My truck is packed and filled with gas. Tomorrow I'll be on the road again. My first destination is Marquette in the UP where I plan to spend a week helping my friend Adam build his cabin.

After that I'll be driving toward Wyoming to partake in the Rainbow Gathering which takes place the first week of July. Plans are to meet my son Josh there and spend a few days enjoying nature and peace loving folks.

After that it's off to Colorado where we plan on hiking 70 miles on the Colorado Trail and do some mountain climbing. I'm hoping we don't run into a blizzard or deep snow!

So I'll be out of touch for four to six weeks. I hope to return home with a lot of pictures to share and stories to tell!

Peace to all!

Monday morning pictures of myself and my friend Austin at the start of an 50 mile hiking adventure.

kbear at the trail head

Austin at the trail head

McCarthy Lake, we camped here the second night

It's raining this morning, the weather report is calling for rain most of the weekend. It's has been dry and dusty here so the rain is much needed.

My kitchen redo is warping up,I spent two days on my knees this week installing hardwood flooring. That job is about as hard on the body as roofing. I guess us older farts aren't meant to crawl around on our hands and knees!

Yesterday I starting installing trim along the base of the room and in the doorways. Now there is just a few more odds and ends to finish and the job will be complete. Two months of steady work and we have a new kitchen and dining room. I'm pleased with the progress so far. Our cabinet maker is still building the doors and after he is done we are having an artist draw some wildlife scenes on a few of them. So it may be a week or so before the kitchen is completely finish.

Next week a friend is coming up and we are planning to go backpacking for three or four days on the North Country Trail. I need to stretch my legs a bit and enjoy a shakedown hike.

The first few weeks of July I have plans for a seventy mile hike with Josh and his friend Matt on the Colorado Trail in Colorado. We hiked 160 miles on this trail five years ago and it's time to put in a few more miles. Our plans this year is to hike along the Continental divide, which will be a high old time!

The last reports I've heard is that the highest elevations of the Rockies is still getting snow, so we may have to be flexible where we hike. I'm looking forward to climbing a few more mountains!

Here are two pictures taken from the top of Mt. Massive back in 2003. Elevation 14,421 feet.

Mountain View




Josh and I



So within a month I hope to be exploring the great outdoors and scrambling up mountains again. With gas at four bucks a gallon I'm still deciding if I'll be driving or taking a train or bus out west. I like to drive because there is a so much to see on the byways through small town America. The independence and joy of driving is hard to give up! My Nissan pickup is getting around 22 MPG so that isn't real bad but not as good as it should be.

I'll make up my mind a few days before I leave. I'm not much into planning things; more into seeing on how the mop flops at the time!

Well it's time for me to start swinging my hammer again this morning. I need to get my work done so that I can go and play!

It's been a busy month here, swinging a hammer and making sawdust. I have the upper kitchen cabinets built, minus the doors. I've also got both the kitchen and dining room bay's built and finished outside,now I need to work on the interior of those. Then I'll move on to building the base cabinets;hopefully by the end of the week.It seems good to be playing carpenter again.


The kitchen bay is behind the ladder and the dining
room bay has the big picture window.

Tuesday our bank account received a nice boost, thanks to election year politics and deficient spending at it's finest. I won't refuse the governments money,it seems as they can aways print more when they need to. Someday this country will pay the piper as the house of cards come tumbling down.

I've still been enjoying my walks,it's a joy to watch the first blush of green leaves appear and to breath in the rich air of spring growth. The water holes are full of peepers singing and the ferns are starting to appear. A magical time of year!

When I get this kitchen project under control I plan on taking a nice long walk. So I better get busy

Spring is here at last! The air has that sweet smell of damp earth and new growth. After six months of feeding the wood furnace I let the fire die out, the gas furnace can take out the morning chill.

Spring is here! The blue skies are alive with V's of geese honking their way north, wild turkeys are barking and strutting their stuff in the woods, there are herds of deer gathered in the fields of young wheat, sand hill cranes in the corn stubble, circling turkey vultures, their shadows falling on the ground as they look for lunch, and the robins are getting fatter by the day. It's good to have the animals and birds out and about again; life has returned as the white cold departs.

For the past few weeks as the snow receded I was out raking leaves as fast as the ground was exposed. Sunday the clearing was free of snow and it was in the 60's so I was able to finish most of the raking. Last fall I was out back packing and working on the cranberry farm so I didn't get to my fall chores and rake the acorns up; now I have a yard full of yellow acorns spouting with red tails firmly planted in the ground. Nature has it's way of reclaiming her own!

Spring is here. I've been busy building cabinets for Barbs new kitchen, we priced out factory built cabinets but they were way to pricey for my taste. So I've bought new blades for my saws and a bunch of lumber and now I'm in the process of making sawdust. As in all of my remodeling jobs I get the urge to push out walls, this time I'm thinking of bumping out the west wall eighteen inches or so. This would be in the form of a bay and give me room to build a window seat for the dining room table and above the kitchen sink I can have an extra counter. Getting rid of chairs in the dining area would visually expand that space and a bump out shelf above the sink would make the kitchen appear larger. I enjoy cutting open walls; it's all about pushing the envelope!

In other news gas has hit $3.48 a gallon here. I've sold both of my American brand gas guzzlers. I've bought Barb a 2003 Honda Element last January in Arizona, traded my Chevy 4 by 4 pickup in on that. We've got 27 MPG on the way home with the Element, about twice the mileage that we got with the Chevy. And a few weeks ago I bought a 1988 Nissan 4 by 4 pickup with a 104,000 miles on it for wood hauling and bumming around. Both of my American made vehicles were lemons, they cost me a small fortune to maintain and drank gas like the inefficient cars that they are. So now they are history, I'm hoping for better dependability with Japanese technology.

The rain is falling today, I can watch the grass turning green by the hour.
It seems that winter gets longer every year but I guess we say that every year also!

It feels good to have a change of seasons, spring with it's new growth and the return of warm days is my favorite season of the year!

Yesterday it was cold and raining all day, this morning it's cold with some snow falling, April Fools day for sure!

Today's rain and cold reminds me of a day's adventure that I experience hiking and camping last September along the green frothy shores of Lake Superior. This was around my fifth day of backpacking and I had rolled out my sleeping bag on the beach under the stars. I woke up the next morning with rain falling on my face, getting out of my sleeping bag to dress, fix breakfast, and pack my gear in the rain was a test of fortitude. As I began the days hike a slow steady rain fell and I was soon soaked to the skin.

Around mid day the rain stopped and the sun appeared so I decide I would strip down and wring my clothes out and eat a bite. I spent some time wringing the water out of my clothes and spreading them around various branches to dry in the breeze. No sooner was I finish with that chore then the cloud cover blew back in and it started raining in buckets. I scrambled around like a mad man repacking my backpack and trying to dress; with my clothes now soaking wet and the rain coming down in sheets it was darn near impossible to put my pants and shirt on over my wet skin. And putting on wet shoes was even more challenging!

I finally got dressed and back on the trail, now more wet then when I had stopped to dry out. I hiked the rest of that day under gray brooding skies with rain falling non stop,I have never before been so wet with clothes on! I'm sure that the gods that be had a great laugh at my expense.

I looked and felt like a drowned rat when I finally set up camp that evening. My shoes were full of water and my water proof rain jacket wasn't very water proof,I was soaked to the bone. Lucky the contents of my backpack stayed dry so I had a change of dry clothes to put on and a warm sleeping bag to snuggle into.

I found a hollow underneath a fallen pine tree to drape my tarp over with just enough room to roll out my bedroll. I slept well that night as the drum-roll of Lake Superior waves attacked the land.

I still think about this day of hiking adventure, today sitting warm and dry watching it rain I can laugh about it. Nothing like finding more adventure then what you reckon for when out experiencing the great outdoors!

I took this picture just before I went to bed that evening, the timbers on the beach is an old ship, Lake Superior has sent many a ship to a watery grave.

Lake Superior

This is the water tower in a little town that I passed through on my way out west the fall of 2005. I think a person could live with a positive attitude in a town called What Cheer.

Thursday was the beginning of spring according to the calender, but it's still cold here and snow blankets the ground. But I did see my first Robin Wednesday so it must be spring.

Happy Easter to all.

The last two weeks here have been sunny and bright, the ice and snow is melting at a fast clip. It's nice to have mud on the roads and trails to walk on; after a while icy walks gets to be work. I'm ready for the birds and blooms of spring, the snow and the cold gets old after six months!

The next few months I will be busy, I've plenty of chores facing me; I need to cut a few cords of wood to replenished what I've burnt this winter, mother has talk me into building her a new kitchen and bathroom, I have a friend in the UP that I promise to help build an underground, passive solar home (I don't need much of an excuse to spend time in 'Da UP') and I have plans for spending a few weeks hiking and climbing mountains in Colorado with Josh this July.

So I have plenty of projects to do around here this spring, shouldn't have time to get into trouble!

The snow can't melt to soon!

Rocky and I took a morning walk to get our exercise and to enjoy the bright quickly departing sun.

Moisture formed ice in my beard, the cold stung my cheeks, and the crunch of my footsteps echoed in the frigid quiet air.

This truly is a magical time of year!

Winter Cattails

Out on a Limb

Winter Shadows

-13 C here again this morning, the sun is doing its best to brighten the woods, but it seems to have lost it's will to live and to do it's job.

The sky is the same ice gray as the snow on the ground;heaven and earth is as one. Lazy snow flakes are drifting aimlessly around, nothing else is moving.

Mother nature continues to hold everything in an icily grip.


Two weeks ago today, on a snowy morning, we drove ninety miles to Ron's wake and funeral starting our journey on a road that was unblemished and untraveled.

So much like our personal journeys into that great unknown of death.

Unblemished Road

Flag Blowing and Icy Roads

I received this e-mail from a friend this morning and thought it was worth passing on for others to read. I realize that us "older" folk are always saying this type of thing but it's good food for thought.


GOD BLESS THE PARENTS WHO DRUGGED US

The other day, someone at a store read that a Methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question.

Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?" I replied I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.

I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.

I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.

I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity.

I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flowerbeds and cocklebur's out of dad's fields.

I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.

Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, the world would be a better place.

God bless the parents who drugged us.


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From my childhood experience of forty years ago there is a lot of truth here; I can still taste the soap that my mother used to wash out my mouth and feel the sting of the belt on my backside when I was disrespectful toward her or other adults. And I had more then enough church influence in my youth also!

I'm willing to bet that most kids raised before the social changes of the 60's had this type of experience in learning to respect authority.

In these times of enlightenment a parent could go to jail for
raising kids this way but it did work for me.... sort of!

I sit in comfort watching black squirrels chase each other up and down the trees; flashing black streaks against the white snow. They are having fun running around and jumping from tree to tree,I guess snow and cold isn't a negative factor in their days.


Here is a picture of an Arizona Rainbow, a little color for your day. The world is beautiful..........

When the snow is coming down and there's not much to do spending an afternoon in the sauna with friends and a cold brew is the only way to go!


Orange and White