Tuesday May 26 2009 by Leland.

Pretty much Every Tiffin Manufacturing Company Motor home has this little worthless window down by the passengers feet.  The legend is that Bob Tiffin was driving in traffic one day and went to make a right hand turn.  Almost ran over a little car right down there so he had a window put in so he could see that spot.  Well, ok. 

I just found out that this little window is an ideal place for our little web cam to look out onto the lawn from.  Cool.

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Friday May 22 2009 by Leland.

Well one thing is for sure, we have a healthy lawn and SUPER STRONG dandelions.  I put $75 worth of dandelion killer on the lawn and they shrugged and right on schedule went to seed for next years crop. 

Today Kitten and I had the chore of mowing the whole place.  It’s a nasty three part deal.  First I go round all the trees, flower beds, the MH and anything else sticking up with the weed trimmer.  Then I go out and hit around the trees and a perimeter pass with the walk behind.  Then Cathy jumps on the rider and goes round and round till it’s all done.  I am thinking about 4 dump truck loads of river rock and 5 gallons of ground steralizer should make us a good “landscape” job!   You have no idea how much I hate mowing…..

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Friday May 22 2009 by Leland.

This morning I had had enough waiting and called the doc three times before 11 a.m.  They called back with the verdict about 11:15.  The pathology showed that the doctor got ALL of the cancer and the arm has no further problems other than healing up the scar.  OK - ALRIGHT! 

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Wednesday May 20 2009 by Leland.

As I sit here and wait for word on wether they got all the Squamus Cells from my arm, I was looking through emails looking for something else, I came across two emails that shook me up!  One was from a kid engineer from the Seattle office.  He said that he had Squamus Cell Carcinoma on his tounge and would be out of the office for a month or so while they cut it out and he healed up.  The next email was dated less than two years later, from another of the guys pointing to young Andrew Mark’s wife’s blog where she updated and memorialized her departed husband.  He was 27 years old.  YIKES.  I immediately went out looking for more info.  NEED INPUT!  The difference I see is that his was inside him mouth and had already gone up into a higher stage.  I need to talk to my doc about this stuff.  Scary.

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Tuesday May 19 2009 by Leland.

Did I tell you about the Robin couple who built a nest up under the eves of the lean-to on the garage?  Well, they have been sitting on the nest and have come to ignore us pretty much.  At first they would jump out and fly away, later they just look at us.  Now we have babies!  We watch and go out and take photos and get ignored.  We count two heads.  The nest is in a good place, up the metal poles where the cats can’t climb and under the eves where the predator birds can’t easily fly.  Our previous experinece with Robins has been poor.  They are pretty dumb birds.  Hopefully these guys will survive.

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Monday May 18 2009 by Leland.

Doesn’t she do pretty work.  Pretty blue thread and neat knots.  Hope this doesn’t gross you out. It’s healing and isn’t painful so onward we go. 

The big bandage that they used to compress and hold everything in place really was good for sympathy yesterday in Church.  The only problem now is that I am not supposed to lift more than 5 pounds for a few more days so I don’t pull the stitches.  Just a band-aid now.

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Saturday May 16 2009 by Leland.

Before and After.  A while back this spot showed up on my 61 year old, frequently sun burned, always deep tanned forearm.   A couple of weeks ago I took it to the Dermatologist who did a biopsy which said it was Squamos Cell Carsinoma.  Today they did “excision”.  Fancy word for cut it out.  It took about an hour all together and made a cut about 2 inches long.  They removed the cancer and some surrounding tissue.  22 stitches to close up the hole.  Now that tissue goes to the Pathologist who tells them if they took enough out or they go back and dig some more.    The chance that we are done is over 95% and the chance that I’ll ever get another is around 10%.  Good odds. Of course with my life in the sun, who know what’s next.  USE YOUR SUN SCREEN.

The other part of my day was also good.  I got my claim filed with the VA about my Diabetes.  If we are successful with the claim, the VA will help with the medical expenses involved with this and several other ailments that are developing.  The claim is under the Vietnam Agent Orange program.  Wish me luck.

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Thursday May 14 2009 by Leland.

This afternoon I mowed the front half of the lawn with the walk behind so that I could bag the loose grass.  I bagged 10 1/2 bags.  This place needs a low maintenance landscaping make over and soon!  

What a wasted day otherwise!  I went to look at the pickup and couldn’t contact the guy to take a look.  I went for my VA appointment and they double booked so that moved to Friday.  I decided to not let the day be a total loss so stopped by the Blood Bank to donate blood and they won’t take it till my little skin cancer is removed and they know exactly what kind it was.  Don’t blame them but oh well.  Then I couldn’t find my cell phone and thought I had lost it so back tracked through car lots, restraunts and even clear back to the MH where I found it on the charger right where I forgot to pick it up this morning.  Then I had ordered some water filters about a week and half ago and wondered where they went. Well, when I looked it up I found I had sent it to our street address out here and the post office won’t deliver here because I don’t have a box on the street so they returned it.  Probably too much trouble for the mail person to just turn left and go 100 feet out of her way to ask if it was mine but oh well.  Now I have to pay shipping on it again from where ever it was.  Crud.

Life is Good!  Some days stink, but Life is Good.

I think I’ll just go mow lawn.  There is plenty of that to go on for days.  I am going to use the small mower because I want to bag the clippings this time.  Hate mowing!.

—–Original Message

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Sunday May 10 2009 by Leland.

Friday evening Tom and Puala from Snohomish Wa. arrived.  They have been on Vacation for the last several weeks and are on the homeward bound leg.  They were in the Black Hills so stopped by here.  It is so nice to have them and it seems to be working out for them to camp out here too.

We just parked them on the drive next to the east fence and plugged them in.  We would have put them out on the lawn but it has been raining off and on and didn’t want to chance them getting stuck. 

Saturday we went out to Pompey’s Pillar National Monument with them.

In 2005 and 2006 the entire route of Lewis and Clark was a celebration of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Trek.  In 2006 the Pompey’s Pillar National Monument finished a major face lift and upgrade as part of that project.  New walks, a new interpretative center and the same old Pillar.  It was our first time out to see the upgrades.  Nice.

In the interpretative center Tom and Paula tried on the Buckskin clothing that was worn.  The comment was “Heavy”.  Good for keeping the Mosquitos off and the chill out.  We walked up the steps the the Signature.  This is one of only TWO places along the entire Lewis and Clark Trail that has physical proof of the location of the group at any time.  This is the only place with physical evidence like this signature.  The other place known for sure is an indian mound in South Dakota.  Every where else along the trail there are journal entries and notes but no physical evidence.  Descriptions of locations often don’t match up because the route is along a river that floods and changes channels and it’s been 200 years. 

Tom and I went on up the stairs to the very top and the view up there is nice.  After the hike we had our appetite and went out to the west end of Billings to the Cracker Barrel and had a good lunch.

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Saturday May 9 2009 by Leland.

This is a panorama taken standing on the East edge of the property.  Kinda nice out here.

Out to our home.  We’ll be seeding this area into grass after we put some more top soil in the area to raise it a few inches.  Another home owner thingy!  Put it on the list!

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