The Battles are Real

 

I had an anniversary this week. November 18th, 1982. That is the day I entered the Air Force. I remember it as if it were yesterday. A time in my life I would not trade for anything. What amazes me is that it was 42 years ago. Where does the time go? 

The 'Cold War" was still going on. Always being reminded of that when our base would run nuclear or chemical warfare drills. It was a little nerve racking to say the least. I spent 3 years and 9 months on active duty. Getting out 3 months early to join the North Dakota Air National Guard, where I spent another 22 years. I was only deployed to three different foreign countries my whole career. Hard to believe. They were England, Panama and Canada. Aircraft we had on our bases over the years were this. F-111D, F-4, F-16, C-130 and the C-21. The F-111 was my favorite because it was the first .

I found this photo on the internet. It is actually from the base I was stationed at. Cannon AFB in New Mexico. The 27th Fighter Wing.

Now to the reason for bringing up past battles. My military training will stay with me my entire life.

The long standing battle continues here at the SSUVFL. The battle I speak of is man vs. mouse. Those pesky little critters are getting everywhere. Years ago I blogged about the battle with Rambo mouse. If you are new to the blog you can read about it here. 

For years I have been using the old fashioned spring loaded mouse trap. It has never failed me until this fall. Trap after trap I set. Only to come back in the morning to find the bait stolen. And as a slap in the face there would be at least 10 mouse turds all around the trap as a "thank you" from the mouse. Why don't I use the bucket trap? Well winter is almost here and the water required in the bottom would just freeze, providing a skating rink for them. They would be like a miniature Torvill and Dean's skating in the bottom of the bucket. No. This is war! I had to find a new trap to bring the war to the enemy. Find one I did.

This is a trap made by Tomcat. I set out two traps. One in our pickup camper and one in my sons camper. The next morning there were two mice in them. 2 for 2. That thing snaps down on them hard. I didn't want to show you the pictures because I know Jim is squeamish when it comes to those kinds of things. So that is one battle raging on right now. 

Here is another. Squirrels. Don't get me wrong, I like squirrels until they get into our bird feeder. They have had all summer to gather acorns because we have a lot of oaks on our property. They are not starving. Plus they also get the benefit of our walnut trees. So they could at least leave the sunflower seeds we put out for the birds to the birds. But NOOOO.

It starts with one.

They are very good at climbing that pole. They chase the birds away when they are up there. The red squirrels will chase the grey squirrels away just so they can have the feeder to themselves. 

Then two.

Then three.

I don't know how many times a day I walk by the window to see those little critters feasting on our sunflower seeds while the birds are waiting in the trees to have a turn. I will then open the window and yell at the squirrels which makes them freak out and run away back to the woods. But the more I do it the less freaked out they get. So now, (and I'm not too proud to admit this), but I will run out there barking like a dog to get them to scatter. No, that will not be on YouTube. So I went to the local farm supply store for a new weapon in this battle.

We will see if that solves the problem. It's been on for an hour while I write this and have not seen any squirrels on the feeder. However a red squirrel tried.

Lisa originally put the sunflower seeds in a plastic garbage can outside to make it easier to fill the feeder. Well the squirrels discovered that and had chewed a hole through the top to get to the seeds. No wonder our squirrels are so fat. We went and got a metal can and that stopped them. They are not pleased about it and let us know by urinating on it. Dang critters.

I am busy and I can see how someone may be confused at all of this. You're probably wondering if that is all I do all day? Worry about mice and chase squirrels in a dog costume. I do have a set of chores that I do daily. Our long list of things to do is almost complete, thank the maker.

Now I have time to share with you a third battle that I am waging. It is a battle on the planet of Pandora against bandits, psychos and all kinds of mean and evil creatures. It's actually a video game called Borderlands. I love it. I could play for hours and hours a day. Just ask Lisa. Look at these things you have to defeat.

It will literally take you months to finish the game. I don't like when you buy a game for 60-70 dollars and finish it in a week. That's not fun for me. I have been practicing because there is a new Borderlands game coming out in 2025 so don't expect me to take phone calls or anything once I get it. 

Just another exciting day at the SSUVFL.

The Itch

 What in the world am I talking about today with a headline like that? Is he talking about an "itchy trigger finger"? "Jock itch"? "Hemorrhoidal itch"? "The seven year itch". Too many things that you don't want to know the answer to and I am thankful to tell you, none of the above. Whew! To your relief and mine.

The itch I am talking about is this. To decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving or not? That is the question. If you walked into any box store before Halloween, you would have seen them fully decorated for Christmas. So who would blame us if we were to do that also? I'm sure there are lots of people already doing it. We are being brainwashed by big corporations and China to do so. (I included China because everything is made in China.)

Funny story about that. The summer Lisa and I worked in Yellowstone at a gift shop in Tower Falls, bus loads of Chinese tourists would stop and so many times they would come up to the cashiers and ask us if we had any souvenirs that were not made in China. True story. I can just picture it though. You're a Chinese person on vacation in America. You get home and find out that all of your trinkets come from China. LOL!

Sorry, I got off topic.We have movie streaming services now. When we go to the movie lists, there are more and more Christmas movies being added. We had the grand kids stay over with us last weekend and do you know what movie they picked to watch for our "Pops"corn party. The Grinch. I texted a friend of mine who shall remain nameless to protect his identity. I asked what he was doing and he said the family was watching the Hallmark Channel. So I went to the "Google" to see Hallmarks schedule of movies. I include a sample in the following pictures.

Nonstop Christmas movies. Okay, I won't tell you his name but I will give you a clue. J*m from J*mandB*rbsrvadventures. What a dork. (That's a compliment.)

How can we fight the "ITCH" to not decorate and start the holiday season a month early. Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. In fact as I write this I am listening to Christmas music on Pandora. Trans-Siberian Orchestra to be exact. My favorite. I also like the classics like Bing, Elvis, Vince Guarldi and so many more. Even a little Mariah Carey thrown in.

Our tradition growing up as kids was that we had to wait until after Thanksgiving and I continue that even today. Music isn't decorating, right? I can get away with the music part while Lisa is working. She would pop a gasket if she heard me listening to Christmas music right now. So don't tell her.

I remember as a kid, we would get the Sears, JC Penny and Montgomery Wards Christmas catalogs. I would spend hours looking at the toys and toys and toys. Circling almost everything in the pages and then leaving it on the coffee table with hopes that my parents would page through them. Those were actually "the good ole days". We just didn't know it. 

Kitten news. We have decided on a name for the new kitten. It is Stinky. Her formal name is Lady Stinksalot. She will also answer to Stinkus, Stinky Baby, Sweety, Wild thing and of course, Hey You. Stinky and Moose (who's nickname is Mr. Moo) get along well. He really wants to play with her but he is a big lummox and is a little rough with her. Journey (her nickname is Floofy McFloofin) on the other hand doesn't want anything to do with her. She will let the kitten know when she gets too close. She lets out an evil hiss and the kitten will then go a different direction.

One thing that we are learning is that having a black cat is dangerous. She is very hard to see in low light conditions or at night. Also being a kitten, she darts around all of the time, running between your legs as you walk. 

She has almost tripped me on many occasions. I bet you are all hoping that the day that happens, Lisa is recording because it will be epic! 

I wonder if Lisa would let me put out one Christmas decoration a day? That way she could ease into it. Or maybe I'll do it anyways to see if she will even notice it. I mean she never notices if my shirt is inside out or backwards or both. Or maybe she does notice and just wants me to walk around all day looking like a clown.

Tune in tomorrow kids. Same bat time, same bat channel.

 

More Tales from the SSUVFL

 

It is hard to believe that it has been two weeks since we closed down the food trailer for the season. It seems like ages since we were in there slinging soup like wild people. Lisa has been busy making plans for next season so that she has her ducks in a row when the shiitake mushrooms hit the fan. 

What have we done in the last fourteen days. For starters, Lisa made a list. We need to prioritize what needs to get done around here before the snow flies.

Everything above the black line are Lisa's jobs. Below that is mine. I ask you, whose list is longer and more complete? Normally I will start working on the list after I have finished my daily chores. Which are the dishes, laundry, make the bed and the million other things that make a house a home. So I have been a little busy. Where's Lisa you ask? Why isn't she helping me? Good questions. Lisa has decided to pursue her career in the Geriatric Arts. She decided to go back to her job for the winter at the local nursing home. Maybe she thinks that she will be better able to take care of me. I don't know. 

We also found time to watch the grandkids over the Columbus Day holiday.

Here they are scarfing down DQ Blizzards.

Back in my day, my brother, sister and I were lucky if we could split a Dilly bar three ways after we walked the 10 miles to the DQ in 100 degree heat, uphill, both ways. Kids these days. We had a fun sleepover and I made my famous popcorn from scratch. They call it "Pops corn". Get it? Because they call me Pop.

One day we drove to the megatropolis called Fargo for the youngest one's fifth birthday. 

The boys really like hockey so we all went to a Fargo Force hockey game.

It was our first game in that arena and it was fun to watch. Lots of stuff going on besides the game. It was a fun evening for sure.

On the cabin front. I made some doors. One door is for the closet that surrounds our circuit breaker box. That used to be out in the barn but now is in our family room. The other is a barn door for our bedroom.

Bedroom

Closet

I was also able to get the trim around the top of our ceiling in the bedroom along with the mirrors. (Just seeing if anyone has read this far. I really didn't put mirrors up on the ceiling. Yet.)

Here is the kitten segment. We have had the kitten for over a week now. She has settled down quite a bit. In fact, when you go to pick her up, she starts purring and snuggles right into your arms. Then she is sleeping in no time.

As of today we have named her Stinky. Because she still smells a little skunky, but with a face and personality that she has it's hard to keep calling her Stinky. So that may change. We have had her at the vet and they said that she was about 6 months old which is what we thought. In fact we just picked her up from the vet this morning after getting her spayed. She is doing fine and will get a lot of pampering now. 

On a personal note. Jim thinks that I am a dog hater. I wouldn't say that I hate dogs. If you were to ask me if I could have a dog or a cat, I would always choose the cat. I guess it's time to go outside and kick some puppies, according to Jim. LOL. JK. I am not going to kick puppies! 

Tales from the SSUVFL

The SSUVFL stands for Super Secret Undisclosed Virus Free Location. I just thought that I would share that with anyone who happens to read this and doesn't know what I am referring too. It is what we call our home somewhere in Minnesota. Those that have been here are sworn to secrecy under penalty of a vicious herpes outbreak, should they choose to divulge the location. ( I'm talking to you Jethro!)

This past week I got up out of bed to use the facility like so many old people due all night long. I often go to our front door and look out at our surroundings. Ever watchful for marauders, Sasquatches and the relentless politician. Lo and behold! What do my wandering eyes see? A kitten. Right out in front of our front door. So I hastily shuffle back to the bedroom to get my glasses to make sure that I saw what I saw. Sure enough. A kitten. So I went to our garage door and opened to see if the kitten would come to me but it ran away. So I put out some food for it and went to bed. That was at 3:18 AM. What!?

In the morning the food looked like it was partially eaten. We then started working on "Operation Kitten Rescue". The second night I saw the kitten come for food around 11 pm.

So I went to the door again and it ran soon as it heard the door open. Well, that's not working. I thought for sure I could run over there and with my Ninja like reflexes capture it. But once a black cat runs out into the night it is very hard to see.

Day 3. Plan "B" had to be developed. Lisa's mom has a live trap so I went over to borrow that from her. The trap was set and all we had to do was wait.

Now you can tell from my commentary on the videos how shocked I was. That raccoon was way too fat to even get in the cage. Good thing because I wouldn't know what to do if he did. That was the first visitor of the evening. A little while later we had another visitor.

I really amaze myself with my commentary. Why was I not a play by play sports announcer? 

You can tell by my voice that we have made a grave mistake. I ran into the bedroom to wake up sleeping beauty to tell her the good news. I said excitedly "We caught something!" All she said was "What, a skunk?" She's a mind reader now. Well I had to get it out of the cage. Here is where Lisa gave me a hand.

I did not get sprayed. However the cage took a direct hit. Boy, did that stink. Well that was enough fun for night 3.

Day 4. I set up the cage again but didn't have high hopes since it stunk so bad. 

Who would have ever thought that if you put a little bit of cat food out by your front door that you would get so many animals visiting. So at the end of night 4, I didn't really think that we would have any luck. We have not seen the kitten for 2 nights now and with the fox sighting I was sure that it was his dinner at one time.

Day 5. I was really hesitant about putting more food out. Not knowing what was going to show up next. I mean we haven't seen the bear yet. Plus that cage reeks of skunk. I sprinkled a little food in it and checked it the next morning. Nothing. Poured my coffee and looked at the Facebook. Coffee done and wisdom accomplished, I checked the trap again.

We finally caught it. It is kind of feral so we don't know what we are going to do with it. We are hoping to turn it into a barn cat. We have had it for several days now and it will let us pick it up and hold it. It does like that because it will purr and purr.

Did I tell you that the kitten also smells like skunk? It does, from being in the same cage that a skunk sprayed. It is smelling better after several days though. I guess I owe my mother-in-law a new cage. LOL.

So that is our excitement for the week.

I also wanted to add one more thing that I forgot to mention in our past posts. We sold our fifthwheel. We decided to sell it because we have not used it in two years and not using them is hard on them also. So hopefully the next owner will get as much enjoyment out of it as we did. 

It was a sad day when that left. Just looking back at all of the places we have been to with that. The adventures we had in it. The years that we lived in it. So we are no longer full-time RVers. Not even part timers. We still have our pickup camper if we get the urge to go somewhere.

Until inspiration hits me again.

Soup Trailer Wrap Up

 

 

Soup Season end.

The day has finally arrived. We had our last event of the season. We are done slinging soup and sandwiches. We started mid April and ended mid October. 80 events this year as opposed to 92 last year.

Now let me get into some numbers. There's not a day that goes by when I don't get a message from Harry. Always asking us how much soup we sold. If you ask him about it he will deny it. He is so obsessed with soup for some reason. In fact he messaged us saying that he had a great idea for soup. He thought it would be awesome if we could sell deep fried soup on a stick. What?! To which I had to ask if he had been talking to Jim. Jim's idea was to puree our meatball hoagie so that he could eat it like soup. Talk about a couple of weirdos.

So, the numbers. 2,925 transactions for 2024 versus 2,596 for 2023. 1,747 sandwiches for 2024 as opposed to 1,520 sandwiches in 2023. Now the soup totals. 803 12 oz. bowls of soup for 2024. Down a little from 2023 of 919 bowls. 75 gallons for 2024. 86 gallons for 2023.  8 oz. cups of soup. 674 in 2024 and 321 for 2023. That makes 42 gallons of soup compared to 2023's 20 gallons. This year we did soup/sandwich combos. That is why the cups were up. Plus for sandwiches you need to add 473 half sandwiches to the 1,747 full sandwiches. So in a nutshell, we sold 117 gallons of soup. Harry and Jim did not buy one ounce. I really don't know why they are so concerned about it.

We are so done for the season. As a sign from above, our trailer said that it was also done for the year. We were backing it into the barn when we noticed one tire going flat.

Luckily, we got it in the barn and will take care of it later. 

Something I would like to share from the other day. Minnesota has four seasons. Summer has ended now and fall is here and as always, the weather gets cooler. Don't get alarmed. It's not climate change as so many people try to scare you with. Actually it is, but our climate here changes 4 times a year.

Anyways, I walk into our new living room and it is kind of cool. I notice that Lisa has the window wide open. I also noticed that Lisa is sitting in her recliner dressed like this. She has on heavy duty hiking socks, leggings, a thermal long sleeve shirt, a hoody over that, and wrapped in a blanket. 

I said to her, "What are you doing?"

"I'm sitting on my heating pad because my back hurts" was her reply.

"Why's the window open?" I said. "It's cold in here".

To which she says this. "I'm hot."

So many things went through my mind. Like, take off the hoody? Take off the blanket? Turn down the heating pad? 

What are we going to do with all this free time now? We still have time to enjoy our property.

The fall colors are in full bloom right now. With fall we get a few nuisance insects. With cool nights and warm days these bugs are trying to get into warm places. Namely our house. One is Black flies.

These were trapped between the window and screen. I don't even know how they got in there. They will find their way into the house. At least once a day I will go around to all of the windows with the vacuum hose and suck them up. I have named this daily ritual "The Bug Suck".

The second annoying bug is the "Asian Beetle".

I hate those things with a passion. They seek out warm areas and right now the warmest thing around is our house. They are literally crawling all over the house trying to get in. Also, if you are outside trying to enjoy the last few warm days, the bugs crawl all over you. Now you are just supposed to brush them off because if you swat them, they emit a foul stench and leave an orange stain on your skin or clothes. But it is really hard not to swat them because those little b***ards bite. 

They are an invasive species now with very few predators. 

We will also have time to finish the house. We would surely like to get that done soon. So, more news after we decompress for awhile.

Back by popular Demand!

 "DOCTOR! DOCTOR!" I yelled as best I could.

In through the door came the most voluptuous nurse I have ever seen. Through bloodshot and blurry eyes I could barely make out her name tag. Feelgood. Nurse Feelgood. You have got to be kidding me, I thought. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. Sure enough, it said Feelgood.

"Nurse Feelgood." I said. "Where am I? What happened to me?" 

A million other questions racing through my head. Like, "What's a beautiful nurse doing in a place like this? Does she have a sister named Bambi Poledancer that lives in South Dakota? What time is my sponge bath?"

Before I could get any answers she said "I've paged your Doctor. He wanted to know the minute you woke up."

In through the door came Doctor, I kid you not, Bonebreaker. 

"You've finally woken up, Mr Allejandro. You've been in a coma for  5 months." he said.

"What? You're kidding right? What day is it?" was all I could say.

"It is the beginning of September, 2024. Do you remember anything, anything at all Mr Allejandro?"

"Please, call me Tango. All I remember is that we, my wife Gladys and I, were getting ready for soup season. Soup season is big where we come from. Bigger than fishing season and lasts almost as long. We were slinging soup over there and over there and pretty much everywhere. I remember I had a ladle in one hand and a Cheesey Sasquatch in the other. I don't remember anything after that. My wife? Where is she?"

Nurse Feelgood jumped in here. "I can answer that Mr. Alej......ah, Tango. I was reading one of those garbage blogs. You know the ones. The ones like the National Enquirer. According to this blog she became a detective somewhere. Hunting down animal haters or something like that. I really didn't read the whole thing because it was such garbage. I printed it if you want to see it, although I think I may have lined the bottom of the birdcage with it."

"That can't be." I said. "She hates guns. She pretty much hates anything that makes a loud noise."

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of Our Lives".*(Slogan for the soap opera, Days of Our Lives.

Why did I open with all of that nonsense? I wanted to show a particular blogger that I too, can write fiction, so that if he doesn't want to become my next subject, he should cease and desist. But if you don't know what I am talking about I will share his link here. Jim's fictional tale.

Well it is the beginning of September and Lisa and I are looking back now and going, "Where the heck did summer go?" We have had such a busy summer with our food trailer that the time literally just flew by. Not kidding there. As I write this the number of events we have left are in the teens now. We will still go to the middle of October but we can see the end in sight. We have done fewer events than our first year, but we have picked up larger ones than we had the first year also. 92 events opposed to 80 this year. 

Things have gone easier than our first year and we are much more comfortable with what we are doing. Fewer hurdles in our way and we keep learning more all of the time. We have met so many great people out there. Other food vendors who we don't see as competition but rather as partners. More trailers attract more people. So many places we return to over and over again because we like the people there and a few we have become friends with. (Secret, we are not people, people) 

Things that happen quite often:

1) There are so many events we go to with lots of people. So many times someone will come up to our window and first ask us if we take cash? Uh, yes? "Good, all I have is a hundred dollar bill". I feel like we should change our name to Lone Pine Soup Company and Bank.

2) I don't take the orders. Lisa does because I would not have the patience for it. People will walk up and ask,"What do you recommend?" or "What's your favorite thing to eat?" Come on people, make your own decisions. My answer would be like "A cheeseburger, now get the heck out of here!"

3) Special orders. I get used to making things the way we advertise them. But people always will want something omitted or added or changed. I have thrown a lot of food away because I did not see the special order part.

4) My favorite. People will order their food and than ask if they can get it to go. We are a food trailer. Of course you are getting it to go. Do you think we are going to let you eat it inside? See my eyes rolling?

So, we are nearing the end of our second year and looking forward to putting the trailer away for the season. Then we can finally take a day off before we start booking for next year. And when I say we, I mean Lisa. LOL. I will finally have time to finish the work in the cabin.

Speaking of the cabin, we finally got to our flooring. We hired that done, because there was no way I could get down on my knees for days working on that. I'm not called "Cripple Guy Construction" for nothing. Don't get me wrong. I could probably get down on the ground. Getting up would be the problem. It really looks great.

Hallway.

Boom-boom room.

Kitchen.

We have not had flooring for 3 years. It's like living in a house.

Living room.

The carpet in the living room and bedroom sure is nice. Now all I have left is trim work. Miles and miles of trim. Some of that stuff is not cheap. 

We have also managed to spend time with the grandkids. We can't believe that they have started school and pre-school now. 

That is it in a nutshell. 

Soup Season is Here!

 We knew this day would come eventually. I mean we have been reading the signs the universe has been giving us. It started with a whisper in the breeze. Very faint at first. "Sssssoooouuuupppp." Gradually it became louder and louder. "We want soup." Until finally we couldn't ignore it any more. "SOUP!!!!!!!!" So finally we have put our cabin remodel on the back burner and made all of the preparations for soup season. April 19th will be our first event.

We are in full soup mode now. Last year we had around 35 soup events booked by this time for the year. Lisa has really been proactive this year, booking over 60 events already. It promises to be a very busy and fun year. We have many new events and new places that we will be at. 

But first let me finish updating you with the cabin remodel.

In the last blog we had gotten three bedroom walls and the ceiling done. Two walls and the ceiling done in the family room and nothing in the closet and hallway. The next things that needed doing was to have the  windows installed and cutting a walkway from the existing cabin to the new addition. Lisa planned on a contractor to install the windows and I am so glad she did. It was way beyond my skill level and I am not too proud to admit that.

The outside wall where the windows will go.

Bedroom window installed.

They installed them the correct way by removing the steel siding on the outside. Cutting the hole and then installing the window. If I would have done that it would have been so wrong. Glad I did not do it. So glad. It took two guys two days to put those in. 

Inside view from the family room.

Inside the bedroom view.

It's like they have always been there.

While that was getting done, I had to do a job I was kind of dreading. Cutting through our wall to connect the rooms. Never have I ever. I removed the wood carefully that we put up on the wall a couple of years ago. Next I surgically removed the sheet rock.

At this point, most construction people would just use a sledge hammer and tear it all apart. Not caring about what got destroyed because they would just rebuild it. Not me. The less I have to rebuild the better.

It helped knowing how I built the wall in the first place. The electrician already rerouted the electrical lines.

Ready for the opening.

I started by drilling a hole in each corner between the studs so that I could get my saws all in there. Lisa made a short video of what that sounded like inside.

Once one hole was done, I would move to the next section and repeat.

After there where two holes, I would then cut out the stud in between them. Working that way, I was always ready for Lisa to tell me that that was the size she wanted or I could keep going to make it wider.

She finally went with the widest it could be.

It was a good choice. After a little tweaking (No Jim, I did not say twerking) I replaced the sheet rock and the wood around the opening to finish it off.

Now with the windows in and the opening cut out, I could finish putting up the rest of the walls. Which I did.

Family room.

Hallway.

Looking into the family room.

After going over budget a little on the wood and windows, we decided to do the closet a little differently. We took some plywood and Lisa torched it with a propane torch. We then used that on the walls. 

Torched closet walls and natural pine ceiling. 

I think it works. So now we are at a work stoppage. We are waiting for the electrician to come back and hook up the lights and outlets. We are going to put carpet in those rooms because those rooms do not have floor heat. It is all coming together.

The rest of the summer will be doing the finishing work. Trim mostly. Looking for furniture and moving in to enjoy it all. In between soup events that is. 

On a more personal note. I had a milestone birthday a few weeks back. The big 60. It was really no big deal for me. I don't know why. When I turned 30, I thought life was ending for sure. But now look at me. I groan when I sit down or stand up. It's just expected. Lisa can stop rolling her eyes like when I was doing that in my thirties. I joined a mature adult organization. Not AARP. It is called GOFA. Grumpy Old Folks Association. Do you know how I know that that is the organization for me? One day the grandkids were being loud. I said to them, "Shut up! Or I'm going to rip off your arm and beat you with the bloody stump!"

LOL. That really didn't happen, or did it? All I know for sure is that there is quiet around our house.

May the soup be with you.