Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Pool Table!

He’s been working on his new Pool Room for quite a while now.

First, he had to remove all the totes, boxes, and whatnot, relocating them all into my craft room and/or the garage. My car got moved outside for the summer to make room for it all.

Then he had to work on the floor, getting it ready to install carpet tiles. While doing that, he decided that he wanted to paint the walls – which required a lot of prep work for that as well. And since the walls were getting a new coat of paint, that meant that all the outlet cover plates needed to be replaced so that they were white instead of the old dungy cream.

Our friend Jessica came over for the Painting Party, helping us get the job done in record time! Installing the carpet tile was a bit more involved, but he did a superb job – just like I knew he would.

All this renovating of walls and flooring made him look at the light fixtures, too (of course), so he replaced the old boxy fixtures with snazzy circular ones. These are even remote controlled with numerous different light settings.

The actual Moving of the Pool Table was a stressful event. He hired a professional mover who sent two guys out with their truck. He met them over at its original location, dismantled it, hauled it over to our house, and reassembled it – all within about a 3-hour time period.

Disassembling a pool table means that you have to put on new felt upon reassembling it. Because it is well over 40 years old, we went ahead and got new bumpers as well – if only to match the new felt. That whole process was a couple days’ worth of time, during which we also had them polish up the balls.

All that’s left to deal with now are the cue sticks! We have a pile of old ones that we can make do with for now, but eventually we will get new ones.

And of course, all those totes need to be put back in the room. We plan on going through everything and weeding out what we don’t need and consolidating what we keep into fewer totes.

Trailing Penguins in Patagonia

My 8^th Earthwatch Expedition took me all the way to Argentina in October of this year, to help scientists study the Magellanic Penguins near the little fishing village of Camarones in Chubut, Patagonia. I got to spend a short 6 days with 3 other volunteers in Cabo dos Bahías, (part of the Reserva Faunística Provincial Cabo dos Bahías). Believe me, I could have stayed a lot longer!

The colony has roughly 7,000 breeding pairs but is steadily declining – and they want to know why. Within the colony, scientists randomly identified 250 nests – tagging each bird with Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags). Our job as volunteers was to visit each nest each day, scan the birds to verify who was on the nests, and then check for eggs. If eggs were found, the scientists would then measure and record width and length.

Penguins spend most of their life out in the water, coming to land only to breed. September brings the males to shore so they can get the nests ready. Penguins tend to use the same nest each year, but the breeding grounds are covered in nests, both in use and vacant, so a pair might decide to relocate if they find a better spot.

Females arrive in October and somehow manage to find their mate. Penguins mate for life, although divorces do happen sometimes. Blood tests on chicks have shown a bit of hanky-panky going on as well. However, once the pair renew their bond, the first egg is laid. Roughly 4 days later, the second egg is laid – this one being slightly smaller than the first egg. Incubation for the eggs is about 40 days. Interestingly, the second egg has a shorter incubation time so as to hatch at the same time as the first egg.

Once both eggs are laid, the male then makes his way back to the ocean to feed, leaving the female to tend to the nest. The male returns to the nest after about 20-23 days and takes over the care and protection of the eggs, allowing the female to head back to the ocean to feed. The female then returns after about 17-19 days, just in time for the eggs to hatch, where she then regurgitates her food to give to the chicks. After that, they each take turns going out to get food.

By January, all the birds are back out in the water for the rest of the year.

At the same time we were visiting each nest and recording egg sizes, we were also helping out with another research project, this one focusing on predators. Numerous gulls and other seabirds regularly feed on the eggs, but there are also a few mammals to watch out for: namely armadillos, grey fox, and the Geoffroy's cat. Volunteers helped out by walking up to 8 miles a day looking for broken eggs and/or predator’s scatt. Once either of those was found, a GPS reading was recorded, and the sample was procured to be sent to the lab for testing.

Buenos Aires

My first stop in Argentina was the capitol city of Buenos Aires. This is a HUGE city (roughly 80 square miles) with well over 3.2 million people, a population density of about 34,800 people per square mile. Pictures are of the Capitol Building and the city itself as I fly over on my way to the next part of my trip.

I got to visit my good friend Marina, whom I met on one of my previous Earthwatch expeditions. She showed me all around her city, taking me to all her favorite spots and showing off the amazing architecture & history of Buenos Aires. Pictures are of Marina in the cemetery and Me at the Obelisk.

I had a great time and am so thankful she took time out of her busy schedule to entertain me!

Sunny Miami

My recent travel plans gave me a 10-hour layover in Miami, so I took the opportunity to visit my friend Sarah! You may remember that last year I got to attend her wedding down in the Florida Keys.

Sarah and her husband Dave picked me up at the airport and took me to a really cool bookstore. We browsed the shelves for a while, then sat down to a light lunch – I had the best quinoa bowl with kale and chickpeas and all kinds of good stuff.

Then they took me to a park where we walked along a beautiful trail by the ocean, ending up at a restaurant where we had some drinks to cool off.

We finished off the evening with a scrumptious dinner at an Indian restaurant they love. Unfortunately we were a bit pressed for time so had to rush through our meal to ensure that we had enough time to get me back to the airport to catch my next flight.

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I just want to point out that the Miami Airport has vending machines for CAKE!

How cool is that!!

We Got A New Furnace

We’d been having trouble with our furnace for months, culminating in eventually having to manually turn it on every two hours. So, we finally just bit the bullet and had it replaced. It cost a pretty penny (and then some), but Paragon Mechanical came through for us again – completing the job in just under a week, getting us back up and running in time for the cold weather. 

First, they had to remove both the old furnace and both hot water heaters, one of which was in the Laundry Room. That was quite the job and resulted in a huge pile of copper pipes that we will now sell to a recycling company. I believe Bryan is planning on buying some new fancy thermostats with the money we get, to be placed in Mother’s side of the house so she can more easily regulate the heat to her comfort levels.

Then, they installed the new furnace and all the associated pipes and valves and whatnot as well as the new hot water tank. I love that the installer was just as OCD as we are – he did a great job of making it all look “pretty” as well as being quite functional.

We now have several holes in various walls that need to be addressed – Bryan is working on that as we speak. The Laundry Room will get new shelving for our canning jars, and the garage now has a bit more room for the snow blower and various shovels, brooms, and whatnot.

Overall, I’d say it was a Job Well Done!

It's That Time of Year Again!

My sister knows this lady who has an apple orchard, and every year she gets boxes and boxes of apples from her. They are small, but very sweet and tasty. Noel shares with whomever can take some, so I always get as many as I can handle. This year I got four big boxes full – my garage smells so nice right now!

Last year, we made so much Apple Sauce that we still have plenty left over, so this year, we’re doing things a bit different.

First, we made some Apple Pie Filling and canned it in quart size jars. That requires each apple to be peeled and cut into pieces – a very tedious task made easier by setting up a table in the living room and putting a good movie on while I peeled and sliced all night. Bryan had the big pot on the stove going, cooking the apples as I cut them, and then canning the results when it was time. The effort is well worth it, though, as I like to put it over my sourdough pancakes throughout the winter months! Very tasty! Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of me doing this.

Then we juiced the rest of it – or rather, I should say we ARE juicing the rest of it. We’re not done yet – still have at least another box to go. For juice you at least don’t have to peel the apples, you just cut them into quarters (or there abouts – just want to break the skin so the inside is accessible) and throw them into the juicer. The steam eventually extracts all the juice out of them all; takes a couple hours for that to happen. But we keep adding more and more apples to the juicer, so we have to add more water to the steamer.

Eventually it just won’t take any more apples, so we remove all the pulp and set aside all the juice. The pulp gets run through the hand mill to mush it all up and extract the skin and core. The edible results of that can either be Apple Sauce or – just for something different to try – this year I’m going to put it in my dehydrator and make Fruit Leather out of it! I’ve never done that before, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Once the juice cools down a bit, we can it with the intent of later on trying our hand at making Hard Cider (an alcoholic drink). Bryan is leaving for a week to attend a work conference down in Vegas, so we have to wait until he gets back to do that. But I think I can do the Fruit Leather while he’s gone.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing lately!

Changes Ahead

I have had the same email address for well over 15 years – possibly even longer. I don’t remember when exactly I first got it, but it is soon coming to an end. The company I have used to provide my email is moving in a different direction and will no longer provide service to emails.

They are doing this in a stepped fashion: they sent out notice a few weeks ago, informing everyone of the coming changes. Their next step is to actually charge a fee for each email address. I’m not exactly sure of the logic there, but thankfully for me I only have the one address; presumably some people have multiple addresses. Then at some future date in 2024, they will cease support entirely.

I have multiple options to choose from: I can wait until they stop providing support, paying the $5 fee each month until such time – or I can get a new address now and avoid all fees. I am choosing to avoid the fees and get a new address now.

This plan has a few options for me to choose from as well: I can get free email from such platforms as gmail or yahoo, or I can encourage my partner to resurrect his platform and get email directly from him!

Can you guess which route I’m going to choose?

It hasn’t happened yet – but when it does, I will send out notice to everyone letting you all know what the new address will be. I will keep both addresses for at least a month but will eventually close down my old one completely.

I’m Going to Patagonia!

I finally got my tickets the other day. I’ve been keeping an eye on the prices in hopes of catching a super deal but there really hasn’t been much movement on prices lately. Since it’s getting closer and closer to time to go, I figured I might as well get that done.

And by that I of course mean that I had Bryan get my tickets for me. I have very little patience for that sort of thing. If I do it, I typically buy the first thing I come across that looks half-way descent. When Bryan does it, he spends weeks researching every possible combination of flights from every possible airline, looking at it from this angle and then from that angle, until he eventually comes up with a few options that might or might not require yet more weeks of researching.

He had all kinds of issues to deal with, too. First, American Airlines website was down. Then he couldn’t get my passport information to match up with any of my accounts with the various airlines (seriously, why do we have to use a middle name on our passport? I never use it in real life.). Then when he got all of that cleared up, his computer battery died. Then he couldn’t get my computer to work because he’s a Mac guy and not a PC guy. Then I threw a monkey in the pile by saying we should use Expedia since I get points through them, so he had to start all over again with the “Passport/name” issue and the “Mac/PC” issue. Then of course the website crashed again, and he lost all his saved options.

I think I owe him a beer – or two, even.

Eventually, however, we did it: we actually bought my tickets! I got a fair deal on it, spending about $1,550 round-trip to Buenos Aires, and another $370 to get to the rendezvous point for the expedition. I even manage to get a long layover in Miami so I can visit my friend Sarah – that will be nice.

Next on my list of things to do was to get a hotel room, since I arrive the day before the expedition starts and leave the day after. Earthwatch has us rendezvousing at the Hotel Libertador, so to make things easy on myself I chose to stay there. Judging by the pictures on their website, it’s a very nice hotel, and they have been very helpful as I navigate the language barrier. I believe I will be quite happy there.

Now that I have all that behind me, I have a whole list of things to do to get ready for my trip:

• Continue practicing Spanish
• Review the recommended gear list to make sure I have what I need and purchase any items I don’t already have
• Learn how to use WhatsApp
• Get a currency exchange calculator ap for my phone
• Load the American Airlines ap onto my phone
• Load the Expedia ap onto my phone
• Get a fancy new travel credit card (better exchange rates than my normal one)
• Get any inoculations I may need

South Fork Eagle River Trail

My boss unexpectedly gave us the day off last Monday (Tuesday was the 4^th of July, which we also got off) so I took the opportunity to go for a nice long hike with my friend Jessica. We chose the South Fork Eagle River hike, as it is absolutely gorgeous up there. It is normally quite crowded but we got there pretty early so pretty much had the trail to ourselves.

The trail is a popular one, so it’s well groomed. The first mile is rather steep with an elevation gain of about 800 feet, but once you get up above the tree line it levels out and the walking is quite easy. It’s about 7 miles to the end of the trail but Jessica and I did only about half of it. She is a realtor and had to show some property that afternoon and we wanted to be able to eat lunch together before she had to go to work.

We had such a good time, chatting about this & that and just generally enjoying the great outdoors together. The highlight of the hike, for me at least, was rescuing a frog! It was in the middle of the trail and had gotten so cold it could barely move. I gently picked it up and took it several feet off trail , tucking it into a nice little indentation next to some shrubbery. I’m hopeful that it could burry itself and warm up a bit. At the very least, it was not in danger of being stepped on anymore.

Hiking with Family

I had a 4-day weekend to myself last week, so made a point of going out hiking with my brother Reed. He likes to do The Butte, since it’s relatively easy and yet still quite a hard work-out, and it’s located very close to his house. As luck would have it, my niece Laurel and her two girls joined us!

Reed works hard all week long, so he requested a 10:00 starting time – that’s a bit later than I originally wanted, but it was quite doable. The wind was really blowing, especially up at the top – and the trail was super dusty, so there was grit in our eyes pretty much the entire trail. It was still a nice hike, regardless.

I am always surprised at how difficult it actually is. It’s only about 1 mile long with a 700 foot elevation gain, but it still kicks my butt each time I do it. And check Laurel out – she did the entire trail while carrying a 40-pound child on her back! She is pretty badass, if you ask me.

After the hike, I stopped at the new International Market to check it out and got myself some tea – then I stopped at Bushes Bunches and got myself some fresh basil to throw in the dehydrator.

Not a bad day!

Our New Roof!!

As you may recall, our roof was damaged during that horrible wind storm a few years back. We hired a roofing company to repair it, and they informed us that the whole thing really needed to be replaced – not because of the wind damage but because it was just that old. Most roofs only last 20 years or so, and our roof was much older than that. So, we began the process of gathering quotes and saving up some money.

The first thing we learned was that there is a lot of acreage up there. Our house is quite large, roughly 4,000 square feet of living space. This means there is at least 6,000 square feet of roofing material = that’s well over double most residential roofs. Our initial estimate of costs had to be doubled and then some – which meant that our dream of getting solar panels had to be shelved for a later date. We just can’t afford them.

But we finally nailed down (pun intended) a roofing company we liked and set a date for the construction to begin. Topp Roofing & Construction were great: very professional, they did exactly what they said they would do, they kept the yard clean and went out of their way to protect our flowers, and even put up gracefully with Mother, who spent all her time out there supervising them. They even swept the yard with a big magnet afterwards to make sure there were no nails left behind.

The job took a bit longer than expected, and it was exceedingly loud in my “office” the whole time they were up there, pounding away. But they did such a good job and our roof is so pretty now!

We still need to get the rain gutters replaced, though – that won’t happen until mid-August.