Yes.  My biggest fear when I got the WuFlu was that I’d end up in the hospital and would not be able to use the protocols I had planned.  Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and I am on the mend.

PSA – Please realize that when it comes to health care inside the walls of a hospital, you don’t have a doctor.   The hospitals do.  And anything they do when it comes to Covid, they will be held harmless.

What would Neil Young do if big pharma made war on pot for profit? Some people think it can never happen to them.

Thinking about it last night it might be more time consuming to do it that way. Cross cutting the logs and securing them and would probably need more than groves like long stakes or iron rods maybe. Not a builder so off the top of my head. Like you’d use rebarb to help secure cement and brick. Alaska is prone to earthquakes. Being in a bad one I seen how quick the cement gets wiggled around and broken up and the bricks fall and it happens pretty fast. So maybe more work. Glad to know it’s insulated well. I was thinking with cross cut you could decide the thickness of the walls.

I’m sure there are many techniques for making a “log Cabin” into a modern log home…. and more than one way to do it.  I never built a log cabin; only modern log homes. We used fiberglass insulation bats to fit into the V-Grooves and corner notches before we rolled the logs into place….and we used long drill bits whenever we had to drill through the logs for wiring or plumbing….. but under the floor and above the ceiling were used much more than the log walls to run the wiring and plumbing to their outlets…..and special care had to be taken when the boxes had to be cut into the log walls. Also lots of hammer and chisel work. to seat and secure the electrical boxes.

I grew up with a dad who was a carpenter, so basic carpentry was never a problem for me. All I had to do was adapt what I already knew to also be able to be used when working with logs. Mainly it required the ability to think ahead…to foresee what was coming or what was going to be needed before you got there…because if you had not anticipated all the moves beforehand, you now had created  new problems you had to resolve. LOL!!!

There is so much more to it than meets the eye. One major thing is that all log homes settle after they are built, and you have to anticipate how much they will settle and leave enough space above window and door frames etc for that settling…and only experience will tell you how much space to leave….and that varies depending on what time of year the trees were cut, how long the logs have aged before construction, how good a fit between the logs, location of doors and windows, etc etc.  Also, logs “breathe”, so you never put ANY kind of sealer on the ends of the logs after the house is built. If the logs can’t “breathe” they will begin to rot (decay) within a few years. Always something to learn it seems. LOL!!!

Thanks for that input. I’ve found GABA on Swanson site.  That and Vitacost are where I  get most of my vitamins.  In the case of GABA, how much do you take?  In the case of both GABA and melatonin, how long before bedtime do you take them?  Do you take both every day?

Log homes, I was always curious of where ran the electricity.
Also is it not safe to cut wood logs in pieces in a good width for insulation and the cut wood would actually be prettier and just layer them?

When I moved to Canada I first  met a log house builder who I volunteered to work for for free so I could learn how to build log houses the proper way….. and it proved to be an art. Selecting the proper logs, winter cutting them when the sap is down, peeling them with a drawknife, seasoning them, scribing them to get a perfect fit on the logs below by making v-grooves the length of the logs, marking out the corner notches, and then cutting out those with a chainsaw, hammer, and chisel…..each log in turn until the walls are up….placing and notching in the purlins, then the cap  logs etc.

So anyway, after learning the art of log house building by doing it, I bought the quarter section and  built my first log home….and that’s the one I built the hydraulic ram for. When I finished building that home  and had installed the hydraulic ram and had it purring along I heard of an opportunity to buy another property across the river and 7 miles into the wilderness on a windy forest service trail, with a mile of river frontage, surrounded by Crown land, and the upshot was that that is exactly what I ended up doing…but that’s an entirely different story . On that property was the beginnings of my Suskwa Simmental Ranch which ended up 20 years later with 1750 deeded acres, 1000 acre adjoining woodlot, and 30,000 acres of private range for the cattle. All basically for the price of  a lotta hard work.

All that was to say the log house builder wanted to buy my first log home because he said he could not have done a better job or got a better fit. Everything was “perfect”….but that was not meant to be. The Anesthesiologist  from the local hospital heard about it and  came and made me a cash offer better than what I was asking, so that’s the way I sold it. He and I became friends and I often stopped at his home for coffee and a visit on my rare trips to town…. and always there was the “clack, clack, clack” of that hydraulic ram tapping away in the distance.

Try taking the amino  GABA before bed.  It calms the brain and allows it to shut down more easily.  I also take 6 mg of Melatonin, which is the ‘night repair hormone’ that starts a cascade of things that normally happen while sleeping.

Big Boy does Denver
https://railpictures.net/photo/781925/

Like I said your gifted. Glad you were thoughtful and kind too, to those baby cows.

On the ranch I had 250++ cows that were everything from purebred Simmental…. to Red Angus…..to Dual Purpose Shorthorn…. to crosses of all those. When a calf was born there was an even chance that it would have enough horned genetics that I would have to dehorn it, and the sooner that was done after birth the easier it was on the calf. Conventional dehorning methods were very chancy because depending on the calf’s age, size of the horns or hornbuds, and method used to dehorn it, it could be very painful and traumatic for the calf. The three methods in practice were #1 “the gouge”, which created a large wound in order to remove the  horn base and caused lots of bleeding; #2 the hot iron which burned out the horn base and again created a large painful wound and much trauma for the calf, and #3 Dehorning paste; the choice I used which was to put some caustic  paste on each horn bud which seemed to work best unless it was raining or unless the calf rubbed its head against its mother while sucking. Then there were burns that sometimes got into the calves eyes and created other issues. Anyway, this was a very unpleasant part of the cattle business….. until a new invention came along called the Buddex Cordless Dehorner.  It was expensive but only burned a tiny ring around the horn bud which killed the nerves and blood supply to the horns….and the horn bud fell off on its own over the next few weeks. So I bought one and had no more dehorning issues after that until my Buddex Dehorner quit working. So naturally I took it apart and found and fixed the problem, called the manufacturer’s rep in the USA to explain what I had done, got chewed out and told I had  voided my warrantee by opening up the unit and fixing it myself, but we talked for awhile, getting to know each other….and a week later I got a call from him again, asking if I was interested in becoming the Canadian Distributor and Warranty service for their company. They had been trying to handle it from the USA and had been largely unsuccessful in Canada due to border issues. They had only sold about 100 dehorners in Canada over the past year but had sold  1000+ in the USA. So the upshot was that I became their exclusive Canadian Distributor and Warranty  Service, I advertised in the farm papers across Canada, sold 1500+ of them in the next 60 days, repaired a few, and had added a lucrative  sideline business to my remote ranch. One thing I have learned over the years is that initiative normally pays.

Sometimes it pays to “bend” the rules!

Well I’m glad you put your health first. The rest will be there after we die.
I knew quite a few nurses that retired early and all regretted it financially. I was able to talk one into waiting till she 66 that would of really messed her up if she retired a few years earlier. It’s a stressful and physical job though. One told me she took it on the outside advice it’s best to take it early which is fine I suppose if you have other income sources or you don’t expect to live to much longer but other wise people like that were giving out really bad advice to people like her and others who didn’t. Some had spouses but when something happened to that spouse they now only had one income and it devastated them. I told them at 59 or 63 you are going to feel different at 69 and definitely at 75-80. Your not likely less you get a cushy type job going to be able to keep working. The stress alone there gonna have enough if it and that’s what happened.
At that time I didn’t know I’d have this much trouble walking although I knew I was going to have trouble but didn’t know it would affect the strength in my hands a bit too so wouldn’t even be able to get a job in anything typing either.
As the years went on they’d asked if I retired yet and then ask aren’t you afraid you won’t live to draw all that money paid in? I’d tell them if I didn’t I wouldn’t care anyways. Fear was not a factor nor over these vaccine either. In fact I fear the so called vaccine more than the virus. I remember just before I left one nurse said I got one shot that’s all I’m gonna get. I didn’t want to say anything it would just cause her stress when inflation was rising but wonder how that worked out.
What’s worse is all these younger nurses with all those years put in you can’t even retire and all that experience forced out over this dam mandatory vaxx. These were nurses that did their homework, experience and gave many years of their lives and missed holidays and birthday of their kids with their family’s and treated as if they were inconsequential by these stiffs behind the scenes. It shows they don’t appreciate them nor the well being of the patients. Health care is on the wrong side of health right now in so many ways.
This won’t be forgotten and as far as aim concerned these stiffs should be fired.

Thank you for opening your memory box on the ram pump for me. Popular Mechanics magazine… 2 inch pipe… 15 ft drop.  Awesome.

You misunderstood a bit.  I am not doing all that now; I just mean usually.  I have not been to work for four weeks. I have done nothing but go through all this and try to recover.

I do try to do things for myself, and things I enjoy.  I have my little pressure-reliefs, and I know how to make the most of little things.  But I am with you on other people doing my chores and projects.  I would rather do things myself, and that is no doubt part of my overload.  The only things around my house that I have contracted out in my twenty or so years of home ownership were the roof and my recent furnace/AC installation.  I’ve done plumbing, electric, carpentry, welding, and more.  And, of course, the yard in season.  Can’t help it; I a do-it-yourself-er. But I hate that damn yard!  I do the least I can get away with.

The only thing that is going to help is to retire, which will free up time and take away a lot of stress.  And that is coming very soon.  I am 68, 69 in the spring.  The time is nigh for retirement. It will probably be this year.   Yes, you should stay retired and enjoy what time you have left.  That is exactly what I am thinking.

As far as being a message from God, well, happy to help if that what God wants. 😉

You have more energy that you think if dealing with all that while recovering from Covid. Maybe try to do something your self you like more often.
I remember trying to take the burden off some things by paying people to do stuff. Like mow the lawn. Thus go the saying about if you want it done right do it yourself. It resulted my blue berry tree and tulips getting mowed down and my lawn mower broke collectively on two different try’s by two different people. Paying others sometimes helped sometimes more trouble that it was worth.
Your a message from God to me right now though.
Since I retired was was getting restless although my feet told me nope not again were retired can’t do lol I was thinking there something out there. Then here you are reminding me why I should stay retired and enjoy what time I may have left. Whether I hold on to that I don’t know.

No, not people so much.  Not really a problem there.  I have evenings to myself without interruption most of the time.  It’s just the other stuff that I mentioned.  I manage a big load most of the time, and then something extra comes along.  Mind control, and turning my thoughts to better things.  That’s my problem in a nutshell.  And I keep working on it. I have a whole bunch of tricks and techniques I’ve picked up over the years, or developed on my own.  A lot of things work sometimes, nothing works every time.

I can’t say I could blame you then for doing what you have to do to get some sleep.
I know and remember when working what you mean about stress and getting your mind off things so you can sleep. Those things will still be there so yes think of yourself first. If you don’t who will lol
I think was another plus getting away to the mountains. Away from work, even around the house always something to do or bills to pay, out of sight out of mind. To put all that on hold.
Sounds like too maybe I’m wrong you need to put limits on people too. Sometime people don’t realize. A part of that sleep hygiene you call it would be let it be known this is YOUR TIME and unless the house is burning down don’t bother me.

Thanks for the reply.

A couple of responses: I did get and use some Ensure when I was at my worst.  It was really difficult to get myself to eat even if I was hungry.  Just made me nearly nauseous to actually eat.  But that is gone for over a week.  My appetite is back and food is appealing.  I’ve been eating well.  That was, in fact,  one of the things that made me realize I was truly getting better.  So that’s ok.  Although I might add Ensure now and then for extra calories if I don’t start putting weight back on.

My insomnia is not chronic.  It is not caused by any imbalances or other things, I am sure.  It is episodic; comes from time to time when I encounter some extra stressful situation (I have and live with plenty of stress all the time. I know it’s not healthy, but I really have no choice; I have too much to do all the time, both at work and at home, and I just deal with it.  Prioritize and let the rest go.  But it weighs on me.), or perhaps there are things on my mind I can’t get away from.  It might cause a sleepless night.  The problem arises when it goes for more than one night.  Then I begin to worry that I won’t sleep again that coming night, and it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Until this recent episode in the middle of my covid experience, it was always self-correcting.  I would get some sleep-even if it wasn’t a full night’s worth–and it would go away because I knew I would sleep again.  This is the first time I have required a prescription pill.  I hate having to take it, but I think it is the lesser evil at the moment; I need sleep to keep getting over my remaining covid symptom.  And it is getting better; just not quite quickly enough to suit me.  But then I’m impatient; part of my nature.

Sounds are not the issue, either.  I always have a fan going for white noise.  More recently I have rigged a laptop to my stereo system in the bedroom.  I can play sleepy-type stuff from YouTube videos (like rain or railroad track sounds, etc.)  I’ve got that part under control; I am not bothered by unwanted noises.  I also observe the usual “sleep hygiene” recommendations; regular bedtime, computer off for a while before bedtime, quiet reading, and on and on.  None of that stuff is the problem.  When this situation arises, the problem is all inside my head (I’m hearing the Paul Simon song, lol)  When I can turn it off, get my mind on something else, I relax and fall asleep.  The problem is, it can be very difficult to keep your mind off the stuff that is causing the stress.  What I need is better mind control, re-direct to calm and peaceful thoughts, and the emotion will follow.  But it can be really difficult to do.   As always, thanks for your input.

Your really gifted mechanically figuring that stuff out by yourself and the work that goes with it. It’s amazing to listen to although something don’t register. I use to be the type seeing brother do this or that I could too but that didn’t always work out too well and sometimes almost got me killed lol I decided some people are just gifted in some things and to be glad they are around.