Effsix

Finster continued.*

He thought of his car. Did it still run ? But then, why shouldn't it. It started right up for him. He put some clothes and a sleeping bag in the trunk along with some of the canned goods. And then, he set out for the water plant across town.

Finster saw some dogs digging though the garbage, but still no people. He stopped to check on a wino sitting in a doorway. But when he touched the man, he fell over. He too, was dead.
He was in a rather run-down part of town. As he was walking back to his car, he caught what he thought was a movement, from the corner of his eye. But when he turned for a better look, he saw nothing.
Then, he heard a faint scuffling sound, and what sounded like something falling. The sound came from an ally between two buildings. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
Finster stood at the head of the ally. He could see that it ended in a small courtyard behind a rundown apartment building. There were a number of trash cans, overflowing with garbage. He entered warily.
Again he thought he saw a movement. This time a flash of red, or orange in one of the windows. But again, when he took a better look, it was gone. But now his attention was diverted by a sound behind him.
Several large dogs stood between him and the street. One growling menacingly. Finster looked franticly for a weapon. All he saw was a flimsy broom handle by one of the trash cans. He waved it at the dogs and they let him pass. They were more interested in the garbage anyway. From the street, he could hear them knocking the cans over.
Back in the street, Finster felt it would be a good idea to find a real weapon. Just down the block, he noticed the sign for a pawnshop. The door was locked, but he easily gained entry by breaking a window with a brick. The alarm didn't work. But under these conditions, he would have been glad to see the cops.
There was quite a selection to choose from. Finally, he selected a nice 45, and a pump action shotgun. As he collected some ammunition, he also slipped a small 380 into his pocket. It would be easy to carry. He added these to the collection in his trunk. Except for the 45, which he wore in a holster, under his jacket.
On the way back to his car, he stopped by the ally again. The dogs were still there, but they were busy, and payed Finster no attention. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. But as he scanned the windows, he could see no one. He felt like the last man in the world. He was sure that it was his nerves, and that sooner or later he would crack.
Finster walked slowly back to his car.


*The Fuzz realizes that if someone were to actually read this stuff, they would be getting it sorta backwards. There is a link in the sidebar, "Finster", that will take one to another page with this mess in it's proper order.

Some Excitement

I've been going stir-crazy here lately.  So when my daughter suggested going over to the river for a dip, I decided to just go for it.

I hadn't been anywhere but the store in a long time - too long.

And it has been hot lately!

The original plan had called for grilling some Hot Dogs over there.  But the logistics were getting complicated, so we decided on going for a swim, and then doing the grill-thing back at the house.

With the heat, I had expected there to be a crowd over there.  That's normal for this time of year.  But there were surprisingly few folks out.

Perhaps they didn't want to be out in the heat.  Or maybe more people are deciding to actually stay at home like the governor suggested.

But since it was outdoors, and there seemed to be plenty of opportunity for social-distance, I figured it was worth a shot.

Turned out that it was easy to find a place we had to ourselves.

The river was pretty high.  There have been some pretty good rains in the area lately.  Of course with the rain, come mores humidity - another good reason for a dip.

The river felt wonderful for sure.

Got home and got the dogs grilled before the storm hit.

Sheesh.

Got 3in of rain, and knocked out the power for awhile.

But since we already had our grub, we were able to sit on the porch and watch the deluge.

The wind was pretty rough too.  I was kinda worried about the trees.

But no damage here.

Duke Power said there was a tree down on the powerline.

But the lights came back eventually.

Kind of an exciting day, really.

And a nice change.

Hang in there

𝕵𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎

Furry Funning

Some of The Fuzz's longtime readers may remember Puddin', the cat that thinks he's a people. Well as can be seen here, he's pretty well grown now. His Little Friend is that Stupid, Disobedient Dog that tried to kill herself on Christmas Eve. They don't fight like cats and dogs though, they are actually great friends. So not to worry, The Stupid, Disobedient Dog is not in the act of killing that Crazy Cat, they're just having fun.

In other news, The Fuzz heard on the NPR news that that we're having a drought here. Now he knows why his well is so dried out. Here is what's left of the river.

Quiet Weekend

Things have been pretty quiet around our Home in the Woods lately.  But busy times are ahead with the holidays and all.

The Fuzz continues to improve.  On Saturday he was feeling good enough to suggest a walk to His Sweetie.

They had a fine time enjoying the countryside, and dodging dogs.  The Fuzz has found that it is always a good idea to carry a stout stick on these promenades.  

Well, it's time to start another week.  Let's just hope Our Fuzz can stay out of trouble.

New Kitty

When we moved here, we brought a number of Kitty Cats with us. But over time the population has become somewhat diminished.
Life here in the woods seems to be hard on little Kitties. We were down to 2 of the furry little things. So when one of the fellows at work came up with this little thing, The Fuzz took her off his hands. This fellow was already dealing with 13 dogs of his own. A sort of a One Man Critter Rescue Operation as it were.
At any rate, The Fuzz would like to present to all his loyal readers, Gracie, the Kitty Cat.

Dog Daze

We moved the dogs out to the trailer.

This one seems to be making himself right at home out here in the woods.

Eftweve

He parked the car where he hoped it wouldn't be noticed. It was a bit beat up itself, and fit right in with the neighborhood. He buckled on the 45, and walked to the pawnshop. It was obvious that no one had been there since his previous visit. He was beginning to believe he was the only survivor. It was a depressing thought. Finster found a scoped 30'06 that he liked the feel of. He also took several boxes of ammunition.

As he stepped out of the door, he heard what sounded like a helicopter in the distance, and stepped quickly back inside. In a moment it flew over, headed in the direction of the water plant. He was sure they would be looking for him soon.

It was now late afternoon. He would have to find a place to spend the night soon. He was beginning to notice a peculiar odor in the air. With a shock he realized it was the smell of death. The city was filled with it. Maybe it would be better to get out of town.
He walked back to his car, and lay the rifle on the floor, behind the seat. He was about to get in, when his attention was diverted by the sound of an approaching vehicle. He crossed the street and stood just inside the ally, where he could watch, and not be seen.

The dogs were gone by now. But they had left quite a mess. Garbage was strewn all over the ground. Finster watched carefully as a truck drove slowly down the street. He cursed under his breath as he saw it stop by his car.
Two men got out. One he hadn't seen before. The other was Larry. They walked around his car, looking in the windows. The new man tried the driver's door. It wasn't locked. He took a quick look inside, and then closed it. It was Finster, they were looking for, not his car.

Finster stepped back into the ally. He began to try the few doors. Sooner or later they would check the ally. He didn't want to be here when they did. The men were in the street. He needed another way out. But all the doors were locked. To break in one, would make too much noise. He began to try the few windows.
Then, he heard a shout behind him.
"Freeze!"



*The Fuzz realizes that if someone were to actually read this stuff, they would be getting it sorta backwards. There is a link in the sidebar, "Finster", that will take one to another page with this mess in it's proper order.

Upgrading

Another rainy day here in the woods.  But over the weekend The Fuzz and His Sweetie cut down a nice (mostly) dead oak by the neighbor's trailer.  There is still a bit of the trunk left.  The Fuzz is hoping to get to that soon when it's not so rainy.

But Our Fuzz has not been idle.

The other day, he and His Sweetie stopped by an old country store* just over the county line.  While they were perusing the various "Old Timey" goods, this little wood heater caught The Fuzz's eye.  

It is well known to all faithful followers of Kinda Fuzzy, that our Home in the Woods is heated by firewood, in a rather Low-Tech sort of stove.  While this arrangement has done the job, it does have it's problems.  One being that there is no way to slow things down quite enough on those kinda-warm days.

 This little jewel is one of those fancy Down-Draft-Type-Airtight-Models.  The Fuzz figured it might be worth upgrading things.  And His Sweetie agreed.

Seeing Our Fuzz's interest, the proprietors offered him a deal.  It seems that while it is our peak heating season, it is not peak wood stove selling season.  Most folks took care of that detail before cold weather set in.

An so The Fuzz took the plunge. 

With unseasonably warm weather, the fire in the old stove had been alowed to die down.  So The Fuzz, with the aid of His Sweetie, and Young Daughter, brought the new inside for the swap out.

Of course there was some minor assembly required.  After adding this bit of gasket,

the collar for the smoke pipe was bolted in place.

Note some of these cool features.
At "A"- airtight seals
At "B"- interior firebrick lining  
At "C"- blower (not visible)
At "D"- rear baffle (forms air chamber for blower- which also works by natural convection when blower is not in operation)

And Voila!

It is cool to be able to watch the fire inside.

Even the dogs are enjoying it.

*Nestled in the Foothills of North Carolina, Washburn's General Store is recognized as the oldest continually run, family owned & operated business in North Carolina.

Perks of Summer

Figs

One of the perks of summer is fresh fruit.  In this case, Figs.

When we lived at the Old Place, we had a huge Fig Bush right at the back porch.  So when we moved to Our Home in the  Woods, The Fuzz's Sweetie planted a couple bushes out here.  This one is doing pretty good this year.

At the Old Place, we had trouble with Possums climbing up in there and eating them.  Here the dogs keep the possums away*, but we still have Bugs.

They can do a lot of damage.
But The Fuzz did manage to get a few for us also.
And it is still hot!  They are calling for 103° today.  But it's usually been a bit cooler here in the woods.  Sill, hot is hot! 



*Under pain of death! 

Stoned

Been a while, hasn't it?
But The Fuzz is back.
He has been spending some time with his sick brother lately.  But he has been home as well.  We might as well admit that he has been slack.
Just before one of those trips, he and His Sweetie had a pile of rocks delivered.

They wanted to add a bit more of a walkway from the trailer to the parking area.  Besides being a bit wet at times, there was a constant danger of stepping on little surprises, left by one of the dogs, or perhaps even a kitty.
Well Our Fuzz finally got around to laying the stone out.

They are simply laid on the ground.  He dug out under a few of them for stability, and rough leveling.  Then the sides were lined with some 1x2" boards from the Home Improvement Store.  Several wheelbarrow loads of sand were brought up from the creek and poured over the stone.  The Fuzz used a hose and broom to work this in around the stones.  It is hoped that this will also add a bit of stability.

And here's a look.

If nothing else, it will make it easier to see the poo.

Weather

So far just a bit of sleet and a little rain.

But they did turn school out early.  Actually very early, like 09:30.

But the Dogs are doing fine.

But it could get messy yet.

Blessed

This poor beat-up Motorcycle is resting here in it's lair. No this is not one of those high dollar jobs you can watch them build on the TV. This is just my little Honda Motorcycle. It may not look impressive, but it is a real Motorcycle. It may not be real fast, but it is fast enough to hurt someone, like me.
But this is not just a poor old Motorcycle, it is a Blessed Motorcycle. It is really true. My Sweetie found in the local "Shopper" paper, that a church in a nearby town was having the "First Annual Blessing of the Bikes". This seemed like a good thing. All kinds of bad things can happen to you out there, blowouts, break downs, wrecks, once I even hit a deer.
So I did it. I rode up there last week and ate hot dogs and stuff and got me and the bike blessed. But I guess I'll still have to change the oil.

Final Final Destination

I'll admit it was hard to see. A sharp eyed surfer got it close. A deer was the call, and considering how hard it was to see, I guess that was close enough. Here is a closer look at this tragedy. So congratulations to Woodie, you'll have to buy your own lottery ticket, but if it's any consolation, I hope you win big. Maybe if you do you'll remember the Fuzz.
I guess that stuff about the glue factory isn't true any more. These big guys get special treatment. They have a nice deep hole just for them. Horsies, Moo-Cows, Dogs and Cats, ( the animal "shelter" is here at the landfill ) this is the final destination for so many.
But I'm getting depressed about all this, so I think it's time to say Bye Bye.

Sheepdog Trials

We went over to see a bit of the Sheepdog Trials Saturday.
It was pretty interesting. The Fuzz's Sweetie saw something about it in the local paper. We had heard of it before, but never thought to go.
As you can see in the picture above, there were a lot of these black and white dogs there.
This was a first for us. The Fuzz's Sweetie brought along a friend who was interested also. The folks out there seemed nice enough. They were willing to answer The Fuzz's pretty basic questions about what was going on out there. We enjoyed it.
First the dog has to run all the way across the field to get the sheep. These shots were taken with a zoomy-type lens so the distance is a bit distorted. It was really a pretty good ways across.
The dog has to herd the 4 sheep back across the field to the handler, who I guess is a sheepherder. On the way they are supposed to pass though a gate out there in the middle of the middle. You can see that happening in that 2nd pix. After they get to the handler, he/she sends them back out to pass though a couple more gates out in the field. The handler is using a whistle to tell the dog where to take the sheep. When they get back again, the dog and handler have to separate the sheep into two groups. This seems to be a bit tricky as the sheep don't seem to like it. That's what they're doing in those next couple pix. After that, they put them in a small pen. All this has to happen in 9 min. The dog in that next pix looks just a little different than the others. The woman said it has a bit of Bearded Collie in it. What ever it was, it seemed to do the best out of the few we saw.And here's a couple of the spectators taking it easy in the shade.