Spring to winter again

It's a slow time of year, always hard to get things done on the homestead when you have several feet of snow everywhere. Nothing really exciting to blog about, but as the wether and season changes that will change. Winter in the mountains.

A week+ of nice warm weather did a number on the snow problem but now there is a storm blowing in. It started dumping snow a few hours ago and they expect 1-2 feet here in the mountains. We are debating leaving a little earlier so we don't have to deal with conditions in the morning and traffic. The sun is keeping most of the storm at bay and it's only a few inches so far. I've shoveled once and it was enough to keep the deck snow melting and not accumulating.

Rock and I breaking trail/road

Yesterday the road was dirt and dry. The creeks were running under the ice and the spring pool area had a bit of water in it. I think we've gotten twice as much snow this year as last but it's been warmer overall.

Easy on the eyes.

That was the backyard view last weekend, half of that melted the past week.

We have a list of projects that we are going to start on so we've been sitting around going over them:

Have propane tank installed and plumbed to a new propane kitchen range.
New fridge, large one (ours is only 5 feet tall with freezer included). Need to make sure it's not frost free on the freezer section.
Buy several 'runner' carpets and a few small area rugs. This will spruce up the place and save the old carpet some wear and tear.
Order a new medicine cabinet and bathroom light.
Install a switch so we can run the well pump and cabin on a generator. We have a couple other small things for the electrician to do while he is here working on that.
Replace bathroom sink and redo kitchen sink plumbing
Storage container - still up in the air, depends on how much more long term storage and supplies we decide to pick up. We don't want the place to look jammed up.
Find and install 3 storm windows

It's a bit of money here and there but spaced out of this year it should work out well.  Work continues to be OK, it's nice that we are spending the weekend together because we rarely see each other 6 days out of the week. It's a lot like being single minus the whole being single thing.

We sold the Jeep and Mercedes this past week and picked up an 06 Range Rover for me to use when not in the company car. It's nice to have a full size SUV again, plenty of room for supplies and backpacks. We have another Rover vehicle being shipped in from Kansas to replace the Mercedes. While it was a beautiful car, it was a car and just didn't fit our lifestyle as much as we tried to make it. Once the new one arrives that will be Rover #14 in the last 20 years. It's also nice to have more luxurious vehicles because neither of us are getting younger. I'm almost recovered from screwing my knee up 2 weeks ago, a constant reminder that I should act my age... or not.

Texas paintball and back

Obviously I'm a sucker for punishment and as usual I find more ways to punish myself. This past weekend two friends and I jumped in the car and drove to Texas to play paintball.

Paintball? Yes.

I haven't played in years and just recently have gotten back in the sport. The game in Texas was a 24 hour scenario game with hundreds of players on each team. Back in the day I was on a team that won the European championship two years in a row and some local competitions but I just outgrew the cliques and drama that seemed to follow most good teams.

I'm used to running around and stressing my body but I haven't worn cleats in years. I forgot how much traction you get and how much your body has to adjust to the quick turns, rapid stops, etc. On top of that there was all the usual running, sprinting, low crawling (the night game was great, had to crawl almost 1/2 a mile to wreck an enemy squad), etc.
I gave lessons to people on squad element maneuvers, hasty ambushes, planned ambushes, fire and maneuver, and more. It's all natural to me but in order to be successful the people around you need to know what they are doing (and what you are doing). We were able to hold all the objectives, hold the lines, repel assaults, etc.
We won by several hundred points to the amazement of the other two teams. Our team commander told me that she appreciated my dedication and the quick training lessons given out to the squads before they headed out on missions. I also played a medic for a few hours and had 112 revives under enemy fire, talk about MVP status (had we stayed for the award ceremony anyhow).

One of my friends has only left Colorado to go to San Fran last year when we had a business meeting. Now he has been to a couple more states and wasn't really impressed with New Mexico and only slightly impressed with Texas. I think Texas has the interstate system down really well, we never had traffic issues and everyone was friendly and tried not to impede traffic if they were slow. We based outside of Austin so everything was really green and the weather cooperated nicely and was in the 50's.

One of my friends cleaning his gear after the night game.

My body is almost recovered. I'll give it a few more days before I run and do lower body workouts. As we all know, the older we get the harder and longer the recovery is.

We all had an amazing time, we are debating going next month to Dallas. It was nice to just go have fun for a few days and not care about much else.

30, 90, 365?

I've been giving another preparedness group a go for a couple of months because we know that there is only so much we can do ourselves. It would be nice to say that we have been giving this group a chance but after one meeting I was on my own because there is only so much that we can put up with and I'm the more patient and forgiving person (not sure how that happened).

As usual, the preparedness level and expertise of the average person in the group is severely lacking. Perhaps lacking is the wrong word but I give credit for trying because everyone has to start somewhere. Recently we talked about the size of a garden and hydroponics set-up that a group of 30 people would need in order to get all of the food the group needed. There were only a few of us that discussed that the numbers were absolutely unrealistic and that's why such things need to be PART of preps, not the only preps.
Who has a warehouse for aquaponics (with natural light, insulation, etc.) and who has a garden that's 1000q feet (or an area that's already prep'd with good soil)?

90 days worth of food for each person is the current minimum... oh no, HELL no. One year should be the minimum basic standard. That much food for one person isn't super expensive although it might not be fun and exciting and it doesn't take up much room at all with buckets. When I first started attending the group meetings most people were saying 30 days of food was good and that they would bring it with them if they had to 'bug out' to a retreat. I was able to help move that up a few months.

What about the people who have a years worth of food but plan on having a group of people 'show up' in an event? Let's say a couple in the group are bringing 10 people to a retreat. In our opinion they should each have a years worth of food (minimum) already pre-staged, they should have some sort of sweat equity in the retreat, they should have supplies besides food already set-up at the retreat.

I suppose we feel people should have some sort of mental and physical investment in a retreat. Even children and elderly can help but nobody seems to want to discuss this but they sure want them to just show up with backpacks and carts and cars full of whatever crap they could stuff in there and pretend it's 30 days worth of food.

That's just food. What about seeds for a garden, hand tools, screws, nails, tape, tarps, thread, oil, vitamins, batteries, portable battery chargers, blankets, pots and pans, soap, medicine, etc? Instead of discussions like this, there is a push to get ham radio licenses and yet nobody can answer my questions of 'why?'. Why do people feel like they need a license for everything instead of just making sure they know how to use it?

The good news is I've met a few serious people and we are hosting them next weekend for lunch. I'm happy to help people out and put some direction out there to keep people on track. They just need to 'want' to be on track and not just in some cool high school clique.

Work, gym, sleep

I feel like I've used that title before but as long as it fits, I suppose I don't care.

In an effort to step up my health and fitness this year I've added more gym time and running. It seems to be about 2.5-3 hours a day, 4 days a week. The other 3 days are 2 runs and one day off.

Work, gym, sleep. I also stretch more than before and my body bitches and complains more than before too! I decided against committing to a 31 mile run this year and will just see how things play out and keep working on balancing all of my activities.

At the cabin I manage plenty of sleep, not so much at the city house. It's amazing how much noise I hear when I'm not in the mountains. Today we hung out at the cabin together, french toast to start the day was perfect. It was an amazing blue sky day with a little breeze to put the temperature around 12 with wind chill. What do I do when it's SO warm out?

Run!!

Looking home from the gas station

The road up to a fellow bloggers property

Looking back home again

 The sun was on my back the entire run and somebody was kind enough to pick me up an hour later. I didn't make it to the gas station but we wanted to get the local papers and see what horrific crimes and/or tales of right vs. left they were printing.
One paper is right wing and complains about the government and yet applauds law enforcement when they take down a marijuana grow or do anything in favor of what they think is right/correct. The other paper is left wing and complains about guns, the other paper and generally anything not socialist/fair. Both are lame and can't see nor write about what is really happening from a neutral perspective but it's all yesterdays news anyhow (or the last week really). It keeps the basket next to the fireplace stocked and it does provide us with local contractors if we need work done.

Spaghetti and sugar cookies was a hit for lunch and dinner but now it's dark outside.
The woodbox is full, I'm warm and by myself (somebody hates getting up early on a workday) and am patiently awaiting the amazing milky way display soon to unfold. This is how 2016 is supposed to be, and its great so far.