Still a Hunting Blog

I just chose these pics to post and realized that there's a hunting element in each:

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Autumn has been helping me with some recent reloading.

Here's the future Alaskan bush pilot. Autumn was recently given this plane and it's her current favorite toy. Dad pushes her around on it at insanely unsafe speeds complete with 360 spins. Aside from the obvious theme of Alaskan bush flying, there's a dall ram in the background.

This one's a bit harder to figure out but if you look closely behind "chain-gang" Autumn you'll see a moose antler and a toy stuffed moose.

There's a few more pics on flickr for the grandmas and those who aren't that into hunting.

Sweet Justice

Life isn't always fair. Your team loses on a half-court heave at the buzzer, you have to make car payments even when it's broke down, you buy something and it goes on sale the next day. Oh the injustice. But every once in a while justice hits it out of the park. A few days ago I was coming home from work after a typically fun day in the woods (I know-Steve gets to do fun stuff for work, no fair). It was dark, a layer of snow and ice covered the road. Conditions weren't terrible, but merited caution. I was comfortable to cruise along at 40mph in a 50mph zone. Suddenly high beams pierced my rear view mirror from much closer than they should. My traveling companion stayed right with me until I could find a safe place to pull over. This allowed a sporty mustang to gun the engine and roar past me. You know what I'm talking about, a pass can be friendly or mean. This pass definitely wasn't happy with my cautious ways. How many times in life have you seen this kind of behavior and thought 'Oh, where are the police when you need them?' I shook it off and continued on my way, debating my moral obligation to stop and help if I were to see a mustang in the ditch up ahead. A few miles later as I approached town and the 35 mph speed zone, Justice had just taken a mighty swing for the fence. I smiled at the blue and red lights reflecting in the Mustangs rear view mirror.

Flickr #3 Update

I used up all my space already on our second flickr account. Since I am too cheap to upgrade, we are now on free flickr account #3. Check here to see the newest pics from Christmas.

Killin' Time

TIME magazine that is.

Laundry Emergency

The dryer decided to quit producing heat a few days ago. It's not like you can just call the appliance repairman here, or that we would pay the $80/hour he'd probably charge if he did exist. So armed with the internet, leatherman and patience I set about figuring out how to fix it myself. Here's a picture of the back of the dryer opened up and the offending broken coil in the heating element:


But this isn't just a one-time deal. I had virtually no handyman skills until I became a home owner. Since then I've learned all kinds of things. I've fixed the tumbler in the washing machine, installed laminate flooring, sinks, toilets, sump pumps and garbage disposals, fixed a leaky stovepipe, built a shed and a deck, replaced roof shingles, adjusted the clutch in the truck and change the oil and the tires regularly, just to name a few things. It's amazing what you can figure out if it means saving a lot of money or when the dirty diapers are stacking up fast.

Flickr Update

There are new pictures of Autumn at Flickr. Here are some highlights:

We got the Christmas tree decorated and Autumn wanted to tell great-Grandma that this ornament is her favorite one. We then promptly moved all the lower level ornaments up.

I can see the baby fading and little girl emerging in this shot.

We caught up to Santa in the deli section of the grocery store.

Autumn has always been into books. She just doesn't have much use for the words yet. It's been all about eating them and/or removing them from the shelf.

Christmas Tree Hunt

These are my two favorite pictures from our recent outing to find a Christmas tree. Last year we made the POW rookie mistake of cutting down a spruce tree. It was pretty, but the needles were sharp - ouch! This year we picked a much more user friendly pine tree. Autumn is a trooper in the outdoors. She doesn't complain about the cold or a little rain and seems very interested in the world around her. She wants to touch all the trees and snow. I have high hopes for her being my little outdoor buddy. Also her favorite word recently has been "up." I assume she is saying it in reference to hiking and climbing "up" in the mountains.