Quirky Towers Biographies

That's me, below, with my favorite guitar (Gibson J-45) pickin' and grinnin' at the 2002 WV Sustainability Fair. I was playing the role of strolling musician during the day and had a slot to go solo in the evening. Great fun and a LOT of sweating.

We moved to the country to simplify life a bit and we have been very successful. The peace and quiet have already added years to our lives and smiles to our faces.

There are a hundred projects that we are working on, from small (rain gutters) to large (vegetable garden). Right now I am not working at any technical jobs full time. Although I do have a couple of small electronics projects going (bat song detector) and believe me I keep VERY busy. There is some time for fun, so I have been working on a couple ballistic devices (Spud Gun and Spud Gun 2). If you are interested, for some reason, in my resume just click here.

The latest effort underway for me at Quirky Towers is the Paramedic Program at Fairmont State College.

What can I say?! She's the most beautiful girl in the world. (Wait a minute. That sounds like a song I know...) Seriously, Liz is my best friend and trusted partner in this whole Quirky Towers adventure. Although, she must be a little tetch'd in the head to let me talk her into this voyage! Liz spends her working days tucked away in her third-floor office working on database files for the Gallup Organization. They are good people to work for and have been very supportive of this (mega!) tele-commuting thing we have going here. (Nine-out-of-ten people are VERY satisfied with this working arrangement!)

Tucker is a German Shorthair Pointer, or GSP. (No, he is NOT a chocolate Lab with no tail!) Tucker was a 9-11-2001 baby, which proves that good things can happen even on the worst of days. Tucker is a bright, active, and stubborn friend. The second best thing we could have done for him was move to Quirky Towers. (The first best thing was to get him a little friend, Annie!)

He loves it here and will run and explore all day, and night, if we let him. He is a wonderful dog and a great friend. Tucker weighs in at around 75 pounds and sounds like a very big dog when he is barking at you. Tucker and Annie are inseparable. He has taught her how to chew sticks into sawdust, dig holes in the garden and POINT. While it is purported that Annie is a Boxer, it is very funny to see her strike a beautiful point and hold it for 30 seconds or more.

The classified ad said that Annie was a Boxer. Well, we know that her mother was a Boxer because we saw her---poor, sick, weak thing that she was. But her fraternal breed is still to be determined. That uncertainty aside Annie is a real good dog. She is bright and quick and will NOT cooperate if she senses that you really want her to!

We picked Annie up on May 23rd, 2002, when she was one day short of being 6 weeks old---she was born on April 13th. She was riddled with intestinal parasites and only weighed 2.5 pounds! You can see in the picture above that she was SO small that she could not even reach to the top of the step in the mud room! You can also see that even that early, Tucker already had a best friend and stuck with her like glue.

Tucker has taught her many tricks. (Almost ALL of them bad!) But the most striking image is to see both of the dogs striking a point in the yard as a turkey gobbles in the woods.

Annie is growing, although I don't think we will see a full-sized Boxer anytime in the near future. Last time we weighed her she was nearly 22 pounds. But even at that weight she is fearless. Annie gives Tucker a devil of a time and can sounds like a large, vicious killer. Until Tucker swats her with a paw and sends her rolling down the hill!

	*Pictures of our new puppy, Ruby...*
NEW!!		NEW!!
	More Pictures of Ruby...

Jake

This is Max (a.k.a. Psycho Killer). He was a stray kitten plucked from the woods around Ellicott City in 1993, or so. By that time he had learned his hunting lessons well. In his younger days, he was a one-cat avian holocaust. On one day in Catonsville, Max had 5 confirmed dove kills and one probable. One day! Max is completely intolerant of ANY other pet and is personally insulted by any dog passing within 20 feet of himself. He also is known to attack ankles if the mood moves him. But, other than that, he is a real nice cat.

Around Noon on January 19th, 2003, Max made that last trip to the Great Catnip Patch in the sky. Max had been failing over the past couple of weeks, suffering from a tumor in his abdomen. He stop eating and drinking and even had to struggle to bitch the dogs out. (That told us he was real sick.) As soon as the snow melts and I can get a pick into the ground we'll make a place for Max up in the lower meadow.

Not much to say about Cleo. She is the newest member of our pet family. Cleo was befriended by the previous residents of Quirky Towers. When they moved, they gave the cat to a nearby neighbor---our Fire Chief actually. Well, a month or so after we moved in, we started seeing fleeting glances of a cat. She would hide in the junk pile under the back porch of the fire house and under our shed. So, we started putting some food out and shazam We have an outdoor cat. Mostly, Cleo hangs under the car, dashing out to get food in the morning. She is getting much more accepting of our approaches and I actually touched her this morning and she did not slice my hand open. Which she DID the last time I reached to pet her. We have no idea how old she is, although I would guess that she is 2 to 3 years old.

What with winter coming on, and poor Cleo consigned to the wilds of Quirky Towers, it seemed as though we needed to do something for Cleo. The project started with a small shed to keep her food and water covered. (That is the small construction to the right in the picture below. Now Cleo's food would not get soggy, but she had to dash from the tool shed to the food shed in the weather. So...

I had some scrap plywood around and started cobbling together a little house for Cleo. Before I knew it, she had a small Cape Cod, with veranda and service access panel for getting to her food and water---complete with a false floor which hides an 84-watt pipe heater that turns on when the temperature falls below 31 F and a removeable roof section for more serious interior maintenance..

The next worry was whether Cleo would use the house. Well, as soon as I put her food in the new house she was inside. In fact, I had created a new problem: With food, water, heat and a soft bed INSIDE, Cleo never came OUTSIDE! She was turning into a lump, gaining weight a a surprising rate.

So, we decided to take to food out of the house and put it back out in the food shed. This would at least make her move around a little bit. Although, most days the only times she is out of the house is when she eats and to come out for some serious pets. She will even put up with a serious brushing from time to time. All in all I think this project has been a great success. she is a VERY happy cat and is becoming quite friendly. She hardly ever slashes our hands any more!