Washington DC

I’m on my way to DC for another training course. This one is on how to analyze satellite imagery. Most things people are looking for are soil types, riparian impacts, or roads and other infrastructure. I hope I can get involved with some projects after taking this class.

On the way I had the window seat and took some pictures.


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The past week was a busy one with unpacking, cleaning and repacking. It was also the start of softball season. We opened with a forfeit and lost our second game. Softball is always a great time and the sign that summer is hear.

Friday Jessica and I left for Reno to go to the Reno River Festival and hang out in the city for a weekend. After DC I’m headed for Las Vegas for a three days for a conference there, then to Reno for another day conference. I figure I’m just going to stay in Reno again and head up to the Black Rock Rendezvous for Memorial Day weekend. A busy time of year for sure.

While in DC I’m hoping to meet up with friends and my brother is coming down for the weekend.

Fort Collins

Last week I was in Fort Collins, Colorado for training. I was learning how to make maps for large wildfires in the hope that I can go out more this summer. Fort Collins, is supposed to be a cool town, but most of what I saw was the inside a conference room.



At the end of the week we were glad to be done and I went to the New Belgium brewery with a couple of the guys that were in the class with me. As far as breweries go, it was nothing new. At the end of the tour you can have a sampler of beer and I tried my first sour beer, which was unique.

The other guys I was with had to go catch flights, so I carried on to the Odell brewery and the Fort Collins brewery. Neither was as crowded or developed as New Belgium, but they had great beer and fun people. I had a fun time in the Fort Collins brewery because it was so relaxed and carefree. I highly recommend it.

That night I drove down to Boulder to spend the night. I went out on the town and had fun meeting random people. I was in Boulder, because the next day I wanted to go to the Celestial Seasonings factory. The crowd touring a tea factory is a little different then a brewery tour. It was neat and I’m sorry I don’t have more pictures, but they wouldn’t allow it in the factory. Let me say there was tons of herbs and tea. Most impressive was the “Peppermint room” where they kept their Peppermint and spearmint. It was so strong it was kept in it’s own room. They opened the door and it was a challenge to stay in their more then thirty seconds because it burnt everyone’s sinuses.




In the afternoon I drove down to Denver. I was hoping to see the Flying Dog Brewery, but found out they moved just a month ago. So I hung out in town and had an entertaining Saturday afternoon in a bar.

I was going to go skiing the next day, so I drove out to Silverthorne. That was a weird town. You pass run down mining towns, then there’s Silverthone with strip malls for J. Crew and others. I found a cheap room and stayed there and went skiing at Arapaho Basin the next day. Even though it was May, the snow was great. They had about 9 inches the two days before and the base is at 10,000 feet so it was still super nice.

It was a real community place. Everyone there was in costumes and the parking lot was right at the base and they had a place they called “The Beach” where people would set up chairs and bar-b-q’s drinking and watching people ski. I was surprised how crowded it was still in May.




After a full day of skiing I headed north past Steamboat and camped out on the Yampa river near Craig. And Monday it was a long drive back to Winnemucca. It was a great trip and a quick turn around to leave for Washington DC next week.


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Bowling and Dust

So it's been awhile since I've gotten to post. Buying the house fell through in the last minute. A long story short, they wanted 20% down because the duplex in the back made it a rental. I was annoyed because I thought I made this clear to the lady at the bank. Oh well, I didn't really need to buy a house anyway.



Bowling season in Winnemucca just wrapped up. I took my camera out the other week for some photos, but none came out that well. People mean business at the games, so I know someone would get mad if I took to many pictures with a flash. I think everyone can agree that at 33 weeks the bowling season got kind of long, but it was fun to have something to do on Fridays. I improved some and managed to pull my average score up higher then my handicap.



We’ve been having some large dust storms as well. I think three of my friends have broken tents in the wind, and at times it’s like a white out in town where you can’t see more then 100 yards. This is a good example, but I need to get a clear day picture to show the Winnemucca mountain that’s right across the valley.

Earth Day

Its been busy in the muc. We’ve been having some serious weather and Earth Day weekend was no exception. We were out there to Lear about Leave No Trace and to plant saplings in the burn area.



The day started off cold, but by lunch time it was windy. There were sustained winds at 15 – 20 MPH and gusts to at least 40. You can see in the picture how clear it was in the morning and how windy it got. Working in a burn with loose soil didn’t help and we had dirt in our eyes most the time.



But at the end of the day we’d planted about 300 seedlings and put mulch mats down for about half of them. The boyscouts were there and helped a lot. At the end of the day everyone looked about fifteen years older from the dirt. That shower afterwards felt amazing.

House

So as some people might have heard, I'm in the process of buying the house that I'm living in. Since Google Street View hasn't made it to Winnemucca yet, I figured I'd provide my own street shots.


View Larger Map Click here to see the pictures in google earth.

Click around the dots and see the house from all angles and if you click the slide show you can see some interior's as well. As usual, under the map you can click to download a file to view the pictures in Google Earth.




This is our cat Ho Chi Meow and you can see her posing in a number of the pictures. This is her new favorite way to sit in the most traveled areas of the house. It's like she's trying to be stepped on. Crazy cats.