Life At The Bottom

The end of another year

2008-12-27T07:22:00.003+13:00

So I haven't felt like blogging in awhile and I know why. It's because so much has changed yet again from our so called "plans". I should know better than to think that things will ever turn out the way that I might expect. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does kind of get on my nerves sometimes. One of my good friends always has a laugh at my expense for the zigzag course that Kirk and I are always on. No we're going this way....wait...no that way....hold on...no...I think we're supposed to go over here! That's how it feels sometimes. Does everyone go through their life decisions feeling this way or is it just us?

Anyhow, so we didn't end up buying the cool house across the street. The housing market crashed and the house that we are currently living in did not sell. Then the financial markets tanked and our business suffered some setbacks that made us rethink purchasing the house of our dreams. We deliberated and cried and tried to think of anyway possible that we could work out buying the new house, but in the end it really felt like the wrong thing to do. That was hard to reconcile because our hearts were set on it and everyone in town knew that we were lined up to buy the house. It felt like the worst day of our lives when we sat the builder down to tell him our bad news. He was very gracious and understanding about everything. We felt like the biggest jerks in history and had to wade through the shame in our little town where news spreads like wildfire. Thankfully most people seemed to understand our situation being that we were not the only ones who had suffered some financial losses. So we're just living in our little one bedroom one bath fixer upper waiting for a different housing situation to come to light that may suit our needs without breaking our piggy bank. It was the right thing to do to turn the new house down, but it was certainly painful. Our financial adviser keeps telling us the benefits of "delayed gratification". We have already had many lessons in delayed gratification and just thought that this time we wouldn't have to wait to get what we wanted. Well we were wrong and I'm okay with it because I'm familiar with this process. It will be worth it to wait. It always is.

Despite the disappointment about the new house we did have a great year overall. We have many blessings to be thankful for and I know in reality I have very little to complain about. We are currently enjoying a wonderful Christmas vacation in Las Vegas, New Mexico in a beautiful mountain setting with good friends. Who can ask for anything more than that!

Good news!

2008-07-18T11:14:00.003+12:00

We finally received a contract on our Denver house! Woohoo! We are so excited since this had to happen in order for us to be able to purchase the new house being built across the street from us here in BV. This is the a current photo of where the new house is in construction. Very cool! So the next step is putting our fixer upper house on the market which hopefully will happen in the next week. I know this is all very confusing. Too many properties! How did we get here? Well I know the answer to that question and it all seemed to make sense to us at the time. Too bad we didn't have the foresight about this housing crisis or we could have sold our Denver house for a lot more money. Oh well. I'll just be glad to finally consolidate our money into one property that we love instead of 3 that we don't. So, if you just happen to know anyone interested in 3 acre lot on Trout Creek Pass with a tepee and a shed on it or a cute in town 1 bedroom 1 bath old house with lots of character send them our way. The new house will be finished in September so we're hoping that the house we're in now will sell fast. We're pretty anxious to move across the street since this will be the first house that we have ever owned that has a garage, a guest bedroom, a second bathroom and plenty of storage. A couple of days ago we were on the verge of giving up hope that this was all going to work out because we were running out of time. It also seems that a couple of people around town were waiting for us to fail so they be the next buyer in line on this house. This of course made us want it even more. I think we've become a bit possessive since we've already mentally purchased the property. Although we do have a lot of friends here who have rooted for us all along and seemed to have more faith than we did that it would work out. Fingers crossed!

The best summer yet

2008-06-30T07:06:00.003+12:00

I have to say that this is my best summer yet here in Buena Vista. I've finally met some great friends with similar interests which helps this town finally feel like my home. It was a hard transition for me to uproot my life from Denver and put a distance of 125 miles between the friends and family I have known all my life. Kirk has always felt at home here since this is where he grew up, but I on the other hand didn't really know what to expect. I just knew that I was willing to give it a go because I felt like the Denver city life thing was old hat and I was ready to try on the "mountain life" that has been Kirk's dream ever since I've known him. I'm not going to lie and say it was an easy adjustment for me. I think part of the problem was living in the tepee. We were somewhat isolated up in them there hills which impeded us from having much of a social life. We did meet a few people in town that we became friends with, but I have to say that I continued struggling with feeling confident that this was the right place for us. The other part of that was the continuance of living in a temporary situation. We had moved around and traveled for so long before settling here that I was couldn't help feeling like a small potted plant. It wasn't until we bought a permanent structure of a home last October where I was able to break out, dig in and expand my roots. Living in town has opened up a whole new group of friends to us. I can't explain how good it feels to walk around town recognizing faces, waving to friends and having the sense that we really do belong here.

I recently met a great group of women who are all active outdoors people too. We decided to start mountain biking together and it's been a blast! Last year I was really into running and was able to check off running a marathon from my life list. I've been looking for a different activity since my back still aggrevates me when I run and I think mountain biking is the ticket. It's low impact on the joints and it's a great balance of adrenaline, technical thinking and good ol' heart pumping aerobic exercise. I never thought I'd be a mountain biker much less pick it up at 36 years of age, but isn't it the darndest thing that life can still suprise you.

So lately our lives look like this: wake up between 7 and 8am (alarm clocks are only used when absolutely necessary), have a liesure coffee and breakfast on the couch, walk to our office which is 5 minutes from our house, get some work done, leave around 5pm, walk 5 minutes back to our house, grab our gear and go down to the river park which is another 5 minutes away. Right now Kirk is really into kayaking because the water is so high, but occassionally he's off on a mountain bike ride. I usually ride down to the bridge to meet a couple of the gals for a mountain bike ride and then Kirk and I meet back at the house at dark to eat dinner and go to bed. Then we do it all over again the next day. It's pretty awesome to be so close to the activities that we love. We always think back to our Denver days when it took us between 30-60 minutes to drive home after work and then another 45-60 minutes of driving to get to a place where you could kayak or mountain bike so your actual activity time was pretty limited. We feel very fortunate to have carved out the life we now have, but we did make quite a few sacrifices to get here...so essentially we feel like we earned it.

Stepping up in the world

2008-06-07T05:09:00.003+12:00

Today has been a long awaited day for us. We worked on our bathroom after work last night until 11pm and it was soooo worth it! We now have a working shower and a functioning toilet! Woohoo!

We've been showering at the local gym now for the last 14 months. When we lived at the tepee last summer we would come to town to work out and have a hot shower. I remember looking forward to indoor plumbing as we were buying our house in town last September. However since we moved in we were not brave enough to shower in the existing avocado green tub that was coated in a thickness of mold. We finally got around to ripping out the tub a few months ago and have been living with a construction zone in the bathroom ever since. We bought a corner shower and Kirk worked very hard to finish installing it two weekends ago. He's now a master plumber and carpenter. :) It felt like it took forever but it was time to call in the drywaller who came last week to put up some new walls and finish them off for us. We had to take out the avocado green toilet (boohoo) so the drywaller could refinish the walls behind it because the bathroom was in such a bad state of disrepair from the previous owner. She never took the time to deal with the leaks or the mold or anything else. So we set up the good ol' camp toilet from the tepee days in our shed outside and have been using that for the past 10 days. It didn't feel like too big of a deal since we had lived like that for so long before. Overall though we have been pretty anxious to get our bathroom up and running.

Kirk got up yesterday morning and laid the new linoleum that he had been cutting to size the previous evening. It turned out really nice for a first timer! After work yesterday we went home and Kirk installed the new shiny white toilet while I finished painting and then he worked on installing the shower doors. It looks like a totally different space now which is so exciting because it was pretty gross before! It really is the nicest room in the house now. We woke up this morning and tried out the shower. Ahhhh! I can't even put it words how lovely it is to shower in my own house. I'm so tired of public showers and the nastiness others leave behind...hair, band aids, dirty washcloths, athlete's foot, etc. Ack! I've been thinking back on how long we've had to deal with public showers. South Pole for 2 years, traveling for 5 months and living here for 2+ years. I think we've earned a private bathroom. :)

Gas Tax Holiday

2008-04-28T14:19:00.002+12:00

John McCain is proposing to repeal the $0.18 gas tax for the summer, calling it a gas tax holiday. What a freakin' stupid idea, we have been on a gas bender since the 70s and this clown wants to hand us more of the drink that we have overused, exploited, fought wars over and down right wasted. Not only should we not have a gas tax holiday we ought to be marched into the nearest drug treatment facility where we are weened and shown how great our dependence on oil is and how it is the prime ingredient in everything we do, eat, drink and shit.

Kirk's Birthday/Last Day at Monarch

2008-04-26T03:36:00.014+12:00

Kirk's 39th birthday was April 13th which was much cause for celebration seeing this is his last year in his 30's. We're preparing for the mid-life crisis next year. Ha ha! Kirk's birthday wish was to have a bbq party in the parking lot of Monarch since the 13th was also their closing day for the season. We haphazardly pulled together some 80's looking ski gear to fulfill a cheesy theme. We loaded up the trailer with our grille, some chairs, a table and coolers full of beer and food and took off early in the morning so we could arrive in the parking lot in time to get a good spot. We pulled up close to the front since tail gaiting is popular on the end of season day so the parking dudes save the closest spots for the people with trailers. Looking around our setup was pretty minimal compared to some of the other folks. Several people had set up decorated tents with full bars and people gathered around in costume. It was great people watching! We set up and then some of our friends started showing up. We took a few runs on the hill and then came back to fire up some lunch. We fed anyone around who ventured into our bbq since it was that kind of party. Unbeknown to us the ski area was having a bbq contest and sent judges around to each "camp" to judge their food. They bypassed us since we just had boring brats and burgers. The winner was a gang who were parked next to us that served pulled pork and homemade green chili. They said the winnings might just cover the cost of the food. Hmmm...I think we were better off spending less time cooking and more time enjoying the atmosphere and the last runs we would take until next winter. It was the warmest day of the season with sunny blue skies, great snow conditions and people having fun everywhere we looked. As the day came to a close Kirk and our friend Olivia decided to go for the last run of the day in their birthday suits. They hiked to an outlying run that ends in the parking lot and I waited with camera in hand. You can't even really tell they are naked in the photo. Good thing since this is the internet after all. They ducked into the trees before the end of the run and walked up to the bbq amidst cheering and laughs. A good time was had by all! We've decided this now needs to be a yearly event so next year we plan to do it bigger and better so be there or be square!

April 15, 2008

2008-04-16T07:50:00.007+12:00

Isn't life grand? I love the saying, "Wanna make God laugh....have a plan." So true it is! We've zigzagged and sometimes circled through all sorts of plans in the 5 years that we've been married, so why am I still surprised when we end up in a totally different place than I expected? Human nature I guess. Buena Vista sure has been treating us right though and no matter what the road ahead brings and how unexpected it is, it always feels like the path we were meant to tread. When I turn around and look back it all seems to make more sense then when we are actually going through it so I can only have faith that the future will bring us right where we're supposed to be despite my plans, fears and worries.

These thoughts give me comfort when there is something that I really want that I may not get. What I'm referring to specifically is a house that is being built just across the street from our current little home. Kirk and I had been wondering for awhile who owned the lot since it sat empty for a long time with the exception of a slab foundation. We serendipitously came across the house plans when the builder came into our office to get copies from us. We looked over the plans and loved them! Then we saw the address and realized that this was the house that was going to be built right across the street from us. We quickly asked the builder if he already had a buyer for this house and he said he didn't. I told him, "You do now!". We couldn't believe our luck! The builder is a local guy that designs and builds one custom house a year here in BV. He has a couple of houses in town and a few outside of town and they're all very cool compared to other options which are either new/newer stamped out standard cracker box suburban houses (blah), old completely run down houses (double blah), or the overinflated lots to build on that have ridiculous covenants (can you say "boomers"). This house however, incorporated a lot of the ideas that we had designed into our own house plans at one point. It felt too good to be true because we also love the location we're in now, we just hate the house we currently live in. Our current house was built in 1910, it's maybe 600 square feet and it needs a lot of TLC. Ever since we moved in we have been talking about how nice it would be to just live in a new house where you wouldn't have to fix things all of the time. Don't get me wrong, I know new houses require maintenance too, but not to the degree that we are dealing with now.

Small towns are interesting. We agreed on the word of the builder that we could have first dibs at buying the house since we don't have anything in writing as of yet. If I were still in Denver I definitely would not trust that agreement, but here in BV things are different. When a local (meaning someone who's lived here for 20 years or so) gives their word you can count on it especially when it comes to a handshake between two locals (Kirk being the other since he grew up here). The other interesting thing is that word travels fast. We told maybe 2 people that we were going to buy the house across the street and asked them not to tell anyone else until we were sure. This builder has some notoriety because his houses are so different than the norm here and they tend to generate a lot of excitement with real estate agents, prospective buyers and lookie-loos. Since they actually started building the house back in February, the word was out that this builder is working on another house in town so he's had several people inquire about it, some of which are serious buyers, but he told them that he already has a buyer...us! Lately, we've had a bunch of people come up to us saying, "so I hear you're buying that house on Gunnison?". Being a city dweller for my entire life with the exception of the last two years, this small town news network is a whole new experience for me.

I also have a hunch that this builder is tired of selling homes to out of state folks looking to buy second homes or a retirement home and is excited about selling a house to another "local" and a couple younger than retirement age. We feel so fortunate that it's us! So we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will all pan out. We have our Trout Creek property with the tepee and our half duplex in Denver on the market hoping they sell soon. We are continuing to fix up the little house we currently live in so we can put that on the market in a month or so as well. Then we'll be free to invest our equity in a house that we hope to keep for a very long time. Ahhhh.....roots....now that's a happy thought.

Boeing and U.S. get used to it!

2008-03-08T08:01:00.000+13:00

Last week when I heard the outcome of the bidding for the new in air fuel tanker I was outraged that it didn’t go to Boeing but to a consortium of Northrop Grumman and EADS. I thought “how could the U.S. Air Force select a foreign developed Airbus airframe for its’ in air filling station.” Then I thought about the decision along with the sobering statistics regarding engineering and math educated professionals in the United States I began to understand how the decision could have occurred. The United States talent pool of engineers and mathematicians (although skilled) is not currently sufficient to spur technological development let alone keep pace with the number of skilled people leaving the workforce to retirement. Microsoft and others have begun locating development facilities in other countries to make use of the greater number of trained individuals and less xenophobic immigration policies. If WE continue to close our doors to immigration and not promote social policies that help talented individuals go onto higher education then we risk America’s status of innovator and economic power. 90% of the worlds engineers already reside in Asia, South Korea (17% of the US population) graduates as many engineers from college every year as the United States, and with the United States ranking lower than most industrial nations in 12^th grade math and science skills it is not surprising we are losing opportunities to our foreign competitors because we lack the talent to innovate.

GWPP or BSPP

2008-02-12T06:40:00.001+13:00

GWPP or BSPP

I recently received a mailing with a vague return address of GWPP in La Joya California that included a National Academy of Sciences formatted article that tries to make the argument that global warming is not attributable to human activity. The mailing also includes a petition form that is intended to be signed after reviewing the article; however several problems exist with the report, it has not been peer-reviewed, nor published, nor has it been accepted for publication in the NAS journal and the Academy has released a strong statement disclaiming any connection to this effort and reaffirming the reality of climate change. It also applies a postage stamp perspective to research that is occurring across many different land masses, oceans and ice sheets that leaves many of the other studies out in “cold”. In other words the argument is a “cherry picked” set of data that allows the GWPP to try to make the case that global warming is not the result of industrialization.

I thank the person who put my name and address on their mailing list because I am now better armed to combat my _______ in-laws rhetoric with sound arguments based in fact and I remain convinced a problem exists and am more passionate about the steps that need to occur.

End of Year Letter

2007-12-28T08:40:00.000+13:00

Wow, what a year…and like everyone else we are wondering where it went. It started out with us house sitting on a very nice estate, skiing whenever we could and working at our “mom & pop” engineering firm (JK Mechanical Design LLC). We had many visitors including a friend from the UK and Jodi’s family who all enjoyed the many amenities of the estate. In early April the owners returned so we moved back to our tipi on April 15^th where it continued to snow on us with the final snow (10”) occurring in early June. It was hard moving back to the tipi after being so spoiled at that estate, but it gave us incentive to finish our house plans and submit them to the county for approval. In late May we submitted and after some back and forth with the building department they agreed to allow us to stamp our plans and we were approved for construction. In the mean time Jodi went for a run in town and passed what appeared to be a great lot that was for sale. Suddenly our plans of building our dream home changed. This lot seemed perfect, next to the river park (we could ride our bikes and paddle from the front door), on the town line where it wasn’t subject to town approval and with the right exposures to build our low energy home. In the end we didn’t buy the lot but it made us reconsider our plans and if we really wanted to live 20 miles away from town. We ended up listing the tipi property and began looking for other options in town. It took us until fall to find a house and we settled on a fixer upper that is smaller than some apartments I had in college.

Like most houses in Buena Vista it wasn’t well cared for and needed some work before we could move in. We lived in the tipi for an additional month while ripped out carpet and sanded and refinished the floors. In the meantime the bears returned and occasionally they would visit, scavenging for food outside but leaving the tipi and its two residents alone (whew!). In October we moved in the house and continued working on it. We took out the old wood burning stove and installed a pellet stove and stainless steel venting. We remodeled the kitchen by removing the old metal avocado green sink cabinet and upper cabinet and put up the cabinets that used to be in our Denver house (recycling at it’s best). We added a garbage disposer which required learning how to add a new outlet and switch. Jodi painted over the grease spattered walls and ceilings and we removed all of the old appliances with the exception of the gas stove. The latest project was removing the moldy tiles and avocado green bathtub in order to replace it with a shower. Through it all we have developed some skill in home improvement and feel that there is very little we couldn’t do ourselves.

Jodi and her friend/running partner Dana decided after running their first half marathon together in the spring that they wanted to set a goal to run their first marathon in the fall. They set their sights on the Baltimore Marathon and they trained every weekend with a long run and several short runs during the week. 6 weeks before the event Jodi was crippled with a back problem, making it difficult if not impossible to train. After visits to different medical professionals with little result she went to the chiropractor and thankfully he was able to help. He discovered that she tweaked her back many years ago and the pain she was feeling was the result of the tweak never returning to its correct position. He manipulated things and she rapidly felt better and was able to train. On October 13^th she and Dana finished the Baltimore Marathon (26.2 miles) in 4 hours 31 minutes. We stayed in Virginia with Holli and her kids enjoying their company for several days. Jodi had a short visit with our overworked friend Rob while I paddled in West Virginia on one of my favorite rivers. I think I enjoyed the journey of Jodi’s training more than she did because we went to many different race events around the state and I watched as she excelled at running. Jodi and Dana even participated with a team of 10 members that ran the Colorado Relay. This was 24 hour 170 mile race from Idaho Springs to Glenwood Springs where each team member had 3 runs, consisting of trail running, night runs and some roads. They were tired but very excited about the event and the camaraderie they shared along the way.

I spent the year doing the usual, skiing until spring when I trade my skis for my bike and kayak to enjoy the local whitewater and trails throughout the summer. In late fall it was looking like the bike riding season was going to continue through the winter. The fourteen thousand foot peaks were bare and our ski hill did not have snow on the advertised opening day. This continued until the first week of December when the skies finally opened and we were hit with two really big storms. Monarch Ski Mountain opened with 60” of new snow. To commemorate this event several friends and I skinned to the top on our telemark skis before the lifts opened and placed first tracks while everyone lined up at the lifts below. So far this early ski season has been incredible with the average day being better than best days that have occurred in the past ski seasons. Every time I ski, ride or paddle I reflect on how I am so glad to be home and so happy I have my wonderful wife to share it with.

Our first year of being in business for ourselves full time has been better than expected. We were able to keep busy and work on some pretty cool projects including several LEED certified buildings. It is exciting for us to see how our industry has changed from “do it cheap” to “how can I save energy”. It was really frustrating if not an ethical dilemma to know that buildings we were working on could be more energy efficient with a little more investment but that increase in capital did not fit with the owners mission of “do it cheap” so we specified equipment that didn’t fit with our personal values. Now because we work for ourselves it is much easier to be true to who we are and do projects that fit our objectives.

We ended the year with a Christmas celebration in Buena Vista. Jodi’s family rented a cabin and we were able to share the Buena Vista experience with them. We went skiing, sledding on our favorite two mile run and ate some really good food. It was nice having family around and seeing our two nieces get excited about skiing and sledding. We’re hoping to make it a tradition.

Well we wish you all a great 2008!

Our house during the storm 12/7/07 - 3 feet of snow

2007-12-28T06:54:00.001+13:00

Fall colors at Twin Lakes Sept 22nd

2007-10-05T03:34:00.001+13:00

2007-08-10T05:02:00.000+12:00

Since deciding that we wanted to live in town and abandoning our plans to build on our property, things have been pretty frustrating for us. We looked at several pre-owned homes around the $200,000 price range and they all seemed to be crap. It's hard to spend that kind of money on something you can't fathom living in. Then we looked at some lots in town thinking maybe the solution was to put a pre-fab home down since they're faster than building ourselves, but if anything went wrong with that we could still be living in the tepee come winter. Plus we haven't sold our property or our house in Denver so we were pretty constricted on pricing. Buena Vista has a pretty hot real estate market right now and anything under $200,000 that is slightly charming is under contract before it even hits the MLS. You pretty much need the inside track. We were just about to give up hope, when we finally found a small house in town. Luckily Kirk's mom drove by it one day and called us right away. With some unbelievable luck, we were able to view it before it hit the MLS. We put a contract on it right away knowing if we snoozed we would lose. So we will be closing on our 565 square foot 1 bedroom, 1 bath little house built in 1910 that needs plenty of TLC on September 5th. Hopefully we move in soon after, but we plan on trying to fix a few things first. We're excited that we have a place to live for the winter and we can walk everywhere since it's in a great older neighborhood here in town.

Here's our new winter abode

2007-08-10T04:58:00.001+12:00

Readying for the race

2007-07-12T11:18:00.001+12:00

On your mark, get set, GO!

2007-07-12T11:15:00.000+12:00

Coming in from the run

2007-07-12T11:14:00.003+12:00

Transition from run to bike

2007-07-12T11:14:00.001+12:00

Starting the mountain bike portion

2007-07-12T11:12:00.000+12:00

Final transition from bike to boat

2007-07-12T11:11:00.001+12:00

Running to the put-in

2007-07-12T11:10:00.001+12:00

Kayaking through a rapid

2007-07-12T11:08:00.001+12:00

Pulling into the finish line

2007-07-12T11:06:00.001+12:00

July 11, 2007

2007-07-12T10:43:00.000+12:00

Isn’t it amazing how fast things can change? I haven’t made a blog entry for awhile for two reasons. One, because our business has been keeping us busy pretty much everyday until late in the evening. Two, because we’ve had a total change of heart and it’s hard to explain that. So here’s my feeble attempt at an explanation. Just prior to Memorial Day I went for a run and passed a lot for sale by the river park in town. I told Kirk about it and suddenly we were getting all excited talking about the possibility of building on a lot in town instead of building on our property (which is currently about 20 miles away from town). After we rode the emotional rollercoaster up the big hill and down the other side, we looked in the face of reality and talked about what just happened. We decided that we really shouldn’t be building 20 miles from town when what we really want is to live in town. We spend so much time at our office and we love walking around town during the day that it just makes sense. We talked about how our current property really did serve a purpose. It was a great thing for us while we were at the Pole because it gave us something to look forward to when we came back. It gave us a sense of having roots. It also provided us with a wonderful place to camp out in a tepee and experience life outside for 5 months last year (and 4 months so far this year). Living outside was a welcome scenario after such a long stint of being stuck inside. So I guess the final conclusion is that our property has served its purpose and now it’s time to move on. It’s hard in some ways because we felt like we had a direction, we had an approved building permit and we were days from breaking ground! It was a harsh slap in the face. Thankfully the building department refunded most of our money and we proceeded to put our property up for sale. We are now currently looking for property in town. We haven’t found anything yet, but we’re not in a huge rush knowing we can live in the tepee at least until the fall. We aren’t sure whether we will buy a lot to build on or buy a pre-owned home. We’re hoping we will figure out the right thing when it comes along. It’s probably a good thing that it worked out this way because we honestly we wouldn’t have had time to start building our house this summer due to our workload anyway.

In the meantime, we’ve still made time for the outdoor activities we love. Kirk has been kayaking as much as possible before the water dies down. He also has been mountain biking a fair amount. He participated in the Clear Creek Challenge again this year on June 6^th. It was a 5 mile run, 20 mile mountain bike and a 12 mile kayak. He took 3rd this year which was exciting (last year he took 2nd). Of course his goal was to take first place but he was competing against 2 professional athletes this time around that ended up with first and second place. Those guys were fit! I’ve been training for the Baltimore marathon (my first) that I will do in October so I've been running in a bunch of races. I don't run to win, just to finish. I participated in the Bolder Boulder for the first time on Memorial Day which was a blast. I talked my parents into walking it (6.2 miles) while I ran it with my running partner. It was by far the most entertaining running event that I've been to. My parents did really well too even though my mom suffered a bit of heat exhaustion. I was really proud of them and they're ready to sign up again next year. Cool! I never thought I would ever run this far in my life much less participate in a marathon, so it's exciting. So far the furthest I have run with my running partner is 17 miles. We're supposed to run 20 miles this Sunday. Yikes!

Well, not much else to report. Until next time.....

May 24, 2007

2007-05-26T03:57:00.000+12:00

Well, old man winter is having a good laugh and I'm starting to think it's personal. He’s hanging on like you wouldn’t believe! We stopped for dinner last night before going back to the tepee because the weather all day was cold, gray and dreary. We're not very fond of cooking in the shed while freezing our butts off. After dinner we drove home and before we knew it, it was snowing gangbusters. We headed straight for the shelter of the tepee with our laptop and a movie in hand to occupy our time until we went to bed. That’s our form of entertainment on occasion when the weather is crappy (no internet, or satellite TV at the tepee you know). 2 hours later the battery on the laptop ran out just as the movie was climaxing! Bummer! Oh well. We’ll just have to finish watching it tonight. So we peeked our head out the tepee door to check out how much snow had fallen. Holy snow! 6 inches had fallen and it was still coming down strong. So at 10:00 at night we put on our boots and grabbed a shovel and broom to dig out the tepee and sweep the snow off of it. It was a heavy snow which makes the poles creak under the weight and we were a little worried about it caving in. I was sweeping snow off the tepee and having a good laugh at the circumstance. Here it is almost Memorial Day weekend when outdoor pools are supposed to open for the summer and we’re 6” deep in snow! We didn’t need to experience the winter months in the tepee because we ARE experiencing it now. Kirk and I laughed and agreed that sometimes even we think we’re crazy!! I have to say that I haven’t regretted a day though because I know someday I’ll look back on this time while sitting on my comfy couch in my warm living room watching the snow fall outside with a smile on my face...remembering the “pioneer” days of our lives.

On another note, the other day I received a forwarded email from my friend here in BV. It was an email from a guy who is currently wintering at the South Pole. It was really interesting to read his email and have flashbacks of writing about similar experiences and feelings to my friends and family. It was also funny that I had already seen some of the pictures attached to his email because I am still in contact with a few people that are currently wintering with him as well. Small world! That email brought up a conversation between Kirk and I. We talked about how we don’t have a lot of nostalgia about the Pole. We read these things and look at the pictures and say to ourselves, “Yep, I remember that”. And then we think, “Thank God that I’m not there anymore”. One of our friends is the PA at Pole again this winter which will be her fourth. She is the only woman to have wintered four times! Apparently I am one of 19 women who wintered twice. I read that on her blog. Goes to show you that I'm part of a small pool of other crazies. It's good to know I'm not alone. Hee hee! If you’d like to read more adventures from the Pole go to www.homelessheidi.blogspot.com.

First Wildflower

2007-05-23T05:41:00.001+12:00

South & West Elevations

2007-05-23T05:18:00.002+12:00

North & East Elevations

2007-05-23T05:18:00.001+12:00

Floor Plan

2007-05-23T05:11:00.001+12:00

May 22, 2007

2007-05-23T05:01:00.000+12:00

Whew! Things have continued to be a little nutty. Work has been steady keeping us very occupied. We finally have a small break in our work load since sending out one of our larger projects last week. We have a couple of small things in the works, but hopefully we can still manage those along with building the house. Speaking of the house, we really did submit our house plans for permit believe it or not. Looking back on previous blogs we kept saying “soon…soon” and soon was over one year later! We went through so many iterations on our house plans before finally deciding on a 1423 square foot ranch style house that will be constructed of dry stacked concrete block and engineered trusses for the roof. We’re trying to keep it as simple as possible so we can succeed in building it ourselves.

We submitted our drawings to the building department May 9^th and heard back from them yesterday. In Park County they have never seen dry stacked concrete block construction before so as of our conversation with them yesterday they sounded as if they might reject our plans without a structural stamp. Usually this type of house would not require a structural stamp, but would in this case because they were unfamiliar with it. Kirk asked if he could stamp our drawings since he’s a licensed mechanical engineer, but this guy wouldn’t budge. We were pretty frustrated as we have done a lot of research to support using this method and had to point out that it is actually acceptable per the International Building Code. Fortunately we talked to the inspector again this morning and he was much more agreeable after finding it in the Code as we pointed out. He totally changed his tune and told Kirk he would have to come to the Building Department to stamp the drawings and then we could pull our permit. We offered to send him our researched documentation as well, which he said he would be more than happy to look over. Apparently they will be opening a file on our house since it is a new type of construction for them to observe. So YAY! We will have a permit this week after all!

We had originally planned on excavating the foundation this past weekend but decided we better wait until we had our permit. Our plans show the minimum foundation depth and we wanted to be sure they would accept that. As soon as we have that permit in our hands we’ll be scheduling the excavation! We work in the same building as a contractor who has offered to help us. Originally he offered to test an excavator on our property which meant that we wouldn’t have to pay anything to excavate, but we found out the other day that it won’t work out. So we’ll have to rent one to use instead which is fine since they will still be coming out to help us run the equipment and we really want to learn how to do it ourselves. It may or may not be cheaper than just paying an excavating company to do it all since renting equipment can tend to be expensive too….we’ll see.

Living back at the tepee has been good so far for the most part. The one major complaint we have is the cold. It pretty much hovers around 40 degrees every morning and every night. The thing that makes the difference is the humidity and boy have we had our share of it. It snowed on us several times in the past month, the last time being May 7^th(two short weeks ago) where we woke up to 6” on the ground. Since then it’s been trying to warm up but the rain comes every afternoon to steal any heat away. There is still a decent amount of snow on the Collegiate Peaks which is a beautiful sight. I can't remember the last time we had snow on the peaks this late in the spring. As I’m writing this I’m looking out my office window watching it snow. I’m wondering if global warming is making this normal desert like place into a wetland! If this keeps up it’s going to be a wet and very green summer. Normally I wouldn’t complain about that, but rain is not very pleasant when living in a tepee. If I had my house built than sure…bring it on! Picky picky...I know. It is nice to see signs of spring though. The wildflowers are starting to bloom around our property and the aspens across the road are finally sprouting their leaves. Love that!

Well, I’ll be posting pictures as the house construction gets underway. If you feel like lending a hand, please come and visit. We’ll provide the food and beer in exchange for any sweat you’d like to give.

Jodi

April 17, 2007

2007-04-18T08:32:00.001+12:00

We moved back into the tepee as of Sunday. I hate moving! Even though we only had a fraction of our stuff unpacked that we used at our temporary winter housing it still seemed like a lot. I can’t wait to move into a house that is ours and actually stay for awhile. We are both missing some of the creature comforts of living in a house, but it feels good to be back in the tepee on our land. It’s just the next phase of our life that we need to get started on. No better time than the present! We have a lot to do on our property to get ready for building. We ordered a propane refrigerator that we’ll pick up on Monday in Denver which we’ll put in our shed for now. It will be so great to be able to have a place to store perishable food instead of using a cooler and having to fill it with ice like we did all last summer. Although right now we probably wouldn’t need a cooler. We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland of snow! That’s the first time we’ve slept in the tepee during a snowfall. It left about 4” on the ground and it was a still and beautiful morning. Kirk didn’t sleep so well our first night at the tepee since he was a little worried about the bear. I however, slept like a baby. I couldn’t believe it. Last night we were both so tired that we slept hard and sound. I woke up at one point in the night because I was hot and I thought I heard an animal outside the tepee. Thankfully I was wrong and soon went right back to sleep. So far so good!

The house plans are coming along nicely. We are giving ourselves plenty of options. We have a developer friend who is going to bid a pre-fab version of our house design which would be a quick solution for us. That means we could have our house delivered in June! We also have been talking with a contractor that we’ve done a few small projects with who also has an office in the same building as us. They have offered to excavate our foundation and help us pour it for a trade in engineering services. You gotta love small towns for things like that! We are also having them price building the walls out of ICF (insulated concrete forms). Then we are still looking at the possibility of building it ourselves using the stacked concrete block. A lot of it depends on pricing and time constraints. Regardless we are still hoping to break ground in May.

Heading to the finish line

2007-04-05T02:46:00.000+12:00

I forgot to mention that I ran my first half marathon on March 17th (St. Patrick's Day)
in Salida, Colorado with my friend and training partner Dana. We finished the 13.1 mile run in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Not too bad for our first half marathon ever! That is the farthest either of us have ever run so we feel like it was quite the accomplishment. We decided that we are going to go ahead and train for a full marathon - 26.2 miles. Yikes! We think we can do it though. Some other runners we have met have told us that it is actually easier to run a full marathon believe it or not. Hmmm....we'll see. Our goal is to run the Silverton Marathon in October.

Superstars!

2007-04-05T02:44:00.000+12:00

April 3, 2007

2007-04-04T15:57:00.000+12:00

A year ago today we arrived back in Colorado from our 5 month bike trip. It feels like it’s been a year but yet it doesn’t if that makes any sense. It is interesting to me to feel the difference in how time passes depending on what you are doing. It seems to pass very quickly when I am busy working and just living the normal life. It doesn’t seem like long ago at the South Pole when each day felt like an eon. I can still feel the dread as I counted them down one by one waiting for the day that we could leave. On our bike trip time seemed to pass moderately. Not to fast, but not too slow. Strange. Anyway, we’ve been very busy with our business which has been a surprise for us. We were convinced that it would take a lot longer to establish ourselves here in Buena Vista. I’m happy to say that things have worked in our favor so far. Sometimes we wonder when it’s all going to come crashing down.

Well, let’s see…I haven’t written in awhile because I felt like we didn’t have much to tell. It was strange going from a life of adventure to a life of routine. Looking back we realize that it was a pretty difficult transition. We were glad to have the business to focus on during that time because we couldn’t get our act together enough to start on the house last year. That is probably a good thing because we’ve changed our minds a couple of times on the layout. Now that the business is rolling along we feel like we can take on the challenge of building our house. We work in the same building with 2 home builders and they have offered to help us where we need it. That will be great because we’re entering some uncharted territory. We’ve learned so much already just in the planning process.

We are excited to get started on our house this spring and we are hoping to break ground in May (fingers crossed). So any of you who want to come out and help we would be so happy to have you in the “Roberts Work for Food and Beer Program”. :) We will be moving out of our house sitting situation as of April 15^th and heading back up to the tepee. Yes we’re moving back…and yes...there is the possibility that our friendly bear may come calling once he wakes up. However this time we’ll be a little more prepared. We have rubber buckshot for our shotgun and some M80’s to use to scare it off if it decides to return. We are also getting some solar motion lights that may help deter it as well. I guess I’m not too worried since I know the only reason it came around was because it was in scavenging mode right before it was going into hibernation. It was just doing what bears do. We overlooked having those scented candles in the tepee and believe me we won’t make that mistake again. And for all those moms out there who think we’re nuts, just remember that the bears were there first and they will still live in the area whether we live there or not. We have to be responsible homeowners and just take care of our trash, food and candles so we do not attract them.

Will it be hard to move back to the tepee after living in the lap of luxury here in our current house sitting situation you ask? Well, to be honest, yes. In some ways it will be difficult, but on the other hand it is our property and our place. There is a lot to be said for that. We’re actually tired of living in someone else’s home and are very excited about having a place to call our own after so long. We’ve been living out of a suitcase now for about 3-1/2 years. Crazy I know! I don’t even remember what we have in our storage unit anymore. It will be like Christmas once we actually are able to unpack it. We also look at the tepee as a kick in the pants. It will be a little uncomfortable to move back, but hey…discomfort is a great motivator. But don’t get me wrong…the tepee is also very cool. For any of you that haven’t ever seen one or stayed in one you should come up to visit so you can check it off your life list. Something about it feels so good….maybe it’s that Feng Shui thing…I don’t know. I think those Indians were pretty smart though. We’ve kept it erected all winter and it survived the high winds and snowstorms and it’s still standing strong. I think the greatest thing about the tepee is how it reconnects you with nature. You are really at the mercy of Mother Nature all the time, good and bad. If it’s raining you are damp, if it’s sunny and warm the light through the canvas is so lovely and inviting, if the wind is blowing you’re confined to it’s protection, if it is night and the stars are out you can stargaze through the smoke flaps. It also lights up like a big candle when we have lights on inside at night. It is beautiful! The other thing I miss is watching the sunrise and sunsets. You really miss out on those when you live in a house. We have amazing views on our property and combined with the rising and setting of the sun they served as our daily entertainment. We are looking forward to not having a TV like we do at this cabin because it is such a time waster. At the tepee we read books, wrote in our journals, knitted, talked, watched movies on the laptop, or just went to bed early when the sun went down every night. I think being more connected to nature and less “plugged in” in general is never a bad thing. We plan on keeping the tepee up even after the house is built to remind us of that but also because it rocks! I hope to deck it out on the inside someday so it’s more like a big comfortable living room. We won’t always live like dirtbags you know. :)

2006-12-17T06:13:00.001+13:00

View of the mountains & meadow across the road

2006-12-17T06:13:00.000+13:00

View from the road over the creek to the main house

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View of the cabin (in the distance) from the driveway

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View toward the main house & hot tub!

2006-12-17T06:09:00.000+13:00

View from the cabin back porch overlooking pond

2006-12-17T06:08:00.000+13:00

View from the back cabin porch to the stables

2006-12-17T06:07:00.000+13:00

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

2006 Christmas Letter

2006-12-15T11:00:00.000+13:00

December 14, 2006

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2006 was another year of many changes for us, but this time around it feels so much more rewarding.

As most of you know, at the beginning of the year we had already started on our cycle journey through Southeast Asia after finishing our “tour of duty” at the South Pole. We continued on our bike trip until early April when we finally returned to the United States. (You can read about our cycle adventures abroad and see pictures in the archives of this blog). What a banner way to start a year! It was by far the most memorable experience of our lives. We came back home to Denver, Colorado tired and anxious and proceeded to move our lives to Buena Vista, Colorado.

Buena Vista is a small mountain town located 2-1/2 hours southwest of Denver. Kirk grew up here so it’s a special place to him. We are surrounded by the beauty of several 14,000 foot Collegiate Peaks so the view everyday is spectacular. Buena Vista has world class kayaking (and rafting) on the Arkansas River that runs through town, skiing is a mere 45 minutes away and the mountain biking couldn’t be better. This is definitely a wonderful place to be and is the fulfillment of a dream that all started 3 long years ago when Kirk and I were first married. Needless to say we have had a marriage full of much change and many adventures. However, the end goal was always in sight which was why we purchased a 3 acre lot outside of Buena Vista to build our future home. We just happened to find it 2 years ago in January while back in the States for 6 short weeks between Antarctic contracts. It really helped solidify our goal and gave us something to dream about through the longest winter.

Anyway, back to our recent history….we were finally actually able to live on our land this summer in a most unconventional manner. We lived in a tepee which is something that I never thought I would say about myself. It was great though and it provided shelter for a fun filled summer of camping everyday, enjoying the outdoors and living quite simply.

As you can read about in our earlier postings we were chased out of the tepee by a bear. Fortunately we had the opportunity to move into a wonderful winter house sitting situation. We are currently about a mile from town and often walk to work everyday. It’s very convenient for us and a lovely place to live. We feel very fortunate. We are also very blessed right now with our business. Kirk and I opened our own mechanical engineering consulting business back in 2001 while living in Denver. We had the opportunity to do some moonlighting on the side of our full time jobs. It turned out to be the best thing we ever did because we kept the business active while we were in Antarctica and are now self-employed full time at our company, JK Mechanical Design. We have been going pretty non stop for the last couple of months and it’s been most rewarding. We love the flexibility and the chance to really sell ourselves. I’ve never seen Kirk beam so much while working!

The business has been keeping us busy enough that at this point we think we may just have to hire contractors to build our house in the spring. We’re looking at options on that front and will post the progress on our blog. We’re just trying to remain flexible about our lives since change seems to be ever constant.

So that about sums up 2006! It was a good one and I can’t wait to see what is in store for 2007. Happy holidays!

Love,

Jodi and Kirk

October 23, 2006

2006-10-24T08:42:00.000+13:00

Well, we finally figured out what the bear was after. We recently went back up to the tepee to bear proof as much as possible and discovered a small bag that was zipped closed that we had forgotten about. It had a few scented candles (cinnamon and vanilla) in it which is most likely what the bear smelled in the tepee because the paw prints were just on the other side of the canvas where the bag was stored. We felt like such idiots when we figured out the source of our little problem. Since the last bear incident we have been staying with Kirk’s parents because we were afraid that the bear was after us and it seemed as if it wasn’t afraid of humans anymore. We luckily ran into a Department of Wildlife guy in town that gave us a lot of good information. He said the bear is just doing its last minute scavenging before it hibernates and that usually they have a circular track where they make rounds every couple of days to look for food. Obviously our property is on that track and we need to break its memory that there was any source of food there. If not it may come back after hibernating in search of food again. He gave us some M-80’s and some rubber buckshot just in case we need them. However, he told us that even if you have a shotgun, you better know how to shoot under duress and you better shoot to kill. That means never shoot them in the head because their skulls are too thick. Shoot them behind the shoulder where their heart is. If you happen to miss the bear or shoot it without killing it, you will succeed in just pissing it off and it will for sure pursue you at that point. Yikes! Kirk does have a shotgun, but we haven’t been keeping it up at the tepee because we haven’t had a reason to up until now. The DOW guy also told us to put some ammonia around because the smell is so strong that it will kill the smell of anything else. That was good advice because it seemed to work. We put ammonia inside the tepee and all around it. We also put it around our composter and our shed. When we went back up to the tepee there were no signs that the bear had returned. It had snowed and there were no tracks to be found around the tepee or anywhere on our property that we could see. We think the bear has either gone into hibernation or just realized there was no food for him on our property. Whew!

We are still staying with Kirk’s parents though because we are still a little traumatized by the whole thing. It’s pretty scary knowing the only thing between you and a hungry bear is about 5 feet and a sheet of canvas. In the meantime, Kirk and I have been offered a pretty sweet house sitting gig in town. A local businessman and his wife have a large house with a guesthouse behind it. They asked us to stay in the guesthouse and caretake the property while they spend the winter in Arizona. We eagerly said yes since it sits on a private pond that you can ice-skate on in the winter, it has an outdoor hot tub, it’s very cozy and it even has a steam shower and a guest bed as well as being in a beautiful location. We feel a little defeated since we had made up our minds to winter in the tepee before the bear incident, but we’re also ready for a little comfort. One thing we really miss is having a real kitchen to cook in. We didn’t get to cook much at Pole, so we really enjoy it now especially since it is getting colder out and it feels like baking season. Personally I’m also excited to unpack some things for a little while. I realized just the other day that Kirk and I have been living out of a suitcase now for 3 years (the duration of our marriage). All of our stuff is still in storage and will remain there until our house is finished. If anything that is good incentive to get it finished faster!

Speaking of the house, we’re almost done with our house plans (I know we keep saying that!), but they’re kind of on the back burner right now. Our business has suddenly become pretty busy, so as soon as we slow down again we’ll be able to finish up the house plans. It’s exciting though the closer we get fine tuning the details.

2006-10-12T04:45:00.001+13:00

Our shower/camp toilet facility

2006-10-12T04:45:00.000+13:00

Our bedroom in the tepee (our tent)

October 11, 2006

2006-10-12T04:43:00.000+13:00

Ugh! Stupid Bear! We finally went back up to the tepee last night to check on it and see if our little friend had come back or not. We haven’t been up to our property since last Friday morning after the first bear incident. We were in Denver for the weekend for a wedding and then came back late on Sunday night so we stayed with Kirk’s parents in BV. Monday the weather was cold, rainy and dreary so we decided to stay one more night at Kirk’s parent’s house. We woke up Tuesday morning with a dusting of snow everywhere. It was lovely! We were kind of sad we hadn’t stayed up at the tepee since we know it would have been a beautiful sight up there with the snow covering the ground. It ended up being a sunny warm day so the snow melted quickly. We headed up to the tepee last night in the late afternoon so that we could still have the daylight to check it out. We decided to stay since it didn’t look like the bear had been back while we were away. When we were ready for bed, Kirk tied the tepee door closed as best as he could to secure it from the inside. Then he put a tarp on the inside of the tepee door and wedged it between the poles and the inside of the door so that if the bear came back and tried to get in we’d hear the crinkling of the tarp right away. The wind was cranking last night and the tepee poles were steadily creaking. Believe it or not, the tepee barely moves in high winds, but because the poles all lean into one another at the top, when they shift they creak. Not in a way where it feels like it will fall down though. It’s a pretty sturdy structure. The wind made it hard to sleep soundly all night. Anyway, while we were both still half asleep we heard the sounds of an animal on the tepee at about 5am this morning. Immediately following that we heard the crinkling of the tarp being moved around. Kirk thought maybe he didn’t hear me get up and I was going out to use the bathroom and I thought the same thing about him. Then Kirk said, “Jodi is that you?” I said, “NO! I’m right here!” We started yelling and grabbed the whistles that Kirk’s mom gave us and started blowing on them to scare the bear away. The noises didn’t stop right away. Obviously the bear has become braver because he kept trying to get in for a few seconds (which seemed like a lot longer!). Then we heard it banging around outside. We figured it was trying to get into our composter. Eventually it went away and we laid there waiting for the sun to come up. We cautiously emerged from the tepee and saw that the bear had gotten into a trash can that we had outside. We didn’t think it had any trash in it because we never use it. When some friends came to visit several weeks ago they must have thrown their trash in there because there wasn’t a lot, but there was trash strewn around.

We are very sad. We thought that the bear was just scavenging before hibernating and that it would leave us alone. Apparently now it is curious because it came back and this time went straight for the door. Fortunately he hasn’t figured out that he can claw into the tepee, but we don’t want to be there if he does. We’re trying to figure out what our next move is. We’re considering renting an apartment in town. We’re bummed that it feels like we’re being kicked off our property even though we realize the animals were there first.

2006-10-12T04:15:00.000+13:00

Muddy paw prints on the lower part of the door flap and door hole

2006-10-07T05:07:00.001+13:00

Paw prints left by our visitor

2006-10-07T05:07:00.000+13:00

Sunrise October 6th

October 6, 2006

2006-10-07T04:50:00.000+13:00

Yikes! Last night I woke up to the sounds of something of significant size coming in the tepee. We are used to hearing the occasional scurrying of rodents and sometimes hear them try to come in by running around between the tepee liner and the tepee. Sometimes they succeed but most of the time they don't. We think they must be after the warmth because we don’t keep any food in the tepee since we really aren’t interested in attracting animals into our home. Well, Kirk didn’t hear anything because he had his earplugs in. We sometimes wear earplugs because the wind kicks up in the middle of the night which makes the tepee poles creak loudly. I’ve become used to the wind and the creaking so I don’t wear my earplugs as often anymore. Thankfully I didn't because I was able to hear this animal pawing the canvas and trying to get in. I thought it was probably one of our friendly little ground squirrels. Then I heard a loud thump like something big was knocked over inside the tepee. I freaked out, sat up and shook Kirk screeching, “There’s something inside the tepee!”. Kirk woke up cranky because he thought I was overreacting to a rodent. When I woke Kirk up I must have scared it off because I heard whatever it was thump around outside of the tepee. I figured I could unzip our tent and take a peak through a little slit to make sure the coast was clear. I saw the canvas door to the tepee was open. That’s very unusual. Even in high winds that door never blows open so I knew something had come in the tepee through the door. I told Kirk to take a look and he immediately wasn’t cranky anymore when he realized I wasn’t overreacting. He saw a big rip down the side of the oval door hole. We were hesitant to get out of the safety of our little 3 man tent (even though it’s not really “safe”) but we emerged slowly to take a look. Thankfully whatever it was wasn’t curious enough to come after us in the tent and was scared off by my voice. We keep pepper spray in our tent for just this reason so we had that in hand ready to fire just in case. We were sad to see the tepee was ripped and as we looked it over the thoughts were settling in that whatever it was had big enough claws to puncture the tepee and put a nice 8” rip down the side. Eek! Kirk proceeded to mark his territory around the tepee in the hopes in might help to keep it from coming back. We searched for any reason why it might have come in the tepee. We think it was because I had used a handy wipe on my hands before going to bed that had a lemon scent. I threw it in the trash inside the tepee. Kirk also had his bathroom kit with shampoo and toothpaste hanging inside from the tepee liner. That’s the only thing we had in there that could have possibly smelled like food. We figured it was most likely a bear that was trying to scavenge some last minute food before hibernating. Bears are known to be curious animals so he also could have just been seeing what this crazy cone shaped thing was that was erected on the ground.

We were both a little wigged out so we moved our sleeping bags into the back of the truck and slept there making sure to lock the topper. We had a crappy restless night of sleep, but woke up to an amazing sunrise. We checked out the tepee as the sun was brightening everything around us and saw muddy paw prints on the side of the tepee as well as mud prints on the door. Yep, it sure was a bear. I proceeded to sew up the rip and curse our little friend. Hopefully he won’t come back.

This is the first incident we have had of this nature. So considering that we've been there since early June I guess that's not too bad.

2006-10-05T05:12:00.000+13:00

Jack Frost arrived this morning at the tepee

2006-10-05T05:11:00.001+13:00

Kirk making pancakes in our kitchen

2006-10-05T05:11:00.000+13:00

Kirk with his prizes after the race

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Now that's a happy 2nd Place Weiner!

October 1, 2006

2006-10-05T05:06:00.000+13:00

We woke up this morning early because Kirk was participating in a mountain bike race. The sunrise was absolutely breathtaking! The sun’s rays illuminated the aspen grove across the road and made it look as if it were on fire. I quickly grabbed my camera to shoot some photos before that amazing light disappeared. We made a nice breakfast of pancakes so that Kirk would have good fuel for his race. Then we packed up and drove to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs where the race was to start. The race was about 7 miles straight up Mt. Princeton. Kirk loves to ride uphill so he was excited about this race. He has participated in a couple other mountain bike races this past summer and has come very close to placing, but always left without a prize. He didn’t even win anything in the raffles they have during the awards ceremony. So he was determined to try and win this one. I dropped him off so I could run some errands in town. After the race he rode his bike over to his parent’s house to meet me since they live so close to the Hot Springs. He rolled in and told me he thought he did well in the race. We drove back to the Hot Springs to attend the awards ceremony. About 50 people participated in the race. The first place winner went to a kid in his early twenties who finished in just under and hour. We’re not sure how Kirk placed overall, but he was 2nd in his division (men age 30-39 expert) coming in at 1 hour and 14 minutes! He was awarded a painted tile that has the race name and 2nd place on it as well as a $15 check. We were both so happy! They were doing raffles of great prizes and I kept praying Kirk would win something. Well he ended up winning the very last prize they gave out in the raffle which was 2 baseball hats, a t-shirt, a bike stem, and a $100 gift certificate. Woohoo! Finally! Kirk decided he is going to try to get sponsorship since he has been riding over the finish line with sponsored riders in every race. He has a really nice Airborne titanium disc brake mountain bike that he purchased on a pro deal while at Pole. He loves the bike and wrote the company to see about getting a sponsorship from them. We’ll see what happens!

We drove home later that afternoon and were so sad to see that the wind had stripped the aspens of their leaves. Good thing I took a picture that morning!

2006-10-03T13:29:00.000+13:00

All I can say is, "Wow!"

2006-10-03T13:28:00.000+13:00

Sunrise at the tepee

2006-10-03T13:27:00.000+13:00

Pink peaks in the sunrise

2006-10-03T05:03:00.000+13:00

Rays of morning firelight on the trees

2006-10-03T05:02:00.000+13:00

The same day the wind came and stripped the trees

October 1, 2006

2006-10-02T07:55:00.000+13:00

Well, good news! We received our septic and driveway permits. Now we just need to get our building permit. Kirk and I worked on our house plans on Saturday and they are coming along nicely. We expect to be able to submit them sometime in the next couple of weeks. It’s coming together even though it’s been really hard to go through so many iterations of plans trying to work out how much square footage we need and how to fit everything into that space. You would not believe how many house plans we have made. Kirk actually started a set at Pole and we came up with several different plans while there. Then after coming back to our property and actually living there for the summer we changed our minds about many things. That’s the great thing about actually living on your property prior to building though is figuring out what will work best at the site through witnessing the weather, the natural light at different times of the day and just getting a general feel for how it will be to actually live there permanently.

We started with a rectangular design with about 1000 square feet of space including 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. We like the idea of the living, dining and kitchen being all part of an open type space. This is because I am a very social person and enjoy throwing parties. Having an open kitchen that communicates with the rest of the living space just feels right since that is typically where a party tends to congregate. So we started with those thoughts in mind and I think I made at least 100 different floor plans. Our architect friends gave us their input and told me that my plans were a little too crammed. They also gave us some great plan ideas. Then I had a friend email me a website with plans of some modern prefabed homes. I loved the plans! So I took one of those floorplans and modified it to our liking. As of yesterday I think I finally have it the way we want it. It took a long time to figure it all out, but with a lot of other people’s input and our own ideas we sorted it out. Now I just need to get the final details on the drawings in order to submit them. It looks like we’ll have to have a structural stamp for our foundation and roof plans, but thankfully we have a couple of friends that will do that for us. We ended up with a plan that is about 1400 square feet of exterior space and 1200 square feet of interior space. We managed to put in 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a loft. It will be a modern looking house with 2 flat roofed spaces split by a high walled entry area with a shed roof in between. We think it will be beautiful and very functional for us.

The foundation will be slab on grade so we won’t have a crawlspace or a basement. That’s just fine with us though because for a solar home it actually works better to have a slab on grade foundation that is insulated. It also isn’t really worth it to us to pay extra for square footage that will only be for storage anyway. We plan on making our garage big enough for plenty of storage and we’ll have our 8x12 shed as well. Our philosophy has become that the more space you have the more you fill it with "stuff". We already have enough "stuff" and we really don’t feel it’s necessary to acquire more. It’s funny though. Everyone seems to think that when you build a house it should be your Barbie Mansion Dreamhouse. That just doesn’t fit our lifestyle. As you probably have figured out by now we are kind of minimalists. We are also trying to do this without a mortgage. The whole idea of owning a house free and clear is very appealing. We look at it as we traded our lives of quantity in Denver for lives of quality here in Buena Vista. We hope to only have to work part time so that we can go out and enjoy the big playground of outdoor opportunities that surround us. We can’t wait to leave a message on our phone saying, "You’ll have to call us back tomorrow...it’s a powder day!". This is the life we dreamed of while at Pole. Now it’s finally happening. Sometimes it’s surreal and we think, "Oh my gosh, what if this is all a dream and I’ll wake up back at Pole." Ugh! But then we look around us and realize it really is happening. I know sometimes I make it seem like everything is so great. Well, honestly we have our struggles just like everyone else. But it does feel so good to appreciate what life has given us now knowing how low we can actually feel like we did at Pole for our second year. In the end Pole gave us a better outlook on everything here despite the hardships of every day life. I don’t regret going to Pole for that reason, but I know now that I would never go back. I wasn’t so sure about that when we were about to leave Pole and even while we traveled. But after being home I realize that I want some roots. I want to unpack our stuff out of our storage unit and have a house and home to call our own.

My sister and I were talking and she said, "You and Kirk certainly haven’t chosen the easiest path for your first couple years of marriage." Isn’t that the truth! But in our challenges we feel great accomplishment. Sometimes we get muddled in the process, but we always seem to make it through. I guess we both like to challenge ourselves and we’ve found that we enjoy experiencing life in an unconventional way. Occasionally it gets to me and I get impatient. I mean, I’m very ready to have a house, but I’m not ready to move out of the tepee into a rental situation. Everyone keeps asking us how long we’re planning on sticking it out there. We don’t know, but certainly as long as we can. Yes, sometimes it’s inconvenient and sometimes it’s chilly, but it’s also wonderful to wake up everyday knowing the land you are standing on is yours. No one can take it away, you don’t owe anyone for it and it’s surrounded by beauty. That’s what makes it so worth it to live in the tepee. I honestly think we would get depressed if we move out and move into a rental house in town. It’s not that we’re not willing to. If it gets cold enough we’ll do it. We have heard of other people living in tepees (and I’m not talking about Indians) through the winter, so realistically we think we can too. My dad thinks I should have been born in the pioneer days. I think that’s hilarious. I’m not a pioneer by any means and I’m not really all that tough. I think the American people’s visions of life nowadays are just watered down with materialism and necessities that really aren’t necessary. All we really need in life is food, water, clothing, shelter and heat. We have all of those things. We cook our meals in our shed on our campstove. We have several 5 gallon jugs that we fill with water at the park in town (for free..yes we’re dirtbags) and haul up to our land. We have plenty of clothing and lots and lots of fleece. We have a tepee and a shed for shelter and we heat the tepee with the patio heater. We also have several down sleeping bags for warmth. So there you have it. All the basics are covered.

2006-09-30T04:34:00.000+12:00

Banana Belt Race - Ready set go!

2006-09-30T04:33:00.000+12:00

Banana Belt Race - Crossing the finish line!

2006-09-30T04:32:00.001+12:00

Dig dig dig!

2006-09-30T04:32:00.000+12:00

A soil test hole or Kirk's grave?

2006-09-30T04:31:00.000+12:00

Kirk digging the hole for the post. See our well?

2006-09-30T04:30:00.000+12:00

Jodi showing our address post

2006-09-30T04:29:00.000+12:00

Our POS trailer that we temporarily owned

September 19, 2006

2006-09-20T04:08:00.000+12:00

We're making some progress finally! We spent all day Saturday working on our property to get it ready for our site inspection. Several weeks ago we submitted our site plan and other required paperwork to the local Environmental Health Department to acquire our septic and driveway permits. In order to get these permits they have to do a preliminary site inspection to verify that we have an 8 foot deep hole dug where our leech field will be for a soil test, that we put up a post with our address at our driveway location and that we have staked out the house location. Kirk decided he was going to dig the soil test hole by hand which he started several weeks ago. It was a burly task, but I think he felt a sense of accomplishment in doing it himself. He also didn't want to tear up our land by hiring someone to dig it out with heavy equipment. We'll have that problem soon enough. So after several iterations of digging a day here and a day there over the weeks we ended up with a 6 foot hole. Kirk was nervous about digging the next 2 feet because holes like that have been known to cave in and kill people. He braved it anyway and within a couple of hours it looked like he was literally standing in his own grave. Yikes! Then he went to work digging a hole for our address post. That took no time as he is now a professional hole digger. Then we moved on to staking out the house. That was quite a task as we ended up doing it three times. The first time I decided I didn't like the location. It needed to move about 7 feet to incorporate the views better. The second time we moved it too far and somehow our corners were out of square. By the third time we got it just right. It certainly was a struggle though. We are finding this is a common occurrence throughout this process because...go figure...we don't always agree. It probably doesn't help that we are about the two most stubborn people you'd ever meet. We managed to get through it though and finished all these tasks by sundown. We retired to our shed (where we have our camp kitchen set up) to cook dinner and enjoy a cold beer. It was well deserved.

Our site inspection was scheduled for Wednesday September 20th. The next step will be submitting our house plans to the building department, but we can go ahead and get our excavation permit ahead of time which we are considering. We met a couple on our Cataract Canyon raft trip last month who built their own house in Idaho Springs. They offered to rent us their excavator and skid steer so I think we may try to break ground in October weather permitting.

We woke up to frost on the ground this morning and we've definitely felt it cool off in the last week. In fact Saturday night it actually was in the teens. Brrrrr! Thankfully we're still staying warm enough. We have our 2 man tent set up inside the tepee with a futon inside of it. We bundle up inside our down sleeping bags and use extra sleeping bags as blankets. So far it's pretty cozy, but it's not very easy to convince yourself to crawl out of bed in the crisp morning air when you can still see your breath. The patio heater works well for that purpose though. We just have to brave the cold long enough to light the heater and then pretty instantly it warms up inside the tepee.

Sunday (Sept. 17th) Kirk participated in the Banana Belt Mountain Bike Race in Salida. He placed 7th overall and missed placing in the top three of his age division by less than a minute. He is pretty happy with his performance as he should be. He rode in with sponsored riders that were extremely fit! Kirk lost about 30 pounds between our 2 years stint at the South Pole and our 4 month bike trek across SE Asia. He's kept it off and finds his physical performance has increased significantly. He is also pretty proud of his new titanium mountain bike that he purchased through a pro deal at Pole. It was state of the art at the time we bought it, but now of course it's not. The same thing happened to me with my kayak. I bought a brand new one before we left for Pole which was a popular boat at the time. Now it's considered to be outdated. It’s crazy how fast that happens with gear. Although we're happy with what we have and don't feel inclined to purchase anything else.

One thing (among many) that has been really great about living in the mountains is the wildlife. I think I've gained a real appreciation for wildlife after not having any (unless you can count Polies in that category) for 2 years in Antarctica. Every time I see a non domesticated animal now I "ohhh and awwww"! I love seeing deer, bunnies, squirrels, birds and llamas every day (we pass a llama farm every day about a mile from our property). Recently we saw a huge owl fly above the truck as we passed the llama farm and another evening a badger ran out in front of us. Those are two animals I’ve never seen in the wild so that was pretty cool. I think my excitement also comes from the fact that I grew up a city girl so all of this is still new and exciting to me.

2006-09-14T07:17:00.000+12:00

Happy Ramen-Don!

September 13, 2006

2006-09-14T07:14:00.000+12:00

Today is our third year anniversary, three years of wedded bliss. Our wedding was a crazy affair with a party that lasted two days. It included naked hot tubing, karaoke, and a visit from the local police department. Our first wedding anniversary was celebrated at Pole where the cook and the station manager had a blow out over some petty thing so the cook made Ramen that night for dinner. Yum! Since then our anniversary has been known as Ramen-Don because the cooks name was Don and he made Ramen. Our second year was again at Pole and we made a huge celebration of it by having a large feast of Ramen complete with posters and station wide recognition of Ramen-Don. This year we were not at Pole but our Polie friends made sure we were included in the Ramen-Don events as can be seen in the photo. Jodi and I sent them a picture of us eating Ramen for lunch and they posted it on the galley line window. When I received the pictures I nearly busted a gut laughing. I hope they had as much fun as I did! Thanks Polies!

2006-09-14T04:58:00.000+12:00

Slackers! That’s us! We haven’t been very good about keeping up on our blog this summer. And we found out from the few people who actually read this blog that they check on it every so often for entertainment purposes and we’re letting them down. Shoot! I don’t know where the time went. Here I thought we’d come back to Colorado and have ample time to fit in everything we wanted to do. HA! Reality has set in and it doesn’t quite work like that in the real world now does it?

Let’s see. I haven’t posted anything since June when we built our shed. A lot has happened since then. That same weekend that we built the shed, we acquired a trailer that someone on the ranch wanted to get rid of. It was a huge POS…really old, but we thought it could at least serve as a kitchen if we could get the refrigerator to work and maybe give us shelter in really bad weather. Well we picked it up and hauled it very slowly and cautiously over the few miles to our property hoping that it wouldn’t fall apart on the ride there. It made it just fine, but we were not very excited about it when we realized it would take a lot to get it level and usable. It smelled like mouse pee on the inside and it felt cramped compared to the tepee. We tried to overlook those things and went ahead and hooked up a propane tank to see if it worked. The stove and lights worked, but the refrigerator did not. Kirk pulled it out to inspect it and found a huge dead rat that had died inside the flue. Gross! Taking the refrigerator out uncovered a load of rat poop that was under the appliance and inside the cabinet space. It was soon spread all over the camper floor as we tried to clean that space up. It gave us both the heebie jeebies. So we left cleaning the floor for later and focused on leveling the trailer out. We accomplished that and actually used the stove once to heat up water, but we were just too grossed out to continue using it since we didn’t feel like cleaning it out any further. Then Kirk found a leak in the gas line and decided to just set up our camp stoves and camp tables in the shed. It turned out to be a nice little set up that we liked much better. So then the trailer sat untouched and became our little eyesore.

Back in May we were trying to decide a path for our lives and set some priorities. We found it wasn’t easy. Redefining our lives again after 2-1/2 years of being gone seemed so overwhelming since we just didn’t know which direction to go. Too many choices maybe? We eventually made a decision to rent an office in Buena Vista at the BV Professional Center. We thought this option would give us a place to start up our business, JK Mechanical Design, again and have a high speed internet connection. Actually I think the internet was our real priority at the time. It was a great decision because it helped us establish a routine and focus on getting our business and our lives established here.

Every Monday morning the office building is cleaned by a very nice man and his son. Somehow in conversation we told him about the trailer. He said that he would love to take it off our hands. We were shocked and pleased at the same time so we told him he could come and pick it up whenever he wanted and it was his. He called us later that same afternoon and asked if he could pick it up that evening. We were ecstatic! We really didn’t want it anymore since we hadn’t used it and lacked the motivation to make it clean and usable. We became worried about how we were going to get rid of it and along came someone who seemed to really want it. Yea! We came home that evening relieved to have it gone. It was a pleasure to come back to our pristine property once again. I think we owned it for about 2 weeks total and that was enough.

We found that this house building process is very difficult. We thought we would come back to the states and start the house in the summer and have something to move into by the fall or early winter. Well it didn’t exactly go that way. We kept getting input about our floor plan from several different people. This ended up being both a good and bad thing. Every time we thought we had made a final decision, we found that we second guessed ourselves based on other people’s input. It was good though because eventually we filtered through it all and figured out what we want. In the meantime though the summer passed and we didn’t make much progress. We finally had our well drilled a couple of weeks ago which is something. They hit water at about 60 feet but drilled to 100 feet so that we could get the maximum flow on our well permit which is 15 gallons per minute. Unfortunately the drill rig tore up our land a bit which we weren’t too happy about, but I guess that goes along with the construction process.

The next step is to finish digging the 8 foot deep soil test hole where our leech field will be. We also have to stake out the house and put up our address post. Then we can call the Environmental Health Department to come out and do their site inspection. After that we’ll be issued our septic permit and driveway permit. Then we have to submit our final house plans to the building department in order to receive our building permit. We’re hoping to get our plans submitted in the next couple of weeks so that we can possibly break ground in October. We’re not sure how cold it is going to be and if that will hinder the process so we’re just trying to remain flexible and play it by ear. If worse comes to worse we’ll wait until spring to start construction. We are going to try to start next month though because we also have the opportunity to use a friend’s heavy equipment (excavator and skid steer) for an entire month for the same price we could rent the equipment for a day at a rental shop.

The original plan was to build a strawbale house, but after further research we have decided to use stacked concrete block instead. We recently met some folks who built a strawbale house and they said it was like working with insulation all the time and not very pleasant. I have an allergy to hay anyway, so it probably wasn’t the smartest idea for us in the first place. It also will give us more interior space to have walls that are less thick (bale walls are about 16” wide as opposed to concrete block which are 8” wide) and concrete block has more mass which is better for passive solar purposes. Any ol’ joe shmoe can stack concrete block too since it’s a technique doesn’t require a lot of skill. That’s a good thing!

We also had talked about building a garage first and living in it over the winter. It would be a smaller structure to build and serve as practice before building the house. Well, we found out that is not allowed in Park County. Our property is just on the other side of Chaffee County where they actually do allow you to build a garage first and live in it which is where we came up with the idea. Park County requires you to have a minimum of a 600 square foot main structure first before building any smaller structures. So we have had to revamp our plans as we got further into the permit process. It’s not a bad thing though because we currently have a solid direction to move in now that we are fully aware of the requirements.

Needless to say we’re learning a lot in this whole house building process and I’m sure that will continue as we proceed into the construction. We are hopeful though because we recently met two different couples that have built their own homes and didn’t have any prior experience. They were one of the few people that actually told us ,“Yes, you can do it all yourselves, except you probably want to sub out the drywall to someone else”. The majority of people look at us like we’re nuts when we tell them that we plan on building our home ourselves…meaning doing the labor ourselves and not just GCing the project. But it’s not the first time people have given us that look nor will it be the last. You should see the look on people’s faces when I tell them we live in a tepee. Or when we said we were going to the South Pole for the first two years of our marriage, or when we said we were going to cycle across SE Asia. We’ve come to believe that when people think we’re crazy we’re actually doing the right things. It’s very comforting to meet other people who are like us and can testify to achieving the same goals that we are going for even though they may be the minority.

2006-06-21T09:59:00.000+12:00

Yea! The doors fit!

2006-06-14T05:43:00.000+12:00

Sunset view from our future house...lovely!

2006-06-14T05:41:00.000+12:00

Fantastic progress for one weekend!

2006-06-14T05:40:00.001+12:00

Full moon...beautiful night

2006-06-14T05:40:00.000+12:00

The peanut gallery

2006-06-14T05:39:00.000+12:00

Getting it just right

2006-06-14T05:38:00.000+12:00

Hanging around

2006-06-14T05:36:00.000+12:00

Voila!

2006-06-14T05:35:00.000+12:00

Starting the roof

2006-06-14T05:34:00.000+12:00

Family enjoying the comfort of the tepee

2006-06-14T05:33:00.000+12:00

The final wall to be raised

2006-06-14T05:30:00.000+12:00

One down...three to go

2006-06-14T05:29:00.000+12:00

Siding the wall

2006-06-14T05:28:00.000+12:00

The first wall

2006-06-14T05:27:00.000+12:00

Contained campfire in the tepee

2006-06-14T05:25:00.000+12:00

Enjoying a beer on our new shed floor

2006-06-14T05:24:00.000+12:00

Our good luck omen

2006-06-14T05:22:00.000+12:00

Shed floor finished in a jiff!

2006-06-14T05:19:00.000+12:00

Delivery truck

June 9-11, 2006

2006-06-13T05:05:00.000+12:00

Wow! What a weekend! My brother-in-law, Rick, offered to come up this weekend to help us build a shed on our land. This would be our second project on the land (the tepee being the first) and our first real construction project. My brother-in-law is a home improvement guru and thoroughly enjoys such projects. He built a really nice shed at his house that was pretty impressive handy work. He made the back side of it into a finished playhouse for my nieces complete with carpet, lights, windows, an address and even a doorbell. We knew he was the man for the job. He planned out everything for us last weekend and we managed to coordinate ordering all of the supplies here locally within the week.

Rick and family arrived late in the afternoon on Friday with a trailer full of tools. All Kirk and I had to provide were the supplies to build the shed and the generator to run Rick’s tools. What a deal! My sister and I drove the 20 miles into town to pick up the generator for the weekend. We arrived back around 5:30pm and to no surprise the work had already begun. With all of Rick’s power tools, the guys had the shed floor done in no time and were enjoying beers on the “deck” watching the sunset. The 6 of us spent our very first night in the tepee together…. a slumber party! Kirk set up the campfire that our friends gave us for a wedding present in the middle of the tepee. They discovered that if you fill an old pressure cooker with paraffin wax and coiled corrugated cardboard it makes a great contained campfire that you put out with the lid. The campfire lit up the entire tepee from the inside and out while putting off enough heat to warm us up. We were all in good spirits and enjoyed the evening in the comfort of the tepee.

Saturday morning my sister and I fixed breakfast while Kirk and Rick went to work. My parents arrived in the afternoon to enjoy the weekend with us as well. We invited them up so we could help them celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Pretty amazing! Later that afternoon Kirk’s parents came up as well. All the guys pitched in with building the shed and by the end of the evening they had all 4 walls up and had started on the roof. We enjoyed a big family dinner that was prepared in our outdoor kitchen. At the end of the evening after the sun went down, my parents left with Kirk’s parents to stay at their house in town.

Sunday morning we got up and did it all again. Kirk and Rick went to work on the shed while Shelly and I made breakfast. Then Shelly and I drove to town to pick up my mom and take the kids to the park. The whole wham bam family met back up at our land in the afternoon to watch the guys finish putting on the galvanized roof. They made some amazing progress for one weekend. All Kirk and I have left to do is make the doors and put on the trim. I was sad to see everyone leave since I enjoyed their company so much, but Kirk and I were looking forward to spending our first night alone in the tepee. The whole evening I sat outside until the sun set taking in the quiet beauty of my surroundings. I feel so blessed to be living in such an amazing place….don't pinch me....I don’t want to wake up from this dream...

Thanks to my family…especially Rick…for all the help on the shed! It was a successful weekend and we’re very pleased with our new shed. We can’t wait to put it to use!

June 7, 2006

2006-06-08T05:05:00.000+12:00

Kirk participated in the Clear Creek Challenge this past Saturday which was a run, pedal, paddle otherwise known as a multisport race which consisted of a 5 mile run, a 20 mile mountain bike ride and a 12 mile kayak run. The race started at Loveland Basin and ended in Idaho Springs. Kirk placed 2nd in the solo men's division and 5th overall. He would have placed first except he didn't realize that his drain plug wasn't closed before hopping in the kayak and had to pull over at one point to dump the water out of his kayak. In the meantime, the guy behind him passed Kirk and won the race. Kirk was disappointed since he had about a five minute lead in both the run and bike portion and gave it up due to this mishap. However, I'm really proud of him for doing so well as it was. He won a bunch of great prizes and was overall pretty happy about his performance. If you want to see some of the photos from the kayaking portion of the race go to:
http://www.rapidimagephoto.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?pagenum=27&action=viewphotos&size=fullsize&id=1242570&eventid=16240
and check out photos 21-27.

2006-05-31T07:41:00.000+12:00

View from the road

2006-05-31T07:40:00.001+12:00

Home sweet home

2006-05-31T07:40:00.000+12:00

Say "cheese!"

2006-05-31T07:39:00.000+12:00

Feelin good karma inside

2006-05-31T07:33:00.002+12:00

A tepee is born

2006-05-31T07:33:00.001+12:00

Peek a boo!

2006-05-31T07:33:00.000+12:00

The tightening continues