Mid Century coolness

I've been thrifting as usual.. I just don't have enough old stuff, so here are my latest finds.  My mom had a set of this stardust flatwear and I've been looking and looking for a set but its sort of hard to come by.  I found this spoon at a thrift store in Montana.  I like spoons with holes in them for making poached eggs, and this one is perfect for the travel trailer.  One of my favorite things for breakfast is poached egg hummus and pita.  I fish the egg out of the water with a spoon like this, and this one has cool stardust holes.

Also I picked up a set of mid century wall art ducks to go with my similar pheasants.  There is only one duck in this picture, but there are three matching ducks and I have two pheasants.  All three ducks have their wings in different positions. I was pretty stoked when I found these ducks! You can check out my pheasants at this link.
mid century wall art pheasants 

Also I picked up this mid century lamp at an antique mall which goes nicely.  It wasn't exactly cheap but that's just it.  It isn't cheap, it's well made and you can have one two or all three of the lights on. I'm going to have the ducks fly around my Monte Dolack Suburban Refuge print (which I picked up framed for $5 in a Canadian thrift shop) and I'm going to use the lamp as a studio lamp.  The ducks and the lamp will be nice additions to the Gochenour collection.

Happy Valentines Day

I counted my lucky stars the night we met. There's a lot up in that sky.., so I should never run out.
Happy Valentines Day Queenie.

Pictures from around Radium and Fairmont BC

Here is a picture of the village of Radium and some trees on the hillside at Redstreak.  I always want to call it Red Steak for some odd reason.. If you click on the picture of Radium you can see where we stay lower center with a sort of a rounded pointed entrance.

And below is a picture of the hoodoos outside of Fairmont Hot Springs BC.  There's a Fairmont  Hot Springs Montana too..

What a lovely winter weekend it was in British Columbia.

I retain all rights to my photography.  Please do not use without permission.

Chair Lift picture

What's that white spot thing in my picture?  Oh it's the sun..  Haven't seen that thing for a few weeks.  I've been stuck below that large bank of cold damp clouds.  One very good reason to ski.

Charging problem Samsung Galaxy Tab 3

Last year I bought Queenie a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and it's been problem free for a year.  So this year I decided to get myself one and I bought the Tab 3.  The new version. 

I took it out of the box and plugged in the charger.  The screen sort of blinked a faint light then dark faint light then dark.  I thought it was charging after all night on the charger, when I turned it on it only had17% charge.

I discovered that it would only charge when it was turned on.  That didn't seem right.  So I went onlineto find information on how and when it should charge, and finally after a lot of searching found others were having the same problem.  

The tablet should charge when not turned on and a green battery symbol should appear on the screen.  There's no mention of this in the start up guide so that's why I'm posting this.  It should look like this:

If it doesn't look like that it's probably not charging. The problem would be that if you couldn't turn it on, then you wouldn't be able to charge it.  Mine came with enough charge to turn on, but I could see it going totally dead then not being able to charge.

I took it back to Walmart and they exchanged it no problem.  That's one reason I like shopping there.    Plus I bought the $28 two year replacement coverage which I figure on something like this is worth having.

It's a great little device for internet however.  It boots quickly, it wasn't that expensive and it's easy to travel with.

Inside of the bubble

Here's a pic of me inside of the bubble while being outside of the bubble.. And my new/ old jeep.

Lake Pend Oreille

It's grey and sloppy here today and I was wanting a little color in my world.  So here's a picture of my kayak on Lake Pend Oreille not far away in Idaho when the world was alive with color.  Looking forward to spring and all of the things that go along with it.

I retain the rights to all of my photos.

So this is Christmas

This is how we deal with Christmas when it's over at work.  Just put it in a box and take it out back.  Have someone put it in the furnace room when they get around to it..  We don't even bother to take the ornaments off of the little fake tree..

I used to think we should celebrate Christmas every four years like the olympics to keep it special but when I suggested that idea to a co-worker he pointed out that we wouldn't get a day and a half off that way.. Good point.

I really enjoyed being with family and friends but for some reason the Christmas spirit doesn't enter me at work.

Bitterroot River

Here's a picture from the Bitterroot in Montana on a frosty November morning.
(I reserve all rights to my photography, don't use without my permission)

Hipster hunter

Here's a picture of our hunting camp as we left one morning in the jeep to hunt. (I retain all rights to my photography so please dont take them without asking or I'll hunt you down)

And a picture of me hunting.. I'm not exactly a hipster hunter,.  The latest thing in hunting I guess.  Seriously,.I heard it on the CBC. I'm not even sure I'm hip,.. Those are deer tracks BTW.

I almost got a big buck though, just didn't get a long enough look at it to shoot.  There'll be no deer skin man purse for this hipster..

Buddy heater for camper

I have an old Bell slide in pickup camper that I use mainly for hunting. (not to be confused with our Aristocrat travel trailer seen in the pevious post)  Here's a pic of the Bell on the Ford.

For years I've been nursing the old Hydroflame furnace in the Bell camper.   I'd take it apart and clean out the orifice where the gas comes out into the burner.  It's a little hole that gets clogged up.  Then the burner won't burn properly.  I used an old guitar string for that task.  And that worked for quite a while.

Finally after several years of cleaning it out, the thermostat on the Hydroflame quit working so this year I decided to try a Buddy portable heater as a replacement.  

There are thee kinds. Big Buddy, Buddy and Little Budy.  The Big Buddy seemed to big for my camper, and the Little Budy too small as it just screws on the top of a propane canister.  But the Buddy seemed just right for this brown bear.  I tested it out the other night when it was freezing outside and inside the camper was in the mid 60s F with the heater set on low.  It only has low and high.

I didn't want to keep screwing the little propane canisters into this thing as they seem to be sort of an expensive waste to me, so I bought the propane hose and also the filter that you need to use with the hose.  That way I can have a regular propane tank outside of the camper and the heater inside. I'm able to feed the hose through my electrical cord access panel.

These heaters are safe to use inside but they do consume oxygen so you have to keep a window open.  So far this has been a good solution for replacing an old heater.  I'll let you know as I'm going to take this to late hunting camp soon.

***
Update:


It worked great! The temp dropped down to 21 deg F this weekend at hunting camp and the buddy set on low kept the camper in the 60s.  It was actually a little warm so I kept a few windows open a bit.

We figure it will go 128 hours set on low with 4 gallons of propane. (what you usually get in a regular propane tank) And it will use one of those green propane canisters every 4 hours on low.  But I just have it hooked up to a regular propane tank that sits outside of the camper.

Richard Nixon quote

Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

***
That's my favorite quote.  What I want to know is did he just come up with that off the top of his head or did he compose it?  I'd give anything to be able to just come up with stuff like that at the drop of a hat.  No wonder he got to be president..

Others may hate you?  I always thought you had to give people reasons to hate you. Maybe you don't have to give people reasons to hate you.  What do I know?.. 

Aristocrat travel trailer at hunting camp

I took our Aristocrat travel trailer up to hunting camp last weekend.  It's way back in the woods of Washington state.  The larch trees are turning color and it was beautiful in the mountains.  The larch trees weren't in full cry yet but they were getting close and it was still pretty in the forest.

Flathead Lake shoreline picture

Another pic from my morning canoe ride on Flathead Lake.  It made for a nice little realignment to my attitude.

Flathead Lake in the fall

I guess sublime is the best word to describe how Flathead Lake was this last weekend.  I've been to a lot of different places and seen a lot of beautiful lakes.  The color of the glacier fed lakes is lovely, and beautiful mountains along lakes, but there's something really special about Flathead Lake.

Aristocrat Travel Trailer in Banff National Park

Here are a couple of more pictures from our summer vacation in Banff and Kootenay National Parks Canada.  Man that sounded long winded.. Part of the fun for me actually and I'm sure for Queenie was playing with our old Aristocrat Travel Trailer, and what better place than the Canadian parks?  Bow Valley above with a giant copy right stamp on it.

Queenie took this picture as the Aristocrat went under a tunnel.  Of course when you go through a tunnel on vacation you have to honk the horn.  Bad form if you don't.

To end things off proper,  we got to hang at Flathead Lake on the last long weekend of the summer for some boating, sailing and guitar playing. Hey that could be a western song!..  Who rocks the party? We rock the party!

Kawasaki H2 750

Years ago I bought this old 1974 Kawasaki H2 750.  It was pretty much a barn find and the original owner just had it in storage.  I always wanted one of these and had to scrape up $400 to get it, money I really didn't have at the time.  I only had about $200 but some how I managed to come up with the rest of the money before someone else bought it.  I rode it around a little but it needed a ring job so then I just stored it too.  I'm thinking it's time to breath some life back into it and maybe ride it back and forth to work now and then.  It's a pretty special bike, and very fast for the day.

Herbert Lake Alberta

Here's a picture I took of Herbert Lake in Alberta.  Pretty lakes everywhere you look up there in the parks.  We didn't go out on this lake but one time when we went by people were floating around on it.   Notice my copyright stamp.  I guess I'll be putting those on my pics now, however I do retain the rights to all of my photography with or without a stamp on it.

Let me see,.. I can't think of anything else right now.  I've been sleeping in the trailer some of the time when it's hot in my house.  How did those people get those jobs working in national parks anyway?.. and how did I end up working at the salt mine,..

Cool cool water

Here's a pic of Queenie after taking a dip in the cool cool glacier fed water of Bow Lake in Alberta.  Now that I'm back at the salt mine and it's been 90 degrees for days in a row, I'm longing for a cooler days and cold water.  Another pic of her kayaking on Bow Lake below.

Aristocrat in Kootenay Park

I loved this picture Queenie took of the Aristocrat Travel trailer as we decended into Kootenay National Park.  And who knows, perhaps this old trailer has been up here before way back in the late 1960s.  

Queenie and I met up there so she followed along in her car and we talked on the little family radios as we drove along together.  It didn't take too long to move from one camp to another and it was nice to have the car to go on longer trips out of camp.  Plus it was a nice safety factor to have the car in the event the truck or trailer broke down, which thankfully never happened.