Mustache March in Hawaii

The mustache goes to Hawaii. This is Hanauma Bay where we snorkled some reefs and saw a crapload of tropical fish of every color and size. Looking South on the windward side of Oahu from an old WWII pilbox on top of a mountain.
I found the ugliest Hawiian shirt on the island. Goes great with the aviators at an Easter Sunday BBQ. This is my cous, Sara.
Looking North from the same pillbox at Kailua where we're staying.

Give you an idea...

Tipi on the left, compresses down to well over half of that stuff sack. Stove in the middle. Pegs on the right. I forgot to put the center pole in the pic.

The new tipi worked great!

I floated the Bitterroot Saturday and stayed over night. I saw a ton of waterfowl (wood ducks too!), deer, swans and even a herd of elk that came down close to the river right at sunset.

Very warm with the stove.

Wow! Already?

Discharge, cubic feet per second
Most recent instantaneous value: 169 03-15-2008 11:00

Tipi!!!

Well, it took 2 months but's it's finally here. An 8 man tipi with a wood stove at just over 12 pounds! It didn't take too long to set it up, especially for the first time. Tomorrow I'm going canoeing on the Bitterroot and staying over night on the river.

Mystery in H-Town

It started out as a typical day in Helena. I went to work, and made some new friends by spreading some love and cheer. Was feeling pretty motivated after work so I washed my truck. I noticed on my way home it was at half a tank, so I figured that before diesel went above $4/gallon, I would top her off. $70 later I had topped her off and was feeling pretty good like I received a reach-around. I headed home and decided that it was time to do a little spring dog crap cleanup.

Now with two labs and a fenced yard this is no small task, so I did what any good Irishman would do, I drank a Guinness to get excited about the process (currently $20 for an 18 pack at Costco). Anyway, after the appropriate mental prep, I double-bagged my plastic grocery bags, put on my treadless poop picking up shoes, and strapped on the latex gloves and headed out into the backyard to remove a winters worth of dog shit. YEEEHAAAA!

Although the cleanup of the backyard is an achievement in itself, it is certainly not Blogworthy. So there I am, back hurting, carpenter crack exposed, my poop bag mostly filled, and am standing smack dab in the middle of dog poop corner. When I see a sparkle, a shiny treasure in the midst of a sea of excrement, and there it was, a marble. A marble like I had never seen before. It wasn’t necessarily incorporated into the poop, but adjacent to it. My mind contemplated where this marble could have come from and immediately I thought…damnit, I never should have bought Ed Jr. that wrist rocket. The little punk is shooting at the dogs. Whoa, wait, he isn’t born yet. Well where else could this marble have come from…hmmmm…

At New Years, Miles was diagnosed with glaucoma and they took his eye. We spent $650 on the surgery and $13.50 on a prosthetic eye that they sewed beneath his eyelid. Recently Miles’ eye cavity started depressing and now is like a deep cavern. I called the vet and she said his body most likely absorbed the prosthetic. I am thinking that somehow he passed it. I’ve searched Google and all over the place and can’t find any photos of a canine prosthetic eye. I figure that the next time I go to the vet, I’ll slap the marble on the counter and ask for my $13.50 refund, and see what happens. Cheers!

March on the Missouri

Yes, those are short sleeves. What a nice March day! The fishing was slow, but the weather was nice. I was even able to bring in this nice brown. Only saw one boat on the water. He was a jet-boater, and a considerate one at that. It felt like spring, and now they are calling for more snow. Keep it coming! I am hoping for there to be water in the rivers well into the summer.