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Breakfast at Anton’s (365:155)
Time for a ‘Hungry Student’ and lots of coffee (365:155) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved -
Van Repairs (365:154)
Van Repairs (365:154) A few days ago the van’s AC went on the blink again. This time it’s jammed on, which is better than it not working at all. It blows air even when the fan’s turned off. Google came to the rescue, after some quick tests I paid $80 to the dealer for the new part, and I fitted the new fan controller.
I also went and got the the punctured tyre fixed today.
Today’s alternate shot
Only in the bible belt will you find a copy of the ten commandments in the waiting area of the tyre repair shop. -
Enough! (365:153)
Enough! (365:153) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved Keeping this project going is becoming a chore and is taking up too much of my time.
So I’m pausing for a while to decide how to best complete it. I’ll keep taking pictures and post them later.
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Pumping Gas (365:152)
Pumping Gas. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Is no longer a gas. In fact, it’s darned expensive, even though the price has now dropped back slightly to $3.53 a gallon.
I took this on my way back from a meeting at church. The rest of my day was spent in preparations for our upcoming trip to the UK.
I managed to spend some time on the ‘phone to my son Keith, whose birthday was over the weekend while we were away. It was nice to chat. That and the preparations have put me in a better frame of mind about the trip, which I admit I have quite mixed feelings about.
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May 2011
It’s been an expensive and disastrous month.On the plus side we did get to go hiking (twice), and backpacking for three days. Bringing the yearly totals up to 54 and 51 miles respectively. So far this year we’ve spent 12 nights out camping.
On the negative side, I’ve finished year one of my EFM course and I’m going to miss it. Then there was the accident with my hand: painful and very costly. The cats managed to break my camera, which (hindsight tells me) will cost more to replace than my medical bills, and the camera will subsequently be repaired for just $15.
1. Living with cats, 2. Drawing, 3. Making huaraches, 4. Crossing Camp Creek, 5. At the High School Orchestra concert, 6. Studying with cats, 7. EFM Retreat, 8. Lighting test, 9. Saké, 10. Processing, 11. Gary and a milling machine, 12. Broken Nikon Lens Mount, 13. Walmart veggies section, 14. Late night Saturday, 15. Three x-rays, one tetanus shot and twelve stiches later, 16. Workshop Accident, 17. Studying outside, 18. Clearing up the workshop, 19. Gary and Ginger being nauseating in the hall, 20. Sock puppet, 21. Muddy feet, 22. Sunday night movie, 23. Antibiotic, 24. Return, 25. Lights, camera, inaction, 26. Bull Shoals Lake – Normal Pool Elevation 654, 27. Off backpacking for the weekend, 28. Just before I stuck my head in the falls behind me, 29. Lunch by the bluffs on Long Creek, 30. Waking up in the tent without the fly sheet set, 31. New Gloves
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New Gloves (365:151)
New Gloves (365:161)Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I guess there’s no need to explain why.
I found these in a very nifty Farmers shop we visited today. It had all sorts of farm related goodies.
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Waking up (365:150)
Waking up (365:150). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. For once we didn’t hang around too long drinking coffee and eating breakfast.
Even then, it was still ten am before we were back on the trail. It took us an hour and three quarters to hike the two and a half miles back to the trailhead, which included a 550 foot gain in elevation.
Along the way, we saw a very large black snake sunning itself. This was obviously the weekend of the ticks, mosquitoes, and snakes. Just before we arrived back at the trailhead, I’d decided I’d had enough and it was about time the hike stopped, so my timing was quite good. We chatted for a couple of minutes with a guy who had three horses out on the trail, and then it was time to pack up and leave. Well if we hadn’t got a flat tyre we would have left. I couldn’t be bothered to swap the tire, so I got out our portable compressor/jump start machine which Jim and Carol had given us for Christmas with just this sort of eventuality in mind.
It put air in the tire alright, but it took a long time. The motor overheats and cuts out after a while, so you have to let it cool down before proceeding. It took 30-45 minutes to get the tire up to pressure. It was nigh on one pm before we finally left the trailhead.
Distance hiked: 15 miles and a total of around 1,000 feet of elevation climbed.
On our way to pick up Lanie from her grandparents, we went to Theodosia to see the Bull Shoals lake. The campsite and buildings there were completely underwater, which was just a foot or so short of the bridge deck. very impressive.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
Waking up in the tent without the fly sheet set. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
At the end of the hike. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Ginger enjoying her blow up pillow. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Missouri Primrose. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Flat tyre – Tower trail head, Hercules Glades. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Highway 160 Bridge at Theodosia, Missouri. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Lunch by the bluffs on Long Creek (365:149)
Stopped for lunch by Long Creek Today was hot.
Well over 80°F hot. We had another really lazy start to the day. We didn’t break camp until gone eleven. As we thought, we’d stopped for the night about a quarter-mile from the West Devils Den trail, which we hiked down today. There was a wonderful glade section that looked almost alpine. Again there were no signs of recent usage, which is to be expected with the Coy Bald trail head closed by the lake flooding over the access road. There were several fresh trees down, making for a bit of a scramble in places. The final descent to Devils Den Creek was fairly steep and potentially treacherous with loose rock.
We stopped for lunch by the bluffs on Long Creek, and decided camp at the western campsite at the falls if it wasn’t occupied. All we had to do was get there. We hiked the Rock Spring trail back to Long Creek trail. Near where the East Devils Den trail meets Rock Spring trail there’s an old stock pond, which had frogs that sounded like electronic sheep it. I named them ‘Sheep Frogs’. Back home we discovered that there are indeed frogs called sheep frogs – because of their bleating call.
Along Rock Spring trail we tried to spot the place where there’s an old stock pond, spring box, and small decrepit hut. But we couldn’t spot it. That’s twice we’ve failed to find it. Neither the spring, stock pond or building are marked on any of the maps.
Back at The Falls the upper campsite was occupied so we stopped and enjoyed the view for a while. Sunning itself near the falls was a large 4 foot plus Midland water snake. Very pretty, looking in the falls we saw another three much smaller snakes swimming. I’m glad I didn’t spot it yesterday when I was frolicking in the water. We decided to camp at the site we’d spotted yesterday a mile or so up Long Creek. When we arrived we found the site had been used the night before, but it had been left if fairly good condition. Search around for access to Long Creek we found a second campsite further back in the brush. The creek here had an overhanging shelf to the West and a small set of foot high falls to the East. We set up camp, picked up our dinner, stove and chairs and went down to the creek to refill our water, bathe, eat dinner and sit and enjoy the view.
It wasn’t long before the voracious mosquitoes got the better of us and we headed back to the bug-free haven of the tent. I was already covered in large welts from earlier encounters with the beasts. Again we didn’t set the fly, it was just too hot.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
Having filtered some more water, I put my water bottle in the creek to keep it cool.
I’m glad I didn’t see this the day before when I was frolicking in the pool. There were three smaller ones in the pool swimming.
A nice refreshing, freezing cold dip in the creek. Just the thing after a hot day.
Relaxing by the creek
We camped near this great spot on the creek.
Gary by Long Creek
Ginger Stirring dinner -
Just before I stuck my head in the falls behind me (365:148)
Just before I stuck my head in the falls behind me (365:148). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Invigorating was one word for it.
I don’t have a picture taken after my encounter with the falls; I am trying to be a bit more careful with the camera around water nowadays. Especially as we currently only have one working camera between us.
Despite our best efforts we lazed around over our morning coffee and breakfast and didn’t get going until gone ten.
Our efforts to lighten our packs have paid off. Ginger’s weighed in at 27lbs and mine at 29lbs both including food and water. We took Pole Hollow trail down to Long Creek. The trail started easily enough in glades, but the lower end was very dense with vegetation and some fallen trees were blocking the trail. The trail, in common with most of the trails we walked (with the exception of the popular long creek trail) didn’t appear to have been walked much recently. Away from Long Creek, the trails seemed almost deserted, we saw four people on horseback on our first day and that was it.
We both picked up loads of ticks along the way. This set the scene for the entire trip. We lost count of the number of ticks we removed, both attached and running free. There were small seed ticks, deer ticks, and the aptly named lone star ticks. Deet didn’t seem to discourage them much. We were both wearing shorts which at least made it easy to spot the darned things before they could go too far.
Poison ivy was also prevalent along the trails, mainly in forested areas in patches where the cover had been cleared. Hiking in bare feet and shorts I worked on honing my poison ivy spotting skills. Though primarily I avoid contact with any triple leaved green thing. I must be doing something right as over the weekend we bushwhacked a fair way, and encountered a lot of poison ivy, and I didn’t get afflicted by it.
The lower end of Pole Hollow Trail has moved a few hundred yards to the west of the route shown on the trailhead maps.
Once on Long Creek Trail, we headed west to the falls. About a mile from the falls we spotted a campsite just off the trail, which we noted for future use, knowing that the falls area is very popular and tends to get more than a bit gross. With all the recent rain Long creek was running well and has to be crossed several times. With all the new growth in some places it was quite tricky to spot where the trail picked up on the opposite side of the creek. At the falls both campsites at the falls were occupied, our plan was only to stop for lunch so we sat out by the falls which were running quite well. I used the wood burner to boil water for lunch (slow but successful) and took advantage of the deeper pools to bathe. Gosh, it was cold! And that was where today’s picture was taken.
We filled up with a massive (and heavy at over 12lbs) 6 liters of water as we were headed North behind the Upper and Lower Pilot knobs for the night and we weren’t sure if we’d find water there.
After lunch we rearranged our packs so I wasn’t carrying too much weight, headed back along Long Creek Trail and then up Cedar Trail, which was quite rocky going, the recent rain has cleared out any loose material on the trail. It was a nice hike uphill through a fairly densely wooded area. Once back up on Pilot trail we headed West, finally camping well off-trail to the North near the junction with West Devils Den trail.
After dinner, I tried using the wood burner as a campfire with mixed results. We decided not to set the fly, spending the night under the open sky.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
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Off backpacking for the weekend (365:147)
I don’t know where my head was today.
Wherever it was, it wasn’t focused on getting ready to go backpacking. I spent the morning and early afternoon processing pictures and writing my journal. I was desperate to get it done before the weekend when we’d be taking more pictures and I would have even more to write. I finally gave it up as a lost cause and turned my attention to getting ready for the weekend. Mid-afternoon the grandparents arrived to collect Lanie, and Ginger took Katie off to spend the weekend with a friend. Alek and Getzger are in charge.It was gone five before we were ready to leave, and then we left twice. I forgot my water bottle and we decided it was too important to leave behind. This was a good decision because we later discovered Ginger’s hydration bladder had sprung a leak – getting a lot of stuff in her backpack wet in the process. By using our big 6-liter ‘camp’ bladder we were able to get by just using our water bottles – though it meant I had to carry most of the water.
Have I mentioned that the van’s AC has packed up again? It’s not quite so bad this time as the fan is jammed on, full-on. Even when the AC is turned off it runs full blast. At least this means we still have AC which is a lot better than last year. Ginger had done some research on the Internet earlier in the day. Pulling out the glove box she managed to reach inside and disconnect the wires leading to the running amok blower. This enabled us to enjoy the drive without a gale blowing at us.
It was gone seven pm by the time we’d finally arrived at our destination, the Tower trailhead at Hercules Glades, which is where today’s picture was taken. We were finally ready to start our weekend’s backpacking. Well almost. I left my pedometer on the back bumper of the van and had to go back for it. We hiked around a mile along Pilot trail. Just before the point where Pole Hollow trail joins we went a short distance off-trail to find a nice quiet camping spot. By the time we’d finished putting up the tent, it was dark. Just time for dinner then bed.
I took three luxury items on this trip. A book, my wood burning stove and its pot. I wanted to give the stove a try out on the trail. Tonight though we used the good old Coleman Exponent stove. It’s a tad heavy but is proving to be very reliable and easy to use.
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Bull Shoals Lake – Normal Pool Elevation 654′ (365:146)
Bull Shoals Lake – Normal Pool Elevation 654′ (365:146). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Currently the elevation is 696′. That’s a foot over its fully flooded design capacity.
The weather and its impact here in the midwest continue to amaze me. With all the rain we’ve had recently the lakes are full to overflowing. All this run-off will flood people locally and later on just add to the misery of the people already flooded all the way down the Mississippi.
I’ve sat and thought for a couple of minutes, I’ve no idea what I did most of yesterday. I think I was just clearing minor ‘to-dos’.
One thing I did do yesterday was read this blog post about the Joplin tornado. There have been lots of pictures showing how bad the devastation was, but the words of this ER doctor who was in the hospital when the tornado hit really brings home the carnage that can take place in just 45 seconds.
In the meantime, life carries on. We were planning on leaving Getzger and Alek in charge of the house this weekend, sending Lanie to the grandparents, and going backpacking with Katie. At her request, I should add. I thought this sounded like too much of a good thing, and sure enough this afternoon she came up with a plan to stay with a friend. Suits us; it means we can hike a longer trail, and not worry about the weather either. So we’ll probably be off to Hercules Glades.
Today’s picture shows the road leading to one of the possible trailheads for our weekend backpacking adventure. The only problem is that with all the rain we’ve had this year, despite all the floodgates being open, the lake is a foot over its designed capacity. That’s forty-one (41) feet deeper than normal, and it means the access road to the trailhead will be submerged. Fortunately, there are another couple of trailheads that aren’t affected by the lake. I’m glad we checked.
Ginger wants to visit Theodosia at some point this weekend, just to see the bridge as the lake is almost up to the bridge deck.
Finding water is normally a problem at Hercules Glades but with all the rain there should be plenty of seeps and standing water. It may even prove too difficult to cross Long Creek. we’ll see.
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Lights, camera, inaction (365:145)
Lights, camera, inaction (365:145). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This was going to be another of those late night leaning against the wall shots.
I was up at five am and on the ‘phone to my bank in the UK. Apparently, there is a $2,500 hold on my account, so that explains why my card was declined in Walmart last night. This sum coincidently matches the cost of the tickets for our trip to the UK. This might be understandable except for the fact that the tickets are already paid for. The bank says it’ll take up to seven days before the hold will clear if the transaction isn’t processed (WTF!). Well at least my card details don’t appear to have been stolen.
To cut a long story short, it appears the American Airlines website’s back end processing sucks. They’ve managed to put a hold on my account and also charge me for a pair of return tickets to the UK. Unless I put more money into my account to cover the nonexistent deficit I can’t use my bank card until it resolves itself. Great.
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Return (365:144)
Return (365:144). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Second day at the computer working on websites.
The work’s done and posted, as illustrated in today’s photo. All I need is the customer feedback, complete the inevitable changes and then to make it live. I guess I ought to clean my keyboard – this looks disgusting.
It seems we have a hand / finger theme developing this week. Vittles were getting low requiring a trip to Walmart, which was blessedly quiet after ten pm. All the aisles were chock full of palettes for restocking, blocking access and imposing long detours for life’s essentials such as kitty food, kitty litter and vodka. To top the experience off my debit card was declined.
Back home, while tasting the just purchased vodka, I checked in on my bank account. Despite there being ample funds it was showing an ‘available balance’ in the ‘you are about to get a threatening letter from your bank’ region. Expletive deleted.
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Late night glass of water (365:144)
Well, it is a picture, and I took it today. It meets the 365 Days criteria, what more could I want? Whatever artistic excellence and inspiration there was is on the decline again.
The day was spent on web development. I updated the church website with information about the Joplin tornado relief effort and sent out an e-mail updating people. I finished the day working on web pages for a customer. The latter is paid work, but with some scope creep it doesn’t pay enough.
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Antibiotic (365:143)
Antibiotic (365:143) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The wonders of hindsight enable me to declare this ‘the week of the digit’. It also enables me to declare this the week of extreme photographic, and probably documentary apathy. There’s a chance it might end up being only four days of digits and not a week. We’ll see.
Today we had lunch with Jim and Carol (missed Photo op). This evening I took the last of my antibiotics. Hardly an event worthy of a picture, but that’s all I’ve got.
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Sunday night movie (365:142)
Sunday night movie (365:142). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It was another day of missed photo opportunities and a sobering reminder of the fragility of our existence.
I left Ginger and Katie at home, fast asleep and went to the 9 am service. With the children’s choir away I figured attendance would be low. I was right, it was so low there were no ushers, so my friend Edna and I stepped up to the plate (so to speak) with the ushing. This constituted my first missed photo opportunity of the day. I’m sure I could have snuck a quick picture of the pair of us stuck at the back of the church without attracting too much attention.
Back home after church, Ginger took the stitches out of my thumb and finger (another potential picture). It wasn’t quite the success I was hoping for, as within minutes my thumb was bleeding and the wound started to gape a bit. Butterfly closures pulled it back together again though I think we’ve managed to increase any scarring.
I was back at church just after twelve to collect Lanie on her return from the choir trip. That was another picture opportunity missed.
Later in the afternoon I took Katie to the mall parking lot to drive around, yet another chance for a photograph lost. Katie drove around the lot for over an hour. I then took her to try some of the quieter roads near our house, returning home just before six.
By the time we got home there was a tornado watch in place, and the sky was getting really dark. We spent a lot of time watching the radar as a big storm moved in towards Springfield from the west. Outside you could hear the constant rumble and roar of it even though it was over forty miles away. It wasn’t long before we started to see messages on Facebook and Twitter reporting a tornado devastating Joplin some sixty miles to the west. As I write this (Monday pm) the death toll is up to 116, and I fear that may not be the end of it.
In the UK sixty miles is a long way away. From where I lived, sixty miles would see you in France. Something happening that far away would not have the relevance and impact it does here in the midwest, where sixty miles is just down the road; you feel connected with the people affected. You know people with friends and family there. There’s even a chance that some debris from such a storm will end up in your backyard. There are already sites set up to try and reunite people with the missing documents, letters, and photographs scattered in the wind.
A combination of the topography of the Ozark hills and the rotation of the weather system took the worst of the storm to the south of us. Which was good as we don’t have a shelter – just the hall closet which is reserved for the cats and Lanie’s closet which is reserved for us people. Looking at how the buildings were flattened in Joplin it looks like it’d be pretty hard to survive a hit like that in a closet, which naturally makes one stop and think.
As the storm cleared over Springfield we were treated to a spectacular rainbow, some very strange yellow light, similar to the light we encountered on our last brush with a tornado while backpacking back in December. Another chance for a picture missed.
We ended the day watching the movie Thank you for Smoking, which contrary to our expectations was good. That’s when I finally got my act together and took today’s self-portrait.
As for the weather, it’s going to be very unstable for the next few days. Lots of storms and rain. Let’s hope that the conditions for tornadoes are unfavorable.
Today’s extras
Yellow light. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
So ends a fair day in wrath. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Muddy feet (365:141)
Muddy feet (365:141). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. After yesterday’s rain it was a bit muddy on the Sac River trail today.
But I revel in squelching through mud and splashing through creeks so I had great fun. Ginger and Lanie on the other hand had to dodge the mud and puddles. The colors, especially the greens were very vibrant today. We got back home from a quick four-mile hike just in time for Lanie to grab a shower before I took her down to church to go on an overnight choir trip.
In the evening we booked tickets for our visit to the UK in June, only to find another darned volcano has started spewing forth smoke and such in Iceland. This time last year there was total chaos with the trans-Atlantic flights, let’s hope that it doesn’t become an issue again.
We now need to plan all the people we want to see and the visits we want to make while we’re away. We’re planning on backpacking too which can be a challenge in the UK.
Today’s alternate shot & extras
More muddy feet. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Ginger and Lanie. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Little Sac RiverCopyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Sac River Trail. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Sock puppet (365:140)
Sock puppet (365:140) It was late and I was running out of ideas, so here’s me and the sock I’ve been wearing on my hand at night to stop my stitches getting caught.
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Ginger was out for the day with Rebbie and I spent most of the day idling. However, I did clear a couple of items off of my to-do list. It rained a lot, which here means 1-2 inches in an hour or so, and it kept on raining for quite some time. We are planning on going hiking tomorrow, so that might prove interesting.
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Gary and Ginger being nauseating in the hall (365:139)
Today was the last EFM class for this academic year.
I spent most of the day reading notes and working on the exercise for tonight’s class. I thought I’d take a picture at tonight’s class to mark the end of the year, but we ate dinner first thing and then sat in the parish hall talking and going through this week’s exercise. I was so engrossed in what we were doing I forgot all about the picture. So it’s another ‘late night back against the wall’ effort today.
Ginger tried and succeeded in livening things up a bit for me and I’ve decided to go with the picture of us being nauseating over the more formal pose. I love my wonderful wife.
Alternate shot: Just me -
Clearing up the workshop (365:138)
Clearing up the workshop (365:138) It’s time to clear up the workshop, I had been holding off doing this. Not because I now have an aversion to the workshop, but because clearing up and putting everything away is an admission that my lack of care Sunday means I can’t finish the Backpacking stove project I started. Facing ones own stupidity can be hard at times.
At least the van can now be kept in the garage again. Besides clearing up and putting stuff away, I read some, but not all of the course notes, so I will have to finish them tomorrow.
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This morning my watch stopped. It’s a perpetual mechanical divers’ watch, which relies on movement to wind it up. Obviously, I’ve been keeping my injured arm too still to wind it. I’ve moved my watch over to my right hand where it feels most odd, but it is still going.
