Merry Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving

Oh were Oh were has this little Blogger gone?

So much has happened since September...

Since our vacation, both the wife and I have been consumed by our careers. We haven't had any free time to work on the ranch, or even really enjoy our crazy off-grid life. We spend 95% of our time in town, living with average folks (insert sarcastic tone).

Holy Flash Floods Batman!

Ok been away from Blogging for awhile. Just got back from an amazing vacation with the family. We drove from home in Az, to Eugene, to Kettle Falls, through northern Idaho, into Montana, and then spent three days in the Salt Lake city area. Big news in the works, we may just relocate to that area in the near future. But that is neither here nor there...

While we were away, our home has been hit with flash flood producing monsoon storms every day! Looking at 10 days of storms, and more in the forcast. We now have grass a foot tall, our roads are wiped out, and I get to work 8 days straight, so no time to fix them! Loving that life in the sticks!

Vacation photos...

I completely forgot to include some pictures from our vacation. The wife's dearest friend was getting married for the first time this year, in Kettle Falls Washington. Now personally I don't like air travel. It's not the planes that get to me, it's the airports, people, and the crappy service. So I decided to drop the wife off at the Las Vegas airport, to fly north, and Franken-daughter and I would then drive (yes the prospect of three days road trip with a pre-teen did scare me a bit, but that is still better than going to jail for going ape shit-crazy on some homeland high school drop out!) We would meet the wife in Kettle Falls and then the three of us would drive home together.

So while planning this trip, I decided to let my sense of adventure get to me, and planned to not only see as much country as we could in 10 days, but to take daughter camping! Our first night camping was in Hat Creek Ca. As we made our way to Eugene Oregon, to visit and stay with friends on our second night.

Our Third night was in Spokane Washington, and then we dove on up to Kettle Falls for three days of camping while we got ready for the wedding. The actual day of the wedding was perfect, and we had a blast. Afterwards we headed north and east and made our way to Montana. Staying in Missoula. We had a bit of a gypsy vacation just driving till we got tired, and seeing what we could as we made our way home.

From Missoula, we headed south to Utah, and spent three days camping in Brigham City, visiting family, and exploring the area. As we headed south, we took every two-lane road we could, exploring this beautiful State. All in all we traveled some 2500 miles in our new car, loaded down with at least 500lbs of camping gear and three people.  A trip to remember!

Life is so busy!

The wife and I have been so busy... with vacation, and an insane work schedule for both of us, I have forgotten all about blogging. Life in the sticks this past month has been very unusual. As a mater of fact our area was mentioned in the national news due to our weather. It has rained with a significant amount for 18 consecutive days. That's a lot of rain for the desert!
We have dealt with some of the worst flash flooding we've ever seen this year.

A river runs through it apparently...

Having a series of really powerful storms this week, two have made our streams run  taking out our road, and making for a fun trip into town...

Another year older

Yep I'm another year older today... It's been awhile since I've posted, I am preoccupied with an epic road-trip vacation that is just around the corner... But today the wife have me the coolest gift, a new sign for the ranch! And I love it... A friends family member makes them, and it turned out so cool!

Time away

We had to take a trip back to So California this week to attend my grandmothers funeral. It was a bitter sweet trip, time to see cousins and reletives I havent seen in a long time.... if ever! Glad I could go.

On another note, it appears if So california is going up in smoke, so many fires, but itmade for a great sunset...

More rain in the forecast?

Looks like more rain is headed our way!

After the rainy weekend

Well, a couple of big storms made their way through our area over the weekend. Not much damage at our place, but the road is impassable to get in or out. let's see how long it takes the county to repair...

And another ten min...

Shortly after this photo, came the rain this morning... Amazing how fast a storm can build...

Ten min later...

Big storm last night...

We knew it was coming, just a matter of time.... Last night it arrived, first really big storm. Today, I'm guessing more of the same...

Finally some rain!

Rain, wash-outs, ash from or local fire a few weeks back, and more of the same threatening this afternoon... Yep I love it!