Last Day Off

Air Dry!

Well its that time of year, the leaves are changing and there is a crispness in the air, and we are getting ready to leave the ranch again.  This time however it will be for good.  Erin and I have had so many great things happen to us here at the Ranch.  We have made great friends and seen so much of this beautiful state.  We will really miss Wyoming.

Dad, I brought you something!

Well on our last day off we had the pleasure of meeting up with Erin's dad Tom in Montana and boy did we have a good time.  We had some lunch and then went fishing, well sort of fishing..  We mostly talked while walking up and down the river banks in west yellowstone.  Indy had the most fun of all of us though.  He spent his afternoon swimming and retrieving things out of the river, like a tennis ball and a duck buoy.  Both of which we lost by the end of the day.  Indy was so tired he slept the entire 5 hour car ride home!

Be on the look out for Bears when you poop in the woods!

Check back in later this week for road trip photos on our journey to Florida!

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

https://www.etsy.com/listing/108874590/16x20-fine-art-print-clouds-at-the-grand

Got off the ranch for a day!  Went back to Yellowstone for some inspiration.  Upon our arrival at the park we noticed there were still alot of people in the park.  Our intention was to go back to the Grand Canyon of the yellowstone for a quick hike to the bottom of the Canyon and back but at the parking lot we noticed alot of people journeying that way.  Instead we decided to take the hike to Sublime Point,  which was less than sublime not sure why they call it that, however the trail to sublime point offered great views of the canyon, falls, and the yellowstone wilderness.  Hope you enjoy the photos from the trip.

View from the Trail!

Erin takes a breath of some rarified air at 9,000ft

Burn out on the Trail

Where all the tourists stop and take a photo!  Keep going theres lots more to see!!!!

Windmills Windmills Windmills

So it has been a really crazy last few weeks.  All the guests have been lined up back to back to back at the ranch.  This is not a bad thing however sometimes you just need a day off.  I was blessed enough to get a reprieve from work.  I flew to Long Beach to drive the bosses truck back to Wyoming.  Well after 20 hours and 1200 miles later it was enough alone time to last me for awhile.  It wasn't all work on the drive.  I did however encounter all of these awesome windmills on highway 80 that I had seen every time I made the trip.  This time however there were some really awesome clouds and I found roads that took me right up to the windmills.  Standing under these things is really scary as they make a whooshing and creaking noise.  Not sure if the are making super efficient wind energy or are about to slam to the ground with extreme force due to the 40-50mph wind.

If you like these images on this blog or any previous images check out my Etsy shop .

The Etsy Shop has Landed!

Big news - I opened a new online store the other day.  Come on by my Etsy shop and check out some cool photographs, some of which have never been online before.  If you see something you like, please consider supporting my work by making a purchase.  And if you get a chance, please tell someone else about it - by email, Facebook, Pinterest... whatever works best for you.  I'd really appreciate it.

So here's the link to my shop - go check it out!

How was your Memorial Day?

Across the river!

Well it was quite an experience this Memorial Day!  We had about 16-20 inches of snow over the weekend.  Lets just say that the snow is one of the best things about living at the ranch.  Check out all the cool photos from the ranch......

Horse Pasture

Pond

Horses!

Here are a few of the buildings on the ranch!

What a difference a year makes

Jackson Lake ~ Teton National Park

Last year Erin and I couldn't wait to get into the national parks in Wyoming.  The road to yellowstone barely opened by the end of may due to the record setting amount of snow.  This year there is practically no snow and they lakes are already thawed out. Bummer.  Here are a few photos from our trip 2 weekends ago  Check out some of the photos to compare the difference in the years here.  Well im off and running back to finish this gallery hope you like the photos.

Same photo almost as the first one just in color ! Favorites anyone? Color or BW?

Found these cut down trees next to the lake pretty cool!

Push a little Harder

This week I keep reminding myself to push a little harder.  Im tired and have been working for almost two weeks straight.  Its amazing how that little phrase works for just about anything, when your working out, in your relationships, and while at work. Four little words that keeping me going day after day.

Today I conquered the Deer Creek Trail.  It took me only a week and a half to get fully acclimated to hiking the trail.  Its about a four mile round trip hike to the top all switchbacks with a total elevation gain of about 3000 ft over 2 miles.  I can make it up and down in under 50 minutes which is really saying something.  Wonder what my time will be at the end of the season.

Here is another interesting that happened this last week.  On thursday while jumping and ATV I learned just how powerful 12 volts of electricity can be.  Story goes I was starting up some ATV's after their long winter of rest and had particular trouble with one ATV.  I would get it started and disconnect the jumper box just to have the ATV die.  Let me explain that whoever designed the battery compartment for these ATV'S  didn't have big hands in mind.  I reached in this time to connect the positive battery terminal with my left hand and to my surprise took 12 volts right through my wedding ring which them proceed to melt around my finger.  From cold to molten in about 1 second.  Lets just say Im so lucky to still have my finger.  There is a hole in my wedding ring and a serious blister on my ring finger all the way around it. Well its healing but im still pissed about ruining my ring.  

More stories from the ranch to come!

The Slower Pace of Life

Photo from the Deer Creek Meadow down onto the Southfork

Well after 5 months of intense vacationing and traveling,  Erin and I have returned to the Ranch.  We packed all of our stuff into two cars and caravanned from sunny California to snowy Wyoming.  It was a great trip we were like  Snowman and the Bandit from Smokey and the Bandit, however I feel like we had better handles "Gator and Sweet-Pants".  We were talking on our walkie's the whole trip up, blocking traffic for each other,  on the lookout for the Fuzz, and making great time its fun to be part of a convoy.

Back in Cody trying to get used to the slower pace of life.  Its great, no one is in a rush everyone expects your whole life story in the grocery check out lane, that one is a little tough on the ice cream and other frozen goods.  But all in all life is good.  We feel like we are finally home, in our little cabin, a place that we can call our own.  We are both trying to get our bodies back into ranch shape.  With an elevation of about 6500 and walking all over the place all day you can expect to hit 3-5 miles on the pedometer.

Washakie Wilderness sign

I am also trying to get myself ready for the pack trip in August.  Last year I had to hike it out with my horse in tow for about the last 15 miles this year I'm preparing for the worse.  I am hiking up the Deer Creek trail 3-4 times a week to get the legs ready.  The trail is pretty intense about 3 miles of switch back and a total elevation gain of about 2500 feet.  I am only doing about half of the trail to start and then going to work up to the 3 mile part in a week or two.  Right now my lungs burn from the cold and elevation.

Wolf print on the trail :-()

Here is to a good season and more photos from DEER CREEK.

Yosemite Day Hikes

Tunnel View of Yosemite Valley

Where do I start....... Erin and I have been in LA for a few weeks now.  Enjoying all that LA has to offer we both feel like tourists in a city that we had previously called home before we moved to Wyoming.  It has been fun to be a tourist and go to Baseball games and a few Basketball games and we even went to see a NHL game as well.

Forest of Giant Sequoias

We wanted to get out of town for a few days and get back to nature.  Well there is no better place and than Yosemite (Did i mention it was Erin's first time see her Blog). Every time I go back I find myself in awe of how grandiose the landscape is.  I think about John Muir and how Yosemite changed his life and how he found a better relationship with God in the nature.  Its amazing how a trip to the wilderness can do so much for your soul.

Vernal Falls

Erin and I went on few hikes through the forest of Giant Sequoias as well as couple in Yosemite Valley.  We were a little ambitious on our second day of hiking and went to the top of Nevada Falls.  All I can say is that it was intense 2500 ft of elevation change over 2.5 miles as well as about 1500 granite cut steps with a few steep switchbacks.  It was amazing to see two waterfalls that were over 1000 ft tall.  We have plans in the future to return and finish the hike to the top of El Capitan, just four more miles.  Lets just say next time we will train alot more before we go.  We were extremely sore for about 3 days after our big hike.

                   

 

Last week in LA we are off to Wyoming to go back to work.

Erin had some fun!!!!

Having fun in the Dark

Well it has been way too long since I have posted anything.  Not really sure why it has taken me this long but better late than never.

Erin and I have had a crazy month traveling back and forth from coast to coast.  We drove from Florida to California, I drove up to Wyoming for 2 weeks to work at the ranch.  After all of that we finally emptied our storage unit in California and packed it up into a huge 24 foot moving truck to once again drive across the united states.  I can not begin to count the number of miles I have driven this year and they just keep rolling bye.

Anywho we made a detour on this last trip to Carlsbad caverns.  I had always wanted to go and heard some really cool stories from people who had been.  All I can say is that it was amazing.  750ft deep under the earth lies formations of stalactites and stalagmites.  It reminds me alot of a coral reef and aren't really too different when you think about it. There is a 3 mile trail through out the cave that takes you around to each of the formations where they are artificially illuminated with tungsten bulbs, very nice addition of color if you are a photographer.  It was a great trip and I plan to go back again when I can get a private tour with some park rangers of some of the more remote caves, which I hear are spectacular.

Thats all for now more to come later this week.

Diving the Bahamas

Here are a few photos from our first day diving.  We both passed our written tests and Erin did better than I did by one question.  She is never gonna let me forget that I'm sure.  Well it was a fun dive with lots of parrot fish, yellow fin tuna, lion fish (bad but pretty), goat fish, tons of blue tang (aka Dori from Nemo).

We also saw the shark cage they blew up on myth-busters during shark week in 2007

As well as the Cessna that Michael Kane flew in  Jaws Revenge its sunk and on the bottom check out the photos.

On tap for tonight a little bit of homework a good meal and off to bed ASAP.

Photos from Capetown

V&A Waterfront

Well our fist weekend in Capetown.  We ventured down to the Waterfront.  Did some touristy things visited a few shops.  Then we went to the Botanical Gardens at the base of Table Mountain.  It was great to hear all about the history of the gardens themselves how they were put there by the Dutch and that it was a colony originally.

Botanical Canopy

We also went to the Two Oceans Aquarium ( Indian and Atlantic)  saw some pretty cool fish and birds.  Also saw this really cool documentary project about protecting various species of fish from over fishing.  If you eat Sushi you should watch this documentary about these two guys who traveled from South Africa to Japan by boat mostly for 2 years in fishing communities to create awareness.  www.movingsushi.com/

 

  
        



 We spent the evening with a few of Steph's friends who live on the water.  They had and amazing apartment with a view of the Atlantic and a superb entertaining patio.  We all watched the sunset then had a big braai (bbq).  It was a great evening just chatting with people from lots of different cultures. We had some local languages spoken afrikans  and kosa, the tribal language,  as well as some german peppered in with some english,  it was a great experience to share cultures with all of these people. Just for fun I pulled out the 12th grade Alabama reading test for a good joke and those who read it were really good sports and once I read it people request that I continue to speak in that manner for the rest of the evening.

View From atop Botanical Gardens

 The next day we explored some more and went to Hout Bay and a Winery for some wine tasting. We bought a few 6 bottles from the vineyard for next to nothing , Erin and Steph have been enjoying their wine every night and doing a good job at trying to drink it all this week.

Hout Bay

More to come later.......

Hout Bay Fishing