Rocky Goat has his own blog

Our mascot for the International Order of Rocky Mountain Goats now has his own blog

http://rockygoat.blogspot.com/

We were using facebook, but found it to be a PITA
Plus with a blog no signing in is required..

Rocky is about to go on some new adventures this winter  hope you enjoy

Merry Christmas

Cody is moving so fast all of the time, it is hard to get a picture when we are hunting

Libby, guarding HER bird

On behalf  of  Our Family to yours ...  Merry Christmas

Chris & Brandon

Baby it's cold outside

We have developed a solar aeration that we hope to sell a few of:

Our first prototype has been sold and I agreed to deliver it to (of all places) Pagosa Springs, Colorado.. on the Colorado New Mexico border (30 miles south of Pagosa Springs, Colorado)

The weatherman (hint .. fed. gov. worker) predicted 1-2 inches of snow and a low temp of 21*

Yeah well right.. Below are the so called 1-2 inches of snow going over Wolf Creek pass around 3pm in the afternoon

 Not too bad at first

 At the top pretty close to white out conditions, now I now how helpful the poles on the edge of the road are:

I arrived in Pagosa Springs around dark, Oh, did I mention I was pulling the camper trailer ?

On the edge of town there is a restaurant ( Junction Restaurant) that has a large parking lot.  ( the only one in town with a large lot) I found out later ..

Last night the temps were not quite too cold about 19* but cold enough to freeze a 3/4 acre ponds some.

This morning I met with a couple of nice young fellas that are going to help with the installation.. ( especially the part of putting the diffuser in the water.)

We had breakfast at the Junction Restaurant, headed out on a 30 mile trip south toward the little town of  Chromo 

Parked on the side of the road unhooking the trailer, so I can go up the trail to install the solar aeration unit

before picture of the pond we are installing 2 diffusers into .. Looks a little frozen to me, I took this picture while the lads went after THE boat.

While they were gone after the boat I unloaded all of the parts and panels for the system.

The ice is about 1 1/2 inch thick .. this is going to take awhile ...

 

This about as far as they got after much hard work but it was good enough for me.

Right after this, the battery in the camera died, so I hooked it up to the solar and charged for a  bit, hopefully enough to take a couple more pictures..

 

 The guys helped with the assembly of the solar unit and were very good help, hopefully they will be intalling more units in the future, in this area..

 

I left the area and the guys told of another way back to Walsenburg without going over Wolf Creek pass,

 

"Go south to Chama down the road and take a left,  it will take you back to Monte Vista "

Well Chama is another 20 miles south into New Mexico ..  pretty drive at 30 mph  on snow packed roads..

 

The cool thing was I have never driven in this part of the mountains before,.. went past

The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad     Station

I really want to go back and take that ride someday. The old train station and R/R town look like fun..

 

So instead of going over Wolf Creek, we went over LaMarga Pass, talk about a deserted road.. saw about 3 cars on the whole ride over the pass, all snow packed another 30 - 40 mph drive. (but pretty)

 

Around 5:30 made it to Walsenburg and am stopped in the only truck stop for many miles hanging out with the furnace running alot .. It is about -7* below zero and is predicted to go to -10* tonight.. Not as bad as  in Alamosa which is predicted to go to -20*

That is the travel adventure for the last couple of days.

Awsome video of the west

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

To get the full experience, be sure the video is in HD mode, the sound is on, and view it in full screen mode — you won’t be disappointed:

I also let it load completely to get a smooth video:

There are some spots that I have camped at in this video

Rocky Goat

Chris and I belong to a group called the International Order of the Rocky Mountain Goats.

During the last outing we have the honor of taking our stuffed furry friend (Rocky) on adventures during parts of the year that we are traveling. Along with other members of our group. The Longs Peak Herd.

Rocky will be our ambassador for the goats this year, and if he behaves himself he will become a member of our group at the next Wadi in 2012.



Meet RockyGoat















Rocky's email ... rockygoatsob@gmail.com

Rocky's Facebook Page

Some pictures and folks from Smokin' on the Beaver







Mascot Beaver











Looking back at the area where most of the participants will be smoking

I arrived on Thursday a day early, to get a good spot







The beginning of our set up on Friday morning, the bar is coming together






Total set up done Friday afternoon







Let the cooking begin



These guys from Nebraska cooked with wood only







Some folks cooking below, click on pictures to enlarge them































The toys and peddle cars were back




























Gal from the local newspaper, she was taking pictures of us.
So. I took a picture of her











Saturday night there was a Husker game, we moved the bar and had sports bar night

Set up at smokin' at the Beaver

Early stages of set up, what I unloaded last night

Got a late start to leave for the Smoker, as I had to take Cody to the Vet and have a lump checked out on this neck.

It turned out that he has an infection probably caused by chewing on sticks. He is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine now





Many chem-trails in Kansas (thought we had a-lot)









A daylight pic of the Tiki Bar I build for the Goats

Folks here at the Smoker love it, pictures are being taken and sent to friends

Solar powered rope lights on palm tree forms, and pink flamingo's

New Season is upon us ..

We will be preparing for our next adventure to Smokin' on the Beaver

We plan leaving on thursday to travel to Atwood Ks. to cook in the BBQ Contest

We have 2 teams this year :

Butts R Us
Legal Smoking

We will start cooking beef brisket on Friday, on Saturday we will cook Ribs, and pork butt.

more updates coming...

Fishing in the mountains

Yup,
tomorrow, we (the camper and I ) are going on an excersion to the Steamboat Colorado area for a rare summer trip, to fish with our buddies from Rusty's Upholstery ( he has the boat) hoping to catch northern pike..
I have not fished for northern pike since we left Iowa (very excited)

Will keep you posted with pictures and video

Updating the Camper

I have started to build a few assemblies for updating some of the things on the camper for the upcoming season.

In the next few weeks I will start posting some of the projects , which include new lighting, a new power chord for grid power, machining parts for the sat antenna crank, additional power form the inverter, adding a trailer hitch to the back of the camper, to be able to use the small trailer to carry more stuff.. Stay tuned..

So far, the earliest trip planned will be sighting in at Steamboat Springs in August ..

Currently we are in gardening mode with water.

Started another blog

I have started a new blog for Aquaponics, and water aeration.
We are growing vegetables and fruits in fish water filters, or bogs, now known as Aquaponics

the link to the new blog

A good dog story from Japan

The dog protecting her partner is a Brittany


Here‘s an English translation of the camera crew’s words upon discovering the pair (h/t Yahoo):

We are in Arahama area. Looks like there is a dog. There is a dog. He looks tired and dirty. He must have been caught in the tsunami. He looks very dirty.

He has a collar. He must be someone’s pet. He has a silver collar. He is shaking. He seems very afraid.

Oh, there is another dog. I wonder if he is dead.

Where?

Right there. There is another dog right next to the one sitting down. He is not moving. I wonder. I wonder if he is alright.

The dog is protecting him.

Yes. He is protecting the dog. That is why he did not want us to approach them. He was trying to keep us at bay.

I can’t watch this. This is a very difficult to watch.

Oh. Look. He is moving. He is alive. I am so happy to see that he is alive.

Yes! Yes! He is alive.

He looks to be weakened. We need to them to be rescued soon. We really want them rescued soon.

Oh good. He’s getting up.


Comment on site: I understand from a posting earlier on Facebook the injured dog is being treated and his friend the hero dog is being taken care of also ….

End of snowbird season

I have finally caught up with chores, now to post some pictures of fun in the sun, and r&r

This photo is of friends from Canada (Vancouver Island)Toasting Jim & Donna

Except for the guy in the middle he is from Kalifornia :)
Left to right Willie, Dave, Tom, Pat, Irma,



This is the 3rd year of the Pheasant feed.

Since, I have quite a few birds after the hunting season closes and I share them with others.

Most western Canadians have grouse, they say do not taste as good as corn raised pheasants...


Willie, with his favorite California raisin figure on his hat.

Willie, is quite a guy, bakes bread in a stone oven, (that he built), raises grapes, makes their own wine, raises bees, and harvests honey.

Willy and Irma are originally from Germany, and had relatives in east Germany ...Really fun to converse with,

Tequila

I have had several; requests for the "good " tequila from Mexico to be used for the Goats in Sept for barter and other uses :)

So, Dave and Pat and I went to Mexico today.

We had lunch from a street vendor (very good tacos) they bought bread, and blankets.
and we purchased the Tequila that has been requested..

Brrrrrr Cold

It is Brrrr Cold even in Yuma AZ

I was up at 5 am this morning and checked the outside temperature and it was 29*F

For this area, that is very cold, at 7 pm this evening it is 47*F

Last year high temp 73* low of 53*F

Made a short trip to Mexico today, the poor Mexicans were wearing their very heavy winter coats and scarfs. I do not think any of the stores and shops have heaters..

What did I buy in Mexico? Blankets !!
the line to get back into the US was pretty short :)

Did not take any pictures, the border folks have signs warning about taking pictures....

Yuma Army Proving Grounds

I went on a little trip to check out a local lake (Lake Mittry) that is used for local irrigation for the agriculture here. ( They grow strawberries, lettuce, grapefruit, dates, oranges, etc).

There are free boondocking camping sites around the lake with a 10 day limit. (I went to check them out)

After driving around the lake, heading back to Yuma, I saw static displays of US Army artillery

So, I stopped and took some pictures
To enlarge the pictures..... Click on them












Sherman Tank

You can see where bullets hit the tank

























































I know many who follow the blog are having severe winter weather.

The weather in Yuma is not as cold or snowy But we are having pretty strong winds, they predict the winds to last 'till Thursday.. So far this evening my wind indicator shows a max. of 50.5mph.
The wind charger is working pretty good :)

Stay warm everybody