Welcome to another year of Randy’s Ramblings.  A tradition started by my mother when I was only 1 year old.  Through the years I have found it comforting as I review the Randy’s Ramblings for each year.  

Welcome to another year of Randy’s Ramblings.  A tradition started by my mother when I was only 1 year old.  

 This year I am getting started a little late. It’s after Thanksgiving and usually I start these earlier and try to get them out by the end of November. So this one may be a little later getting to you. I think my record is still better than my mother’s.  Some of hers didn’t get out to people for 8 months.

Through the years I have found it comforting as I review the year and chronicle the life I’ve had . . . while I still remember it!   I do admit that I have had CRS for decades, so it is good for me to review the year.  If you don’t know what CRS is . . . it stands for “Can’t Remember Shit”! 

This review of the year reminds me what a full and fun life I have actually had.  It never ceases to surprise me about all the things I actually did during the year.  I highly recommend everyone do a Christmas letter, or a yearly review.  For those of you who do send me a Christmas letter, or at least Christmas photos, I want you to know that your letters and photos get an honored space on my refrigerator. I have been looking at them all year long. If you want yours there this year, send a letter, or pictures.

You get a copy  of this letter because somewhere in my life you have made an impression.  If you want a hard copy, you only have to show enough interest to write back or ask for one.  Occasionally, when I am late, some have called and asked, “Where are my Ramblings?” (It’s always nice to hear that some of you look forward to them.)  And now the internet brings old friends closer.  So whether you get a hard copy, or one online, or from my webpage (www.RandyKarst.com), I hope you enjoy this year’s Randy’s Ramblings.  

For those that ask, “What is Randy’s Ramblings?”  It is the goings on of the great gallivants, good times, greetings, goats, gathered grasses, goals achieved, galactic gambles, gatherings of gaudy guilts, genial gentiles, gesticulations, geriatrics ghosted, gifts given, goods grabbed, and grateful guidance as this gentleman gallivanted through the galaxy, for another generation.   All that, or I just tell you what happened this year. 

 As 2024 ended up, we once again were at my sister’s for Christmas Eve. That may be the last Christmas Eve we spent at her house. They are spending so much of the winter in Texas in their RV, that I believe 2025 will be at my nephew Kevin’s house.  Candy and Bob only come into town long enough to have Christmas and then go back to Texas.

 As January came around, I got another year older. My nephew David, and his wife Laura, brought their kids and came to visit me for my birthday. We went out to eat and had a wonderful time. It is always such a pleasure to see them. They have invited me to several things through the year, but you’ll see more of that as this letter goes on.

By February I was once again working on the rentals. I had one to get clean and rented. It seems that the rentals always manage to find their way into my busy schedule. I am still going to the Joplin area once a week to take care of the business for most of my rentals out there.

 February also brought snow. I try to make at least one snowman each year, somewhere. I managed to help make a small one or two this year. I also had my rabbits that were giving me babies. So I was taking care of the rabbits and the chickens on a regular basis.   How can you not want to take care of something that looks this cute. Of course they don’t stay that cute for long. But since I tend to handle my rabbits regularly.  They are quite nice when held properly.

 By March Leah was off on another trip. I don’t even try to keep track of all the places she goes. The weather was still cool, but the snow melted off fairly quickly.

 It was also in March that I decided to go ahead  & sign up for the Afton Poultry swap. It’s about the largest swap meet I’ve found in the area, and they not only have items used and new, but also people sell animals. You may find ducks, chickens, pigeons, peacocks, geese, turkey, and almost any other fowl you can think of, as well as pigs and goats and occasionally a calf. Several people have tried to sell or even give away dogs and cats as well.

 I had a lot of things that I wanted to get rid of, so, I thought that would be a good place to do what I couldn’t do at a yard sale, because I’m too far away from town to get a lot of people to show up. I actually sold quite a bit of stuff.  I believe I made about $2300 for the year. They hold the poultry swap on the 3rd weekend of every month, and on any holidays. And in May they did it every weekend. It was a lot of work to get things together and get them out there. I eventually took my trailer and loaded it up and then just left it there with the things that didn’t sell, and brought new stuff in my truck when I needed to.

 I started raising rabbits with the intent of actually eating the meat. But I had a batch of babies that were almost big enough to butcher. Another five or six weeks and they would have been butcherable. I decided to see if they would sell at the poultry swap. I made over $100 for my first seven baby rabbits. I figured for that price I could eat steak. So I happily sold any babies that came from then on out.

 As April came around I was still working with rentals, but I did find a little bit of time to do some fishing.  April’s pretty good for Crappie, and I caught a nice catfish on my trotline.    In April I decided to do my own yard in Carl Junction. My nephew Kevin had been doing it. But I decided I would do the one at my house in Carl Junction and have someone else do my rentals. So I picked up the mowers that I had bought for him to use. The biggest one allows me to do the big yard in Carl Junction in about 10 minutes flat. The smaller one was a Kubota and a little later on in the year I believe I got it sold.

 My lawnmower guy at the lake also told me that he wasn’t going to be doing lawns anymore, so I would have to find someone else to do lawns. I believe I mowed them twice before July rolled around. I don’t have a lot of lawn that grows here at the lake. However, July found me a new lawn mower. I’ll tell you more about that in just a bit.

 May got really busy. They had the poultry swap every weekend, and I went most weekends. But I did manage to get away to go to Muskogee to the Renaissance festival. My nephew David, his wife Laura, and their two kids joined us at the Renaissance Festival. We all had a good time.

 I do believe David and Laura got quite tuckered out. I moved over to watch one of the shows that was going on while they found a seat to relax. I don’t believe they even realized they were so close to the queen of the court and her knight. The picture here shows Laura in green with David behind her and the Knight and the Queen standing right behind them around the corner. But even though we were tuckered out we all had a great time.

 But what really kept me busy for most of May was doing the poultry swap.  They had it open every weekend in May. Most weeks it was only on Saturday and Sunday, but it took me Monday to recuperate from being out in the sun all day long, and the rest of the week to gather up things that I would sell the next weekend. I went through my house and decided what I could and couldn’t get rid of. As I told you I sold quite a bit of stuff. What you see in the picture is only part of what I had in May and I was constantly adding things to it all year long.

 By the end of May I was at another Renaissance Festival. This one in Joplin. It’s nice to have them close. The one in Muskogee was a really long drive.

 The Joplin Renaissance Festival was much smaller, and much easier to get involved in. Yes, that’s me doing some sort of dance with one of the troops that entertain. Can you pick me out? That great big tall guy?

I still managed to find time before May ended to help my friend Bob Wesson’s son move out of his dorms. The dorms were closing for summer and he needed a place to go. My friend Bob had just moved his Mother in with him, so his house was full.  My house in Carl Junction sat empty 5 days a week so I told him he could move in there for the summer. If he stayed longer he would have to pay rent. Evidently I’m not charging enough rent because he’s still there. 😀

 I still managed to get a fishing trip in May. My friend Margarita brought her grandson out and we went out for white bass. That time of year white bass is almost a certainty if you know where to look. I believe we made his day.

 June didn’t let me down either. I ended up buying another kayak because I found it on sale. I also ended up buying a trailer from a friend of mine because he gave me such a deal I couldn’t refuse. I’m not sure I needed another trailer, but if I do the poultry swap again I believe this will turn out to be a good thing. It’s a lot smaller than the big trailer in the earlier picture. And I’ll be able to load things on it and then bring it home each time.

 It didn’t take me a long time to realize that even though I now have two kayaks, I don’t really enjoy kayaking. My center of gravity is way too high. I have a rowboat, and I can even put an electric motor on the rowboat. So if you decide to come out and join me at the lake some weekend in the summer, you will be able to try either rowboating or kayaking.   Of course going out in the pontoon and the runabout is still on the table.

 I was still doing the poultry swap in June. But at least they weren’t doing it every weekend. Every Sunday at the Poultry Swap they would have a drawing. If you ate at the food trailers that were there you would get a ticket and the ticket was your entry into the drawing. I was pretty lucky at most of the drawings. In June I actually won a little baby pig. I had no idea what to do with the pig so I asked if I could look into it and pick it up on Monday if I wanted it.   They said that would be fine, but by the time Monday got here and I did my calculations, I realized it would cost me more to feed the pig and make a pen for it than if I just bought the pork.   So I gave it back to them to give away the next time they had a drawing.

 My rabbits were having trouble with babies. I believe the weather was so hot the babies were dying. I had to get salt blocks or salt licks for the rabbits but that wasn’t enough. I was still losing baby rabbits. They would have litters of seven or eight babies, which, if they raised them till they were weaned, I could sell for 20 to 25 dollars each.  When the babies died before they were weaned that was a lot of money that I wasn’t going to make. So I’m gonna have to come up with another idea so they can have babies and keep them alive in the summer. I have something in mind but we’ll have to see if I actually get to it.

 I also had another friend who was having trouble getting their lawn mowed. So I took a little electric mower over and mowed their lawn for them. I believe after that they got someone to come out regularly. I had another friend a little later in the year who was having trouble with his health and couldn’t mow his yard. He had a riding mower and so when I drove by his house I would stop and fire up his mower and get the lawn mowed for him.  After a month or so he was feeling better.

 This year for the 4th of July I didn’t do anything special. I didn’t even feel like taking the boat out. I was invited to a gathering of one of the churches here. And so I went and ate some hot dogs during the day.   The real fun in July came when I got a new mower.  It was at the poultry swap again, and I won a Dwarf Nigerian goat. He is pretty cute, and unlike the pig I had a job for him to do. After all, my mower guy had quit on me. So meet Billy, my new lawn mower.

 If you follow me on Facebook you may have seen the post where I said that I have adopted a kid. But I don’t want him to be a bother so I just tether him out in the yard during the day. I guess most people had seen the picture of me and the little goat in an earlier post, and realized that baby goats are called kids. Because I didn’t get any calls from child services. 😀

 I spent about $200 and some of my time to build a pen so that he could be locked up at night. I ran a whole bunch of lines around my yard for tethers, and I hook his leash up to a pulley on those tethers. So wherever my grass is tall he runs around and eats it down. I believe the only thing I’ve had to mow since I got him were a few weeds that he didn’t like. And I didn’t have to mow those until fall. I was mowing leaves anyway so it wasn’t a problem.  The $200 was a steal, since I had been paying my Lawn man $120 a month!

 David and Laura managed to come out with the kids and some of Laura’s family in July. Everybody had a good time jumping in the water and swimming. I love being on the water when people come to visit. So don’t you hesitate, just give me a call and let me know when you want to come out. I love to have company.

I started having trouble in July with the depth gauge on my pontoon boat.   Evidently  the transducer got hot and leaked fluid all over itself. So it isn’t working.   I also realized that it was sucking up a lot more gas. I think when I had trouble a year or two ago they changed the prop for me and they put one on that was a narrower pitch and had four blades for more power. It was too narrow a pitch, and I needed something with more speed than power.  I’ve been trying all year to get somebody to come out and fix both those items. But I haven’t been able to get anyone out yet.   I’m hoping to get someone out here to take care of that soon.

 My garden, what little I have of it, was in full swing.  The blackberry bushes that I have along the house went nuts this year giving me blackberries. This winter I fertilized that area with some rabbit pellets, I sell them as Bunny berries.  I’ve actually sold quite a few of them, and I’ve even had some repeat customers who came back and cleaned me out.   The only disappointing thing about my garden this year was I didn’t get to pick much. I was told the deer won’t eat pinto beans because they’re poisonous if they’re not cooked. Evidently the deer around my house this year were too stupid to know that. They ate most of my bean crop.

 As August rolled around I was still staying busy. The poultry swap was keeping me busy at least one weekend a year if not two or three, and I’ve been trying to run errands for some friends. My friend Aaron asked if I could run some errands for him because he wasn’t well, and I was happy to do it for him.   I was doing a little shopping here and there and found what I think were some real deals. About the only thing I wasn’t doing a lot of was going out on the boats. With the poultry swap I was just too busy.

 As September rolled around I had an idea for something to sell at the poultry swap. I had seen a chicken coop made out of a blue plastic barrel. I figured I could do that. So I bought several from a friend and I have been making dog houses and chicken coops out of them. I’ve only sold one as a chicken coop, and the dog houses I’ve been keeping around here. Billy needs a place to get in out of the sun when I tether him or to get in out of the rain if I’m not back in time to get him out of the rain.

 My nephew David had told me that he was going to invite me to the birthday party for his kids early in November. I was also invited to Thanksgiving in Tahlequah with Laura’s family. So I began thinking about all that driving. I hate to drive more than an hour and not be able to spend the night. It takes me about two hours to get to Tahlequah, and so if I drive there and back in one day that’s a four hour drive.   And since my drive back is usually in the evening after having a good time, on roads I’m not that familiar with, it can be a little spooky.  So I decided that I should have a trailer or a motor home. That way I could spend the night in Tahlequah and come back during the day the next morning.

 By the end of September I had found myself a motorhome. It was a steal for only $7300.  It’s a 1999, on a Ford chassis. And it’s about 32 feet long. It is a behemoth going down the road, and I’m sure the gas mileage sucks, but I would much rather drive that and then spend the night.  David and Laura have been amazing.  They had a spare car that I could drive around so they didn’t have to wait for me and chauffeur me, since they had a car full of kids.  They even made a place for me to park in their lot for free.

 Fussing with the motorhome kept me busy for part of October.  I still had the poultry swap. But the holiday they do not open for the poultry swap is Halloween. 

The couple that run the poultry swap, Steven and Susan Boyd, love to do things for kids, and they figure Halloween is for the kids, So they put on quite a display in Afton.  I was asked to come and help put up decorations on the morning of Halloween.  I met some really nice people and had a good time. And when I tell you she puts on a show, the pictures here are just the smallest fraction of what she put out there.  I believe the three items  in the picture on the right stood almost 20 feet tall.  It was in a little Community Center and every home had all kinds of displays in front of it and around it. I believe that night people from all over town came and handed out candy.  Steven and Susan really go all out for this. OK, Maybe it’s really Susan that goes all out and Steven just tries to make her happy, but they still manage one heck of a display.

As November rolled around I got a chance to visit with Adam  Erickson.   He did the detail on my motor home and did a wonderful job.  His wife was out working when I got to visit, but he was taking care of their kids.  So I got to see most of the family.  They stay so busy I hardly get a chance to see them much anymore, so it was really nice to be able to have this chance. 

 I also started looking into having some sort of a backhoe. I was going to buy one from Harbor Freight, but they delayed that so long they eventually canceled the order.  I have since ordered another one that was much cheaper, but so far I haven’t received it yet.  If I do get it you’ll hear about it next year. I have lots of ideas to put it to use.

 I managed to get to the birthday party for David and Laura’s children, Owen and Maya. It was a great turn out and I’m glad I got a chance to go. It was wonderful not to have to worry about driving home that night because I had the RV. That meant I got to spend the night and go home in the morning.

 I did the same thing for Thanksgiving with Laura’s family in Tahlequah.  They are a wonderful group of people and everybody had a good time. I realized at the birthday party that I couldn’t tell who was who or how anyone knew each other. So I joked that I should bring name tags to Thanksgiving.  When one of the family members told me that was a good idea I decided I would do it. Their family is so great that they actually ran with it, and it was a lot of fun. My nephew picked up the nickname Doodle from one of his nephews. (The young man’s name tag on the right, brags “I gave Doodle his name”.)  So, when I wrote my name, I put “Doodle’s uncle” underneath it. They thought that was perfect.   So one of the family members, I believe it was Sara, started making name tags for everyone, and related them all to Doodle. Laura, David’s wife, was labeled as “Doodle’s lover”. His son was labeled as “Doodle Jr”, and his daughter was labeled as “Scribble”. I am guessing it was one of the friends or a distant relative who was also there and didn’t know anyone either, but when they labeled under his name they put “doodle who?”. It was a ton of fun just to read how they had described you in relation to my nephew David.  I think I’m going to make sure they have name tags every time I go.

It has been an amazing year, and I’ve been surrounded by wonderful people.  I thank all of them and of course all of you who are reading this.  You help make my life wonderful.  I wish the same for all of you.  My home is always open to my friends, like you.  Come on out and spend some time at the lake.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year’s, and may your life be as wonderful as you want it to be.