sure gets quiet in the winter

Gee it sure gets quiet around here in the winter, not even the winter group is active, forget the climbing group - all 5 of them!
Jim

I'm headed out next weekend or the one after, depends on firewood cutting plans. A mtnsteveless Winterfest for New Year's Eve again, no solid plans yet that I have seen for our small group. Looks like Yosemite again last I heard though. If I get out in Dec., I will have gone out every month this year.

I don't post much throughout the rest of the year either, but I stop by to read pretty much everyday. I, too, plan on getting out this winter. One trip is planned to help build a new leanto in the adirondacks. We finished the foundation and firepit last weekend. Moving half-ton rocks sure makes one sore come Monday am. We had snow last weekend too.

I havent posted much either, cause of the thing being dead..

but, i've been lurking, and reading up on the camaro forums, since i'm picking one up that i looked at on saturday..

Me, I've just been super busy at work!

I am planning on a January car camping trip with the scouts. It is a district thing called a Klondike. We will build a sled and have the boys race with it. And there will be a dutch oven contest I think. I am also trying to convince the older boys to go to the varsity winter camp with snowshoeing and blackpowder (biathlon if you will).

At this time of year all I seem to do is work and sleep. The little hiking I do amounts to walking my dog around the neighborhood. Looking forward to next summer.

Howie

Happy to report that I've been too busy backpacking to lounge around online much.

Braggart!:)

Glad to see that Zalman's been out in it.

It was 5F last night and to be -1F tonight so I been froze in.

I did have the sense 2 days ago to go get the radiator flushed here in Denver, since I'm sure that the Miamian topping the fluids every oil change had never heard of antifreeze (and the agua was free anyway.)

I can't report hikes, but I can report that I got me a pair of MSR Denali shoeshoes off craig's list. A Hennessy Hammock and some MSR snowshoes in the same week! I love craig's list -- at least here in Denver where you don't have to worry about going to meet the seller and getting robbed at gunpoint . . . by the seller.

I did take advantage of one of those incredible "dealflyer" sales online at STP (Sierra Trading Post) and ordered a box full of stuff like pop-top wool gloves, a wool flap-cap, two knit beanies, a balaclava & some of those hand & feet-warmer packets. I'm not so much accessorizing as I'm trying to keep from freezing to death. One thing I've learned . . .

. . . this is baclava, not a balaclava.

While I was at it,I also ordered some sports clothing for Christmas for my 80-year-old mother that she can wear in Dallas; I'm finally getting my revenge for her sending me the toy night-vision scope a few years ago. She'll be a hit at her senior yoga class arriving in her Burton Cache jacket:

Wow, I am sure she will love it.

Dutch oven cooking in real winter weather! Doesn't get any better than that. Try making a pineapple-upside-down cake in the dutch and I "guarantee" you'll win!

Next weekend we go on our annual turkey cookout campout.
We'll cook a turkey in the biggest reflector oven you've ever seen and we'll cook pies in our box ovens (pecan, pumpkin, cherry). We'll also have sweet potatoes, mashed potatos, and green beans and other stuff all cooked outside over open coals and campstoves.

It's a challenge - but ohhh soooo good!

The competition revolves around a dinner dish. I was planning on chili, or something that uses my secrete weapon.



My chili's center around a more Texas style taste. I also add a little person touches. These Utah boys are always amazed at the splendor of Texas chili.

It is cold out here. That and being pregnant on modified rest means not a lot of getting out for me for now. Oh well!

Is the "secrete" weapon what you use the little persons for?:) They must be good for the squeezins.:)

Very Cool. I loved the BSOA. You are doing something very worthwhile.

Boy Scout camping has really come a long way from when I was a scout in the middle 60's. We used to snow camp in Northern California. Back then we could chop small pine trees to build lean to's, dig pits for a common latrine. We were not allowed to carry lighters etc. We made our own frame packs and used ruc sacs and heavy sleeping bags. For food we carried a hamburger/potatoe meatloaf in foil that we would put in the fire. What sucked was that the scoutmaster and his assistant would show up with all the modern conviences and grill duck or quail and who knows what else they had in their arsenal.
It taught me alot and after a couple of years, I left the scouts to solo camp.

Pregnant. A lot has happened since I was here last

Sounds like they were ignoring the leadership rule I learned about an hour into second-lieutenant school: you don't ask people to do anything you're not willing to do yourself. As scoutmasters, we always ate the same menu as the Scouts. Sometimes we even let them cook it for us.

I never was a scout, but that reminds me of another one of my amazing but true stories. (Geez, I can hear the groaning already Listen, you're gonna like this one...

When I was of age, I did become a "Cub Scout" for a short time. My mom told me she signed me up one day when I came home from school. I was so excited about going camping for the first time, and learning how to do all kinds of outdoorsy stuff that it's all I could think about for two weeks. My mom got the hat, the shirt and the scarf with the gold ring thing that was so super cool. She sewed the troop numbers on the shirt and some other patches. I could hardly sleep the Friday night before my first official "Scout Meeting". I couldn't wait to hear about where we'd be going on our first real adventure into the wilds.

I got up early and got my scout clothes on first thing. When it was time to go my mom gave me the address and I ran the six long blocks to the "Scout Master's" house.

When I got there, there were about five or six other kids already hanging outside. I hurried over and asked what was going on but it an instant I could tell something was the matter. They were all looking down at their feet and scuffing the dirt yard with their shoes when they told me the Scout Master was down in the basement "Drunk as a skunk."

Sure enough, I could hear his wife yelling at him down there. She was giving it to him pretty good too. He wasn't saying much and we couldn't understand any of it anyway. After a bit she came out and told us not to bother anymore. While she was giving us some cookies she'd made for our meeting she said, "He never should have signed up for this anyhow. I don't know what he was thinking."

So that turned out to be our last official Cub Scout meeting too. And all us kids knew it. We knew there was no one else who'd sign-up to be a "Scout Master". Not where we lived.

But we weren't really all that disappointed. The kids in my neighborhood were used to that kind of stuff.

We were all really surprised to learn who had volunteered to be our Scout Master though. We all knew him, and we were all a little "a scared" of him. He was a tough old ex-marine with red hair, tattoos, and a two day beard and he always tossed in at least two cuss words in any sentence, even if was just to say "Go away", which is all he ever said to any of us kids.

After that, we all figured he must not be that bad of a guy. After all, he did want to be our scout leader, and his wife hadn't ever kicked him out, and she did make pretty good cookies.



He never did that

Bill:

That was a good 'un as we'd say over in Texas. You need to keep writing these things down and keeping them in a folder for future use.

Quote:
don't ask people to do anything you're not willing to do yourself.


Trouble is most people wouldn't do what I was willing to.
Jim

Anyway, let's do what we can to keep this place lively!!!

Not like this.