Friends

So it seems that I have the uncanny ability to inspire strangers to pick on me. These last few days I was at a conference in Kearney, NE focusing on noxious weeds invading riverbeds. I know no one else will think this is stimulating, but actually it was really interesting. Anyway we took a little field trip to the Platte River to look at some of the weeds down there. I bent over to roll up my jeans so that I wouldn't get them caught on anything and fall down, and some lady that I had just met reached over and poured REALLY cold water down the back of my pants. I thought "great, now it looks like I peed my pants, just what I wanted in a crowd of 200 strangers." I turned to say that exact thought to the one person I actually knew at the conference, when another guy I have never met before, didn't even know his name, picked me up and dropped me in the river. Fully clothed in the middle of an informational tour, I managed to get thrown in the river. Needless to say every one else thought it was hilarious, and I even managed a chuckle. But I was completely uncomfortable for the rest of the tour. Just goes to prove that you can't ever let your guard down, even when you think your safe, someone may just sneak up on you and throw you in a river.

Meet the bands!

Alright so I know that most of the people that read this blog are not going to care. Mostly because almost none of them have any inclination to listen to country music. However, I was really excited so I'm going to tell you about it anyway.
Being the loving caring person that I am I volunteered to help usher during the Box Butte County fair. There were a few immediate pluses to this. 1) I got in to all of the events free (motorcross, demolition derby, and CONCERT); 2) I got to yell at people for being stupid in the stands, and even kicked a few people out...it was a good time. The major perk was that all of the ushers got to visit the bands in their trailors and hang out with them. The 2 bands of the evening were Ricochet and Confederate Railroad. They were both AWESOME! and autographed everything we put in front of them. They were also good enough to take pictures with us! Anyway I know it wont impress anyone but me, but I was super excited and just thought I would share.

Vacation

Hooray for vacation!! Its really sad when its over though. I spent a couple of days in South Dakota with my sister and some good friends riding motorcycles. I think I'm going to have to break down and by myself my own (evil laugh) cause they are really really fun, and you can't beat the gas mileage. It rained a lot, but even that wasn't too shabby. We also went to Sturgis, and even though the rally doesn't officially start until tomorrow it sure was a good time! Heehee.

Fire

This is a video of the Spotted Tail fire as it raced over the hill toward Chadron State College, shot by Jim Manternach with the Emergency Management Response Agency. For those of you that don't know I work in Chadron, and Chadron state college sits at the south edge of the town. They evactuated about half of the town. Fortunately they were able to backfire into the oncoming flames and keep the wildfire from entering town. As of today they are estimating that around 30,000 acres were damaged by this ONE wildfire. Current estimates for total damage from all 6 wildfires is not yet known. So far only 4 houses have been destroyed, thankfully. I'll try to get some more pictures of the Shanook helicopters, slurry bombers, and firefighters on here later. My boss is up in a Forest Service helicopter right now assessing, and viewing the damage, so I should have some good pictures from that as well.
Just a big shout out to all the firefighters (400 of them) that worked so hard to save Chadron, Thank you guys so much, we wouldn't have made it without you.

Oh Ick

At this beginning of this week I traveled to Niobrara State Park for a meeting with some of my counter parts from other NRDs. You must understand that these people all have a sick sense of humor (heehee) and have a seemingly unlimited tolerance for alcohol. The combination of these two things lead us to a taste test of frogs legs. I will tell you right now...ick. It wouldn't be so bad if they removed the meat and breaded it up like popcorn shrimp. No they must bring out the entire lower half of the frog, feet still attached. I think that makes it more unpalatable than anything else. But I was a brave soul and I tasted it. Never doing that again.

My own Phlog!

Well following in the footsteps of Rick Lee, Toby, and Jared, I have my own Phlog! Go ahead, check it out, you know you want to!

Painting

Okay so it seems that I am on a blogging role today, so I might as well keep it up. Over the weekend I got bored (as sometimes happens) so I decided to do some painting. I went out and grabed a couple of pieces of old corral wood, sanded them, varnished them, and decided to paint something on them. I used oils and this is what turned out. Not to bad for my first attempt at a sunset. Yes, I do realize it looks like a rainbow, but keep in mind..it was a first try! :-)

Update: I fixed it last night so that the sunset no longer looks so much like a rainbow, hooray for oil paints! you can always go back and fix what you've screwed up!

Update

So I was telling you about a painting I am thinking about buying. Well Ron finally got his website up and running so I can show you the painting! Just an FYI in Gallery number 2 I think there are a few paintings that Jared, Toby, and John would like. Just passin it on. Anyway this is the painting I want to buy, its called Crystal Clear Rhapsody.

Umm

Its crazy what you can find on the internet isn't it. Apparently my headstone is located in Texas. There's usually the chance that somewhere out there someone has or has had the exact same name as you, it is a little unsetteling to see your own name on a headstone though heehee.

Pretty good holiday

I hope everyone had a really great 4th of July! Mine was actually really good. I got to ride on a Percheron (really big draft horses, like the Budwieser horses) in the Parade in Crawford, NE. That was great. He's about 19 hands tall, so when I stood next to him I was basically looking at the middle of his stomach, and really wide. I am a little saddle sore today, it was kind of like doing the splits for 3 hours heehee, but totally worth it! The picture is almost exactly the height (he's a little taller) and build of the Percheron that I rode in the parade
I also went to an art show and managed to talk myself into buying a $400 original oil painting. Its gorgeous and as soon as I have a picture of it I'll post it so you can see my new buy! I really really couldn't resist. The artist's name is Ron Nordyke, and as soon as his website is working again I'll put that up here too! He's even going to let me make payments on it so that the price tag doesn't infringe upon me buying it heehee.

Pictures

I've posted a BUNCH of pictures on my Flickr, including my tanking adventure, Hiking in Estes, and some pretty pictures...check it out, you know you want too

Its Monday

For the first time in my life I'm glad its Monday. This weekend turned out to be total crap. Thrus and Fri I was sick sick, then Saturday one of my dogs got caught in the powercord for my laptop and pulled it off of the desk so its now broken. Then yesterday I got thrown off of Applesauce, my horse. All around it was just a horrible weekend, I sure hope the next one turns out better.

Presenting the one...the only ...

I HAVE MY OWN HORSE!!! For anyone that knows me you will probably realize that I am very excited about this. I've wanted my own horse for as long as I can remember and now I have one. His name is Applesauce and he is a mustang. He was taken out of the wild in Wyoming about 3 years ago. Right now I'm retraining him to the saddle, and also teaching him some basic commands and reigning techniques that he never had to learn before. He is doing very well and I've actually been able to get on him a few times without him throwing to much of a fit. A good accomplishment I thought. He is around 6 years old now. Still in the prime of life but old enough not to be crazy anymore. And the best part....He was FREE! One of my friends adopted him out of the wild when nobody else wanted him. They no longer have time to ride him or work with him so they gave him to me. Now you may be saying how could it get any better?! Well let me tell you. Another one of my really good friends gave me a saddle for my birthday. So now I can ride him without hanging on to his mane, or falling off! Hooray. Always cause for celebration. That's about all the exciting news here, besides the fact that its May and now its snowing. Sad Day.

April is OVER!

Well I must say that I am very pleased that April is over. Although it didn't really produce anything super exciting, it was unbelievably busy. I spent the last 3 days of April at another grant writing workshop. I've decided I'm going to take this up as a side business. Where else can you make $3,000 for writing a proposal and doing some reasearch. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Up it sure does. Any way just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking!

Oh Happy Day!

Today, I, and everyone in my office, had a startling revelation! We have a Starbucks in Chadron. Now I realize that this is fairly mundane news for most people. You're probably thinking to yourselves "Yea its a Starbucks...so what, big deal...they're everywhere." Not so my friends. Prior to this glorious development the closest Starbucks to Chadron Nebraska was either Rapid City South Dakota, or Cheyenne Wyoming. So we had a small field trip to our new local Starbucks where I purchased the first Caramel Macchiato that I've had in almost 3 months. Its gonna be a great day folks!

External Hard Drive

So here is my question for all of you out there. I am thinking about getting an external hard drive for my laptop. It just doesn't have the space for the things I need it to do. The two I'm currently looking at are:

AcomData E5 80GB

AcomData E5 160GB

Both are plug & play capable (a requirment) and don't require a huge amount of space on the origianl machine. Does anyone have experience with this company? If I'm going to spend the money for one I want one that's worth it. I've heard AcomData is a good company, but nothing for sure. Any advice would be great!

Times Square

You may remember me mentioning that a picture of my friend Randi and I is going to be 50 feet tall on a billboard in Times Square. Well here it is folks! That really fun moment has finally arrived. That picture will be on screen for 15 seconds every day for 5 days! And next week a picture of my little brother and I is going to be up there. I'm still going to submit the picture of Tanis, Jared, Toby, and I at Red Robin and see what happens. Heehee. If that comes about I will certainly let you all know!

Hurry up and wait

Today looks like its going to be a very slow day. I have a meeting this afternoon but over 3/4 of my office will be gone to another meeting in another town. Any clever ideas on how Rachel could spend her day, cause I think I'm gonna run out.

Just as a random piece of information my birthday is coming up soon (as I do a small happy dance). I love birthdays for no other reason than my entire family gets together and we all play cards and drink wine. No matter who's birthday we always do it. My family will take any excuse to get together heehee. This year I think we're even including the fire pit! oooo I'm soo excited! Heehee.

You'll laugh...and cry

This is hilarious, but also makes you sad for the little fellow...

Everyone else has had more sex than me

hat tip to Toby for showing me this!

Things that make you say hmmmm

This just in...some exciting news on the home front: Rachel is now an officially published photographer {cheering in the background}. The Department for Environmental Quality is going to be using one of my pictures in their national newsletter. Seemingly insignificant, but out of the 124,000 photos that are submitted for each edition mine was picked. Not to shabby I'd say. Work is good, but crazy, I'm leaving today for a 3 day grant writing workshop (part of a 3 session class) in Broken Bow, NE. Not exactly a garden spot, but I'm paying them $500 to teach me how to do this, so I guess I will go wherever they say to go. So if any of you need grants (after may cause that's when the class ends) you can let me know and I will hook you up! Not that its really that big of a deal, but I was voted onto the Board of Directors for a non profit organization in Chadron that deals with noxious weeds. Not super stimulating all the time, but it does make me a director, and I get a per deim and everything.
One of my friends has a job setting up a website for nationwide for their Life comes at you fast campaign. It is linked to a billboard in time square. So yes, a picture of me and my best friend is going to be 50 feet tall in Time Square. I think I'm gonna just pretend he didn't do that to me lol. Just FYI the picture of Toby, Jared, Tanis and I with the Red Robin bird was a close runner up! Maybe next time ;-)