This squirrel checked me out yesterday as I made my way through its forest home. We were both enjoying the morning sunshine. The forest is starting to come alive due to a short warm winter.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Squirrel
This squirrel checked me out yesterday as I made my way through its forest home. We were both enjoying the morning sunshine. The forest is starting to come alive due to a short warm winter.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Wild Horse Island picture
On the subject of trees,..I was looking at my cyber tree photos and started to miss Montana and Wild Horse Island. I took this picture two years ago from a boat trip to Wild Horse Island. I've been going there my whole life and I still go there every chance I get. My gosh.. How my life is slipping away from me. I remember composing this shot like it was yesterday. I pretty much remember my exact footsteps. I kept moving around to get a nice shot as the sun went down. I remember how into it I was.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Trees in the fog
Here's a picture I took skiing down into the fog. Eventually the fog burned off and it was nice and sunny on the mountain.***
One time I was talking to my grandfather. He was a ranger for the Forest Service. He was telling me about going in and out of the fog on a mountain. I can't really remember exactly what he said, but I always think about him when I go in and out of the fog like this.
I think that's a Grand Fir tree in the middle there. The pointy one on the right is an Alpine Fir. The bare one in the distance farther to the right is a Tamarack.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Waiting to ski race
Monday, February 22, 2010
Harmony Rocket
I took a picture of my Harmony Rocket today as it was in the sunshine. Probably not the best for it. It's an H53 1 pickup probably made between 1959 and 1962. I found it in a good will type store and got it for $12 if I remember. The bridge and pickup were missing. I bought a bridge but still need the pickup. I don't know what else to say about it other than I like having it around.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Skiing and the Olympics
Sorry I've been so abscent lately. I've been skiing and of course watching the Olympics. (our US coverage of the Olympics is really lame BTW.) I thought this year it would be different but actually it still sucks. More about this later..Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Winter Olympic tickets
Let the games begin!,.. without me.. Well it's a long story, but I won a company vacation last year. It was money towards a vacation. So I thought I'd go to the winter olympics and watch a few ski races as it's so close to Washington State. But my winter olympic dream was soon put on ice.Sunday, February 07, 2010
Snowboarder picture
It was such a nice weekend for skiing and um,. in this case riding. Of course that's what snowboarders do, they ride. As a life long skier I have no problem with snowboarders. (even though one of them did paste out Samantha one time) The more I'm around them the more I like them. Some of the cutest girls on the mountain are snowboarders. I might even try it myself one day. But only for one day... :)
Superbowl Sunday is one of the best days in the year to ski... and ride.. You heard it hear first.
(click on the picture to see it big.. go big!)
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
May peace prevail on earth
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Buy a gun
Easterm Washington and North Idaho is a beautiul place to live, but there are a lot small minded people who live here. The odd thing is that the people who grew up here don't think anything of it. They think it's just normal or just blow it off, but I find it really disgusting and shameful.This is the sort of person who is likely to go to his or her work place and shoot former co-workers.. after getting fired for being such a creep.
Hate crimes are on the rise here and there's little wonder why.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Ski bum
I've been skiing a lot lately so I've gone back through some recent pictures and decided I should post one. I get used to this view looking east with Montana off in the distance. (click on the picture to get the don's eye view)
Skiing is getting so expensive that it's kind of hard to be a ski bum anymore. That's kind of sad. I'd like to just drop out of everything and be a ski bum but I can't afford to..
Hm,.. I never thought I woudln't be able to afford to be a bum.
Friday, January 22, 2010
What kind of salad dressing do you like?
I told her I might use this line on my blog. Her computer isn't working so I thought I'd sneak it in.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
US Figure Skating Championship photos
I went to Ice Dancing at the US Figure Skating Championships today. This time I took a better camera. It's still a difficult thing to take pictures of. The ice is bright and yet you have to use high ISO speeds and fast shutter speeds and they don't want you to use flash, not that it woudln't help anyway. You need a lens that gathers a lot of light wich I don't have so the pictures turn out noisy but they tell my story. Anway I loved this girls hair.
Here they are dancing. They ended up 2nd in Juniors.
There was one couple who were dressed up like Holocaust inmates or perhaps Jews during the Nazi occupation. I just finished a book written by a woman my mom knows who is a Holocaust surviver of Dachau. She was living in Kiev Ukraine as an 8 year old when the Nazis invaded. She and her mom were deported to a camp in Poland and then on to Dachau where she barely survived. The book was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. These outfits seemed a little odd to me in this context having just read that book, but this pair was really good. They danced to the theme from Schindler's List.
Here is one final spin to end this post with. If you ever get a chance to see figure skating in person don't pass up the chance. It's really worth it.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Dog photo contest
So we've entered this picture of Jake the dog (my header dog) in a dog photo contest at Jake's master's bank. You could win dog treats and stuff. I've taken a lot of pictures, but I've never entered any in a photo contest.. So how cool would it be if the first "contest" I enter a photo in wins dog treats!.. :) That would be perfect for my resume...Friday, January 15, 2010
US Figure Skating Championships
I got tickets again to the US Figure Skating Championships through our company which treated us. It's really great. Today I saw the pairs short program and tomorrow I'm going to see the Pairs Final. I like the pairs because you get to see both men and women, and I like seeing those lifts and throws.It was hard for me to get good results with the little camera, so I might take my regular camera tomorrow. Anyway it it's great to watch. I think just about anyone would enjoy it. There are still tickets left so if you are near Spokane you should take it in.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Rocking out
I took the day off today and went skiing. I called in to my dentist and had them move up my cleaning a day to Wednesday as I knew Thursday was going to be a clear, calm and sunny. It was the best day skiing for me this year as the snow is now deep enough, groomed and no crowds so I could go as fast as I wanted all day with nobody in the way. All of my other days so far have been snow, fog, and you name it. But today was perfect. I'm really getting back in the groove again now and feeling the center of the skis. I was rocking out with my new MP3 player.
Click on the picture to see it bigger.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Spaces
Cause looking around there's no sign of you.
I don't remember one jump or one leap,
Just quiet steps away from your lead.
Nickel Creek, Reasons Why
So now it works!
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Ice fishing
Who says ice fishing isn't a form of self-expression like fly fishing?.. This guy reminds me of a conductor I once had in orchestra, and that's pretty much the same view I had from the back of the second violin section too.I think it takes a special person to really get into ice fishing. My dad used to be into it and would drag me out of a warm bed in the morning and in the winter to stand out on a frozen lake. I always froze to death.
And what did he do with the fish we caught?.. He froze them..
***
On the subject of self-expression, blogger isn't letting me make this text look the way I want (like I used to be able to.) It's adding spaces where I don't want and I can't seem to remove them. That really sucks for song lyrics.. I'm sure it's me not understanding the code, but as a result I just won't write what I want.
It reminds me of how bad Word got. If I don't put in a space, then I don't want a space. When it comes to text, I just want it to look like how I type it. Is that too much to ask?
I'm surprised they're letting me use more than one period.... I'm ranting.... I'm really not crazy about rant blogs. Honestly. I don't want to be that blogger.
Monday, December 28, 2009
outside of the bubble
What do you want for Christmas?.. You don't have to get me anything mom, I already have everything I want.. Well if you don't tell me something soon you'll get something you don't want. Well alright then,. get me an MP3 player. What does it do? she asked. Well it records music and stuff.It also trys to record all of my pictures every time I copy music to it despite my efforts to turn that feature off. That's really a pain. I'd be happy to have one that didn't bother with pictures, or at least let you turn it off. What am I going to do with a thing like this that has my pictures on it?
Welcome to the modern world, a co-worker said..
Sunday, December 27, 2009
the Stockmans Bar
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Flathead River picture
I've added this picture of the Flathead River in Montana and a couple of others I like to my Favorite Photos link on the side bar as well as removing others. I think it works better now as a group. Click on the picture to see bigger.Monday, December 14, 2009
The rabbit lives
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Clark Fork River rocks
Last week I stopped and wandered along the Clark Fork River in western montana looking for rocks and taking pictures. I was looking for that one special rock that I needed for my project. Click on the photo if you really want to rock out man!
It was misty, quiet and kind of eerie along the river that morning. I parked my car at a fishing access and started to roam along the river taking pictures and looking for rocks. I went through a muddy section and and saw some cat tracks. It wasn't a bobcat or anything like that due to the size and the stride. It was a mountain lion/ cougar. A mountain cat. I've seen a lot of cougar tracks in this area along the river and saw one run across the road infront of my car not too far from here. My mom saw a great big one as did one of my friends. The one my mom saw sounded like it was really big from what she described. The one I saw was medium sized.Monday, December 07, 2009
Gift exchange ideas
Today on bicycle log we are going to talk about eyes and eyewear... Hm, that sounds pretty official.Friday, December 04, 2009
Clear and cold
I came across this picture that I took last year so I thought I'd post it again. The weather has been much the same lately. Clear and cold, except the moon has been full. I live off to the left of this shot in the distance. I can hear the train that goes on these tracks at night. There isn't really enough snow to ski yet even though they have it open. I'm more than ready for my first turns. It's been snowing so perhaps I'll be on my skis soon.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
A walk in the park
Thursday, November 26, 2009
The road home
Here's a picture I took going home for Thanksgiving. I don't know exactly what to say about it. The food was good and the road was dry, and I made it right on time. So everything worked out. Plus there was a lot of turkey left over and I think that's always the best part about Thanksgiving.Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Ribbons and bows
sign her letters with X's and O's..
I knew a girl like that.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Angry old man
On the other hand..
It's hard to find good content. On TV. On the radio, and on the internet.. I realize that's a sentence fragment..
It's hard to find a good blog actually. And after you find one they seem to go away. Like Dating Drama and My Dog. That was a great blog and now it's gone. Or you'll find a good blog and you'll get to liking that person and they will lock the blog or something.. Or they'll say,. "I'm done blogging but you can find me on Facebook"..
I've been thinking about Facebook. Just one of the things I've been thinking about.. I multi-think actually.. I think they ought to have friends on Facebook, but also have a website for enemies.. You could have a wall to just argue with your enemies on.. They could call it Sh**list or something.
And what about those people who don't show their face on their "facebook" page.. ? What's up with them? That's something I'd do..
I've been thinking how much I don't like the new Yahoo page. I don't know.. I just can't like a page that presents me with a big grey box on the screen that tells me that I might like something else.. What were they thinking when they came up with that? I've even had better ideas than that.. Like bringing back the Hitler moustache...
Well I can't grow a moustache.. I can but it makes me look like I've forgotten to shave.
But here's the really exciting thing that I've been buiding up to in this post. We've all heard about how great duct tape is.. I have a friend who has written an unpublished book on all of the things you can use it for. Several months ago I got a sliver in my finger. My fourth finger on my left hand. My angry old man finger. Right on the tip. The sliver went straight in and I coudln't get it out. It hurt for about a week. I thought it would disolve or something, but it turned into a wart. I'm not sure if it's really a wart but that's the only way I can describe it. It was really bothering me plus it was making it hard to play guitar. I can't afford to go to the doctor with this because I have a thirty thousand dollar deductable on my insurance and no doubt they'd use it to deny me coverage in the future.
So out of desperation I decided to try duct tape on it. It seems to be working. I've had the duct tape on it for three days now and no question, there's been a big improvement! I'd say it's half the size that it was. I was going to photograph it to document the progress but I decided not to as it's kind of disgusting.
***
Ok so I had to remove the part about this girl's boyfriend's back video. Didn't meet my decency standards, and people might have gotten the wrong idea.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Winter camp
I thought I should make a post since it's been a while. A week ago I was in my camper way up in the woods in a snow storm. Tonight after work I covered up my camper with a tarp. We had a very difficult time getting down out of the mountains last week as the logging road was steep and slick. The snow on it had been packed down by other trucks and it was like ice. I was very lucky I didn't slide my truck off of the road and down the hill.It was exactly the same conditions that I wrecked a 4 wheel drive as a kid in. I was hunting with my Dad and he was teaching me how to drive before I had a license. Pretty difficult conditions to learn to drive in. I was coming down a steep slick snowy road and lost control. Rolled it three times down this hillside with both of us in it. I've often though of how different my life would have been if he'd died in that crash. I had flashbacks to that last Sunday as I slid down that road.
I got to a flat place where I could stop. That's where I took the picture of my camper. My friend and I decided to share chains. We both had rear chains but you needed them on the front wheels too. So I removed my chains and we took them up to my friend's truck in the jeep and he drove out. Then we took all four chains back to my truck and I drove out.. So here's a picture of my truck all chained up. (Notice the chains on the front wheels of my camper)
I've been really busy at work. Who cares right? But that's good I guess. I usually don't talk about work here. At least I won't loose my job for now. It's like if we don't have enough work we will all loose our jobs and it's unsettling. It's sort of like this thing constantly hanging over us. We're either busy to the point that we can't handle it all or we're gonna loose our jobs. It's like there's no middle ground.
Oh yeah. I fixed the action on my new guitar myself. Now I'm enjoying it. I took it to the guitar guy three times. First the action was too low. Then it was too high. Then he made it too low again. So I decided to do something about it myself. I got it pretty good. It's still a little high but not bad. At least I can deal with it now.I got this new coffee maker... Quisinart.. You can set the time you want it to make coffee. So I get up and the coffee is ready to drink. That's pretty slick. I didn't think I'd like that but I do. It saves me time and brain power in the morning.
I had sausage and cabbage for dinner tonight. Good German meal. Used to have that when I was growing up. It's really easy to make. Just boil some cabbage and have some sausage in there. (I used fully cooked German sausage sliced) That's it. If you use uncooked sausage you have to cook that first. Then put it in with the cabbage and boil it.
That's about it for now. Soon I'll be skiing. I hope everyone is doing well.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Lodgepole Pine
I've been in the woods hunting for a few days. Lots of adventure.. Might tell you about it later. Here's a picture I took of some Lodgepole Pine trees (and a few Tamarack / Larch trees, the yellow ones) looking up from my favorite trail. You should see them dance and sing when it's windy, but it was calm this day. They sway to the music of the wind. I took this picture before the sun came out, the morning after a snow storm. I've taken pictures like this before, but I didn't realize you could see my trail in the sky.Sunday, November 08, 2009
Camp photos
Went up into the woods this weekend as it was hunting season and all.. Took a book to read and my camp guitar. It was really windy and stormy when I got there so I parked my camper out of reach of falling trees. Never camp in the trees when it's windy.. The path above is golden yellow because it's covered with Tamarack needles that have fallen from the trees. They cover the whole forest floor and are soft underfoot.
I call this picture; chair, guitar and fire. Or chair, fire and guitar... Chair, fire, guitar and stump... Well I haven't exactly decided. That's the difference between punk rock and camp rock. In punk rock you smash the guitar into the amplifier at the end of the song. In camp rock you just throw the guitar on the fire and cook a hotdog over it.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Flathead River
Since I haven't been taking too many pictures lately I thought I'd post another couple from a set I took along the Flathead River. I posted a couple a while back and they all kind of look the same, probably because I just stood there and took a lot of pictures of the same thing.. Well each one is slightly different I guess. Anyway.. click on them if you want to see them bigger. (I'm not posting anything at full resolution)I retain the rights to all of my photos. Please do not use without permission.
Monday, November 02, 2009
You aint goin to no bar!
Good grief! I thought. They went past me in the bolt section and walked away. The little girl following along behind not saying a word. She was all of ten years old.
How I wish I had a daughter like that I thought as I watched them walked away. We'd never have a conversation like that. I'd enroll her in girl scouts and teach her how to tie a BOWLINE knot. I'd get her a camera and tell her how nice her pictures looked. I'd give her dance lessons and let her pick out a shelter dog.
But we wouldn't be talking about going to no bar.
***
The rabbit comes out of its hole, around the tree, and back down its hole... That always confused me. But if you're going to learn one knot, learn how to tie a bowline. They shouldn't graduate people from college until they can tie it.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Daylight savings time
You know, I'm not that fond of November. Maybe we could have two more weeks of October and two more weeks of December, and just save November in case we need an extra month in the spring.. We could throw it inbetween April and May. Or perhaps we could use November for an extra month of summer..
I got my guitar back from the luthier and now it's better, but I'm still not that fond of it, so I'll probably be selling it. I think there might be a Martin in my future.
I'll be keeping the case.. I could put my laptop in it. and a change of clothes..
Friday, October 30, 2009
Storm clouds
I've been trying to catch the thoughts that have been floating around in my head and arrange them into something that makes sense.. but it's not working. So here's a picture from a set I took a while back and rejected all of the pictures because they didn't make sense, but now I see that they sort of look like the inside of my head. A big empty space over here, a big dark spot over there. A dark forest below and a dark sky above.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tweed guitar case
So here's a picture of my new guitar case.. I bought a new guitar and it came in this great big pimp daddy gold tweed case. I was kind of expecting a black case and when I opened the box and saw it I was like, Holy Cow!.. but people seem to love this. Women seem to love it. I can't walk around with this and not draw attention. It's bigger than it looks and that even makes it worse.But I have to admit that I even like it now. I think I like it better than the guitar that came in it.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The great pumpkin
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tamarack and Larch
I wandered around in the forest for a while yesterday. The Tamaracks are changing color and it's starting to give the forest a golden tint. There are other trees in this picture too. Pine and fir. I thought I should throw some color in my blog before winter sets in and all of my pictures are of snow.
Here's a picture of a young Tamarack that I took last year deep in the forest that was starting to change color. That post is HERE.I retain the rights to all of my photos. Please do not use without permission.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Flathead River pictures
Here are a couple of pictures I took today of the Flathead River south of Flathead Lake in Montana. A snow storm moved through last night. So much for Fall..
I disturbed some ducks as I walked down to the shore. You might have to click on the photo if you want to see the ducks.I retain all rights to my photos. Please do not use any of my photos without permission.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Outhouse picture
I finally painted the old outhouse. I didn't really want to because I liked the way it looked, but everyone else thought it was an eyesore. It took me a while to paint it because I kept stopping to take pictures, and once I start taking pictures I just loose control.










