Mike Feddersen

My birth father died before I turned 5, Mom remarried to a workaholic that ended up being the only dad I remember. My stepdad was successful, he and my mother ran a small gravel truck business. The business required moving away from the small town I will always think of as home.
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New town, smaller, two-faced people. Went back to home town for community college, it had changed. I was no longer one of the guys.
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Started driving truck for my stepdad, off and on when I was 18. This was in Iowa, a bad year had us going to Arizona for winter work. It ended up saving the company, and I spent a lot of time out there. My parents bought a 2nd house in Arizona, I would eventually marry the girl next door.
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We ended up going to Iowa, and my stepdad, who had always told me what to do, started telling my wife what to do too.
The stress was too much for her, she ended up on anxiety meds.
We spent a couple years working in Des Moines, but were always a paycheck away from being evicted. I ended up buying a truck from my dad and we started doing the snowbird thing, Iowa road work for 8 months, Arizona for 4 months.
My wife's health got worse, then better. Then after 4 years my dad died, he was the business. My Mom tried to keep it going, but I wasn't him, and a secretary that wanted the business was running it into the ground behind our backs.
Mom sold the trucks, and my wife and I moved to Arizona. At first in an RV, then a house.
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I was hauling for some pretty shady truck brokers, and somewhere along the way I had a bit of a breakdown. We ended up losing everything, pickup, house, all our stuff.
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Moved in with my wife's parents, her younger sister and 2 nieces. It was bad. My mother-in-law took my wife on a plane trip to West Virginia for a 10 day trip. My wife stayed, "If you want to see your 4 year old son, we're in WV."
My personal vehicle blew up, went to collect my vacation money to pay for an engine, the IRS had garnished my wages.
A friend sold me a crappy Pontiac Gran Prix for $750 and I joined my wife and son in West Virginia.
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No decent jobs in West Virginia, ended up driving truck over the road. Gone for 4 to 5 weeks at a time, 5 days home. Missed out on a bunch of my son's life. 3 years ago I got hurt on the job, was off for 16 months healing up. Living on workman's compensation sucks, but we got by.
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14 months ago I found a better version of driving over the road, regional job. I get around 10 days off per month, wife's happy, son's happy, and I am happy.
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I still occasionally buy a lottery ticket though.

I do think he's smart, not sure I am smart enough to train him.
I have a friend that has a labradoodle, and he says the secret is to spend a lot of time with the dog. Very sociable.

Matt,
Great and timely question.
I am a little biased with this answer, we have what appears to be a English Pointer. Midsized dog, loves to be around family. The times he's been in the house he stretches out on a loveseat covered with a blanket. Very social dog, and okay with my wife's cats.
We had a stray show up that looked very similar to him, but she has pointed ears where his are floppy. She also has blue eyes, as do all the puppies.
She had a litter of puppies about 2 months ago, we still have 7 to find homes for. They all are so beautiful that I wish we could keep them all. Are you located somewhere near the tri-state area of West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky? We live south of Huntington WV and east of Louisa Kentucky. I drive for Walmart out of Washington Courthouse Ohio and would bring you one, or more! Lol
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The pointer does have a bit of energy and love to run a bit, but like I said, loves to sprawl out inside.

Your dad should be glad that cameras no longer require rolls of film. I had some cheap little Fuji Finepix cameras that I took thousands and thousands of pictures, occasionally there was a decent photo among them.
With your computer you can view your handiwork.

With Easter fast approaching, a bump to this thread seems appropriate.

I see some photos, think how they would make great phone wallpaper. The closeup of my phone case looks like a nice wallpaper.

A couple new links:
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2014-6-november-december/innovate/harvesting-water-thin-air
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https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.1c00850
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I hauled trash from local trash collection facilities around Arizona, around 15 years ago. I remember something about how most of landfills in metropolitan areas was landscaping debris, and old construction debris.
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As far as construction debris, if homes were made out of natural materials like cob, there would be less going to the landfill.
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The landscaping material though could be used to harvest some water. Put it in an enclosed plastic, or rubber container, maybe even an earthen container. Take advantage of the heat of the area, and the ground temperature a dozen feet down.
Just a thought.

Love this thread, I have spent so much on Super Greens in the past.

Jo Ann,
Any of my pictures are mine and you have my permission to use anyway you like.
I would love to read some of your poetry.
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I wrote a few poems in the past, you can see how bad they are at firstdayoffall2008.blogspot.com
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Cheers,
Azmike

As an adult I would think I would know things, like the difference between penumbra and umbra. But I didn't realize there was the full eclipse/totality and partial eclipse until just an hour before the event. Not once did I hear, or see any ads about getting the eclipse glasses so you could safely view the partial eclipse. Fortunately my wife's cousin had an extra pair. 😁