NEW TRUCK!

Bought a new truck! F-250 V10...will post pics if I ever get a chance to sit down and download from the camera...staying busy, but it's paying for the truck! Yeah!!! Updates to come!

Sooooooo Busy!

The last two weeks have been crazy. Since the Thursday before last I have been in Crested Butte, Cheyenne picking up Kelly's horses and hay, fixing the lights on my trailer, the lights on my truck twice, my u-joints, my thermostat in the truck, gave it a tune-up, worked volleyball games, parent-teacher conferences, fire training (twice!), a vehicle accident I had to respond to, a guy shooting himself in his truck which I had to respond to, a horse who cut her heel up real bad I'm doctoring and moving cattle this week sometime...not to mention the 30 extra hours I've put in with the forest service. I'm sure there's more and I'm just forgetting...oh yeah, I'm in Alamosa for dance and ran into somebody in the Walmart parking lot I really didn't want to run into, and I think may have had somebody else in his truck with him and now I've got the shakes from it. When does somebody get to come and sweep me off my feet and take care of me for the rest of my life?....oh yeah, that doesn't happen in real life. I have to do it all myself because I'm the dumbass who moved to this God-forsaken place and left behind everyone who ment something to me thinking I'd actually meet people here too. Pity party anyone? This really put me in a bad mood. Funny how a person can do that too you. Does that mean I still have feelings for him? I'm so stupid...really.

I'll post pictures soon of Kelly's fuzzy babies I'm watching while he's in Afghanistan and some of the fire training I've been doing...I look like that kid from 'The Christmas Story' in my bunker gear...you know..."wait for me...!"And even better in a SCBA...that's way cool though, I sound like Darth Vader and finally one of the guys turned my mic off 'cause he was tired of hearing me and another guy saying, "Luke, I am your father...haaaaw, buuuurrr..." C'mon, I'm allowed to let the insanity out every now and then...

Evil Beaver!

So I'm a big advocate for not believing everything has that silver lining per past experiences, even though I still would like to believe in happy endings. I often find myself reminding yours truly that,"this isn't the movies!" or some story I've read, and therefore things probably won't work out the way I'd like them to, especially concerning the opposite sex.

Now I got to thinking about this because even though this may not hold true in my world, I do know quite a few people who've had those 'movie' worthy, romantic moments. Not wanting to be completely outdone, I've decided that maybe everything does have a silver lining, just not how I expect it, or concerning the 'moments' I'd like them to...

Those of you who know me have laughed over the strange happenings that seem to add up. In fact, some of you have even suggested I write them down in order to write a book one day because NOBODY has that many weird things happen to them. I'm talking about the breaking my leg while I'm walking, changing my tire in heels on a construction site (thanks guys!), having my truck stolen out of my driveway by a drunk who didn't want to walk around the block home....those types of weird things. And I'm going to give you all an example of the latest...

I'm driving down a remote mountain road yesterday in my work truck, turn a corner and am stopped by a big, old Aspen tying across the road. Seeing as I'm next to a Beaver dam, I'm blaming these little buggers for this whole ordeal. I pull closer, and get out of the truck to see if this thing is at all movable since there is nowhere to turn around (and backing up, uphill on a narrow mountain road is scary). I decide I'll at least try, grab hold of the top of the tree (the lighter end) and start pulling...it's not really going anywhere and I decide to see if there is any possible way I could back up a bit and find somewhere to turn around. I'm walking back towards the truck and hear a 'crack', then a 'creak', then a tree falling! I'm right next a big old spruce and can't really see where this tree is going, but know it's in front of me somewhere, so I start running back to the downed tree, get behind it, deem it safe enough to look, and just in time to see another huge ass Aspen fall about 20 feet BEHIND my truck. Then I take a closer look around and realize about half the Aspen above the road are chewed in half from Beaver, and the wind is starting to blow up some. I checked on my safety and the truck and luckily the big spruce was sort of a protecting wall, but now I'm completely trapped!

My biggest concern at the moment now is how to explain this to the office over the radio..."Help! I'm trapped by Beavers?"...that's sounds so professional. So I decide I'm not admitting failure yet, and with some heaving and whatnot, I get the tree in front of the truck budged some, push it with the bumper of the truck some more, get a tire up on it and then I was over. So now it's just a fun story. Now if there had been some cute guy working in the office to rescue me, maybe it would have been even more fun... But there wasn't. *sigh* oh well.

New Web Site

So I'm building a web site to the ranch I run...check out the link to the right on this page or just click here!

It is still under construction...so patience!

FAILURE!

I am, as usual, depressed about a few things. Having tried to take situations into my own hands I think I have caused even worse problems for my mental state...which is completely out of whack. To top everything off, I failed my science exam a few weeks back. I really shouldn't be surprised. Afterall, I screwed up my schedule that day for studying, I recieved my science degree almost 7 years ago, recieved my teaching degree almost 4 years ago and have only taught one science class since, 3 years ago. SO really, the odds were stacked against me. I do get to take it over in November, and I didn't fail by that much...but I still feel like crying about it. On the other hand, I did pass the English portion with flying colors...but I'd be a moron if I hadn't sicne I've been teaching it for almost 3 years.

Since I am down and out, being crazy busy is how I deal with things, so after spending all day burning down the forest Friday,I finally decided to let myself be talked into joining the fire department here in town. A guy I work with has been bugging me all summer and I finally filled out the application last month, but still hadn't attended a meeting. Well, I was jumped on my way into town and begged to help set up for the fall festival on Saturday which is hosted by the fire department. I said I'd give a hand, and the next thing you know, I was talked into volunteering at the pumpkin painting table and fire department table ALL DAY Saturday as well. I'm blaming it on exhaustion and stress...I'm not thinking right, but at least it kept me from feeling sorry for myself at home. Oh well. What's one more thing right?

Sunday I ended up moving cattle off Poncha Pass all day. Again, suckered into at at 7:30 in the morning when people needed another hand. Don't get me wrong, I love doing that kind of stuff...but when do people get to help me with my ranch? Anyway, I got some great pics...

Git 'er Done!

Instead of heading to Chaco this weekend I stuck around because we were doing a prescribed burn on the forest and I wanted in on it! It was great! Sometimes its just fun to start fire rather than put it out!

This was approximately a 500 acre fire up on Park Creek, West of where I live up in the mountains. It took all week and was used to help clear up some old logging slash and open up the understory of the pine/spruce stand. These practices not only help with future fire hazard, but are extremely healthy to the forest ecosystem. It was a beautiful week and the weather cooperated very nicely...meaning no major problems and run-away fire! I really enjoy doing prescribed burn because you can really learn a lot from watching fire in a controlled setting. Fire behavior is pretty much it's own living thing, and being able to watch it from start to finish in a variety of different fuel types can really teach a person how it can react in different situations.

Check out the slide show of our morning burn of about 100 acres!