On The Road With Johnny Cache

Back in March we released a travel bug called Johnny Cache. He's traveled nearly 2,500 miles and visited three destinations (out of 81). In case you have no clue what I am talking about, let me explain things.

Travel bugs are tags that are attached to items and allow the item to be tracked by the owners. The tag has a numeric code on it, and when it is found by another geocacher they can log where they found it and where they dropped it off at. For more information you can check out Travel Bug FAQ at Geocaching.com.

We dropped Johnny Cache off in Winnemucca, Nevada. After visiting Idaho, Wyoming, & Colorado, he's been taken to Louisiana and is awaiting the next geocacher to pick him up and take him somewhere new. I've been tracking Johnny with Google Earth and I thought everyone might be interested to see the path he's taken. As always, you can see a larger image by clicking on the picture you want to see. It's neat to see the caches in Wyoming, we have done quite a few around Cheyenne and along I-25. However, we have not found any of the caches Johnny was in while visiting Wyoming, but I suspect we will be stopping at them the next time we are close.

I have Johnny Cache under Links and you can check back to see how he's doing. Hopefully he will find his way out of Louisiana soon and visit some caches around the South for awhile.

Tonight, Laura and I start our dance class. We are looking forward to learning a few steps! Also tonight, Elton John is playing a concert at the college, but the chances of getting a ticket to the show were nearly impossible - that has actually been quite a debate the past month. There were no tickets available to people waiting in line to get them, and anyone who got online to get tickets had them bought before people in line could get them! What a mess!

My stained glass class is looking to be a lot of fun. I have not chosen a design yet, but that is my assignment by Wednesday night.

This weekend is the season opener for duck and goose hunting. Laura and I are not going to hunt on Saturday, instead we are going to do some geocaching and attend a geocaching party at the Grubstake Restaurant in Hamilton, MT. Sunday we will probably get out and see about finding a few ducks or geese, but there really aren't too many around so we are not counting on much action.

Everyone have a great weekend! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Rock!

Lately, there hasn't been much to blog about. Believe it or not, that doesn't look to change any time soon. Work has been running be into the ground nearly every day and the past two days have been especially tiring. We finished laying the weed barrier - all 14,000 square feet, and now we have, at least,11 dump truck loads of rock to fill with! We have managed to knock out about 8 loads so far, but it's taking a toll. The rock isn't easy to spread and it's not easy to shovel or rake so a lot of effort goes into getting the rock exactly where we want it.

Basically, for the past two weeks I have been working all day and coming home to recover for the next day. Fortunately, PBS has been airing the new Ken Burns documentary titled "The War" which is about World War II. I like it so much I have been watching it twice in a row - plus I am too tired to do anything else.

However, tonight I will have to record the show because I start a class at the adult education center. I am going to be learning how to make stain glass windows and try my hand at making one as well. So, for the next eight Wednesday's, from 6:30-9:30, I will be busy! Then on Friday's we will be taking dance lessons as well, that will keep us busy on top of everything else going on right now.

Otherwise, things are fine and dandy - just busy. I haven't even taking any pictures in the past few weeks to share, so this blog goes picture-less much to my disapproval. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Cachin' & Frisbee

Once again, I have managed to go several weeks without a blog. The steam finally built up enough and now things are really rolling!

For starters, work picked up last Thursday! We are working for the Forest Service removing bark, laying fabric, and then finishing up with a nice layer of rock. We are still removing bark! It's been 7 days of bark removal and I would guess we probably still have two days left before we can start with the fabric weed barrier. In all, we have 8 large planting beds we are working on, totaling about 14,000 square feet! We are about sick of shoveling bark but, in all honesty, we know it's the easiest part of this job. The fabric will have a lot of odd cuts and we have to lay fabric around large bushes - I suspect we will be on our knees for a good week or more. Then the rock installation will be a real back breaker - we will be replacing the bark with cobble rock, the ones that don't really shovel too well. So that will add to the fun! However, the pocketbook sure appreciates the much needed income!

Last weekend Laura and I did some hunting. Not just regular ole' hunting - Sandhill crane hunting! Okay, well wait a moment - let me phrase that more accurately. Last weekend we drove around aimlessly for two days and watched Sandhill Cranes fly away from us... I have to admit, they were a lot harder to hunt than I had expected. I tried to put the sneak on them from over a quarter mile away, and they were well aware of me before I had made much ground. As soon as then knew the story, they were in the air and gone!

We turned our attention from hunting into caching and went after a few caches - we found one of my favorite caches at an old gold mine. It was a big one too! One of the larger ammo cans we have ever seen! Usually we find caches that are in 30 caliber ammo cans (3"x10"x6") - as you can see from the picture this one is much much larger! The largest cache we have found was in the desert in Utah, it was a 15 gallon tote hidden under a large rock shelf - that was actually next to some dinosaur footprints, so that was pretty cool too!

This weekend was sectional for Ultimate Frisbee. I played for the Missoula Mbubes (it's Zulu for lion). We didn't do as well as we had hoped, but we still had a great time for only playing together for less than a week. We actually learned a new offense on Monday and practiced it on Wednesday before playing in the tournament on Saturday and Sunday. So all-and-all we were pleased that we worked together so well. But then again, we were rather displeased that we went 2-4 for the weekend. Laura came for a few games and snapped a few pictures.

Focus on catching the disc!

Eating some dirt after I missed the disc on defense. Opps-a-daisy.I managed to deflect an endzone throw by the tips of my fingers with this jump! Saved the day! Here I am working on my defense - a little fancy footwork added in to help out, but I just couldn't reach far enough! Darn!Getting some air to score the first point of the game!The Mbubes (or at least the ones who survived two days)

The 5 games we played on Saturday were pretty rough, and our game on Sunday was a lot of fun, but tough with only a few substitutes. Not to mention everyone was pretty tired.

Speaking of which - I'm blogging at 9:00 on Sunday night and about to fall asleep as I type. I've got a long week of work ahead of me, and some rest would be a good thing at this point. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Labor Day

Just when the smoke looks like it is going to give up completely and make a retreat until next summer, it comes back thick as ever. The fires in Idaho are the blame for most of the smoke around here this weekend. Regardless, we did some geocaching and got some REAL exercise. Saturday evening we ran up Mt. Sentinel (the M hill) from the back side and found a geocache at the top of the mountain. That was a 6 mile round trip adventure.

Sunday we turned around and went for a hike up Bass Creek in the Bitterroot Mountains. We had a list of geocaches to find in the area so we have been hitting them hard the last few weekends. Last week, we were on the ridge above the drainage, and this week we were in the drainage. We ended up hiking just shy of 21 miles for the day! The elevation gain wasn't too bad, it's only 3,000 feet over the 7 miles into the lake. After that, we cruised around the lake and climbed into the saddle for a picture as well. From the picture you can see the lake is quite low. We hiked in from the valley to the right. The big mountain to the right is Saint Joseph's Peak - the mountain we hiked to last weekend.

Monday we spent the day recovering from our hike. I don't think it was the distance that made us so tired, but perhaps the speed at which we covered it. Most of the hiking was at 2.5-3 mph and on our way out we were pushing 4mph! I usually like to hike at a good clip of 3 mph, although I don't mind going slower, but when I am on my own I like to move right along. I guess when I am hiking along at 3 mph for about 8 hours my body gets a little tired!

Here's the panoramic pictures I took at the top of the saddle. It's 8 or 9 pictures and gives a 180 degree view from above.Tonight, I will be crashed in front of the television watching Country Music Television (CMT). Why, you ask? Well, tonight CMT is premiering the movie Dale - the documentary movie about Dale Earnhardt. I have been hearing good things about it all year, and the movie has been following the NASCAR circuit from track to track and allowing fans to view it. From the reviews, I guess it's quite a documentary - even non-race fans enjoyed it.

That's about as exciting as it gets for now. We are under six weeks away from the Spokane Marathon and in two weeks I will be playing in the sectional finals of Ultimate Frisbee - playing for a bid to the national finals. We don't have high expectations, but plan on having a good time while we are at it. Until again

-=Nolan=-