Leaf peeper pictures

Most of the blogs I follow probably have as good, if not better, fall colors. I figured I would put some of the photo's from our ATV ride out for everyone to be forced to enjoy!
The larger aspens at the cabin are still really green so we should have a couple more weekends of great color before it's all dead and snowing.

Amazing color where the water runs down through the conifers.

The plains looking east

This is about 10 miles by trail from the cabin but my favorite grove

We laid on the ground a bit just watching the aspens sway

Music mountain way in the distance

Close up

Spanish Peaks mountain range, we crossed over the Sangre de Cristos

Jeep parking only! I wanted to buy the red on but decided against it.

Sitting on the deck having a sandwich view.

Number 3

The week in review with the 2 accidents... actually we discovered it was 3. Father in-law didn't tell us that when he ran into the garage wall (and into his bathroom) that he put the car in reverse and guess what... foot slipped off the brake again. The entire side of the car ran along the side of a tree.

We took the keys.

'If I don't have my car I'll be trapped in this g-d m-f house and I'll have nothing'
I've been saying for months he can't stand the house and I told everyone it was going to be like this when they shoe in home hospice for his wife. People don't usually want to live where there spouse suffered and died. Unfortunately he doesn't want to go someplace else but we are going to have to make it work pretty soon.

Since the promotion went through it's now all about taxi cabs and the like. Neither of us can pick up, wait around, bring home, etc.

oh well, I know we all get to that stage and since everyone in this family is so damn stubborn it's going to be hell.

Green tomato salsa, it's the absolute best.

I want to can some salsa this weekend but I don't think I have enough tomatoes. The house sitter failed to water as requested so the garden took a big crap. I might have enough for one, maybe two batches but not the usual 5 dozen jars. Since we haven't been eating a lot of carbohydrates this year the food stores are still stocked up nice.

I have a meet-up this weekend with some people in a new preparedness group. Still trying to learn all I can and since our last group fizzled out I'll give this one a shot. I'm approaching it somewhat reserved because I don't want to be the one who is in charge and comes up with all of the ideas, all the time. I also don't want a pot-luck social every time people gather, there needs to be some exchanging of ideas.
Between what we buy, being in the John Birch Society, being preppers, etc. we are on all sorts of government lists. I've been on them for a long time and luckily get extra special treatment by the HS/TSA because of it.

knock-knock

We are shooting this weekend. It's been a while and that makes me feel slow and rusty. I'm sure I'll have the best scores and fastest times but that's because I practice a lot with drawing and target acquisition at home. I worked up a new range target set-up the other night when I (as usual) couldn't sleep. This will give us 4 stations to shoot from (or run to, use for cover shooting, etc.) and up to 10 targets. I get to test my new armor and pack set-up to see what adjustments I need to make. Everything seems fine now but diving behind cover can change comfortable into 'ouch'.

Orange lights, pumpkins, leaves

We picked up 5 pumpkins for the cabin path and stairs, fun to spruce things up for the holidays. Spent a little time this evening hanging the orange lights in the windows. We try to make the place look active and lived in. A lot of solar lights help, including lining the driveway and the path to the woodshed.
Inside we have lights on timers including some Phillips HUE bulbs that we can adjust the settings remotely.

I can drive around and tell who hasn't been around for a long time, we just hope by making the place look active that others will be targeted first if someone was breaking in. They would probably steal the TV and maybe some tools but otherwise it would just suck as far as replacing a window or door frame.

We racked up 35 miles on the ATV's today on our leaf peeping route. The trail was really dusty in many sections where the hunters are driving around all day. Once we got out of the easy section it was back to normal. The leaves are falling fast on all of the tree's not located really close to a lot of water. On the cabin property one type of tree is yellow but the aspens are just starting to change and many are green still. I need to download the photo's from the trail but if you don't have bandwidth capped satellite internet, you don't know my struggle.

The week in review, by the numbers

The number 2: This represents the number of accidents father in law has caused in a 14 hour span. He said his foot slipped off the brake, but that means he is driving with one foot on each pedal. The first accident caused him to pull out in front of someone and ruin both vehicles fenders. Nobody was hurt luckily. The second accident was when he put the car in the garage and once again his foot slipped off the brake this time causing the car to crash into the back wall of the garage and into his bathroom.

We know it's about freedom and independence but we have to take his car away. Today he said he is going to physical therapy to get stronger and will be able to drive in a month. We disagree on this subject and it's going to cause some issues. The fact he drives with one foot on each pedal is scary enough because if your foot slips off one pedal, the other one is engaged at all times. I see people going uphill with the brake lights on, and father in law is one of those people. Combine this with the last health scare where he told people in Safeway he wanted to basically die... well there are some decisions coming down the road that just have to be made for all involved.

The number 43: One less marble out of the jar. I don't know how many I have left but I have a blessed life and treat each day as a gift. Not counting my military years, I'm in the best shape of my life. Work failed to get me a cake so I got my own just to prove a point I guess. When it came time to cut the cake only 2 out of close to 100 employees showed up. My reputation for being blunt and a little unforgiving I suppose. No need to sugar coat what I'm saying, we did almost 21 million in sales last month, we aren't a mom and pop operation anymore.

The number 20: Tomorrow is our official day for our 20th anniversary. It's amazing to think back over all of the years and see how things have changed (and in many cases stayed the same). It's really incredible to think we have been together just short of half of our lives. We have done a lot to celebrate so we are just going to have a nice dinner in the mountains.

The number 12: This is easy, we made a dozen muffins for breakfast at the cabin. Food storage cooking is really normal for us. We didn't have eggs or fresh fruit so we rehydrated some and cooked everything up just fine. We have butter so there wasn't any need to use canned/powdered but at least we have it should the need arise. We have a lot of fruit in #10 cans, probably because we tend to eat pretty healthy and want to try to maintain that in tough times.

The number 2 (again): This is the number of Jeeps in the driveway. I'm test driving one for the weekend, it's time to sell the Land Rover and get something newer. We might not end up with anything, we have plenty of vehicles but most are 15-20 years old and just aren't reliable.

The number 5: The large pile of wood, 5 cord, will get us through this and next winter. In addition to what we have put away earlier this year, we are set for fuel. If times get rough we will have enough for one winter. Next spring we will put an addition on the woodshed that should get us enough room for 10 cord.

The number 70: That's the temperature this weekend in the mountains. We are going to run together this afternoon (a rare treat) and hopefully cover about 8 miles.

There, those are just some fun numbers (or not, depending on the view). We are going to swing by and check out the developments on our CA's blogger friends property, get some groceries, ride the ATV's, enjoy the amazing fall colors, read, relax, etc. Work is in upheaval again but it might help us as one of us might get a promotion and pay raise. It won't be me, I can't get any higher up the ladder but I'm not complaining, I'm treated well.

Growing up I never thought I would be positioned like we are today. We grew our own vegetables so we have food to eat. Now I grow them because it's a choice and if we had more time at home we would have chickens for sure. Even if the marble jar is close to empty, a life full. Well lived.

I'm tired of airplanes

Unexpected trip to New Jersey for a meeting didn't put a smile on my face. I have a lot to get done at both properties and a last minute trip tossed everything into disarray.

Getting to the hotel at midnight was bad enough, but the HVAC system was loud no matter the setting so I might have managed 30 minutes of sleep before my alarm went off and it was time for a run. We were staying next to some river so the running should have been great but with all of the storms on the east coast I opted against being cold and miserable on top of being tired.

The meeting sucked, executives at any level seem to be happy to listen but you can always tell when they have their minds made up. We had 3 hours and half-way through it they were more interested in lunch that anything else. The flight out was delayed due to the weather (surprise!) and we spent 6 hours in the airport and I was finally back home by 1am Saturday morning.

The entire time in the airport I had to listen to gun control and mental health debates from the tv's, speakers and people. Airport food sucked bad, like always.

I'm glad that I don't have anything planned for a while, it will be nice to catch up on chores and projects. I spent a few hours setting up my new plate carrier yesterday after I went for a run. I'll get a picture of it when it's done but for now I still have some tweaks and adjustments to do. Now I need to find a bag for transporting it around. This is part of our step up in preparedness plan.

Firewood, tree cutting, wood splitting, yard cleaning, winter food storage inventory and stock-up. We have a lot to do and it's much colder than expected this weekend. We have a monsoon rain yesterday and hail, so now we have an insurance claim to send in on my 98 Discovery. Always something to keep us busy.

I hope you east coasters have hunkered down and didn't get very soggy. I'm doing inside projects right now while someone else is out in them mountains 4 wheeling with Rock. I just didn't have it in me and have a lot of long term concerns about life, fitness, the economy, work and preparedness... these are keeping me busy enough.

France and how it's good to be home

To be fair, we've been home for a couple of weeks but between our latest two trips there was a lot of work to be done and many things had to take a backseat.

We stayed in Paris for a week with a few excursions and saw most of the tourist type places (from the outside). Neither of us are into art, the tower was a tower, etc. When I tell people we slept in, had good food and ran a lot, they usually have an eye roll or two. The only reason we went to France was to visit Normandy, specifically Omaha beach, where my Grandfather landed.

We visited the American cemetery, Point Du Hoc, Aramanche, Omaha and more. It was a whirlwind of a day, and very emotional. You can read about it, look at photo's, watch movies about it, etc. Nothing actually captured the area like being there in person. To stand on Omaha beach and look out at low tide and actually see how much beach had to be crossed under fire... well I'm just amazed anyone survived at all. Looking at what was once flat sections of land now crater holed for miles, crawling in and out of the German bunkers and murder holes, reading the names of the missing at the cemetery, etc. Overwhelming.

This is how much beach had to be crossed, plus another 200 feet behind me. Bloody Omaha.

South edge of Omaha as seen from Point Du Hoc

Edge of Omaha, looking down from the cemetery

Utah 'beach' is around the far point. This is from Point Du Hoc where the 2nd Rangers assaulted

It's good to be home, work is in upheaval and we have to finish getting ready for winter. We are at the cabin enjoying some anti-social time. At least the people in France were really friendly, not what we had expected but it was refreshing.

Doghouse for cats? Suggestions needed.

Rabies the cat is still hanging out in the woodshed, along with 2 of her kittens. They are fairly big kittens (not quite 2 hands long) but I'm worried about the coming winter. We aren't cat people, but I don't mind them hanging out and crapping all over the yard... They aren't going to appreciate when we add more wood to the shed, but our survival and warmth comes first, always. They currently live under the woodshed floor.

I'm thinking that to help them survive the cold winter I might build a doghouse with thick foam insulation on the walls and roof. Perhaps run an extension cord out with a light bulb and a timer/temp sensor so when it's under 36 the light bulb comes on. The roof will have to be fairly tall for the lightbulb to hang. Bedding perhaps some hay or an old dog bed.

This setup is what we used in the pump house growing up most of the time, and only in the coldest of winters did we have a space heater running. Since we aren't here every night that kind of setup might work, along with some kitty food on the days we are in the area. Part of me thinks they won't use it and that its a waste of time, I just don't know about cat things. Growing up my cat and her kittens would live under the house in the floor insulation.

Should we build some kind of a door? Perhaps some rubber strips hanging down so they can go in and out and it helps hold heat.
Regular insulation or thick foam?
Wasting our time or worth the effort?

Thanks!