$2.82

Yep. $2.82. That's the high bid at 7 am this morning on that old broken gecko Powershot with its tongue sticking out.  Who bids in pennies these days?  Talk about splitting hairs.  Hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious, DF & LBR Maggie sent along a couple of links last night about Neuvo Typewriters.  (Neuvo is MY word--not hers or the company's.)  Get this, some guy has figgered & jiggered old manual machines into USB computer keyboards!  They ain't cheap--you're looking at $500 to $700 a unit.  Somehow the word oxymoron comes to mind but I can't quite figure a way to connect the oxymoron concept to a USB typewriter.  Anyway, it's hilarious.  You can click here to see something that surely has Rube Goldberg LOL someplace up above.  And as for us? We'll continue to use our 3 manual typewriters for the original purpose for which they were designed: to place one letter at a time on a piece of paper.

Our local Habitat for Humanity (HFH) got some major media coverage in today's newspaper.  The Post-Register does a monthly tabloid supplement called "Home Style." HFH got the entire top 2/3rds of the front page plus the whole top half of Page 3.  There's a great big banner headline entitled "Habitat: New home, new leader, new goals" and six pictures including a really well done portrait of Karen Lansing, Susun's pal and Volunteer Supervisor.  As we've noted in prior blog posts, Karen is doing some historically significant work with the local HFH.  (Click here for the local HFH website.  It's out of date but still a pretty good introduction to the program.) The  Idaho Falls HFH is now destined for ever greater accomplishments thanks to Karen's genius and hard work.  MUY KUDOS to HFH!

Our warm fall season continues--yet another 72 degree day Friday.  Temps are progged at least to the mid-60's for the next few days.  The Pokey Weather Wonks are hinting at a potential pattern change late next week.  Hopefully, we can get the porch project done before the gnarly weather arrives.  Speaking of the porch project, we found a couple of good 4x4's yesterday but we had to pay up for them.  The 8-foot bunk at BMC was garbage just like Home Depot and Lowe's.  However, there were a couple of pristine specimens in the 10-foot bunk.  Naturally, we paid double our budget for these two pieces of lumber.  All three key pieces have now been primed, stored inside and are waiting to stand tall in the porch project.

The Atomic City Caper logs another chapter this morning.  Supposedly saloon owner Phil will come to town to check out the Sidekick.  I've decided I really want the Sidekick to go to Atomic City so I'm prepared to practically GIVE the Old Beater to Phil.  There's no more perfect place for this vehicle than CAT MOAN Country.  Maybe we will play some Merle Haggard music in the background during Phil's visit today--assuming he can find a way to get here in the first place.

One of the stanzas from Merle's Hall of Fame tune probably still rings true out there in Atomic City:

"And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all."

Yesterday was a fun day for blog comments--four of them came zinging in on this blog and there were two more over on the Snowbird blog.  From Wayne's note, we deduce Flagstaff's Diablo Burger has become a Real Big Deal following the recent USA Today acclaim.

The Farmers Market is winding down now--only 3 left including today.  We're waiting on some new crop pinto beans from the Central Snake River Plain.  Maybe we will take 50 pounds down to Arizona and have a real gas this winter.

Hey, this is WAAAY off topic but speaking of gas reminds me to tell this little story.  Remember not long ago when Chicken Little and that Little Boy Who Cried Wolf got together to wring hands and discuss the falling sky with regard to natural gas supplies?  Oh, my, they wailed, your natural gas is gonna be ALL GONE!  Well, Chicken Little and that boy gave a real boost to renewed interest in nuclear and wind.  But guess what?  As usual, Chicken Little and that boy were flat wrong.  Natural gas is now once again HUGELY abundant and prices look to be low for years to come.  Funny how that always seems to happen when Chicken Little takes center stage.  Natural gas prices are important to us since we heat this little place with the stuff.  We sure don't spend much, though.  Our monthly price is a mere $16 bucks.

And speaking of commodities, are you aware of the price of silver?  Everyone knows gold has been going through the roof--it gets all the media's attention.  But silver?  Nah, the media doesn't care about silver--it's SOOO unglamorous.  Hey, silver flirted with $25 an ounce this week!  That's Real Big News for people who watch silver prices as we do.  Silver used to be a mainstay of Idaho mining.  Our buddies up in Clayton still celebrate the silver mining heritage there.  Silver's pretty much dropped off The Gem State's radar in recent decades.  Anyway, with the Fed's new mumbo jumbo about somehow inviting inflation back into our future, precious metals have nowhere to go but up.  Methinks somehow that such a trend will spark some new interest in Idaho's various silver deposits.  Who knows?  Maybe even the old Clayton Silver Mine will come back to life.  Stranger things have happened, ya know?

The old photo shown here is one of my favorites from Clayton's historical days.  It shows 217,000 pounds of silver pumped out by the tiny smelter there. We're not talking ounces here but POUNDS.  At current market rates such a pile would be worth over $86-million!  If you want to see some nice old photos of Clayton, please visit their fine website and click on the photo gallery  and then click on "Our Amazing Past."

Well, you can easily tell there's not much going on here.  Have a great Saturday & Many Cheers!  jp