-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
***
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.
-
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.
***
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.
-
Studying in the back yard (365:137)
Studying in the back yard (365:137) The yard needs to be mowed, we’ll have to get a kid on to it. I had a quiet day studying. It’s my final class for this academic year on Thursday. Lots of reading has been done, just the course notes to read and exercise to get out of the way and I’m finished.
After the recent rain the grass really is that green, stunning. That’s it for today.
-
Remain Calm – This is only a drill… (365:136)
Remain Calm – This is only a drill… Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This is not today’s picture, it’s a picture I took back in December 2010. But it is very representative, as this is the tee shirt I just had to wear today. Anyway, it amused me. My actual picture for today is at the bottom of this post and shows my cut hand without bandages. It may be gross, but as this is my daily journal I wanted some record of it. You never know it might make me think twice before I do something stupid in the workshop again (I doubt it).
I’ve been very lucky. In fifty-five years, I’ve only been to the emergency room twice and spent one night in a hospital. I managed to avoid the broken bones and major scrapes that often dog childhood. Ginger on the other hand broke an arm and had seventy-two (yes, 72) stitches in her leg. I’ve worked with power tools for over thirty years, and this was my first nasty accident, though I have had a few near misses.
This accident has come as quite a shock. The injury isn’t that bad – it looks a bit gross, yes, and it is dammed inconvenient, but it’s not too bad. However, because this is my first major injury it seems to have been taking a disproportional prominence in my thinking. The fact that it was my own stupidity, rather than an unpredictable accident makes it worse for me. Especially as it didn’t even cross my mind at the time that what I was doing was unsafe. D’oh! As soon as I have enough dexterity back I need to get back out in the workshop and finish off making my burner. Not before I’ve bought some new, even tougher, gloves though. And I’m sure I’ll be clamping down everything in sight before I start work for quite a while to come.
***
I spent a lot of the day uploading pictures and I’ve started reading for my final class of this academic year. The final lesson is a double, plus we’ve been given an exercise to do so I’m going to be putting in a lot of hours this week studying.
Come the evening it was time for me to reluctantly remove and replace my bandages. I say me, but I couldn’t do it single-handed, so Ginger had to do most of the fiddling. It didn’t help that I’d bled through the gauze and that had glued the bandage on. It took a long time to soak and pick it off. Today’s picture shows the top of my thumb, where my thumb was sliced through. I didn’t think I’d cut my thumbnail, but a closer look at the picture shows how I’ve very neatly sliced right through it. It doesn’t look too bad until you realize that this is the back of the wound. I cut it all the way through from the front of the thumb. Yuck! This is shown in the second picture, which Ginger took for me.
That’s it. Hopefully, I can get my focus back onto other things now.
I didn’t notice until later that they’d put a stitch through my thumbnail. Makes sense though. 
What makes this really gross is realising that the cut goes all the way through. I was lucky to miss the bone. Photo by Ginger. -
Three x-rays, one tetanus shot and twelve stitches later (365:135)
Three x-rays, one tetanus shot and twelve stitches later (365:135). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Do not try this at home.
It was a fairly normal Sunday, church from 8.30am until around midday. Back at home, I finished processing the outstanding wedding pictures, and then for a break, I decided to work on my Mark III backpacking stove.
Everything was going fine until I decided to drill out the center of the plate that will form the gas burner air jets. I broke a fundamental workshop rule, and instead of clamping down the workpiece, I held it down with my hand. The step drill bit jammed in the workpiece and it proceeded to rotate at 2,000 rpm, I was wearing gloves but they provided no protection from the sharp tin of the plate which sliced into my thumb and middle finger.
Removing my glove it looked pretty bad, so I went to the bathroom to clean things up. Before I could even turn the tap on I’d collected a handful of blood in my spare hand, and I decided this was a hospital job. I wrapped my hand in a small cloth, applied pressure and waited for Ginger to take me to the emergency unit.
I had the presence of mind to try and prevent my getting blood all over the upholstery of the van, so I took a second rag which I used to catch the excess blood dripping from the first rag. Ginger is normally very good with medical emergencies. Not so this time. When we got to the hospital she left me in the van while she went and talked to her cousin who happened to be passing by – she’d forgotten I was unable to open the door. I thought it was funny.
Assuming everything heals as it should, I’ve had a lucky escape. I cut right through my thumb – including the nail, but the cut had gone length-wise, missing the bone (hence the x-rays; to check for bone damage). Ginger took a brief look while the wound was being cleaned, and described me as having a ‘forked thumb’. The most painful part of the whole thing – including slicing my hand was the injection of the pain killers, once they took effect I didn’t feel a thing. I laughed when they stuck a sticking plaster on the spot where they gave me my tetanus shot, it seemed a bit silly while I was dripping blood.
I totally forgot to take a camera to the hospital, and Ginger’s camera decided to die on us (that’s two cameras and one laptop FUBAR at the moment), so I ventured back into the workshop to take today’s picture. In it we have my bandaged fingers, the sliced glove, and sitting innocently in the background the plate I was drilling when the accident happened.
Once the hospital bill comes in, this could end up being one of the most expensive tin-can backpacking stoves ever built. Moral of the story? Always clamp down your workpiece.
Footnote: On the way back from school Monday, Katie told the story of another pupil who had been in the emergency unit for some stitches. She asked the guy sewing her up what was the worst thing he’d seen that day. He went on to tell her about my thumb…
-
Late-night Saturday (365:134)
Late-night Saturday (365:134). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Another day processing pictures.
While everyone else went about doing family stuff I stayed put at the computer processing more of the outstanding pictures. I did fairly well, and I ought to be able to finish them tomorrow.
In the morning the kids went to the opticians for eye tests. Two pairs of glasses are now needed, and Lanie went off on a book signing in the afternoon. She, along with some other Springfield children had poems selected to be published. I thought that was pretty neat. Only five kids from her school had their poem picked.
Being busy at the computer all day no real opportunites for a picture arose, so it’s another boring self portrait.
-
Walmart veggies section (365:133)
Walmart veggies section (365:133) We started the day with a few yard sales. There wasn’t a lot of useful stuff, but we did find someone with a reasonable taste in DVDs, so we bought a few.
Last night we had a fairly big storm. Big enough to bring down a couple of trees in the area, including our neighbor’s. He was lucky. The tree fell in his yard, taking out his power, but it missed his house.
Tonight before sitting back and watching one of our ‘new’ movies we went shopping in Wal-Mart. High on my list were the essential ingredients for White Russians, which we enjoyed later with the movie Catch me if you can.
-
Broken Nikon Lens Mount (365:132)
Broken Nikon Lens Mount (365:132) The good news is that we are spared another ‘Gary studying for EFM’ picture this week. Further good news: when I set up for this picture I decided to show the Nikon’s jammed mirror. I couldn’t get the shutter to fire at first because the battery was too low. After swapping the battery I tried again, and the mirror worked. I can only guess that a bit of plastic from the broken-off lens mount (which can be clearly seen in this picture) had got caught in the mechanism and somehow I’ve dislodged it. I did a thorough check inside but couldn’t find anything.
My day wasn’t a brilliant success though. Earlier on I tried installing Linux on my Netbook. A misunderstanding on my part meant I put Linux on the wrong drive. In trying to format the drive and install the OS on the other drive something has gone wrong and the Linux refuses to install with an obscure error message. The Netbook is currently doing service as a rather large paperweight until I can figure the problem out.
I’m now looking over my shoulder for the third thing to go wrong.
-
Gary and a milling machine (365:131)
Gary and a milling machine (365:131).Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today I visited an engineer’s playground.
But not until after I’d spent most of the morning processing pictures. It’s at a time like this I sometimes regret only shooting Raw images. I’m getting there, though another couple of days’ work and it’ll be done.
Ginger’s parents were back in town again today, and they took us for lunch to celebrate Carol’s birthday. After lunch, they had things to do, and I ought to have got some more pictures done, but instead, I fell asleep. They were back later in the afternoon, and Jim and I went off to a fantastic place. It was like an engineer’s yard sale; full of lathes, milling machines, drill presses, drill bits, gears, belts, bearings, motors, hydraulic actuators, compressors, welding equipment and lots of useful metal offcuts. I am very glad my wallet is empty, my workshop is tiny and I stick (generally) to our wanted list because there were loads of cool things to buy. Fortunately, we came away empty-handed. I couldn’t even find a small off-cut of sheet aluminium to make a lid for my backpacking cooking pot, which was the only thing on my list I might have found there.
I may not look that enthused in the picture, but I’d probably just wiped the drool off my chin, and I was most likely trying not to look too pleased with all the wonderful goodies scattered around the place.
-
Processing (365:130)
Processing (365:130) I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of a crash, with kitties in the house you get used to it, and I turned over and went back to sleep. I didn’t give it a second thought until Ginger came into the bedroom this morning saying how sorry she was. In her hand was the Nikon, in two pieces. A cat had knocked it over and the lens mount broke off. I had hoped that it was just the lens that got broken, but unfortunately, when I checked the camera body, the mirror is jamming too. Oh well, there’s nothing we can do about it. I’ll have to see if it’s economic to repair.
I spent all day processing wedding pictures there are over two hundred pictures worthy of processing; and a few I think are really nice candid shots.
To round the day off we watched the movie L.A. Confidential.
Had I not checked Facebook before going to bed I would have forgotten to take a picture today, so this is a late night re-enactment of my day spent processing pictures.
