My Beer Bucket List

This is a ever changing list. I have used a 4 asterisk rating system on those tried, so far.

Best (as noted by others):

• Saison Dupont - ***
• Victory Prima Pils
• Ridgeway Bitter
• Trappistes Rochefort
• AleSmith IPA
• Celebrator Double Bock
• Ayinger Brau Weisse - **
• Bamberger Mohr Leicht

Ales & Bitters:

• Full Sail Pale Ale
• Coniston Bluebird Bitter
• Fuller's ESB
• Samuel Smith's India Ale
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - ***
• Stone Levitation Ale
• Lagunitas IPA
• Odell 90 Shilling Scottish Ale

Belgians:

• XX Bitter
• La Bavaisienne
• Loterbol Blond
• Chimay Triple - **
• La Chouffe Golden Ale
• Achel Bruin
• Fat Tire - ****
• Flying Fish Exit 4
• Southampton Grand Cru
• Bruery Orchard White

Lagers & Pilsners:

• Mahr's Unfiltered Lager
• Eku Pils
• Ayinger Jahrhundert Bier
• Stoudt's Pils
• Czechvar
• Pilsner Urquell - ***
• Left Hand Polestar
• Victory Prima Pils
• Full Sail Session Black

Dark Beers:

• Kulmbacher Monchshof Schwarzbier
• Guinness Stout - ****
• Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale - ***
• Carnegie Stark Porter
• Southampton Imperial Porter
• Heavyweight Perkuni's Hammer
• Schneider Aventus Weizenbock
• Ommegang Three Philosophers
• Pennichuck Feuer–Wehrmann Schwarzbier
• Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
• Ellie's Brown, Avery Brewing Co
• Out of Bounds Stout from Avery in Colorado
• O'Fallon Smoked Porter - ***
• Black Hawk Stout from Mendocino Brewing
• St. Ambroise oatmeal stout, from McAuslan Brewing in Montreal

Summer:

• Hoegaarden
• Fantome Saison

Smoked:

• Spezial Rauchbier

Others:

• Allagash ConfluenceDeschutes Dissident
• Dogfish Head Squall IPA

7 states and 2800 miles in 72 Hours

In the last 72 hours we have covered close to 2800 miles and traveled through 7 states, driving to Washington state, from here in Colorado to pick up a truck camper. During the course of that time we went through every season, except summer, having driven in rain and wind traversing Washington and Oregon, with a finish going over Monarch Pass here in Colorado in a snow storm with somewhat icy roads.


this all got started about two weeks ago when we saw the ad for a Okanagan 117DBL. As mentioned, in last week's post we have been on the look out for one of these going on 12 months.


After the calls had been made and the monies exchanged, Marlys and I up anchored on Wednesday evening for the drive to central Washington.


It was raining when we left Denver and being a weather obsessive, all of the websites had been checked to try and read the tea leaves on what could be expected. I suspect that the "professionals" must use the same sources, as I was about as accurate. It looked like other then the weather we were driving out of in Denver, it should be a pretty nice drive, there and back, but more on that later.


We made it to Buffalo, WY before calling a stop and checked into the Comfort Inn. BTW: if you haven't stayed at one of these lately, I would recommend it.


Knowing that Thursday was going to be a haul, because we wanted to get within striking distance of Ephrata, we were on the road by 5:30am.


Montana can look a lot like eastern Colorado, but the NW region where I-90 crosses into Idaho is pretty nice.


We noticed that there was still yellow in the forest, but we couldn't quite figure out what we were looking at, since the trees looked like pines, didn't look like beetle kill and were bright yellow like Aspens. We found out at a fuel stop that they were Tamaracks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarack_Larch ) a deciduous coniferous tree, meaning they drop all of their needles in the fall and re-grow them the coming season. I for one had never heard of that.


It had been cloudy all day, with intermittent rain. Not a good forecast omen, especially when my tea leaves had said otherwise less then 24 hours before.


We got into the Coeur d'Alene/Spokane metro area mid-afternoon. Coeur d'Alene is a city in a forest, it went on the list of places to visit again when we weren't on a schedule.


The region between Spokane and the Cascades appears very arrid with miles of center pivot irrigated fields of corn and hay. Once off the super slab the orchards and vineyards also became visible.


We finally crashed (not literally) in Moses Lake, WA, about 25 miles from our objective.

Paying careful attention to the forecast while trying to get rid of the shaking from the constant road vibe of the day, it looked like tomorrow would bring a chance of showers, but one we would drive out of as we headed south.


My a??! They use the same forecast sources in Spokane as the folks in Denver. We woke to rain, with a forecast for rain, but it still should end as we head south.


The plan for the return was not to go back via I-90 and I-25, but to head south to Kennewick and pickup I-84 to Salt Lake City, via Boise. In SLC we would grab the I-15 to Spanish Fork, then two lane it into Green River, Utah and pickup I-70. Then on to Grand Junction switching to US 50 and through Montrose, Gunnison and Salida to home. We would stop in Gunnison and show Derek the rig and take him to dinner.


We had talked about how long we wanted to spend in Ephrata, so as to get a good start on the drive home. We wanted to be back by Saturday night.


Our planning pretty much went out the window the next day, when we met Marylin and Jim. They were great people and we ended up spending 4 hours doing paperwork, going over the rig, getting it loaded and just talking. It was time well spent, as they are great folks


They took a couple of last pictures of the camper, we said our goodbyes, got in and headed down the road...slowly as the Porsche of trucks suddenly was slower, pondering in movement and now stopped on a...well it took longer to stop.


My initial impression, about 2 minutes into the 20 hour drive was...this was going to be a long drive.


As we went down the two laner back to the freeway and traversed a few rolling bumps, I thought a couple of time this thing could get divergent, but no, it generally settled right back and never headed for the corn field. It has after all a binder diesel, and did exhibit a slight pull to the right.


Every time I check the mirror to see who was around us, I could see the bottom of the overhang above, which gave the feeling of driving without taking the car out of the garage.


Did I mention that it rained the whole time Jim was going through the systems and loading the rig? Well it was still raining. And as we crossed the Columbia in Kennewick the wind came to play also. We had a warning on the wind because as we started up to the SE out of town the ridge we needed to crest was covered in wind generators...and they were up to speed.


We finally called it quits for the evening in Twin Falls, ID and pulled into a wayside rest. Instead of crapping out in the truck cab, we went back to the camper, made the bed, (put in ear plugs) and went to sleep. It was about 10:30pm. We woke at 5am and got ourselves together and back on the road by 5:30.


I had slept real well. Its nice to have your bedroom on your back.


By this point the driving was very...well normal other then watching for overhangs and canopies when pulling in for fuel/food and consideration of stopping distances. Even in the mountains of Colorado we were not a pylon for others to figure out how to go around.

We arrived home at 9pm Saturday night. We were tired, but very happy with the purchase and going over trip ideas.


The TC traveled well and our research in the pairing with our 2008 F450 dually paid off. The only mod (beyond the factory camper package) was a set of airbags (set to 50PSI). I noticed that when parked the factory camper/overload springs were not even in play.


As you would imagine MPG was very MPH influenced, but at 75 in Utah it stayed in the 7.5-8 MPG range and at 60 was in the 10-12 range, but is was very windy during that stint.

So, now it sits waiting for an adventure.

Maybe the first REAL trip, should be to the Las Vegas NASCAR race in Feb/Mar. That's the ticket.


This morning when we headed back into Denver it was covered in snow and the temp was -5F.

I am sure glad Jim winterized it last week.

The Rack of Wood

The shop project is getting down to the end, luckily so now we can get started on the projects we had actually planned. There is now a little space starting to show up and we are hoping as we finish up we will have a net gain, but that will probably evaporate quickly.

The actual work area is starting to come together, but one of the nice things about the OSB walls is that if we want to re-arrange items the old screw holes won't shop, unless someone has an anal streak and decides to look real close.

The change in methodology for the OSB layout (6' vs. 8') sheets has resulted in the pile of 20 sheets in the lower right corner and a lot less cutoffs in the burn pile.

If you look real close at the pile you can see that the pieces sitting on top are strips 2' long by 4" wide (need to look real, real close) that were cut from the 2'x4' pieces left when a 6' sheeted had to be used. These will become the frames that surround the light fixtures (yup another un-planned project).

You can also see another opportunity to clear things away in the finishing bench to the left of the right window (confused?).

The largest still to be tackled project is the NE corner, which you can see has become the dumping ground during this transformation.

BTW, that is Halle walking in the lower right corner. Dusty (the dog) had a sleepover last Saturday night.

She is a good shop dog as long as a ball is thrown her way or not her way every once in a while.

The plan is to construct a cantilever rack system for the wood piled to the left and right of the RAS and miter saw.

The rack is a modification of a plan found online. The final product will also include the RAS in the center of the rack. The miter saw will move to the right of the door and there could be another rack for long items above the door extending into the center of the back wall, but we will see if it is needed.

On Sunday the framework for the rack was built and installed, along with the building of the rack arms...all 35 of them. Since these are a glued and screwed fabrication, they will be left until next weekend before installation. Also I need to come up with a better stand for the RAS.

Next weekend, of course will be dependent on when we get back from another un-scheduled, but anticipated item on our list, which is the truck camper.

As mentioned last week we found one, and as of now appear to have paid for it. So off to the Pacific Northwest to pick it up and bring it back to PR. The plan is to be there by Friday morning and back by Saturday evening...that's the plan anyway.

Marlys got all of the needed work done to the truck yesterday, so the drive is the only thing left.

This last picture is from the kitchen on Saturday at dinner time. I thought the back lit lenicular cloud over Waugh was nice way to end the day.

Some changes

It was a cool/cold the 4 days spent finishing the shop project last weekend, with the propane heater going most of the time although up top it was bright and sunny, I kept hearing about the terrible traffic accidents and freezing drivel in the Springs and points east.

Well, I ran in to those conditions coming down through Woodland Park on Sunday.

Bright, 55 degrees in WP and when I hit the cloud bank you can see in the pictures the temp dropped to 25 degrees. It stayed like this all the way back to Parker.

It says on the signs Woodland Park - "The City above the Clouds" I believe it now and on Sunday it certainly was.

The shop project is finally done, and the number of splinters in my fingers from the OSB is still being totaled up. The place looks real nice and the lighting has improved greatly. There is still a lot of re-arranging and shelf building to be done, but the heavy lifting is over.

Also as I mentioned back in March 2008 ( http://patcaulfield.blogspot.com/2008/02/we-take-next-steps.html ) that there was a second shoe to drop on the truck purchase, and we dropped it last weekend by putting a deposit down on a Okanagan 117DBL truck camper ( http://www.okanaganrv.com/Camper%20Floorplan%20Page/camper.htm#OK_117DBL ). Marlys and I will be going out to Washington state to pick it up next week.

This means next year we hope to attend the Gypsy Camp-in, and other gatherings that may be scheduled. Marlys is even thinking that we should get a convoy together and attend Burning Man. Hhere are some pics taken this year by one of the people I work with
http://picasaweb.google.com/Sean.Miller.Photos/BestOfBurningMan?feat=directlink .

Since the "real" camera is back this weekend, I will grab some good pics of the shop.

The Replacements - Stellar's & Blue Jays

Leaves are at peak in our area.

The hummingbirds are gone, we assume since the feeder was still pretty full at weeks end (during the high season the feeder was filled daily).

Marlys though put out a regular bird feeder last weekend...and guess what it was empty. So we hung another one next to it. On Saturday Marlys built a feeding platform and we now have Stellar's Jays everywhere. These are a large bird with a big black crest. Although the numbers are not in the dozens, e.g. hummingbirds, there are quite a few.

Even the smaller Blue Jays showed up for a while and they were pretty aggressive toward the Stellar's

I, of course was, working on the shop interior, which is about 75% done

...but the 25% remaining is going to be allot of work since it is the actual shop part of the shop.

I hope to get it pretty close to done this weekend, so I can get to the actual list of Fall/Winter/Spring projects.

Chili Festival Time

Last weekend we went to the Pueblo Chili Festival again to stock up for the winter. Chili's at this festival are chili peppers that are being roasted, putting a wonderful smell in the air...and of course they can make you eyes start to water. The roasting is done by the various farms that grow the chili's. There are a pretty good assortment, we cam home with Peublo's, Atheims and Big Jim's. Each is different and can come in severals hotness ratings. The roasting removes the outer hide and can be done at home on the grill, but just roasted still warm is the way Marlys likes them.

Chilis are vry big in this area as represented by the purchase sizes, e.g. bushel and half-bushel.

24 hours after returning Marlys mentioned that she could still smell them in the truck.

Is this a great shop or what?

Since the first time I saw this shop earlier this year, it has always struck me as one of the greats.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25343016@N05/3766866053/sizes/l/in/set-72157611228190548/

It just seems to have so much character. Someday after numerous projects have gone through it, the shop at Pinon Rock will start to have this kind of feel.

Pat

Reverse Osmosis, But First....

First an update. We are over 50% done with the OSB lining of the shop and installation of the fluorescent lighting. We will get a little done this coming weekend, as Saturday we are off to the Pueblo Chili Roasting Festival and Sunday there is a ACPOA Board meeting.



On to reverse osmosis water treatment project.

We have had our water tested every 6 months over the last 18 months as part of the BRM CUP requirements. Our water has come back well within the acceptable range on all reading except for sodium (salt) where is has been at the high end of the range. This along with the number of plastic drinking water bottles that pile up awaiting recycling has resulted in us looking at RO systems.

As we thought about the RO system, we focused on supplying water to the refrigerator for drinking and ice making. Other uses like washing, showering, etc. would not need a lower sodium feed.

So off I went as always looking at systems, how they worked and what would be needed to put one in.



As my research started something jumped out of the numbers right away and that was there efficiency rating, or how much of the water pumped into the system actually made it past the RO membrane and how much went down the drain. Household systems tend to be in the 5-15% range. This means that on a 15% efficient system, for every 15 gallons of filtered water 85 gallons went down the drain.

To understand this here is a simple explanation of a household RO system. There is a small pressure tank from which the filtered water is dispensed to the faucet, etc. When the system detects a drop in pressure beyond a certain preset limit from this tank a pump kicks in on the water supply side pushing water against the reverse osmosis filter. Water is essentially not compressible so not all of the water pumped against the RO filter makes it trough to replenish the pressure tank reserve, so it has to go somewhere and that somewhere is usually down the drain.

Now if you have access to unlimited cheap/free water this would probably not be a big thing, but when on a well it is, because water is not free or unlimited.

So armed with this, the search was on for a system that did not send the 85%-95% down the drain, but back into the supply circuit.

As chance would have it, I received my weekly email notification from Costco (we aren't members) on their specials. Listed was a "zero-waste" RO system. As I looked at how this worked, it appeared fairly simple in that instead of plumbing the waste side of the RO system into the drain, it put it back into the warm water supply line of a sink. I noticed in looking at other manufacturers of ZX systems (household size systems), they also used this builders components.

This was what we were looking for, a RO that didn't waste the water. But I still needed to check this out, and after looking at forum after forum of comments the biggest "con" found, was that the RO filter may need to be replaced sooner, but in the trade off between that and pumping (not pouring) water down the drain it was a easy choice.

If the system was to be installed in a base cabinet near the refrigerator the installation would be pretty straightforward, but as with most things this was not to be. Although there is a great cabinet next to the refrigerator, it was deemed by the LOML that this was part of her territory and the border would not be breached for this "thing".

It took a little bit to re-group, but the answer lay in the room behind the wall, on which the refrigerator was located...the laundry room. Even though this was not with in the "kitchen" boundaries it was still with in a sensitive area and annexing space was not something done lightly.

The only untouched/unclaimed space in the laundry room is located above the washer and dryer. This was the spot, so now what to do with it. Needed would be:

• Electrical
• Water supply
• Water return
• Access to the refrigerator water inlet

Obviously, this called for a cabinet, one that would hide the waterworks.

So, another cabinet is going to be build and hung above the washer and dryer. It will have a flip-up faux front of doors to provide access. Water lines will be run from the utility sink beside the W/D and the water will be delivered through a hole through the wall behind the washer to the back of the refrigerator. The unit will be plugged into the duplex washer outlet.

I don't want to jinx this by saying it is an elegant answer to the problem until it is done, and the results are known. Beyond not buying bottled water or having plastic bags full of them in the garage waiting for Derek to haul back to Gunnison for re-cycling, the flawless integration of the cabinet into the laundry room will be the measure of success.

Marlys' Shop Stool

Some of you may remember the shop stool built a while ago from cut off scraps. It has been a handy addition to the shop.

Marlys decided she needed something to paint, after seeing some items at a neighbors and the stool was volunteered.

She has spent a couple of weekends on it and it is really too nice for the shop...

...but it is the shop step stool and that is where is will remain...if I have anything to say about it.

Summer is over. Fall is in the air

The hummingbird community is down to about half a dozen and the feeders lasted all week (vs. a day in August).

This weekend the faux flowers will be pulled to encourage the stragglers to head for Mexico.

The leaves on the Aspen's have started their turn and the showers no longer take the heat out of the day, but bring a chill to the hills.

Summer is over.

For this year.

Doings Last Weekend

Even though there is a full slate of projects, e.g. zero-waste reverse osmosis cabinet, bedroom furniture, etc. The securing of the lights and OSB for what was to be a two part project for winter and next summer has turned into the current work priority, mainly due to the pile of both sitting in the shop.

Labor Day weekend saw the first major push to begin this work and my thinking was that since I was going to cut the 4x8 sheets to 4x6 sheets the weight would drop (52#vs.35#) and I could manage holding them against the ceiling truss' and stringers then screwing them in place...by myself.

My first attempt at this was using the green step ladder (shown in one of the pictures). The ceiling is ten feet high so I was pretty close to the top, balancing the sheet on my head, trying to align it, then getting a screw to stay on the bit and screwing it in.

Believe it or not I actually got a few sheets up using this method, without falling off the ladder or destroying any sheets. But over the course of the four day weekend I only got done what is in the pic to the left.

My next method of work was to utilize the shelving/scaffolding Marlys used in sealing the deck this summer. In this method the sheet was put on the top of the shelving (see same picture as ladder, it is in the background). Then clamps were used to "hang" one end, while I aligned the other, dropped at least a few screws getting them on the driver, while holding the sheet with my head and screwing it to the ceiling. Although this worked better it was still comical and as with the ladder my production lagged.

At the rate I was going to get the 90 sheets installed would take something like 9 months of weekends in birthing the project. And this didn't even include the wiring and installation of the 14 fluorescent fixtures also taking up floorspace.

During this time I had been looking at drywall lifts, as they were the tool of choice for professionals in putting sheet rock on ceilings, even real big sheets (4x12). In researching this option; the day rental looked to be expensive based on the period of time it would be needed. Purchasing one would be in the range of $200, but I don't know where the quality-price point drop off would be, or build one (Fine Homebuilding has plans).

Not being a big borrower of tools (much to Marlys' chagrin), and not really knowing who to ask, a major threshold was crossed when I posted on the ACPOA Forum to see if anyone had one.

Afterward in talking with Herb (see 14er stories) about the dilemma, he called someone he knew and next thing you know a drywall lift was delivered (This is the way to borrow, I didn't even have to go get it.) and set up in the shop.

Saturday was scheduled to start with lending a hand to Herb installing a horse wash bay in his barn (it is a true barn). Then I would try the lift out in the afternoon. But as my luck would have it, Herb got the work done during the week and Saturday looked to be rainy, giving me a choice; get going with the lift or burn the slash pile behind the shop.

Since there are so few days like this the slash pile took precedence.

The pile was gone by 11am and the lift was waiting.

I decided to tackle a wall sheet first. In that regard my plans had taken a different direction based on my lack of production. The original plan was to cut all sheets to 6' lengths to match the bays size of the shop as I did not want to put in faux studs for nailers, when an end didn't land on a post. In looking at the issues of the 6' sheet, namely the number of cuts and sheets that would be needed. I reverted to the full 8' length and installed nailers where needed.

Using the lift to place the sheet whether on the ceiling or wall was too easy. It allowed for movement to align and saved my back. This was a good thing since I think I pulled some muscles in my side balancing a board on a ladder then having the whole thing turn to LS on me.

By the end of the day, yesterday I had just about completed one side of the shop and even installed a shelf.

The biggest chore is moving stuff around to get to a new area. Marlys also has a couple of projects going in the shop. One is still in progress and will need to finish up before a picture is posted, but the other turned out real nice.

This is the step stool built last spring from shop scraps and although the wood is all poplar the sap and heart colors did not match. Marlys grabbed her(actually Derek's) wood burner and really finished the piece.

This weekend we both hope to make some headway with these projects, as fall is definitely in the air and the number of hummingbirds at the feeders are dwindling.

Next time I hope to focus on the cabinetry for the RO water treatment.

Guess Who Showed Up Again

A Few More Observations from Saturday's Four 14er Day.

• There did not seem to be any unprepared hikers out on Saturday, which surprised me. Often (every time) when hiking a 14er I seem to run into people; starting way to late, ill prepared in that they have one bottle of water, and/or are in less then sturdy shoes and seem to be out for a walk to the local ice cream shop. I applaud them for getting out, but these mountains should not be taken lightly. Last weekend a 44 year old man from Wyoming died hiking up Quandry.
• The leaves are turning already. Last weekend we didn't see a hint of yellow in thew aspens. This weekend not only did we see yellow on the way up Kenosha Pass, but around Kite Lake the leaves are in full transition.
• Do remember the movie "Karate Kid"? There was a scene in the movie where Ralph Macciho is standing on a piling on beach doing a "Preying Mantis" pose ( http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4188380416/tt0087538 ). In this pose his arms were out to his side and while standing on one leg the other was drawn up in front. Keep this picture in your minds eye for a minute. While going up Mt. Democrat we were in a series of steps that were about knee high. Herb was in the lead, and as is my norm, I am focused on the ground ahead of me looking for my next step. Herb comes in to my cone of consciousness and as I look up, what do I see...Herb doing the "Praying Mantis" on the step ahead/above me. I of course was frozen thinking it was a possible touch with fame (Ralph Macchio?), when Herb regains his balance and moves a head. So close to greatness, yet so far.
• As we were finishing the hike coming off the "Trail of Misery" a number of people were behind us on the trail. We offerred to let them pass a couple of time, but they responded that the pace was nice and they were OK following. Herb was in the lead and as we arrived back at the Kite Lake parking area he turned around and we had a Minnesota moment as he did the hockey post game handshake with each person behind us in our conga line. The last guy's name was Scott and may have been from Nevada who was hiking by himself. Turns out that he and his 4 month pregnant wife had attempted it the day before, but since she was not feeling good half way up they decided to turn around...go figure.
• Most/many of the conversations during the hike were about food. Herb waxed, almost poetically, on the virtues of lamb burgers and me on the nuances (Yes there are!) of sloppy Joe's.

A Four 14er Day

I mentioned back in July that we may try a collection of 14ers on Labor Day Weekend...and we did.

The four mountains were Mt. Democrat, Mt Cameron, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Bross. Some may question Mt. Cameron due to the 300' prominence rule, but hiking up from Mt. Democrat (the more then 300' side) I will count this on my list.

Marlys did not go on this hike because of the exposure mentioned on the route info and from some of the pictures that had been posted. This was a good choice because there was exposure beyond what she would appreciate on the way up to Cameron, Lincoln and the sucker punch would/was the walk/slid down from Bross to Kite Lake, which was pretty brutal. Plus we were snowed for a couple of hours.

Herb and I left PR at 5am arriving to a full lot at Kite Lake about 6:30. There was even a line at the restrooms (which I would come to envy later in the day). We were on the trail at 6:50am. The sun wasn't up in the valley yet, but it was light enough.

The upper sections of Bross had a dusting of snow and there was frost on rocks making for some slippery steps. The trail though was well identified...from the number of people a head of us.

We even ran in to a few coming down from Democrat, which they had climbed the night before, benefiting from a full moon.

The pace was good and I was using trekking poles for the first time, which of the course of the day I appreciated more and more. These will be coming along next time.

The temp was pretty cool and gloves were needed. In fact when we got back to the truck in early afternoon the temp was only 37 degrees and even though I took off my gloves for a while I had them back on by mid trip and for the remainder of the hike.

The way this works is that Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross are laid out like a "T" with Dem, Cam and Lin across the top ant Bross at the bottom. The trail takes you up to the right arm between Dem and Cam, at that point you turn left and go up Democrat. After summitting it is back the way you came across to Cam, then continue on to Lincoln then back around the face of Cameron to Bross, then heading down. The vertical hiked during the course of summitting all four is ~3700' over the course of just over 7 miles.

Democrat was the first and longest up hill stretch, which after close to 2 hours into the climb the sanity of going up the other three is questioned. But after summitting and passing a blind climber being lead up by the person leading her ringing a jingle bell and describing the trail, the though of just going all the way back down exits quickly.

We got to the Mt. Democrat summit 2 hours in (8:50).

If you remember from July, Herb made a sign that was the hit of the Mt. Sherman summit group as it was passed around. THIS time Herb made 4, which as his faithful gun bear I schlepted up and down all four mountain's. Herb's signs though were a hit and people who had used them on one peak asked for them on the next one. We got out of it a fairly consistent group of folks that knew how to use our cameras and snap our pics.

It started to cloud up as we were heading up Cameron and was pretty much over developed once the summit was reached, in fact it looked like only the Lincoln summit was still in sunshine. We could also get a pretty view of Mt. Quandry which we had gone up two years ago this weekend. We got to the top of Cameron at 10:30. So again I will classify this as a 14er in my book.

This is looking back at Democrat from Cameron.

The hike over to Lincoln looked short and was, it only took us 30 minutes to get from the Cameron to Lincoln summit. The short hike was not without some interesting views which of course the pictures cannot do justice to.

We topped Lincoln at 11am.

I also had the rumblings of a possible GI tract episode. Thinking it my be from dehydration I drank some water, but no by the time we got to the top at Lincoln I needed to find a Men's Rock, even before the pictures we snapped. It seemed like I hiked down the north side of the mountain a long way before getting out of site and I would have to go all the way back up once the session was finalized. But I knew that there would be a chapter 2 before this story was complete.

The pictures from Lincoln pretty much had snow in them in every direction except east. By the time we started for Bross it was with us.

The hike to Bross is a little over a mile across the face of Cameron to the bottom of the "T". Chapter 2 decided that about half way there in the middle of a vast scree field was where it would throw back the curtains...if only that had been some curtains some place. I tried to get in a low spot where the full white moon would not cause any disruptions to the hikers on the trail above, but even there I would not be invisible. I just hoped no would trip and take a fall if they looked the wrong way. Luckily this would be the last chapter.

Herb not wanting to be associated with this act no matter how natural (yes I can rationalize it), decide to keep going and told me to catch up. This didn't happen until starting up Bross. Although we tried to stay in the correct areas, since the summit of Bross is officially closed for trail restoration, somehow we ended up at the top anyway...along with about 20 other folks. We should have had a GPS, oh damn I just remembered my phone has one. Well next time.

Speaking of cell phone there is nothing that says outdoors more then the sound of some idiots ringtone half way up Democrat. Hopefully the phone was accidentally dropped while being answered breaking into many unusable pieces. Cell phone can be very help in emergencies or taking pics (the July hike) but put them on vibrate after all this is natures theater.

We started down right just after noon, think it would be a nice hike on the trail we could see meandering down the side of Bross to Kite Lake.

The sucker punch was that the next 1:20 was filled with a steep, on the edge, slippery descent. We could see the truck, but it never seemed to get any closer. We both planted our asses on the trail a number of times and what had been a strenuous but relaxing hike, turned into a death march.

We made it back to the lot at 1:20pm for a circuit time of 6:30 minutes. Pretty good.

We are going to wait until next spring for the next hike.

We can get mail @ Pinon Rock

Marlys did everything to set up for mail delivery last Wednesday, and believe it or not, we got our first delivery last Friday, a happy anniversary card from our neighbors back in Minnesota.

Mail is only delivered Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the mailbox is at least 3 miles away, but it is another step in the transition.

I had assistance.

I was advised by the "help" yesterday morning that I should let people know that assistance by a local geriatric in removing the 5300# of OSB from the truck.

Herb felt he was not getting his due.

So yes Herb helped me remove and restack the OSB in the shop. It only took us about 30 minutes.

In a couple of weeks Herb and I are going to do the Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross 14er circuit. This should be an all day hike at 7.25 miles and 3700' of altitude over the course of going up and down from one peak to another ( http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=bros6&peak=Democrat,+Cameron,+Lincoln,+Bross .

That Damn Squirrel Showed Up

Getting the lumber ready for winter projects

This actually got started during the 25th weekend as a project for some of the guys in the shop and all who have read this blog know how I like projects in the shop.

A few weeks back Marlys and I had moved the sawmill outside and set it up in a semi-permanent location. We use to set it up as needed, but that chewed up a lot of time, so it tended not get used that much. Since this change, I have sawn wood every couple of weeks.

Knowing that some of the invitees shared my interest in wood and knowing that they were coming from locales that didn't offer the Ponderosa beetle-kill stained varieties around here I offered up some of the slabs in the shop. These would need to be re-sawn to rough widths.

My nephew John had also joined us by Friday and since the younger crowd was still 24 hours out I volunteered him as the mill assistant. This meant replacing a blade (when I screwed it up), tension it, moving the lumber, and running the mill head on a few swipes.

He would also go on to fame in the repair of the patio umbrella later that day. In that, action he moved from natures materials to the fabrication of a joint using UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) plastic (Teflon). The strength of the new joint resulted in a down-stream failure of another joint on Sunday. The umbrella has since been retired.

The wood targeted for sawdust donations on this day had been from beetle-kill trees taken down at Pinon Rock in 2005. The wood had been "seasoning" in the shop since then. Bill, the recipient of said slabs of course picked the best stuff from the stack. Little did he know that I have two more trees to be taken down this Fall that will replenish the stock.

Since it was going to be his wood, he would need to run the mill as I wanted no blame for any errors. That wood is now another non-native species residing in La Porte, Minnesota.

Last weekend I re-sawed just about all of the remaining house scrap pieces, the Cedar will be going into the office work surfaces and the slabbed 15" glulam cutoffs in to an as to be identified project.

You can also see in this picture the Ponderosa that is destined for the continuing bedroom set project. The first chapter was last winter's headboard build. This pile will become the side tables to the bed and with the participation of some pieces from the new Ponderosa mentioned above will become the long dresser, Marlys has deemed appropriate for her stuff.

This pile will be added to this coming weekend by the load of 100 4'x8' sheets of 1/2"OSB that is in transit (Caulfield Cartage) to be used in finishing the walls and ceiling of the shop.

I have been looking for the best price for OSB, since the light fixture purchase, thinking that it would save allot of work doing both at once. I had resigned to putting in the lights this Fall, and at $6-$8 a sheet from a lumberyard, waiting on the liner until next year sometime.

Friday night I stumbled on to this OSB at my favorite store...Craigslist. It was used for floor protection during a re-model of a Middle School in Westminster (Denver Metro). The General Contractor was selling it off since the project was done. It looked good in the picture and the price was in my range at $3 a sheet.

When I picked it up on Tuesday the site manager said that since I was the first to buy I had my pick of the bundles (60 sheet packs). He pointed to a group of four and said those were brand new and had not been used...I of course selected those.

His picture on CL had been of the used ones (which I appreciated), he even got a material lift and a couple of guys from the crew to load the truck.

I wouldn't know until I got home how big the load actually was.

The stack reached a few inches above the truck cab and the F450 actually had a little squat to it. Finally, a load worthy of the new truck.

My 1" wide straps used to secure it seemed pretty underwhelming and a stop at Lowes to pick up some that were up to the task was the first stop. Of course a thunderstorm moved through as I rescued the load. It was a pretty wet, dusty, dirty and sweaty guy in polo shirt and khakis that went into MacDonald's to get a cone and a Diet Coke for the drive across town.

I called Marlys (up at PR) about a half a dozen times during the drive commenting on the load, the truck and where I would put it back in Parker until driving back to PR on Thursday night. The truck handled the load amazingly well. I was real impressed. My MPG only dropped to 14.1, but I am waiting for the slog up in to the mountains.

Once in front of the TV, I googled the weight of a 1/2" 4'x8' sheet of OSB. The answer was 53lbs. So the load weighted 5300# or over 2 1/2 tons.