair of shoes and am hardly limping as I walk around the campground. This morning Cutter went for a walk and I rode “Mike the Bike”, instead of the little personal scooter that I have been using to walk Cutter. All in all the leg is feeling great. If I am on it too long I can feel the discomfort and I elevate it for 10 or 20 minutes or so and I’m good to go. It itches like crazy at times; fortunately I can pop off the ace bandage and scratch till my heart’s content. People around here can’t believe how fast my injury is recovering. I doubt if I will return to the doctor. He told me that some people have the screws removed after 4 to 6 months but more often than not they just leave them in and eventually they break off. I never thought to ask where they go after they break or if there will be any sharp edges to deal with. I guess I will cross that bridge later.

As I mentioned before, I was unable to be a vendor in the Gem and Rock show because of my leg (bummer), however I did go to the show and picked up a few tips on wire wrapping and a couple of items that I needed, I have been getting better and better on the wire wrapping.

This is a piece of Pietersite from Africa, it is a beautiful stone and the wire wrap is simple and elegant.

I have even done some very small opals.

Lots of people in the campground are bringing me stones to wrap and I am earning a few bucks that way. It’s been fun.

I have also been teaching about 12 of the ladies in the campground how to do wire wrapping. We have had 5 classes so far and this Monday we will be doing crosses.

These are two of thw crosses I make the both sell for the same price of $20.00 because the smaller on is so much harder to make.

I sold the bulk of my rocks to a rock vendor at the show. I lost a little on the transaction, but I kept some of the good stuff for myself to cut and polish, so I am happy with the deal. I sure didn’t want to lug around 4,000 lbs of rock.

Despite my injury I’m still having a great time. I plan on staying in Franklin until the end of August to complete my healing. From here I may go to Columbus, OH to see Clyde and Claudia or I might just return to my Aunt Martha’s in Molina GA. Not sure at this time.

Love you all

AV

Ps. I am getting your messages on the “Shout Box” but I can’t reply to them because I either don’t know how or it won’t let me. The best way to get me a message is through my e-mail dubyacay@gmail.com or khatch46@yahoo.com

Adventure unwanted

2008-07-17T14:13:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay.

Well it has been quite awhile since I have made a blog entry and I have a pretty good reason for the delay. On July first at ten thirty am I took a mountain curve a little too fast and Sic Fiddy and I ended up in a ditch. Sic Fiddy came out with a broken fender and a broken headlight bracket, I came out with a broken Fibula and a hyper extended shoulder. I was in the hospital for 4 nights and was released around 3 pm on Saturday. The fibula is the small leg bone that goes just below the knee down to the ankle on the outward side of the leg. Here is a picture of the leg skeleton and a picture of my repaired fibula. The x-ray is taken with my toes pointing at the camera.

At the first opportunity I contacted the Old Corundum campground and asked Ginger, another new friend, to look after Cutter while I was in the hospital. Unfortunately Cutter would not allow anyone to enter the trailer and he would not come out. So they left food and water just inside the door and left the door open so that he could come out to relive himself when he felt safe enough. He was scaired and wanted me to be there

Some new friends came all the way to Ashville from Franklin to pick me up on Saturday and had to wait two and one half hours for the people to check me out. But I finally got out of there and we made it home around three. Cutter was as glad to see me as I was to see him.

I am doing pretty well now I can get around with almost no pain and it looks like I am healing nicely. Everyone around the campground has been great. Ginger even washed and folded my dirty laundry last week. If anyone goes into town they are sure to stop by and ask if I need anything. All in all, the unwanted adventure has not been as bad as it could have been. I will not be able to be a vendor at the rock show because I am not capable of lifting the heavy containers. The people have refunded my deposit for the vendor space. I am not sure what I will do with the rocks now. I may store them at the new trailer and try again another year, but what I would like to do is sell the big rough stuff to a wholesale vendor and just keep the small stuff and some of the slabs.

Other than me healing and doing a lot of reading there isn’t much going on. The weather has been nice. There was a Victory battery powered personal scooter in the campground storage shed that someone left and Don (everyone calls him “Corn Bread”) drug it out and fixed it so that I could use it. It is great for walking Cutter and running down into the camp ground.
I have to go back to Asheville on the 21st to see the doctor and see what he has to say about my leg. I am feeling positive and it won’t be long before I am running around as I was before the accident.

AV

Blessings

2008-06-29T09:32:00.002-04:00

Forces beyond my comprehention.

I have debated with myself over the years, whether to reveal to the general populace my stories of coincidence, in that the odds of them actually happening are inconceivable. In the past I have chosen only my closest friends that know me well to tell these stories to because I have felt that most people who don’t know me would think I was an alien abductee. Whether you call it coincidence, universal karma, the force, the secret, a higher power or God, the result is the same, insanely impossible things transpire. I choose to call these blessing, God acting on my desires, hopes, wishes or needs.

These blessings have happen quite frequently over the years, some large some so small as to go unnoticed if I weren’t aware of the phenomena, and I only became aware of it and how often it was occurring around the age of thirty five. I do not plan to list and recount the multitude of these blessings here but the events of the last couple of weeks has lifted this issue to the forefront. Now, I want to be clear here, I’m not talking life changing events or miracles (even though the odds would be indicative of one). I’m talking everyday wants, desires and needs. So I will relate to you the last couple of blessings that God has bestowed upon me.

As you are aware I finally consummated the deal for the rocks with Mack and as we were standing there surveying the piles, I asked Mack if he knew of a rental storage place nearby that when I got the rocks were sorted and in containers that I could store them until the show. I also asked him if he knew of anyone who would slab up the rocks for a fee or if he knew anyone who might have a diamond slab saw for sale. He indicated that he knew nothing of slab saws nor where I might find one, but there is a small storage facility right down the road here. So I hopped on Sic Fiddy and motored down to the storage facility. There was no one in the rental office and the place looked deserted however the gate was open so I decided to cruise through the facility. As I rounded the end of a row of buildings there was a couple moving items from one storage unit into a larger storage unit and there, sitting in the smaller unit was I thought was a 12 inch diamond blade, auto feed, slab saw. Now in all my life, I have never actually seen a slab saw except in pictures in lapidary catalogues and the least expensive with manual feed were priced at around $2,000.00.

I asked the guy if that was a slab saw and he said “Yep, you wanna buy it?”

I told him that I would give him $300.00, and that’s how I came in possession of my twelve inch slab saw.

Thirty minutes before I had not thought about a slab saw and now my needs were met. They were the only people in the complex. There were there only for this one day and they were traveling out of state. They had arrived at the storage complex about twenty minutes before me and were going to be there for about four hours.

Cutter and I take walks at least twice a day and we have several different routes. On one of these routs is what appears to be an abandoned ramshackle trailer on a beautiful piece of property (I think about two acres) that borders the Cullasaga River for about 200 feet. I asked Mack about it and he knows the owners but was unwilling to give out much information. I really don’t have the finances to purchase a piece of property right now, but I was thinking “some day, down the road”, I might like to retire here and that property would be perfect. So I have been dwelling on it and casually asking around as to the location of the owners but not putting a lot of effort into it.

At this point I need to give you an overview of the Old Corundum RV Park. There are two sections, one is the main park where most of the residents live (around 50 trailers) and there is the section where I am up on the hill where there are 8 trailers. Lately, I have been working on getting ready for the show and have spent very little time in the main park. If I went down there twice a day that would be allot. It was around 5pm and I had not been down in the main park all day. I had just completed wire wrapping a stone for a friend of mine and was taking it down to him. On the way down I saw a Blondie talking another woman. Blondie had expressed an interest my wire wrapping so I stopped to show her the stone that I had done for John. She commented on how pretty it was and out of the blue asks if I wanted to buy a trailer. Apparently the lady with whom she was speaking was moving to Colorado and wanted to sell her trailer.

I told her that a guy up on the hill had offered to sell me his for $11,000.00 and she said “I’ll sell you mine for 3,500 dollars”.

I am the proud owner of a 2003 Forest River Sierra model 32’ with two power slide outs and all the amenities. I looked this trailer up on NADA and the used price ranged from $12,000 for low retail and $17,000 high retail. This trailer was sold new, pulled from the sales lot nearby, parked in the campground, where they built a big aluminum canopy over it to protect it from the sun and weather. It was as if God said, that trailer down the road is currently not available how about this one.

Of all the people in the camp ground, the unknown stranger with the three legged dog up on the hill who never comes down to the main park is offered this phenomenal bargain. Mack, the park owner, who usually gets these deals, passed by the two ladies twice while they were talking and never said a word to either one.

Blondie’s husband told me later, “If my wife had told me about it I would have bought the trailer”.

Marie, the lady who sold me the trailer, had only minutes before, arrived from Pennsylvania and had wandered into the campground to stretch her legs when she ran into Blondie.

So, to my son and daughter, friends and relatives if you can arrange a small vacation and you want to stay rent free at my summer home, (I won’t be in it) it will be available from around August 15th through October 31st, call me to confirm. Sleeps six, Queen Master bed.

love ya Dad, Ken, Bro, gOOch.

Approaching three months

2008-06-24T10:09:00.002-04:00

I know it is a cliché but, it seems like forever since I left my home in Lake Worth and began this adventure. There is a lot to be said for living with no agenda, no definite place I have to be and no specific time to be there. Not long term anyway. I still have to wash my clothes, cook my meals and get up every morning to a happy dog that wags his tail so hard it sounds like a demolition crew racing through the trailer. He keeps me moving, we walk a mile or two every morning and evening. I am half ashamed to tell you, I was really unsure whether I wanted to bring Cutter along on this adventure. Initially I had planned to go it alone but I could find no graceful way of dumping my friend and disappearing in to the sunset. Thank God for that. He has been my rock, my island of daily reality. Most people remember my name, but when someone is refreshing a friend’s memory they refer to me as “The guy with the three legged dog.” Additionally Cutter has become one of Franklin’s business leaders; here he is in front of his latest entrepreneurial endeavor.

North Georgia and Western North Carolina are beautiful this time of year. My friend Clyde call’s it God’s country. I am inclined to agree. Right now the temperatures are perfect. Low to mid sixty’s at night and mid to high seventies during most of the day, (when it is over 80, I nap). Things are very green. The kudzu has begun its futile campaign to cover the world, only to be eventually defeated by winters freeze.

Blackberries are starting to appear as bunches of little red nubs on the ends of the bush branches. Another month and they will be ripe and ready for the fool hardy picker who would challenge their thorns.

Almost everyone has their vegetable garden whether it is a small patch in the side yard or a acre out back of the barn.

Three months on the road and the lion’s share has been in the N. GA and W. NC area. Hence, through my astute powers of observation, I believe that I have become somewhat of an expert on the psyche of the rural mountain dweller. First and foremost they seem very friendly; they wave at you even if they have no earthly idea who you are. You could be Charles Manson and they would be waving and smiling as if you were their cousin that had been over for dinner the previously evening. On the road is where I notice the most difference between ruralites and city dwellers. One major difference is that they don’t seem to have any particular place to go and they have no particular time to be there. When following one who is planning to make a right turn, their turn signal goes on three miles before the planned turn and a gradual deceleration begins until they reach their turning point where they almost come to a stop as the make their turn. Another asphalt related occurrence is that even if they have the right of way and you are waiting for them to pass you from the opposite direction so that you can make your left hand turn, they stop and wave you in front of them. This habit is very disconcerting, in that, not everyone out here adheres to this policy, thus contributing to a substantial amount of indecision, which by the way, is another apparent rural trait. Even though they seem friendly enough I have noticed that they appear have a secret plot to take over the world. You see, they are multiplying. In the local Wal-Mart it is rare that you don’t see a female of breeding age that is not pulling one, pushing one and cooking one. Hell I hope they succeed, they can’t do worse and a little friendly wave now and then couldn’t hurt. However a lot of them do have guns.

AV

Treasure!!! Treasure... Treasure???

2008-06-19T10:21:00.002-04:00

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Leaving Sundowner RV Village and arrived back at Old Corundum Campground to try to make a deal with Mack (the campground owner) for his rocks. I had called him in advance to let him know so he could be prepared. As you may know I tried to cut a deal with him before I left for school but he would not commit. I had decided that I would give him 5 days to make a decision. If we could not make an agreement before Wednesday then I would head to Columbus, OH where my friends Clyde and Claudia live and I thought I would hang with them for awhile. So I arrive Saturday Morning, Mack is out of town and won’t be back until that evening. I set up Cazee and prepare to stay for a couple of days.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Monday noon and still no sign of Mack. I heard he was back but I haven’t seen him but he knows I’m here and where I am, so I go looking for him. I finally found him jawing with another camper that was getting his air conditioner fixed. I semi-confronted him and told him that to show me where the rocks were and I would pull them out myself, that he would not have to do a thing. He tried to put me off till the morning when it was cooler but I insisted that it was now or never and he relented. I spent the next five hours clearing out his shed and dragging boxes and bins of rocks along with cabinets golf clubs fishing poles and God knows what else out of his shed. The cool thing was, I had fun doing it, plus it was great exercise. As I was finishing up Mack wandered by and I asked him how much he wanted for the whole lot of rocks. He refused to give me a figure so finally I made him an offer, and he said “I’ll think about it”, and walks away.

Let me take a minute here to let you know that Mack is a friendly, kind, caring and fairly generous Christian man. I like Mack a lot, as do most people who meet him. There is however, this side of him, the indecisive, inconsiderate side, which makes dealing with him on matters of personal and fairly unique decisions, very frustrating and personally offensive.

So here I am, Tuesday, all day no sign of Mack, Wednesday noon, my deadline day, no Mack. By this time I am so disgusted that I am thinking that I don’t even want the rocks anymore. Maybe I will just buy a few from him and he can do whatever he wants with the rest. So I went to his house and when he comes out he claims he has been looking for me since yesterday. Now I don’t wander too far from my camper and if he was looking for me he was looking at someone else’s camp spot. He agreed to my offer and I accepted. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Now since the decision has been made Mack is as helpful and generous as can be. He told me to load the front end of the tractor up with the boxes and bins of rocks and he would bring them down to my camp spot so that I could identify and sort them.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

One week, one day and six tractor buckets later I am busting my butt sorting cutting and identifying (as best I can) approximately 4000 pounds of rock. Now I hear you. What in the hell does he need with 4000 pounds of rock, and how will he haul that around with him throughout the USA?

Well here’s my plan. On July 23 there is another (bigger) gem, rock & mineral show here in Franklin. I have purchased a spot to sell my stuff at one of the venues. In addition I will have Jo send me her jewelry, plus I will make as much wire jewelry as I can and cut up some of the rock into slabs. (They are easier to sell that way.) Whatever rocks I don’t sell, I will try to make a deal with a wholesaler for the remaining lot minus some premium stuff for me. Things rarely go as planned, but hey, this is an adventure right?

Here is my treasure.

On the left is a bucket of slabs that I have already cut up.

This stuff is sorted

This is stuff left to be cut and sorted

The red bin on the right is 60 pounds of Rose Quartz

These are several sorted boxes of nice rock

This is what a rock looks like before I slab it. This is a 8 pound piece of picture Jasper. it is about 6 inches in diameter

This is the 12 inch self feed diamond saw that I cut it up in.

This is what it looks like aftre I slab it. These are 1/4 inch thick slabs sliced iff of the rock.

And the adventure continues.

AV

Last week at WHS

2008-06-08T22:29:00.002-04:00

Last week of school. The blooms have all fallen off of the blackberry bushed and the honeysuckle is so pungent that you would think you were in a perfume factory. The temprature is on the low side of 90 degrees. Hot, hot, hot. It sure has been great taking classes at William Holland School for the Lapidary arts. This week, as in other weeks, there have been some fun people here at the school. Two guys from Kentucky kept the fused glass class howling. One morning they came down to the cafeteria and placed their right forefinger and thumb on their forehead depicting the classic “looser” symbol and cheerily greeted everyone with “Greetings fellow Lapidarians” I highly recommend this school for your next vacation. Where could you possibly go and for around $500.00, learn a craft, get fed three country meals a day, 6 nights lodging, develop a truck load of new friends and have a ball doing it? Can’t be done.

I had Silver 1 class this week and it seemed like it might be a little slow going, but in no time I convinced the teacher that I had abilities far superior to the average beginner that she pretty much cut me loose and let me do side projects as long as I did the class projects and kept up. One of the things that I wanted to do was to make a pendant that had the initials of the school "William Holland School" (WHS) out if silver and donate it to the school for their Tuesday night auction. It was a challenging project in that each stroke of the letters were individual pieces that had to be soldered together then mounted into the pendant oval. I ended up making two of them one slightly larger than the other just in time for the auction.

The larger one sold for $35.00 and the smaller sold for $45.00. Needless to say I was quite surprised that they sold at such a high price and the same person ended buying both of them. The man who bought them was a teacher at the school and I wondered why he was so anxious to get the pendants. I thought it was because he wanted to support the school and have an item with the school’s initials. Later I found out the real reason. This gentleman grew up during the WWII, all kinds of things were rationed and in short supply. Metal of all types were hard to get and his high school class did not have an opportunity to get class rings or for that matter any school memento other than his certificate of graduation. The name of his school was “Woodstock High School” (WHS).

Earlier I mentioned the Fused Glass class. They produced an obscene quanity of beautiful projects. here are four of the seven student's work.

Wire 1 did a good job too.

Wire 2 class seemed to lack focus, but the work was first class

Cabochons was well represented

Chain class had some very unique projects

Glass beads had a very interesting project in addition to making their normal amount of fantastic beads. Each student was to find a photograph and make a bead that blended or represented that photo. I was impressed with their results.
I'm noy sure if you can see it but sitting in the middle of the photo is a bead that almost blends with the picture.

There were two new classes that have not been represented on my blog they are “Polymer Clay” and “Intarsia” Polymer clay is a plastic clay that is worked much like clay or play dough then baked at low temperatures. I realy had little knowledge of this craft but I was impressed with their projects.

Intarsia is a class that I want to take some day. It is the precision assembling of small pieces of stone, wood, metal and almost any other durable product into a small display, ie. pendant, pin, ring, plak or almost any thing you can come up with. It is like a mini puzzle. Some are way cool.

These pieces are assembled but not cut and polished

Then there is our Silver 1 class

These are my projects close up.

And this was my favorite. It was more difficult to make than it should have been because I did not have any flat silver that was wide enough so I had to solder two pieces together and at the same time incorporate the round 10 gauge wire down the middle. The decorative wrapping is 14 gauge sterling wire. I am pleased with the result.

This morning I sat down and played with some 21 gauge, square, half hard, copper wire and knocked out these

I left Sundowner RV Park Saturday Morning and went back to Franklin NC to see if I could make a deal with the Old Corundum campground owner for some rocks that he said he wanted to sell. I will get with him Monday and see what I can do.

Till then. Wear fins

AV

Wire 1 class three of four

2008-05-31T11:05:00.002-04:00

May 25 through 31, 2008
Well gang, Wire 1 class was excellent. I improved my skills substantially and I am very happy with the results of my efforts for the week. Nothing special happened this week. It was just go to school, or what I am now calling geriatric summer camp, as 90% of the participants are over the age of 60, but they are all young at heart.

Here is a photo of my class

The school did not have as many students this week as they had the previous week. Several classrooms were empty I do not know whether it was due to lack of teachers or lack of students. Next week will be my last week here and then I move on. I still have not decided where I will move on to but move I must.

Here are the class show and tell projects for this week

These next to shots are of the wire sculpture class. they got a ton of projects done this week, with only three people.

This is the "Gem Tree" class it had one student.

This is the "Glass Fusing" class. They got a bunch of stuff done too.

the rest if the "Glass Fusing" class.

This is the "Silver 2" class they did some great work.

This silver feather braclet is fantastic.

This lady did a great job in the "Chain" Making class

Aparently there was only one student in "Lampwork Beads"

This is the "Opals" class

here's "Cabachons"

And our class of "Wire 1"

Here are the close up’s of my work

This afternoon Sic Fiddy has an appointment for his 600 mile break-in check up. I haven’t been able to run his engine over 4000 rpm during the break-in period which has been fine. 4000 rpm = aprox 55 mph so that has been plenty for me, However I am glad to get the break-in service out of the way. Sic Fiddy has been great running to the store and to school. He is saving me a bunch on gas. The worst thing has been running 55 down Georgia back roads at 8am when the temperature is a brisk 42 degrees. This has a tendency to wake a guy up real quick and brisk is a bit of an understatement. Fortunately I have not had to ride in the rain either way, as I make two trips a day, one in the morning and one at noon. I put more miles in one month on Sic Fiddy than the three previous months I have had him.

Got to get ready for our appointment, see ya.
AV

Jo goes, Opals begin

2008-05-23T19:35:00.002-04:00

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I tried to get Jo to call her boss and tell her that she broke her leg and could not return to work for at least another couple of weeks, but she said she couldn’t. We left for the Ashville airport at 7:30 am to catch a noon flight. I had estimated approximately a three hour drive; we made it in two and a half. Jo did not want to take any chances of missing her flight. I don’t blame her, I hate to be late for anything too and if you miss a flight out here in the boonies, you might not get another for several days. We hugged and said our goodbye’s and I drove away. It sure was nice having Jo spend the week with me but now it’s over and I get to sleep in my own bed.

Sunday night is orientation and sign in night at William Holland School and this is week is my highly anticipated class “Opal Cutting”. I got to the school around 5:30 and signed in, sat down and started taking to a lady from Kentucky. She had one of those slow southern drawls that makes you want to finish her sentences, about that time, all hell broke loose in the cafeteria. I thought it was one of those old time church revivals, what, with all that holler’en and scream’en a go’en on. (I’m even talking like that Kentucky woman.) Apparently, six long lost women found each other at that very moment in time and weren’t shy about letting the world know about it. I told them that they were having entirely too much fun and that they would have to leave. They collectively boo’ed me and invited me to sit with them. Since I had already sat down with the K-e-n-t-u-c-k-y lady I felt it would have been rude to change seats, so I told them that I was afraid to get too close to that much estrogen. I said, I thought that it might rip the space-time continuum and suck me into an alternate parallel universe where women ruled the world. One very quick rabble rouser shot back "As if we don't rule the world here", and we all laughed at that. I labeled them “trouble” and we kidded around with each other during the week. I didn’t see a lot of them as they were staying at the school and I wasn’t, but it was a nice diversion. There are pictures of them on the “Web album” I don’t even remember all of their names. (just click on any pic in the blog and then click on album)

Monday - Friday May 18 – 23, 2008

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I will say it was a great class and I got to cut a maximum amount of stones. The teacher said that for a beginner that I was very good, my stones were smooth and scratch free with just the right amount of crown and girdle for the stone selected. However, he said that I was a little heavy handed. Which means: I am impatient and perhaps might cut away some of the color in order to uncover the treasure too quickly. I agreed with his assessment.

This is the Opals class projects. My opals are on the right side of the photo. 21 in all.

Here are a few of the individual stones I cut. (More pics are on the “web album”).

This is a fossil shell that opal replaced the shell. I left it in it's origional shape and just smoothed and polished it. It was one of the nicest stones in the class.

The instructor had an opal evaluation program on his computer and we entered this next stones characteristics (fire, pattern, clarity, etc. anout ten in all) and it said it should retail for around $3,000.00 dollars. I don't think so. I maean it's pretty but there is no way someone would pay that much for it. It is hard to get the real fire in a picture. It is concidered a predominately green and purple multi color crystal stone with a broad flash pattern. It is 8mm wide X 16mm long and weighs 5.5 ct.

I love this next stone. It is an Ethiopian opal and has a very rare ribbon pattern with lots of fire and color. Ethiopian opal is uausally too dark to see much fire but this stone is a special one.

I also got pictures of the other class projects here are some of the best.

This is the Glass Fusing class. I would like to try this stuff it looks fun.

This is the Wire wrap 1 class for this week. I think they did better and more complicated projects than we did. I was supposed to have Wire II next week but the teacher canceled so they had to put me in Wire I. Which is this teacher. I am looking forward to her class.

This is the Chain making class. It is amazing that they assemble these chains with one conecting ring at a time. This is another cool class. I just don't have the time or money to take them all.

This is one of the Cabachon class'es projects. he seems pretty good. I thought he had the best stuff in this class. I thought I would need to take a Cab class but I think I have the hang of it and can get better with practice on my own.

This is the Silver I class. I will be taking this in my last week.

Well I'm finally caught up on the blog but classes take up much time and I'm sure I will fall behind again, but I will eventually get it all down.

See Ya'

AV

School Days

2008-05-22T08:02:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

It rained again last night and somehow one of the windows leaked and got Jo’s bed wet, so she moved to the couch after soaking up as much water as she could. I couldn’t find a specific reason for the leak so I covered the entire window with plastic film and I will wait until it rains again and see if it is indeed the window that is leaking. Fortunately it looks like it’s going to be a nice sunny day so I pulled the mattress out of the camper to let it dry while we are at school. When we returned at lunch time to walk Cutter they were almost completely dry.

Class was nice today we made a ring in the morning and a bracelet in the afternoon. I will have pictures of all our stuff at weeks end. Every Tuesday evening the school holds an auction of donated items to make extra money. The school is non-proffit and all donations are accepeted. If you would like to send an item for auction the address is

William Holden Retreat
230 Lapidary Ln (or) PO Box 980
Young Harris, GA. 30582
Identify the item as “For Auction”. I am sure they will appreciate it.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Today we made another bracelet and a pendant Jo’s getting the hang of it and I am exploring alternate designs.

We only have class for half a day today so we are going to go to the grocery and pick up some extra items and eat at a bar-b-que that we saw last time we were in town called “Rib Country” I will let you know how it is.

Wow, best bar-b-que I have ever had. If you are ever in Hayesville, NC on highway 69 check it out.

Cooking is not something I look forward to doing; however I have worked out a system of sorts that lets me keep my stove time to a minimum. I grill anywhere from 5 t0 8 items on the grill at one grilling and bag them up to use in salads and other concoctions during the week. That way I only end up slaving over the hot grill about twice a week.

Jo got a picture of Cutter and his toy early in the morning.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

We made another bracelet today and had the option of making whatever we wanted. I chose to make another bracelet and Jo chose a pendant. We are getting pretty good at this for beginners. I took a pendant and asked someone who was walking by to guess what it was and they guessed RIGHT!!!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Another half day of class today and then “Show & Tell” each class displays their projects in the cafeteria and everyone gets to see what everyone else did for the week. I was impressed by some of the work the other classes had done. Especially the glass & and chain classes. The fused glass was spectacular, the chains and other things that they made out of little silver rings was unreal. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of the other peoples stuff this week but I will next week.
Here is the stuff that Jo and I made.

This is what I made.

This is what Jo made.

Just Kidding

The stuff turned out pretty good didn't it.
If you want to see close ups and other pic's just click on any jewelery photo.

Got to go class starts in 20 min.
AV

Jo arrives

2008-05-17T19:36:00.002-04:00

Thusday, May 8, 2008
Well, I have chased Mack around for two days trying to get him to dag out the rocks that he said he would sell me and he keeps coming up with excuses and dragging his feet. I even offered to do all the work myself and he could just watch, but to no avail. I told him that if we couldn’t do it today then we could not do it at all because I had to pick up Jo tomorrow and then my schedule would be too hectic to even attempt the sale. So we came too an agreement that he would give me his cell number and I could call him in a couple of weeks and possibly set something up where we could make the exchange after I had finished with my classes. I am not holding out much hope but I will think it over and decide if I want to make some kind of deal.

Friday, May 9, 2008
I loaded up Sic Fiddy and his non motorized cousin, Bountain Mike, we call him “Mike the Bike”, on to their special carrier on the back of Cazee. I already have 90% of the truck and trailer packed up so tomorrow when Jo and I finish visiting the Rock and Gem show’s we can haul our bottoms out of here.

One of the agreements that Jo and I have is that I will sleep in a tent outside of the trailer. The reason for this arrangement is not what you might think. It is not a modesty or privacy issue it is a “sleep deprivation” issue. You see, I snore.

A couple of years ago I got together with a group of guys and went to this Dude Ranch kind of place in central Flotida. For sleeping accommodations they had bunkhouses that slept six persons. The first night the guy in the next bunk kept kicking my bed and waking me up. We were packed in this place pretty tight and I thought he was just a restless sleeper and that I would talk to him about it in the morning. His restlessness was not the problem. It was my snoring. Apparently I make noises that no human could possibly make. According to them I sounded like a cross between a small herd of asthmatic horses after a twenty mile run and the steam engine room of the SS Clermont. Therefore Jo’s in the camper I am in the tent. Earlier in the week I had set up the tent on the wooden deck, approximately thirty feet behind the camper. By the way, I highly recommend this tent; it is a “Eureka Apex XT” 2 man tent, it’s light, easy to assemble and waterproof, however if you plan to put 2 men in it they should be very small or lovers or both.

Around noon I left for the Asheville, N.C. airport via the interstate system to get Jo, who would arrive around 2pm. We connected as planed hugged and started off on out little adventure. It sure was great to see her again.
We decided to drive back on the “Blue Ridge Parkway” and were rewarded with some wonderful scenic views.

Jo was impressed with the Old Corundum campground as I gave her the tour. That evening we sat on the deck and relaxed, soaking up the mountain tranquility.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

It rained fairly hard last night and although the rain hitting the tent was quite noisy I stayed perfectly dry. Come morning the sun came out bright and cheery. Jo informed me that during lulls in the rain storm last night she could hear me snoring, even over the babbling stream and then still with the window closed. It such a joy having Jo visiting.

Around 10am we set off for the gem shows.

It was huge and it was a bit overwhelming at times. It was hard to get a handle on prices as one booth might charge less for one type of item and more for another than its neighboring booth. I had planned to purchase a better grade of opal than I already had but when I found out I was looking at between two thousand and five thousand dollars for the material they had, I decided that the 3 small bottles of opal that I had would be just fine for what I was doing. If things worked as planed I could always reconsider and contact the opal dealers at a later date.
Two and a half hours later we went for lunch and then to another show for another hour or so and decided that we had had enough.

We returned to OCM (Old Corundum Mill Campground) packed up, hitched up and hatted up to the Sundowner RV campground in Hayesvill NC.

The Sundowner RV Park is a rocks throw from Georgia and 6 miles from the William Holland School.

We are due at the school on Sunday sometime between 3pm and 6pm to sign in and have our get acquainted dinner with the staff and students. In the mean time it is time for me to erect my bedroom. Which, at Jo’s instruction, is approximately eighty to a hundred feet down the hill and into the woods.

The Temperature tonight is expected to be in the high thirties. Man it sure is good having her here sharing this adventure.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Another sunny and beautiful day and even though it got down to the low 40’s last night I was warm and snug in my sleeping bag and tent. We ran into Young Harris, GA for some supplies. Young Harris is about 5 times bigger than Molina GA but we still could not find a grocery or hardware store, so we ended up going to Hayesville, NC which is a teaming metropolis in comparison.

At 5 pm we left for the school and signed in. The meal was a good old country dinner of roast beef and potatoes, which was very good but did not go with my dietary plan. I will be eating most of my meals at home rather than at the school. Afterward we had our class orientation, which lasted later than we expected and we didn’t get home until 9ish.

Monday, May 12, 2008

William Holland School is a two story building built into the side of a small mountain in Northeastern Georgia. This picture is from the uphill side of the building and the second story is below ground on this side and exposed on the other side. The class rooms are on the bottom level and the Lodge or student sleeping quarters are upper level. That is what you are seeing in this photo.

Here is the mess hall. The meals looked good in that down home southern cooking sort of way.

First day of classes. The morning went well as we did several small projects that were fairly simple, but in the afternoon session, we had an earring project that had Jo in fits and she was ready to quit. I struggled with it a little bit but many of the concepts of wire wrapping are similar to other crafts and projects that I have done before, besides I’m just good. Jo finally got the hang of it but was not feeling good about her efforts.
Here is a picture of our class.

As you can see I am the only male in the class.

I have more to post but not enough time. see ya soon.
AV

One month OTR

2008-05-06T08:59:00.002-04:00

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Thirty one days on the road. It seems much longer than a month, since I left Lake Worth. Time seems slower for some reason. I suppose that is due to all of the new and different activities and locations that I am encountering. I like slow. Slow is a good thing. I liked living in Lake Worth, (I miss my warehouse) it’s just that for the last few years one day just seemed run into the next, then one day I woke up and I was old. What’s up with that? A body can’t sleep through the night without getting up 4 times to go to the bathroom. That’s another thing, now I never pass a restroom that I don’t do an internal check before moving on, and I can certainly no longer trust a fart to be just a fart.

A friend asked me yesterday if this traveling thing was all I had hoped it would be and it surprised me that the answer didn’t spring to my lips with an unequivocated, “Absolutely”. Like most things in life there is a lot of grey swirled in with the negro e blanco. For the most part I have purposely tried not to build up much expectation, a task which is all but impossible when turning your life upside down.

If I had to give the adventure a percentage rating at this point it would be 80% great and 20% not so great with a error figure of + or – 5%. I guess I am one of those people who focuses on the disappointments and tribulations in life when I would be much happier dwelling on how grateful I am that 80% of my adventure has been exceptional.

One of my goals on this journey has been to live life as it comes. Live in the “now” and not in the “past or future”. I seem to be struggling with that (sound fammilar). I occasionally wake up in the night thinking about the money currently going out, none coming in and only having a “hopeful” plan to alter that cash flow scenario. I knew starting out that I would not work to bring income in until after my classes at William Holland School. Waiting for my classes to start could also be why feel like I am circling the airport in a holding pattern. Of course that feeling comes from the book “Live Now, How it should be Done” by M. Payschent Mann.

So in keeping with focusing on the negative, the thing (other than the money) that I was most disappointed in is the “Treasure Factor” here in the Franklin area. It is was not what I had expected it would be. First I must explain “Treasure Factor”. “Treasure Factor” refers to the potential that exists of finding some treasure in any given location. I am not talking large financial gain here (although that would be cool). Treasure is a unique stone, an arrowhead, a civil war musket ball, a fossil, things to mark the adventure. I assumed, mountains, rocks and the “Gemstone Capitol”, would have a HIGH treasure potential, but as I mentioned in an earlier posting that the gemstone mines are pretty much a farce. Perhaps I need to alter my perception of “Treasure” to include the discovery of Highlands road, the waterfalls on the Cullasaja River and old Roy, the rock man, all pleasant treasures. Which reminds me; I need to get a picture of old Roy.

So far, I have to say, I like what I am doing, however I am almost certain when I have decided that I have seen all the things I want to see and done the things I want to do, I plan to get another warehouse / barn / shed. I just like making stuff.

Though cool at night, the last few days have been fantastic. I could not have asked for better weather, the mountain atmosphere and country attitude has been wonderful. (See, I can do positive stuff). People here actually slow down and wave at you when they pass, even if they have no idea who you are.

I will be picking Jo up in a few days and I am excited about that. It will be good to see her again. The Rock and Gem Show is this coming weekend. The end of this week will be a busy time. I will pick Jo up on Friday the 9th. Then on Saturday, break camp and all but connect Lyca to Cazee, hit the Gem show and then grab the trailer and drive down to the new camp site near Young Harris GA. Then we have Saturday evening and Sunday morning to set up the new camp site before we need to be at the school on Sunday afternoon.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Nothing much going on here, same old great weather, same old wonderful people, same old exquisite camp site.

I noticed yesterday, that the tents for the Rock and Gem show are being erected. I am really looking forward to the show, however Cutter, not so much. Rocks don’t have strong odors and they don’t digest well.

One of the ladies that has a permanent trailer site got Mack, the campground owner, to take his tractor and dump three buckets of dirt in her garden area yesterday. When I passed her trailer while walking Cutter, she was struggling to spread the piles out. I asked her if she would like me to help her but she said no, that she could handle it. When Cutter and I returned from the walk she had moved very little dirt and was sitting down mopping her brow. I put Cutter in the trailer and grabbed my shovel and within 20 minutes had the piles leveled inside the stone boarders that defined her planting area. It felt great to be able to help someone like that, plus it earned me a glass of lemonade and a pleasant conversation while making a new friend. What a cool treasure that was.

Many of the part time residence have not arrived for the summer yet. The trailer occupancy is about 20%. I have been told that many of them are rockhounds and some actually make a living doing the things I am aspiring to do. I hope some of them show up before I leave. There is one man, John Wilson that is here now, who does gem faceting (fa-cet-ing). Faceting is cutting a clear or colored gemstone with flat areas so that it reflects the light internally and makes the stone sparkle. Gemstones like diamonds and rubies, sapphires, amethyst, quartz, etc. Though interesting, for some reason faceting is not something that I desire to learn to do. When I told John about what my plans were and how I wanted to cut opals he informed me that he used to cut opals but he liked faceting so much that he rarely does any cabochon cutting more. Then he added that he had a bottle of rough opal that he would sell me if I wanted them (cheap). Wow, more treasure. They were pretty good stones too and they cost less than half of what I had previously purchased at the West Palm Beach Gem Show for the same quality and quantity of stones.

I showed them to Mack, the campground owner, and after looking at them he said that he had a bottle of opals somewhere and if he could find them he would sell them to me. Then one of the other men standing by said that they might be with that stuff that Bill left. It turns out that the “Bill” he was referring to was an avid rockhound who unexpectedly died a several years back and left Mack with the chore of disposing of his property. Among the items abandoned was a bunch of rough rocks, rock slabs, crystals, geodes, and who knew what else. Bing, bing, bing, treasure jackpot!!!! Mack said that they were buried in a shed and said he would try to drag them out if I was interested in them.

I said “Absolutely” trying not to show how excited I was.

Then one of the other guys said you have been saying that every year since you put them in there. I told Mack that I would bug him every time I saw him until he did it. He laughed and nodded, but made no further commitment.

I saw Mack this morning (Tuesday) and as promised I mentioned the rocks. He indicated that he would dig in the shed this afternoon. I offered my assistance and he said he would let me know. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

AV

Panthers WIN!!!

2008-04-30T18:47:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Franklin Panthers win 7 to 6

At 4:30pm it was 62 degrees but the wind was blowing about 15 to 20 which made things a little uncomfortable, but not enough to chase the fans away. By the time the game was over it was in the high fourtys and I was glad I brought my heavy winter coat rather than my leather jacket.

It was a good game the North Bucholm Blackhawks Struck first with 2 runs in the first inning. Then the Panthers came back in the third with a big inning and it was 5 to 2. The Blackhawks tied it in the 5th in inning and then in the last inning pulled ahead 6 to5. However the Panthers were the home team and were last to bat. They tied it with two outs and a runner on second. The last play was the best of the whole game. The batter hit a long ball to the gap in left center. All the guy on second had to do was to run home and Panthers win. Tonight things were not that easy. The runner on second missed the base as he rounded third and stopped to go back then decided for some reason to not go back and just go home. (I guess hoping nobody saw) Now, the left fielder who thought the game was lost began walking to get the ball and casually picked it up and began trotting in. The third base coach was yelling at the runner to go back to third. The runner halfway home turns around and hustles back to third. The coach sees that the fielder is just now picking up the ball sends the runner back home after he tags third. The fielder sees the runner take off and throws the ball in to the plate, but by that time the play wasn’t even close.

The Victors,

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

It got down to 35 degrees last night, but our little Quarts heater that Bobby Shank loaned us, kept us nice and toasty. Once the sun came out and the wind died down the temperature climbed to around 74. I cut a few more stones today and Cutter and I went for a long walk. It turned out to be a chamber of commerce day.

AV

Mountain Lake

2008-04-29T09:22:00.002-04:00

Monday, April 28, 2008

It rained pretty good last night and the temp dropped around 9am about 15 degrees. The river has risen about 8 to 10 inches. Nothing to worry about; however they were telling me about a night three years ago, after the tail end of a hurricane went through, the river rose 10 feet. Most of the campground was under four feet of water and several trailers were lost. A house that was upstream from the campground was washed into the river and 3 people died. I don’t have anything to worry about I’m a good 20 feet above the river so no matter how much it rains I will be high and dry. But it is interesting to see how much more powerful the river is today than yesterday. I wonder what the lower falls looks like today.

I decided to ride the back road up to the lake before it got any colder. It looks like the rain will not be an issue, the river has already started going down by Monday afternoon. The Back road, though pretty, is not as scenic as the Highlands road. The lake is nice, it's at an elevation of around 4000 feet. It was windy when I took these pictures. I bet it really looks nice when the water is glassy.

A valley on the back road was very impressive, but the picture does not give you the depth of the valley and the steepness of the hills.

Thursday, April 29, 2008
The temperature definitely dropped last night it was 38 degrees at 7am. And of course, Cutter needed to do some business with the local flora when we got up. So I rode my bike down to the local grassy strip with my buddy hopping behind me. He must have thought it was a little cool as well, because he wasted no time and was headed back to the trailer.

This evening, if it isn’t too cold, I had planned to go to the last game of the season for the Franklin Panthers High School baseball team. It is supposed to get colder tonight than it did last night, so we will see when the time comes. The Game is at 4:30pm and the temperature has normally been fairly warm in the early evening so I might take a chance.

AV

A Change in the weather

2008-04-27T11:16:00.002-04:00

Friday April 25, 2008
Sic Fiddy and I went back up Highlands Road to take some more pictures. The river that runs behind my campsite is the “Cullasaja” River (I have no idea how to pronounce it). It is the same river that the road borders up through the mountains. These first pictures show the winding road. I am not sure I would want to pull the trailer over this road. However there were several big trucks that passed me going the other way. But only one was a large trailer type truck and it was hauling logs.

The next picture is the lower Cullasaja Falls. It is the most spectacular of the three falls on the river.

This shot of Dry Falls (so named because you can walk under it and stay dry). It was closed for renovation if the parking facility. But I snuck down to the falls to take these pictures.

Then Sic Fiddy wanted to get under some falls so here he is at Bridal falls.

The loop under the falls was made so that cars could drive under it. However last year a big boulder fell down from there so they put barricades up to close it off. Which someone promptly removed. When Sic Fiddy and I arrived at Bridal falls there was a red Honda getting his picture taken under the falls.

These next shots are of the upper falls.

On the way up we saw a sign that said “Rock Shop” so when we came back down off of the mountain we stopped by Roy Jukes Rock Shop. Roy is older than most of the rocks in his shop, but he is still kickin. We got to talking about stones and he told me his favorite stone to cut was Opal. Cool Beans. We talked for quite awhile about cutting opals until Roy’s voice failed him. I told him about some Ethiopian Opals that I had and he wanted to see them. He showed me some he had but they were a lot different than the ones I had. I told him I would return tomorrow and show them to him. He said he would show me how to put a stone on a dopp stick.

Saturday, April 26, 2008
Went to Roy’s Rock shop and Gave him one of my uncut Ethiopian opals, he showed me how he does his dopping but he wasn’t feeling very well and we made it a short visit. He said I could come back Sunday afternoon if I wanted. I may stop by and see how he is feeling. I told him I would drop off some info on the Ethiopian Opals.
The weather is changing. It has been beautiful for the past 5 or 6 days. Today it rained in the afternoon. I checked the weather forecast and it is supposed to rain most of Sunday and Monday the temperature is supposed to drop into the mid thirties.

Sunday, April 27, 2008
The sky is overcast but it has not rained since yesterday. It is still very comfortable temperature wise. I had planned to run up the mountain to a lake high up on a back road with Sic Fiddy, but I hate riding in the rain. I don’t know if I can trust the rain to hold off while I ride up. We will see. I still have 12 days left to do it before I pick up Jo in Asheville.

AV

The road to Highlands

2008-04-24T15:16:00.002-04:00

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Cutter and I had to go to the bank and the closest Bank of America is in a little town called Highlands, NC. According to folks around here that is where the rich people live. Well we drove there today and the road to get there is one of the prettiest that I have seen so far. It is very narrow in places and you are hanging on the side of the mountain but the natural beauty is something else.

A small falls along Highway 64 / 28.

See the road in the upper left corner.

The city of Highlands itself is about as quaint as a small town can get. All of the stores have that country mountain look even the Ace Hardware has the down home look. The streets are neat and clean, no dilapidated buildings or anything in need of repair was evident.

The view of Highland City Limits coming from Franklin

Main street

Me and sic fiddy are going back on the road to Highlands tomorrow and take some more pictures. There were not many places where I could pull the truck over and stop without blocking the road.

PS. Happy Birthday to my seeester. (female sibling)

Good weather ahead

2008-04-23T19:54:00.002-04:00

Sunday, April 20, 2008
It’s 2:33 am and I am half asleep when I roll over and I glance out the window and a street light is shinning in my face. I think, “I don’t remember a street light outside the camper.” Then I’m thinking, “Wait a minute, that street light is over the river, oop’s, full moon”. The full moon is so bright it hurts my eyes to look at it. I would have gone outside and looked around except that it was 40 degrees. As beautiful as it was I closed the blinds and went back to sleep.

Later that day, when the sun had come up and the temperature had risen about 30 degrees, I drug out my lapidary tools (stone cutting and polishing equipment). This is the first time I have used this type of equipment and some of the classes that I am taking at William Holland School will use this kind if machinery.

Pixie Lapidary machine

10 inch Diamond saw

So I sorted through some of the stones that I brought with me and decided to practice, so that I would have some experience on it before I walk into the classroom. I cut these stones and have worked them up to the pre-polished stage.

The five across the bottom are opals. In the photo it's hard to see the fire in the stones, especially the dark ones.

I haven’t read the instructions so I am not sure about the polishing procedures, plus I have to put the cut stones on dopp sticks it make them more manageable for polishing. A dopp stick is a round wooden dowel that holds the stone on by the use of a hard wax that is melted and adheres the stone to the end. This is another procedure that I have never done, plus I don’t have the right type of alcohol to melt the wax with. I think I will wait to get to the school to do the dopp sticks and the polishing.

I am afraid that these stones show just how much of a novice I am at this endeavor. But a guy has to start somewhere. Besides I’m having fun. I have chosen fairly small inexpensive stones to start with. Pictures don’t show the true beauty of the stones but until they come up with a better process this is the best I can do. When you cut stone you have to run water over the wheels to keep the stone from building up too much heat and breaking. So when my fingers thaw out I will get on the computer and post this on my blog.

Monday, April 21, 2008
It is still too cold to lay on the ground and adjust Cazee’s brakes so I plan to take Sic Fiddy into town and pick up a few items then perhaps cut a couple of more stones later in the day.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Wow what a beautiful day, I mentioned earlier in my blog that the Dogwood trees are in bloom. Now the wild flowers are popping up all over and make wonderful splashes of color on the otherwise drab landscape.

Most of the trees are showing tiny bits of green but it will be several more weeks before they have enough foliage to affect the overall look of the stark landscape.

The weather has cooperated and it is sufficiently warm to allow me to comfortably crawl around on the ground and adjust Cazee’s brakes, which I completed around three this afternoon. Now I think Cazee will be able to help Lyca navigate down these treacherous slopes. I will test the brakes before deciding which rout to take back to Young Harris, GA. There is a longer route that does not have the steep climb and decent but it will add to the time and fuel expended. We will see how the trailer brakes perform then I will decide.

The afternoon was young so I cut a few more stones. These came out somewhat better than my earlier attempts.

I especially like the long angular one. The person who sold it to me said it was Hickoryite. I had never heard of this stone before so I looked it up on line. It goes by several other names, Wonderstone, Elixiriye and Rhyolite. I think it has some nice colors. It will be interesting to wire wrap this piece. I think it could make a really nice pendant.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Another great day, the temperature is supposed to get into the 80’s, but it still gets pretty cold at night, however all I have to do is close up and we are cozy.

Cutter and I went Gem Mining today. Cutter was the only one to find anything. He found a bunch of dog adoring gem mining families. I found zip. I’m not to impressed with the “MINING” operations here. They are not very productive and most of the mines salt there dirt. (Salting means; adding attractive, non local and virtually worthless stones to the piles of dirt, so that you actually get something when you sift through your bucket. They call it enriching.) I call it lame. However it was an enjoyable time at the mine, but I didn’t strike it rich. I guess I will have to rely on the Lottery. Now there is a real opportunity to strike it rich.

Right behind our camp site is a wooden deck that stands about 20 feet above the river and that is where cutter and I usually have our meals unless it is too cold.

We get great seats and we don’t even have to tip the may-tra-de (French, for head waiter guy).

AV

Off to Franklin NC

2008-04-19T18:04:00.002-04:00

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sic Fiddy and I went into Thomaston to pick a spare battery for my cell phone. The air was crisp and cold on my face, my jacket kept me warm, but my cheeks got numb. It was still a nice ride.
I cleaned up around Cazee and made preliminary preparations to break camp.

Thursday, April 17, 2008
Left Martha’s around 9am and headed north on 27 to Rome then 411 to the Zell Miller Pkwy (515) into Morganton where we camped at Whispering pines CG.

It is a fairly nice campground with all new electrical circuits and plumbing. The entrance road is steep, however it is paved. The campground boarders on a small picturesque stream.

Friday, April 18, 2008
The team continued on the north Zell Miller Pkwy into Young Harris, GA. We stopped at The William Holland School to drop off some donation items and to get my schedule straightened out. I checked out the camping facilities at the school and found them sparse and small. I may decide to camp somewhere local and commute to school.

Having finished my business at the school I continued north to Franklin NC. Along the way there were several scenic pull-offs, Cutter and I stopped so I could take in the exceptional sights and Cutter could take in the exceptional variety of smells from past animal visitors. You would think a dog would eventually run out of pee to mark territory with but Cutter seems to have a reserve tank hidden somewhere.

This drive proved to be the first test of Lyca’s ability to pull Cazee. The route that I chose included hwy 64 in North Carolina there is a section of this road that goes up and over a box canyon that ends in a mountain climb that took a lot of effort, often Lyca down shifted to work his way up the slope. At times we were in low gear, thirty miles an hour at 4000 rpm. Lyca stayed cool and though it was work, made it to the top. Once at the top we started coasting down the steep 8% grade. New problem, I found I had to keep riding the brakes to keep from gaining too much speed. Even though I had just replaced the brake pads on Cazee, I discovered yesterday that I had not adjusted them properly and they were only partially adding to the stopping power available, so Lyca was doing 90% of the work to retard what was becoming a 25,000 pound meteor. Lyca’s brakes were getting hot, to the point that I could smell them, luckily there was a pull-off and we stopped to cool down. Slowly pull-off by pull-off we worked out way down. At the first opportunity you can bet I will readjust Cazee’s brakes.
We pulled into Franklin about 1:00pm and checked into the Old Corundum Mill Campground. Where they put us next to the small river at what I felt was one of the most attractive sites that they had and the park was almost full.

It appears that most campers here park there trailers here year round and just come up during season, a vacation home of sorts.
Anyway it is beautiful here and I will be here three weeks, until May 11, when Jo will join me and we will go back to William Holland School. I may take a different route rather than hwy 64. I bet we used 5 gallons of gas getting up that hill. At today’s prices that’s almost twenty bucks.
There is one problem with this campsite, no cell or internet reception. My cousin Billy tried to call me but it was all broken up. I will go into Franklin tomorrow and see if I can find a signal booster. At the very least I will find a Wi-Fi connection and get my e-mail. I will probably be able to make calls from there also.
I purchased an antenna in Franklin and I am connected and back online even down in the hole where the Old Corundum campground is. I am posting this blog with the new antenna and my phone also works as long as it is connected to the antenna.
Later
AV

Lazy days at the Shank plantation

2008-04-14T17:20:00.002-04:00

I had complaints that my last blog post was out of order. It was not listed as last date first and I was not doing it right and that I needed to correct my next post. So here is the newest entry to the oldest entry.
Ps. You can click on any April Picture and go to the web photo album for April.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Well my aunt Martha returned from the hospital today, everyone is happy that she’s back, especially the animals.

The weather has gone from cold and sunshiny to cold, overcast with drizzle.

I signed up for another couple of classes at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts,
http://www.lapidaryschool.org/ this morning. So it looks like I am going to be in Franklin NC from April 19 through May 4th then back to Young Harris, GA to the lapidary school from May 5th through the 24th. They added a bunch of classes that they didn’t have when I signed up for the original class. One that I really wanted to get into had one opening left. It is “Cutting Opals”. Cutting gemstones has always been a craft that I have always wanted to do but until now I have never gotten around to it.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Following the storm a cold front went through and the temperature this morning is in the low 40’s and expected to drop another 10 degrees by Wednesday. I plan to leave here on Thursday morning and go in to even colder temperatures. I am breaking my base rule of “when it gets cold drive south”. The thing is that it is nice during the day when the sun is out. Temperatures run in the 60’s and with no wind the weather is almost perfect. Hopefully by the 19th when I arrive in Franklin NC the cold front will have moved on. I have to expect some cooler weather just as long it doesn’t last too long and it isn’t bitter cold. Cutter is lying on the floor shivering; I put a towel over him to help him retain heat. The main reason he is cold is that he wanted to go out at 5am and I just let him back in around 7. He has to learn to do his business quickly so I can let him back in before I fall back asleep. We will get it worked out. He’s stopped shivering already and is snoring.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Saturday morning and the weather has been great, until last night. My cousin Marty told me we were in for a big storm but it was more like a little shower where we were. TV radar did show a large storm passing through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia; some areas had high winds and tornado warnings.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Around noon, my cousin Marty (when we were kids we call her “sister” or “little Martha”)

asked me to help Martha into the car as she was feeling dizzy and was out of breath. Marty took her to the local clinic and later they took her to the hospital in Griffin GA. She had become dehydrated and had a light infection. She seems ok now but they are keeping her until Monday just to make sure and to run a few tests.

I went to Katie's, with most of the rest of the Shank clan, for dinner. Katie is one of Billy and Paula Shank's daughters.

Carter is Katie's son. Here he is hiding behind a glass of tea

Click on Carters picture and check out the rest of the crowd.
We all stayed after dinner and plade a card game called "Hand & Foot".

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Today I went into Thomaston GA. and got the window repaired. I had about an hour to kill while the guy cut and installed the glass in the frame, so I went to the Piggly Wiggly. For those of you who are not southern born, a Piggly Wiggly is a grocery store. I picked up some fresh produce, fruit and a couple of other items, and then I drove around town. I still had 40 minutes to kill. Thomaston is not very big, but it’s about 900 times bigger than Molena. Thomaston is a typical small Georgia town. Like most it has a town square that houses the local Government center.
Some have parks as the town square which is nice. Most small southern towns are of older construction (which I like) and most are in need of repair (which I don’t like). Much like the American infrastructure the small town is in need of repair at a time when its economy is struggling to survive. I have a feeling that I will discover that Georgia isn’t the only state where this phenomena is occurring.
I picked up the new window glass that he installed in to its frame and happily paid the man the $15.00 he requested, which to me was a bargain in anybody’s book. I returned to Martha’s and installed the window.

After posting this entry from newest to oldest I think it is more confusing and a pain in the neck to try to read, so regardless of the way it is SUPPOSED to be I am going to post oldest to newest if I have more than one entry in each post.
AV

Six days OTR (On The Road)

2008-04-08T08:30:00.002-04:00

Day two on the road (OTR)

April 2, 2008 Wednesday

I had planned to go to the Kennedy Space Center, then I found out it costs $38.00 and it takes all day. Well I wasn’t prepared to spend all day at the center and I wasn’t prepared to spend $38.00. Besides they have a negative entrance policy against the lupus race. And I was not going to leave Cutter in the Trailer all day, so I just drove buy and took this picture.

So, onward to South Daytona. I arrived at Lynn's around ten thirty and the managers of the park wanted me to park the trailer in the storage lot, which was no problem as they allowed me access to the trailer during daylight hours, besides there wasn’t much I needed to get out of Cazee anyway. I spent the next two days visiting relatives.

My step mom Lynn Hatch

Angie's mom Nancy Gaskins

My uncle Eddie Sweat (Mom's brother)

On Thursday evening we went to a Daytona Cubs AAA ball came. The Cubs were doing great until they changed pictures and they fell apart. They lost to the Milwaukee Manatees 8 to 6. I forgot to bring my camera again, so I took some pics with my cell phone. The problem with that is I haven’t figured out how to get them out of the phone and onto the computer.

Friday April 4, 2008
I said my goodbuys to Lynn and pulled out around seven thirty in the morning. I headed west across state road 44 towards Sanford FL where a friend of mine (Greg) lives with his cousin Linda and her husband Rick on the Wekiva River. It is a very scenic and tranquil location. I should have taken pictures but someone forgot the camera. I did take pictures of the camp ground (Wekiva Falls).

In it it’s hey day (Seventies) the spring was a very popular resort destination and the park grew quite large. They have over 600 RV sites with full hookup including grey & black waste water. The lady at the park said some investors have purchased the property and plan to upgrade. Right now there are a lot of people living in camper’s full time and some of them are in pretty poor condition. So some clean up is in order but that is also going to mean higher prices. The cost for a site is advertised at $18.00 but everything is extra. Electric $3.00, additional adult $6.00, child $3.oo, pet $300. Water and sewer did not cost extra. It is an OK spot but there are much better for the money.

My friend Greg Baumgardner

I met with my friend Greg and dropped off some stuff that he had stored at my house. It was good to see him again.

Saturday April 5, 2008
Greg took this picture of Cutter and me as we departed.

Our plan was to visit my cousin Rita and her husband Mike in Dade City and my other cousin Reba and her husband Phill in Brooksville, but I had called them yesterday and neither of them answered and when I called again today there was still no answer so I made the decision to shoot up the west coast of Florida on highway 19 and see if I could make it to Tallahassee. I was sure glad I had made the decision to not travel Interstate roads. There was hardly any traffic and often I was the only vehicle on the 4 lane divided highway. The speed limit was 65 mph and I really enjoyed the drive. We stopped every 50 or 60 miles to stretch and relieve ourselves. Cutter really seems to be enjoying the adventure so far. As we approached NW Florida the weather turned as a front moved across the state. By the time we hit Perry Florida it was pouring down rain and there were tornado warnings. I debated whether to go to Tallahassee or just run strait into Georgia until I found a nice camping spot. I decided that the weather made sightseeing in Tallahassee a pour choice at best so we continued north towards Albany GA. A few miles before Albany we spotted a nice little campground called Creekside and at a flat rate of $25.00 for overnight and full hookup including dump, elect, water and cable TV. They did not have Wi-Fi and my Verizon card would not connect in southwest GA. Cell phone reception was sketchy so I had to raise my antenna and stick my head outside to receive calls.
We drove a total of 317 miles this day. Four times the amount I said I would try to average. Even so, one of the goals of these adventures is to be flexible and adapt to the conditions.

Cutter and I went exploring and there actually is a creek at Creekside RV Park. A nice one too. On the way back to the campsite Cutter acted like he was having a hard time breathing. That was one of the symptoms of the heart worms that the Vet told me about. Another symptom is fatigue. He could have a heart attack or he could live several more years. I guess we will see, I am doing what I can. The treatment to kill the worms completely could kill him so I have elected to give him medication to keep them from getting worse but the damage that they have done can't be reversed. The breathing problem only lasted a few minutes but it was kind of scary. That is the first time that it has happened.

Sunday April 6, 2008
Pulled out of Creekside RV Park at 8:30 am and pointed Lyca North. Next stop, my cousin Angie Cobb and Mark, who lives in Seal Alabama, which is just SE of Columbus GA.

My cousin Angie

A couple of hours later and we arrived at her house. Parking was very tight and I broke a window on Cazee by hitting a Dogwood tree limb. The Dogwood are in bloom and when I hit it the pedals rained down like snow. A Dogwood in bloom is one of the most beautiful trees that I know of.

I put duct tape over the window and when I get to Aunt Martha’s in Molena GA I will fix it. We are heading over there tomorrow. Molena is about 50 miles N E of Columbus GA.

Monday April 7, 2008
We pulled out of Angie’s at around 8am and drove through Columbus missed a turn and quickly recovered. Arrived at Martha Shank’s around 10am or so. I plan to stay here a week, give or take a few days and sort some kinks out in the trailer and fix Cazee’s window. It has been hard to keep up the blog while on the road. Here I have a good internet connection and I have the time to catch up.

Till next post

AV

HTR Day has arrived

2008-04-01T18:00:00.002-04:00

And weeeerrrrrrrr OFF

The warehouse is empty, the trailer and truck are loaded, the only thing left is to drive out of here. It is 10am April first 2008.

Cutter has his own specially made perch that is more stable for him and gives him more room to lie down and sleep.

Cutter says look at me I get to go on the adventure too, but he seems to say it without much enthusiasm.

We made several stops to pick up last minute items as we exited West Palm Beach. We took Military Trail to Blue Heron then north on I-95 to Donald Ross Road east to US1. From there we drove US1 all the way to Melbourne and took 192 east to A1A. and ended up at the Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral http://www.jettypark.org/ .

Here is a map link to Jetty Park.
http://maps.google.com/maphp?tab=wl&q=jetty%20park%20campground.%20cape%20canaveral%2C%20FL

Cutter tried to breath in all the air from West Palm to Jetty Park by sticking his nose into the wind but he got tired and finally laid down.
It was a pleasant drive. The trailer feels heavy, probably due to all the crap I jammed into it. I can tell I am going to have to throw some ballast overboard eventually. A bunch will be removed in Georgia when we get to the lapidary school. I am bringing a bunch of items for them to auction off for the nonprofit school.

Here cutter is keeping a tree from falling over, you can't see the tree, but trust me, Cutter is doing a great job. Good Dog.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Kennedy Space Center first thing in the morning then hot foot it to South Daytona to visit family

All in all day one was pretty good

AV

Wedding pictures

2008-03-30T08:31:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post to link the wedding pictures to the blog for all to see.
just click on the photo and it will take you to the album.

Mr. & Mrs. Kornstein

Leaving for Stamford CT the wedding

2008-03-28T17:13:00.003-04:00

Wedding weekend

The day of my daut ers wedding.

Here I am in the airport in West Palm Beach.

The news for the past few days has been about all kinds of flight cancelations due to a wiring problem on a specific aircraft. Then on the way to the airport I hear about a plane making an emergency landing at West Palm International due to smoke in the cockpit. I have never liked to fly but I can do it if I have to, other than ear popping and the occasional queasiness feeling of motion sickness I do OK. It is just not my preferred mode of transportation. The skies are overcast and rain showers are blanketing the horizon.

I’ve seen better days to fly. I am here two hours early (hate to be late for anything) just to make sure that there are no problems and if there are, I can get them ironed out before departure. It would not do to miss my little girl's wedding. Julie Dawn Santini Hatch soon to be Julie Dawn Kornstein. Her man (Mike) is a great guy and I am happy we will be joining families. I had no doubt that she would choose a quality individual such as Mike. Dawn has been the daughter that every father wishes for. She was a joy to raise and no one could be happier than me with the success she has acheived in love and career.

Well I made it to Stamford, CT. The flight was great. We made fantastic time and landed about fifteen minutes early. Dawn was there to pick me up. We had a nice trip from White Plains, NY airport to Stamford where I tried on my tux. It fit great. Things could not be going better.

I will post the wedding pictures when I get them. I remembered to bring my camera this time and I plan to get a bunch of photos.

It is as overcast and dreary here as it was in Florida, only it's about 30 degrees cooler. (42 in White Plains, NY)

till next post
AV

Shanghaied by the bug

2008-03-23T05:50:00.003-04:00

Flue?
I haven’t had a cold or the flue in almost five years. The day I last posted I came down with a nasty little bugger that put me down for a couple of days, one of which I slept through. Which was sort of a good thing, in that, I have been getting up early and getting to bed late. I caught up on my sleep but it was a lousy way to do it. I still have a congested head and a little flem but I am back in form and time is short.

I have condensed some things that I had already pared down into smaller containers and compacted some other previously squished items into even smaller spaces. The kinetic energy now stored in Cazee could most likely get me to the moon and back if I could actually drive to the moon. The trick as I see it is to place the items where I can access them and still not have to take the trailer completely apart, IF I can remember where I put any specific item. I am labeling every container and drawer and I am planning on making a treasure map of the stuff if I have the time. I have disposed of almost everything non essential (by my criteria of course) and have had most of the debris and non essentials hauled off. Faith Farm is due to pick up the remaining items that O’l Bill (my Pleistocene era friend and neighbor) doesn’t want. The warehouse practically echoes now that all the stuff is gone.

No photos to day, to busy getting ready only 4 days until flying off to Connecticut and it has decided to rain for the last 24 hours. Can't load stuff in the rain.

Scrambling man.

Fifteen days

2008-03-17T11:12:00.001-04:00

Not much time left

When I was in the Army we had a term for soldiers that were near the end of their enlistment agreement or draft term. It was said that soldier was “SHORT”. Which meant that he would soon be a civilian. Well I’m short. I’m so short my feet are barely touching the ground. Only 11 days before I travel to Connecticut for my daughters wedding, and all the joy and happiness that it encompasses, then I return and start my new life as a full time RV’er. Another term we had in the military was for the career military man and that was “LIFE’er”. I think that term fits my new lifestyle although the meaning is totally different. In the military life’er is somewhat a derogatory term; however in my new context it embodies freedom and a new adventurous life. I’m probably blowing this whole event way out of proportion and reality most likely can’t possibly live up to the expectation, regardless I’m stoked.

I know it has been awhile since I last blogged and I sort of apologize for that. I say sort of, because it has been a hectic few weeks since I got on here and informed my admiring friends and family the boring details of my life. It suffices to say I have been getting ready to become a “LIFE’er”. I have been mostly getting rid of possessions and modifying Cazee and Lyca to meet my needs for the adventure. My possessions are down to the basic minimum raw materials that I still have to smelt down to their essence. Trim the fat so to speak. Speaking of fat I am down to 238 lbs. I got stuck on 244 for about three weeks and struggled with the new plan but I endured and things are good.

I got my family and friends together on the 2nd of March for a Bon Voyage swar’rey (French) I don’t have pics to show because I forgot to bring my camera to the party and my sister hasn’t sent me the ones she took (like she promised). So you will just have to imagine a bunch of people sitting around one of those Hibachi (ah la Beni Hona) grills having a good time.

I think that from now on the blog will be shorter but more and frequent in posting as HTR day draws near. I need to get into travel mode and I hope to be giving more of a running commentary of what I am doing, rather than what happened last week.

The team is ready for the most part and excited about the adventure. Which reminds me? I need your help. We have an unexpected new team member that I haven’t named yet. She came quite unexpectedly, in that; I had remembered that my friend Jim Guld mentioned a boat that many RV’ers had called “Porta Bote”. What is unique about this boat is that it folds up into a package about the size of a large surf board and can mount right to the side of the trailer. So I checked Craig’s list and sure enough there was one near Tampa Florida for sale at a good price. I had plan to run up there this past Friday and pick it up, but a fortunate turn of events kept me from having to do that. A guy in the Tampa area bought some of my heavier equipment on eBay and called to tell me he would be coming down to pick the stuff up on Thursday. So I asked him if he would mind stopping and grabbing the boat on the way down. I like it when a plan comes together. But she has no name. I need suggestions. You can leave them on the blog (be sure to include your name in the message), or send your ideas via e-mail to dubyacay@gmail.com

Cazee was so happy to hear about the boat as she was the only female on the team, now she has a girlfriend to commiserate with. If you want to see more about Porta Bote click this link. http://www.porta-bote.com/

Then I heard from Evan Kicker (everybody just calls him “Kicker”). He was residing in Coco Beach Florida and when he found out about the new boat he asked to come along and since he only weighs 35 pounds I agreed. Kicker is a 2 horse power Evinrude outboard motor that is in great shape and purrs like a kitten. Only don’t let him hear you say that, though he’s small, he sees himself as a tough guy.

This is “Jack”, another valuable team member. Such an odd name, huh.

There is also team member Sunny McJuice who is coming along. Sunny is a photovoltaic solar charging system for Cazee’s batteries. I don’t think he will get installed before we leave so we will mount him on the road, (well not on the road actually but on Cazee after we depart Lake Worth) which will be a fun project and good experience for me. Just another thing I can help other RV’ers with.

There is one other team member that I have not mentioned. He has been in the plan to go all along but I left him out until now because he is getting old and has some health issues. I just wasn’t positive that it would be a good idea to take him along unless I could resolve the problems he was having and I am happy to say that we have solved those issues and he is a solid member of the AV (Asphalt Vagabond) team. I am referring to my best bud “Cutter”. Cutter is my 11 year old Yellow Labrador. Most of you already know Cutter but for those of you who don’t, Cutter has been with me since he was 5 months old. At the age of two he got out and got hit by a car. The impact broke his right rear femur. We tried to save the leg but a combination of his youthful energy and my stupidly (If you want to hear the story and you have time, ask, I will be happy to tell it) we eventually had to amputate it, but don’t tell him it’s missing, because he still uses it to scratch with.

Well I think I got you caught up. Yesterday I replaced the bearings and brake shoes on Cazee and today I am going to install her brand new, super duty, nuclear, AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) batteries, (very expensive). If you want to know more about AGM batteries I have posted a small explanation at the bottom of this post.

I will post again with in the next two days. So, as my buddy Jack says, “Fair Winds” or if you are SCUBA diving, “Wear Fins”

238 lbs

Luv ya.

AGM, or Absorbed Glass Mat Batteries
A newer type of sealed battery uses "Absorbed Glass Mats", or AGM between the plates. This is a very fine fiber Boron-Silicate glass mat. These type of batteries have all the advantages of gelled, but can take much more abuse. We sell the Concorde (and Lifeline, made by Concorde) AGM batteries. These are also called "starved electrolyte", as the mat is about 95% saturated rather than fully soaked. That also means that they will not leak acid even if broken.
AGM batteries have several advantages over both gelled and flooded, at about the same cost as gelled:
Since all the electrolyte (acid) is contained in the glass mats, they cannot spill, even if broken. This also means that since they are non-hazardous, the shipping costs are lower. In addition, since there is no liquid to freeze and expand, they are practically immune from freezing damage.
Nearly all AGM batteries are "recombinant" - what that means is that the Oxygen and Hydrogen recombine INSIDE the battery. These use gas phase transfer of oxygen to the negative plates to recombine them back into water while charging and prevent the loss of water through electrolysis. The recombining is typically 99+% efficient, so almost no water is lost.
The charging voltages are the same as for any standard battery - no need for any special adjustments or problems with incompatible chargers or charge controls. And, since the internal resistance is extremely low, there is almost no heating of the battery even under heavy charge and discharge currents. The Concorde (and most AGM) batteries have no charge or discharge current limits.
AGM's have a very low self-discharge - from 1% to 3% per month is usual. This means that they can sit in storage for much longer periods without charging than standard batteries. The Concorde batteries can be almost fully recharged (95% or better) even after 30 days of being totally discharged.
AGM's do not have any liquid to spill, and even under severe overcharge conditions hydrogen emission is far below the 4% max specified for aircraft and enclosed spaces. The plates in AGM's are tightly packed and rigidly mounted, and will withstand shock and vibration better than any standard battery.

Lyca gets a make over

2008-02-20T16:45:00.002-05:00

I’m on fire,

I’m a fabricat’en, modify’en, steel weld’en, luminum chopp’en, wood cutt’en, weight loos’en fool. I have just finished giving Lyca (my truck) a make over so he is ready for the big adventure.

Between me, him, and Cazee we are ready to hit the road, except Cazee has a few more modifications yet to be done. I have enclosed Lyca’s rear section and ladder rack for security reasons. (If people can’t see what’s in the back of the truck then they are less likely to try to remove anything from it. The other reason for the modifications is for more storage and being able to organize things better. When I finish Lyca and I will be able to fix almost, anything anywhere, any time.

If we can’t fix it, it ain’t broke.

The first thing I have added is a spare steel 55 gallon fuel tank.

The main reason for that is to be able fill up the gasoline burning members of my team. Of which Lyca is one, and there is Sicfiddy Kawalski of course. Then there are two more team members that are hydrocarbon combustion energy users and they are Mr. Lektrik Steelbinder and Buddy Blohard. Mr. Steelbinder is a 9 horse power electric generator / welder.

Mr. Blohard is a 12 horse power two stage electric start air compressor, for operating air tools and re-inflating the occasional flat tire.

In addition Lektrik has had the fore thought to invite his nephews, Ox and Ace, to travel with us. Ox and Ace are oxygen and acetylene tanks with hose reel and torches that will comfortably ride in the back of Lyca.

Buddy will also have an air hose reel so that he and his fellow travelers do not get in each others way. Even Lektrik will have a power cord reel to keep things neat and tidy.

As you can see I have enclose the rear section with diamond plate aluminum on the sides and 3/8 exterior plywood on the top. I think it will be secure and weather proof enough for everyone to have a nice adventure.

I started the modifications on Sunday morning and have worked about 10 hours each day, it is now Wednesday, that works out to a full work week, but it has been worth it.

244 lbs

Gotta go

New man in town

2008-02-04T20:02:00.000-05:00

Hi again,
The other night I woke up again in the middle of the night thinking, “I’ll never get it done.” I have sooooo much to dooooooo that I have been worrying if I can get it done in the time allotted. That morning I sat down and decided that I was concentrating on the small projects and decided that I would re-focus on the larger projects and the ones that would bring in the most dollars. No more garage sales until just before I go. What doesn’t sell then, I will donate. So I re-worked my list focusing on the large projects and I felt a lot better, although I still have a lot to do.
I put a bunch of easy to ship, easy to list Items on e-bay and netted $1,800.00 which worked well. I still have to modify the storage compartment on Cazey, who by the way informed me that I was spelling her name wrong. According to her it is Cazee, (long A). Pronounced KZ.
I have new member of my entourage. He is a young man, I believe of Polish decent whose last name is Kawalski. His first name Sicfiddy.

He is taking the place of my Asian friend, Har-re Davisan.

Because Har-re is too heavy and limited in what he can do. I really hate not being able to take Har-re along but he is a luxury I can’t afford. So I invited Sicfiddy and he assured me he could meet my requirements of being able to explore through the woods and back roads as well as run to the store for light shopping. He also informed me that if I wanted to run fifty or sixty miles down the interstate he had the balls to do it. Perhaps not with the ease and comfort of Har-re, but he could get the job done.

To see the rest of my team just click on either one of the photo's

Slowly but surely the warehouse is emptying out. There are a few of bulky items left to move out and I will be glad to see them go no matter which rout they take. Hopefully I can find a nice home for them rather than adding to the local landfill.
I just looked at my to do list and at the top it says “Get off your ass and get busy”.

See ya
252 lbs

This ain't easy baby

2008-01-21T06:45:00.000-05:00

Hi gang,

It’s been a while since I posted to my blog. Sorry about that. My plan has been to allow only three or four days between posts and I feel confident that I will be able to keep that commitment once I Hit The Road (HTR). We will see how that works at that time, and since I have never done this so I am going to have to wing it.

Getting rid of most of my worldly possessions is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Years ago, I saw a movie or TV show, about a man who stood to inherit several million dollars, but there was a catch. He had to spend a million dollars in a specified amount of time and have nothing to show for it. At first he thought it would be a piece of cake, then reality set in and he ended up scrambling to make it actually happen. With luck and the help of a love interest, he was successful. I feel like that guy (without the love intrest). I had my second Garage sale this past weekend and I feel like throwing everything I own in the dumpster and forgetting it. The only problem with that path is that every dollar helps smooth the bumps in life’s highway or at least that is what I believe. The money that these THINGS will bring me even if they only bring pennies on the dollar from their original cost is helpful. A penny is a penny and I would like to have as many pennies as I can get before I HTR. Having said that it would seem like I am broke and I am not, but even though I may wish for a utopian fiscally burdenless society, that ain’t reality. Oops, I inadvertently segued into philosophy. Back to the garage sale. I hate to disparage any group or to profile a group of people but there are those who would do their best to take advantage of me and have no remorse what so ever, whether it be demanding, pleading, begging or out right stealing from me, their thought process seem to be, if the mark allows me to get away with it then I have won the game, and coming from the view point that I am responsible for my own domain they are right. My problem is that it is exhausting to fend off these constant, (however mostly minor) attacks. I ask two dollars for an item worth well over ten dollars and they respond with the offer of a quarter. Then when I say no, it’s like I never opened my mouth because in front of me they stand, holding out a quarter. A bargain price is asked and a barrage of insulting counter offers is proffered. In addition I must be wary that this isn’t a diversion so that another of their party absconds with some item that I am selling. I probably sound like an old fart when I wish for times when honesty and integrity were the norm rather than the exception, and I probably am and a bit delusional in even expecting it. The really sad part is, I spend a day getting ready and a day selling (a very conservative estimate) and my gross is $513.00, which I could have earned in 4 hours before I retired. Like I said before, this is much harder than I thought it would be.

Adventures from another day.
Holy moley, it took four hours to set up the bathroom in my trailer. By set up, I mean take the bathroom stuff in pile number one that I wanted to keep and put it into the cabinets and medicine chest. Finding a place for everything and every thing in its place, plus arranging it in containers so that it doesn’t turn into a jumbled mess while I am traveling is a real challenge. And this is just the bathroom. I am going to ask my friend Jo to help me organize things. Like most anal retentive persons she excels at that sort of thing. (Just kidding Jo) I have begun to alter the front bunk room into my office / storage area. I will have to calculate how much weight I am loading in there and I will have to balance that weight in the rear. Most of what I will put up front will not weigh a lot. Some clothes, some paper products, files, and the computer.

260 lbs

Till next post

Industrious Men

2007-12-29T11:23:00.000-05:00

Hi Peoples,

WOW! The new owners are serious about re-doing my former home. There is a term, that contractor’s use when they tear out the interior of a house and start over with just the shell. It’s called GUTTING, which is an appropriate term for the process. Well the new owners have not gutted the house but dam close. (see pic’s) The Kitchen and cabinets are gone. One of the bathrooms only has the toilet and the sink remaining. All the closets have been ripped out, the interior doors, windows. They are doing it right. They are able to do this way because no one is living in the house. He tells me that he should be able to move in by the end of January. That seems optimistic to me because he is going to replace all of the wiring and much of the plumbing in addition to all of the stuff he tore out. However if anyone can do it I think this guy can. They arrive at 8 am and have never left before 7 pm. He is here today with his crew (Saturday). They have been here every day following Christmas eve, it will be interesting to see if they show up tomorrow.

Cazey and I are getting along well. I am actually sleeping better in her embrace than I was in the house. I think it will even be better when I get one of those memory foam mattresses. Little by little I am sorting through my piles and putting the essentials in the trailer and the truck. When I get the that done I will add the luxuries or the I wannas, as the weight and space allow. I also need to start thinking about other things like mail forwarding, internet access and residency. Yes residency, even though I will be traveling from state, the government likes it when you call one place home and apparently it makes a big difference which state you claim as home. I haven’t figured it all out yet but I will before HTR day (Hitting The Road day).

My TO-DO list is longer than I am tall and that’s saying something. I am just prioritizing each item and knocking it off of the list as I go. One problem, as I knock one thing off it seems like I remember another couple of things I need to add. Eventually it will start getting shorter. Another problem is I keep loosing my list, it’s written on a legal pad and I keep putting it down and forgetting where. I guess I need to put it on the computer. I am experiencing another problem that seems to have gotten worse. I remember something that I need or want to do and by the time I move to where I need to do it I forget what it was. It just happened. As I wrote the line “I guess I need to put it on the computer” I remembered something I needed to look up, so I clicked over to the internet and in that small space in time I forgot what it was I wanted to look up. There is a bright spot though. While rewriting “I guess I needed to put it on the computer” I remembered something else and I immediately wrote it down. For all I know it might be the same thing I forgot in the first place. Hopefully, I won’t loose the paper I wrote it down on.

As I mentioned before I am on an eating re-learning program. I am doing very well, and rather than mention this on each post, I will just end with my last weigh-in. I was at an all time high of 295 pounds in November, and I decided to cut a few things out of my dietary intake. Like Peanut M&M’s and Potato chips that were supplemented with buttered popcorn and mini Almond joy’s, while laying in bed watching TV. After cutting that out I lost 15 pounds. Then I started the program on December 18th and I am currently at 268 pounds. My goal weight is 225, so I will end each post with the number of my current liteness.

268 lbs

See Ya

My first time with Cazey

2007-12-25T21:48:00.000-05:00

The pottery pictures are posted as promised. I was really pleased as to how they came out. The pictures don’t completely show the nuances of the glaze but a picture rarely captures what reality presents.

Last night, Christmas Eve, Cayze (my travel trailer) and I slept together for the first time. She has that rear slide out Queen Size bed and she seemed a little tight. Perhaps it was because it has been awhile since any has slept with her or it is more likely that I am just big. I’m 6’3” so I have to sleep corner to corner, but surprisingly I slept well. I think I will get her one of those memory foam mattresses instead of the 4” slab of regular foam that she now has. It was cool here in Florida last night (around 68 degrees) and come early morning it rained and cooled things off a little more.

I am completely out of the house and I spent most of yesterday setting up my computer and desk in the warehouse. I had a couple of minor glitches but I finally got back online. I was almost surprised that everything actually worked. I had to reroute phone lines some 200 feet from the house to the warehouse and hook up new jacks. I expected to have more problems related to power drop due to the distance but everything seems fine. Even the TV is working fine without a signal booster.

Man the new owner was here today ripping out walls and closets. I didn’t think he would be here on Christmas day but here he was with a crew of four and the dust was flying.

Now I am having trouble finding stuff that is in the piles. In my haste to get out of the house I neglected to mark the boxes and now I have to search through them to find stuff. Well at least now I don’t have a deadline as to when I find any particular item.

Christmas was great, I spent the morning with my son (Jay), his faïence (Mari), her sister (Allie) and her mother (Nina). It was a very comfortable gathering. I acted the fool as usual. Allie got a small fluffy stuffed sheep and when they handed it to me to feel how soft it was I pretended to blow my nose on it. Anything for a laugh, I love it when people laugh and I love it even more if I am the one causing it. They gave me some things for Cazey, a couple of RV books a really cool backpack and some neat sandals. Later I went to my friend Jo’s and she got me some plastic space saver spice holders that fasten to the inside of the cabinet door and a album that holds tons of CD/DVD,s. with out their plastic cases, thereby saving allot of storage space. And as you RVers know, saving space is the name of the game.

As I was cleaning up and packing I ran across some stuff that I had written several years ago. One of the things I had written jumped out at me and I have decided to put it on the back of my trailer.

WHO’S LIFT ARE YOU LIVING?

Now I can honestly say mine.

Goodnight

Moving out.

2007-12-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

Well, obviously I was unable to get the tool photos in the web album where I wanted them, therefore you are unable look at them. After Christmas I will try again.

I finally closed on the house in December 19th. I got a little bent out of shape because of all the EXTRA charges and PENATILIES but there was nothing I could do about them so I didn’t get too wound up over it.. It seems like everybody has their hand in the cookie jar. If I had it to do over again I would not have used a realtor. I would have used BUY_OWNER. I told the Realtor how to sell the property but all he did was stick 2 wire signs in the front yard, hung a lock box on the front door and put an MLS flyer holder on the mail box but never put any flyers in it. After several days I put a sign out front describing the unique features of the property and within 20 days, had a bidder. Any way it’s over and I am not going to dwell on it further. I only am expressing it here to let my readers know so that they won’t make the same mistake. In addition I informed my Realtor that I didn’t think he earned the Twenty K that he and the other Realtor split.

I did get an extension (Dec 23) to get out of the house. I am almost finished. Every thing is in piles in the warehouse. Pile 1 = Things to sort through and keep or sell. Pile 2 = Things that my friend had stored at my house and will come to pick up. Pile 3 = Things to sell, give or throw away. Pile # 4 = Tools and Equipment to sell. I will put some pictures of the warehouse and the piles on this entry.

I have decided to make another change. I have started a weight loss program. I am tired of my feet hurting, and I want the extra mobility for my adventures. A friend expressed that it might be a mistake to try to make additional changes with so many other things changing, and I had to agree that she might be right, because the diet program is taking up a lot of extra time and it is not an easy thing to do, but on the other hand, since there are so many things changing why not add one more and do everything at once. So far, I think that the second option has been the right decision. It will all eventually end up being one big change.

I am not sure if I mentioned that for the past 8 weeks I have been a pottery class at the local high school making Christmas presents. I am going to take pictures of the pots I made and post them on my next post. I don’t want the people I am giving them to, to see them before Christmas.

I have 95% of the stuff out of the house. I need to take some time to prepare Cazey Twofive for my move in. I still need to connect the phone cables and the TV cable. I haven’t figured how to get the hot water heater on board Cazey to work yet. I don’t plan on taking cold showers. I have a whole list of things that I need to purchase, repair and modify before I will be able to “Hit The Road” (HTR). That is in addition to sorting, storing, selling and / or disposing of all the material items.

Well I am tired and I will close for today. Check in after Christmas for the pottery pictures and the next up date.

Tons of stuff for sale

2007-12-11T16:42:00.000-05:00

Wow! I got a lot of stuff done this weekend working in the warehouse. I hired two laborers to do most of the lifting and moving. The Warehouse is 40 foot by 30 foot and packed wall to wall with tools and lift parts. I have sold a couple of thousand dollars worth of the smaller hand tools on E-Bay and you wouldn’t even know it by looking at the warehouse. I wish that I had taken some before and after pictures. Even though we got a lot done we still only just scratched the surface. We removed the shipping container that I had in there to secure the more expensive tools and we also cleared out a bunch of junk for disposal. I took a ton of pictures of tools and parts to sell. I will make a web album to put the photos in so anyone can access them. If you see something that you are interested in e-mail or call me at 561-370-4962 and we can make a deal. Here are a couple of examples of I have. Just click on one of the images and it will take you to the entire album. There are large power tools (drill press, welders, table saw, band saws etc, and small hand tools (hand electric sanders, drills, bench grinders, wrenches, tool boxes, etc. I am also selling my 2005 Harley Road King (see pic) I will make another album for lift parts which I will offer to my competors in the automotive equipment industry.

I am supposed to be out of the house by the 14th December (4 days till closing) but I have asked for an extension after the close to be able to move all of the stuff out of the house and into the warehouse. I would have liked to have had a garage sale before Christmas but there is no way. In addition to getting the stuff out of the house I have to get Cazey Twofive (the travel trailer which is my new home) ready to cohabit. Now understand this, our relationship is strictly a platonic. After all Ms. Twofive and I just met; we aren’t even friends yet, although it somehow feels like an arranged marriage. I have to run 3 pvc pipe lines one for phone lines, one for cable TV and one for water to the trailer from the house which is 175 feet away. This is what we were going to concentrate on Sunday but we ran out of pipe. I will get another 200 feet on Monday and finish it.

Well for several days I was not able to publish on my blog but today it works. I got all the pipe installed for the trailer water, phone and cable. The water is connected and the phone and cable are in but not yet connected. I have a big installation job in Pompano and several service calls. Work is winding down but it is still taking up much of my time and is slowing my transition from the house to the trailer. My new mantra is “I get there when I get there”. I am refusing to get bent out of shape over anything not going exactly to plan.

Enough for today

Getting closer

2007-12-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

I finally bought my trailer. I made a new decision. It seems like I do that every day now and somehow I think I will be doing that right up until I leave I’m a flip floper. I decided not to get the toy hauler and opted for a K-Z Sportsmen 2505 for substantially less than I would have had to pay for the toy hauler. I will modify this unit to fit my needs. I have also decided that the Harley is a luxury item that I don’t need, I will get instead, a lighter on/off road bike that will serve for short trips to the grocery or exploring off road for that perfect dry camp. I close on the house on Dec 14th. Man have I got a lot of stuff to do. There is still ton’s of stuff to dispose of.

For most of my life I have lived for the destination and I am finding myself continuing to do that. Everything I do I seem to do with the destination in mind. That destination now has become hitting the road. The last 10 or so years I have made attempts to live the journey (ie, live in the moment) with little success. It is some what of a dilemma in that it is necessary to plan for my needs in the future while at the same time fully experience the journey as I go through it. I am finding myself focusing on when I get this thing done or that thing done then I can enjoy what I have right here in front of me. Perhaps this whole adventure is about my desire to live in the moment as it appears that Jim and Chris and George and Tiaoga do. Jim and Chris are my inspiration and George is my hero. I guess you could say I am a (sort of) George wana-be. I say sort of because I don’t plan on doing as much dry camping as he does. I plan to stay at different parks for as much as three months at a time, depending on the adventures presented to me at any one location. Having said that, I will need a TEAM to assist me. So I am going to follow (steal) George’s example and gather a team to experience these new adventures with.

The first team member is Mr. Lyca Rock. A 2006 Chevy one ton work truck that has been my business partner for almost a year and a half. My second team member is Ms. Cazey (K-Z) Tofive. Cazey and I have just met and we are just a little leery of each other. We will have three or four months to get to know each other before we hit the road, while I dispose of all of my junk. As I stated before I have worked out an arrangement that will allow us to park on the rear portion of the property I just sold until the end of March. That makes April first 2008 HTR day (hit the road). I will up date you as other team members join our adventure.

First Cazey and I have some discussion regarding her accommodations. The forward section (in front of the entry door) is currently comprised of four small bunk beds which I plan to remove and install my computer room/office on one side and storage on the other. I also plan on removing the couch for more storage. Storage is one thing that Ms.Tofive is in short supply of. Cazey is in complete agreement that these modifications need to be done, however she is not looking forward to the mess I will make during the renovations.

Well see you later
Ken

Decisions, decisons, decisons

2007-11-25T09:12:00.000-05:00

Reviewing my previous entry’s it is clear that I am feeling some distress regarding the decision to go into full time RV’ing. I will try not to bore your with these concerns unless it becomes overpowering. The funny thing about expressing my fears here is that it seems to relive some of the pressure. I think fear is a natural reaction to the radical change I have decided upon. I believe other RV’ers who read these entries and have made similar decisions will recognize my madness and those who might be contemplating making a decision of this type can recognize that their concerns are a normal progression of facing change.

Some of the many decisions that I have made over the last few weeks and months are, what type of RV I want, what I can afford, how do I dispose of my belongings, how can I make enough money on-the-road meet expenses. Each decision seems to require more decisions as I prepare to down size my life.

I have decided on a travel trailer and to use my 2006 work truck to pull it. I initially wanted a toy hauler because I have a 2005 Harley Road King Classic and I had planed to use it to cruise the area around where I end up camping. I have since decided that the Road King is a luxury that I can do with out because it is limited in its scope of function. So I have made a new decision to get a lighter motorcycle that can travel on and off road that I can load behind the truck and in front of the trailer. So the need for a toy hauler is not required. The problem with a toy hauler is that the ones that I liked were 30’ or more long and I felt hauling that much length around would be more that I wanted to tackle. Then there is the cost factor. Last weekend I went to a local RV show. Talk about a kid in a candy store. The new units have so many cool features and look so pretty that the older trailers can’t really compare. One dealership had a new 07 left over trailer that he made me an unbelievable offer coming down from $45,000 to $32,000. Other used 05 trailers I was looking at were $20,000 and did not have half the features. However there were two draw backs, the money (which I have but it would take a bite out of my nest egg) and size. The new trailer was 34 feet. That plus my truck makes me longer than an 18 wheeler rolling down the road. Eventually I dropped the toy hauler requirement and bought a 2000 K-Z Sportsmen 2505 in good condition and at a very good price. Yes it’s older and not as pretty but it works for me and it was very easy on the pocket. I will pick it up December 1. The previous owner will then instruct me on the trailers operation and features.

During the process of preparing to make this move I ran across the blog of a full timer named George. George’s blog is called “The adventures of Tioga and George. George is sort of my hero. I say sort of, because George does not stay in any one location for more than a day or so before moving on unless he has to get a job to meet expenses. I plan to stay in one location anywhere from one week to three months. George has a large internet following. He posts nearly every day and has some great information on his web site which is.

http://www.vagabonders-supreme.net/

Am I crazy?

2007-11-23T08:53:00.000-05:00

Some mornings I wake up and think to myself “Are you nuts?” What are you doing? At these times I feel like a circus performer that is balanced on a large ball, only this ball is rolling down the side of a hill and I am scrambling to keep up. So much to do, so much to decide, am I doing the right thing? If I let my head follow this fear thinking I would have to crawl into a hole somewhere and never come out. The reality is that the ball is already rolling and it would really hurt if I tried to stop it now. Besides it’s what I want to do. So if any of the doubts turn out to be a problem I will deal with them as they arise. I have never been the type of person to just wander around from place to place. I have always had a home, family, work or organization (Army) to which I have been attached, roots if you will. This move seems totally foreign to my way of being.
I have a friend who, when we were young men, decided to travel the world with just a back pack, his self confidence and a plan to guide him. His plan, as I understood it was, warm weather, palm trees, large bodies of salt water and soft bodies of warm women. I saw him as a potted plant that could be moved from place to place and still thrive. Yet I saw myself as a tree that could only survive if rooted to safe spot. I had even written a poem that described myself as a tree.

If I were a tree.
I would be a southern yellow pine, tall and strait.
Rough on the outside, soft and warm on the inside.
Deep rooted, dependable and useful to the world
Children would swing from my limbs and dogs would pee on my feet.

Now I find that I have a new plan. When it gets cold drive south, when it gets hot drive north.

So, on with the adventure.

Doing it

2007-11-17T17:46:00.000-05:00

Well it looks like I have a contract on the house and I am planning to sell off the business piece by piece. I have an agreement with the buyers to put my Travel Trailer (when I get it) on the property for three months after closing in order to dispose of my stuff. I am in serious buy mode for the trailer now. I have my eye on several that are interesting but are not the perfect trailer for me. I may have to buy the "not perfect trailer" if push comes to shove.
I am both excited and fearful. It's a big step, letting go of the security of home and business. Risking that I can earn enough money to sustain myself with out depleating my nest egg. I could wait in hopes to earn more before I cut the umbilical cord, but how much is enough? How much more could I put away in a year, two or five. My body is telling me that five is the most I that I have if I continue to do the very physical work that I now do. Will that be enough? It seems that my decision must rest on which resource do I spend? The money I have saved or the number of healthy days I have remaining? I choose to risk not having enough money at the end, for the health to really enjoy the experience ahead of me now. I am going to seize the moment, follow my star, full steam ahead and dam the torpedoes. I have enough confidence in myself; I can do this and come out the other side. That makes the decision less scary. I can't wait to hit the road, but first I must divest myself of my possessions.
I have negotiated with the new owner to put my trailer on the property in order to sell, give, toss and otherwise dispose of the accumulation of things that I will no longer need. Not only a home full of stuff, but a warehouse full of tools and equipment that is a dream past. A dream shop, where I could make stuff and fix stuff and have a place to put stuff. Been there, done that. Now to dismantle that dream for another. I must choose, what I need to take and what I need to dispose of. That will be an adventure in it's self. There is lots of junk that has little value, piece of cake, dump it. There is the stuff that has value but little emotional attachment, good for Ebay or garage sale. Then there is the stuff that I will take with me, (less than one percent). The stuff that has high emotional atachment that I can not take? Big problem, because I do not want to have the monetary expense of renting a warehouse to store stuff. Fortunately there isn't allot of that kind of stuff, some of it I can give to family.
Today was a good day. I got about fifty items cleaned up photographed and ready for Ebay. Now do that another ten or fifteen times and I will have most of my stuff on the net. Today was mostly small items. The big stuff 100 lbs or more will be no shipping, you pick up items.
Well I guess I will spend a little time putting some of it on Ebay tonight so I will sign off for now.
gOOch

Getting things done

2007-10-14T06:36:00.000-04:00

Even though I am working toward full time RV’ing, life goes on. I have work and friendship obligations that continue to take up my time and energy. Which I gladly do, well the friendship thing I gladly do the work thing comes out of necessity. Yesterday my friend Joellen came up to see the project that I have been working on for her. She is very talented and makes jewelry. Jo has decided that she wants to sell her creations at art shows and venues of that type, however in order to enter the shows she has to have a booth and display that has to be approved by the show promoters. So I have been building a display table that will impress the judges and assist in her acceptance. I have made this table to look like a real marble counter top even though it is very light weight and easy to carry and assemble. Yesterday was the first time that she has seen the display and I think she really likes it. I was relieved, because the cost of the materials has been much higher than I had expected and that expense is hers. I will try to include a picture of it in this entry if I can. This will be the first time I try to load one on to the blog.

The picture does not show the polished surfaces of the faux Marble but trust me it looks quite real. I think the judges will be impressed.

till another day

gOOch

My first blog entry

2007-10-10T15:50:00.000-04:00

Hello cyber peoples. This is my first blog attempt and the reason I have decided to start a blog is because of some friends of mine Chris & Jim Guld. Two people who are living their lives to the max. They are full time RV’ers, long time Geeks and have a blog site called Geeks on tour. Check them out at Geeksontour.blogspot.com. I learned how to set up this blog and get Gmail and a whole bunch of other stuff from their site. They are also one of the reasons I have decided to join the ranks of “FULL TIME RV’er”. They are having too much fun and I am jealous. So I am selling my business and my home and hitting the road. There in lies the current problem, today’s market is not exactly the best time to be selling anything, but I am undaunted. I will sell and I will purchase the perfect RV for me, then, watch out USA.
Currently my dream RV is the 2008 All American Sport 281FB. A Toy Hauler by Forest River Mfg. I already have the perfect tow vehicle. A 2006 Chevy 3500 one ton utility truck. Now when I say utility truck I am not talking something like a Ford Exploder or even a Su-bourbon, No. I’m talking “man truck” with tool bins all round and ladder racks and macho stuff like that. I can put my Harley in the back of the trailer (It has its own separate private garage to sleep in). Then, when I get to where I’m going I can earn a few extra bucks fixing things. My motto is “If it’s mechanical and I can’t fix it then it ain’t broke. My current business is automotive lift repair, which I should be able to do on the road as well as other odd jobs. I see no reason not to be able to make at least enough to pay expenses just working a couple days a week. Any way that’s my plan and I’m sticking to it.
I am excited about doing this. I’m single and 61, I got nothing holding me back. I do not want to wait until I don’t have the physical ability to see the things I have always wanted to. I will worry about what’s next when I get tired of Full Timeing, if i ever do.
Well time to go. See you round the next bend.
gOOch