Surprise!

This past Saturday the Judo clubs from Dickinson and Bismarck surprised me good!

It is Saturday morning, about 10:15 am… I was getting ready to meet Ken, Mark and perhaps Nick at 11:30 am at Wrinkled Rock (a mile west of Mount Rushmore) for an afternoon of climbing.  It is about a 45 minute drive from here so I was planning to head out about 10:40 or so.  Ken called to say that they were just completing some work and would be a bit late, Carol suggested that we watch some of the NDSU – Iowa State football game until I had to leave for Wrinkled Rock. 

I had set the DVR to record the game so Carol and I could watch it later that evening.  So I went to the beginning of the recording and when the first commercial came on, I did as I always do – fast forward thru the commercial - which also cuts the sound, except this time, there was sound in the background.  “What is that?” I said aloud.  “Radio?”… where was that sound coming from?  “Maybe its the computer?”  But it didn't sound like it was coming from down the hallway.  It sounded like it was coming from outside in the back yard and what ever could that be?????

 

Standing up, much to my surprise, there were people in my yard, setting up a judo mat!!!   Ken, Dakota, Ruth, Nick, Mary, Steve, Jeff, SEAN & CANDICE??? (Whom I haven't seen for years!)  And kids.  WHAT IS GOING ON????

By this time I had made it to the deck, thankfully the deck had a railing as I really needed something to lean on!!!


Nick had made ninja arrangements with Carol to surprise me with an impromptu judo workout in our back yard.  They brought all the food and beverages and mats and people!  Carol had turned off the driveway alarm so I wouldn’t have a clue and suggested watching the football game.

It didn’t take much time to set up mats and get people into judo gi and onto the mat.  We had a nice 2 hour workout in the morning before a nice lunch put on by Mary, Candice, Ruth, and Carol, wives of those working out on the mat.   We took a bit of a rest after lunch to let things settle.  Carol invited the neighbors to see what judo was all about; they arrived as we started the afternoon session. 

And I got to throw everyone!

I  have been working on an esoteric component of the martial arts called haragei, a term that roughly translates as “the way of the stomach”.  In the West we talk about the heart being the seat of our emotions.  In Japan the hara, or stomach is where emotions come from… in addition, and very importantly it is also the center of gravity of the body.  Japanese martial artists will talk about taking control of the hara, or center of mass.  Once you have learned to control your hara you can take control of another’s hara. 

And ultimately this is what you learn thru the study of martial arts: haragei, the control of the center of gravity AND the emotions, it carries a moral obligation… interestingly enough morality is learned in the day to day exchanges between the students as they work with each other… at times it is like being thrown into an emotional blast furnace.  Students learn to care for each other and how to deal with fear and anger in a positive way.

At about 4:00 pm we decided we had had enough sun and too many breakfalls - it was time to ameliorate the bumps and bruises with some liquid refreshment, food and laughter!

The party lasted late into the evening and it had been dark for some hours when everyone decided it was time to hit the road.

What a day!  Carol and I finished up the day by watching the rest of the NDSU – Iowa State football game.  Bison won 34 to 14.  Go Bison!

Thank you everyone, I want you to know that you very deeply touched my heart today (and hara too!)

Anderson Gardens

Anderson Japanese Gardens is in Rockford, Illinois, about 90 minutes west of Chicago.  The Japanese Gardening Journal rated it as the second best Japanese Garden in the United States and it is well worth visiting.  Pictures tell the story.

Auction Sale

Monday, the18th of August, Carol and I attended a country auction sale, the first one Carol had been too.  Down 20 miles of road with the last 10 miles populated with limestone cliffs, thick Ponderosa pines, juniper and not much else. The limestone dust hangs in a cloud over the road a quarter mile back... nary a breeze to clear the air.  Then we traded the main road for a rutted path for four miles, to a pasture of mostly trucks, hundreds of them.  We had arrived!  Cowboy hats and boots in abundance, lots of men and few ladies too.

The day was hot, the sun beat down on the ground, not a drop of moisture to be had, dust in the air.  I was thinking that maybe a long sleeve shirt would have been a good idea!  Carol and both had hats anyway.

On the auction block were cars, trucks, back hoes, trailers covered with tools and supplies, farm equipment: red, blue, green, orange, and even an old worn out road grader, a big one, that the rancher used to keep his 4 miles of road cleared of snow in the winter.  Everything that you needed to work in such a secluded place.  We were there to take a look at a backhoe attachment for my Kubota tractor.  We found it at the bottom of the hill with the rest of the scrap metal and another backhoe that had seen better days.  It became obvious that the auctioneer was going to sell the stuff on the higher ground first before they made it to the backhoe I was interested in... it was going to be a long day.

The model 1199 backhoe attachment I was looking at was manufactured by Long Mfg. Co in North Carolina in the 1960s I would guess.  It was sitting forlornly under the trees, two hydraulic cylinders missing, its hoses falling apart from so many years of exposure to the sun light, the paint peeling.  Although it was standing pretty straight it looked like it was on the verge of falling over.  I felt that it would make a good winter shop project if I could get it for the right price - a new backhoe attachment is over $12,000 so I was thinking somewhere in the area of $1,000 was my limit with another $1,000 for repairs.

As luck would have it the Long backhoe attachment was the absolute last thing to be auctioned off, it was about 4:00 pm, we had been standing out in the sun since about 9:00 am, were about fried and had been hoping for a bit of energy for a couple of hours.  Finally the moment arrived, I auctioneer asked for $500, then $250, then $100... I bid $50 and immediately someone else bid $75, we went back and forth, $25 dollars at a time, but in the end I won with a bid of $425.  I looked at it again, shook my head and wondered how intelligent of a decision this was... and now I needed to figure out how to get it home.  One of the other bidders told me that he had one of the missing hydraulic cylinders on his pile of steel, I ended up giving him $5 for it.

Tuesday morning we called a neighbor and borrowed their trailer, loaded the Kubota on the trailer and filled the old blue pickup with tools, rope, chains, railroad bar, scrap lumber, everything I could think about to get this thing loaded.

We got back to the ranch about 10:00 am, it felt even hotter than the previous day.  Carol had prepared for the day, with several bottles of water, or so we thought we were prepared.  A job that I thought would take a few hours morphed into a long day of hard work, I thought I was going to Ralph from the heat and exhaustion on several occasions.  With two cylinders missing, the oil had been drained so there was nothing keeping the cylinders in a static position, so it would flop around like a wet noodle when we tried to get it hooked up to the three point hitch on the tractor and then it flopped flat on the ground.  We did judo with it for a while and finally I took off the bucket, then the arms that supported the bucket and provided the digging geometry, then the stabilizers, hydraulic cylinders and hoses.  The pins were over an inch diameter and had frozen in their bores from years of inactivity requiring the use of a large sledge hammer and a drift pin (a piece of steel about 5/8" in diameter, I bent it!) to knock them free.  As we got the pieces free I would rig them up with chain to the tractor loader and Carol would operate the tractor and put the pieces in the back of the old blue pickup.  Even with the tractor it was back breaking work!

We continued to judo the main part of the backhoe for at least another hour, but finally we got it hooked up to the 3 point hitch, loaded the tractor with backhoe attachment onto the trailer and headed for home.  I was sweating profusely!  The sweat continued to pour out of me for the next 45 minutes even with the AC going full blast and then when I dried out I was extra sticky and dirty, oh man, I was covered with grease, oil and dirt from head to toe!

We just parked the pickups, unloaded the tractor and returned the trailer.  We left all the stuff in the back of old blue (until this morning.)  The shower felt wonderful, Carol and I went out to the Bugling Bull Restaurant for supper as neither of us had enough energy to cook.  Moose Drool was well received!!!

Gear head notes:

I got a good chance to look over my purchase today.  There are no bent pieces, nothing out of alignment, all the valves operate freely, all the hoses need to be replaced, one cylinder needs to be refurbished, I need to purchase a cylinder to operate the bucket, and of course there is some rust.  I am planning to have all the painted pieces sandblasted and I will prime and paint them before reassembly.

April 2014

Four months have transpired and I have written nothing to my blog... so much for the New Years Resolution.  And the longer I wait the harder it gets.  I do have one small excuse to lean on, my computer interface with Blogger has been giving me an error code for a couple of months, I changed over to Mozilla a couple of weeks ago and the problem is gone!!!  I really need to spend a weekend reformatting and reloading the hard drive.


I presented a 2 hour seminar at our 17th Annual Kangeiko (Judo Winter Training Festival) in Fargo on the 1st of February.  There were about 50 participants.  I will put pictures on my new judo blog that I will share with you later this month.

While we are in Fargo for Kangeiko, Carol got notice that her aunt had died so we headed home on the 2nd of February, repacked our suitcases and headed for Illinois the next day.  We met Carol's three sisters there.  The funeral was very nice and it was good to catch up with family.  We returned to Custer about a week later, anxious to sleep in our own bed.

Let me catch you all up on the progress of the house.

On the 6th of April, two years ago, we started the excavation for the house foundation.  Carol and I hosted
Easter dinner for the neighbors, the guys and I stood outside in shirtsleeves in the warm sun and watched the excavator dig.  Last year we worked through the winter, there were some cold and snowy days, I think we took 3 or 4 snow days.  This year Mother Nature has not cooperated with us, cold weather, wind and snow have been the norm and nice days have been rare.

"All Weather Roofing and Repair"out of Rapid City installed DECRA shingles on the garage on the weekend
of 29 and 30 March.  It was a matter of finding a couple of nice days in a matrix of cold and windy weather.  They set up scaffolding on Thursday afternoon, we had a snow day on Friday, they showed up early on Saturday and Sunday morning and with a crew of five guys got the roof completed by late Sunday afternoon.

Anyone in this area need a roofer?  We were VERY pleased with the work that
All Weather Roofing and Repair did for us.  They showed up when they said they would, dressed appropriately, were soft spoken - we didn't hear one discouraging word while they were on the job site, they worked efficiently and in harmony with a great amount of craftsmanship and cleaned up when they departed.  We highly recommend them.

While the roofers were installing shingles I completed the railing on the deck off the sun room.  I used the "cable rail" system manufactured by Feeney, Inc., special order from Lowes.  A little expensive but a very good product that is easy to install and has a very good look. Best of all, Carol and I can sit in the sun room and our view of the property is not blocked.


In mid March we traveled to Pelican Rapids to help my mother move from her condo to assisted living, she will be 92 years old this year.  She is doing well.  It was great I got to see my sister Diane and her husband Rich whom I haven't seen in about a year and a half.  We came home with a pickup load of family heirlooms as did each of our kids Brittany and Brady and Kristen and Gabe.

I have been cleaning up outdoors when the weather has allowed: picking up rocks, burning sticks and small scraps of lumber, raking out the ground and planting some grass seed.  The ground  was finally firm enough to pull the old Caravan up the hill with the tractor to the parking area with Gabe's help

(Gabe and Kristen were here for the weekend).  I am hoping to get the old travel trailer moved in the next week or so.  The Caravan will go to salvage and we are hoping to sell the old camper.  We hauled two loads of steel scrap to A1 Steel in Rapid City.

When the weather didn't cooperate this winter I spent my days in the shop, starting my day building a fire in the wood stove... it is a great place to keep a cup of coffee hot.  I built book shelves on the east wall of the shop and started unpacking books.  It was great seeing my books again, I immediately selected several books by Donn Draeger on the history of martial arts in Japan and started rereading.... what a joy.

In the last few days got the kitchen light wired up to the switch and installed two sets of track lights in the pantry - before there was only one light and it was inadequate.  I cleaned the garage for the 20th time I think, throwing out cardboard, consolidating loose items in boxes and reorganizing boxes - we are down to about 15 boxes in the garage.  I reorganized the shop and at the end of the day yesterday we had the new pickup in the garage and the mustang in the shop... we heard there was the possibility of a thunderstorm in the forecast.  I spent today cleaning up lumber left over from the construction... sorting like items and placing them on pallets.  The place is beginning to look pretty good.

Things are going well for us, we hope things are going well for you too!


Van