Happy Halloween

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. The Force and the Bark.

Bark all day at you can I." ~Yoda Artie
“Powerful you have become, the dark side I smell. . .uh sense in you.” - Yoda Luke

J's elaborte costume is beyond words.

Artie looking more like a Gremlin or Animal from the Muppets than Yoda in this picture which is, by far, my favorite.

I hope everyone had (or is having) a safely scary Halloween. Ours has been pretty low-key. Watched that old movie House on Haunted Hill - the one with Vincent Price from like 100 yrs ago. My niece and her kids came by to Trick or Treat. One of the girls was Hannah Montana which was scary enough by itself. The baby was a peapod. . .too cute. The other girl was Sleeping Beauty, but she wasn't staying in character. She was more like ADD Beauty. Ah, what can I expect from a 3-yr-old. The two big kids were Fiona & Shrek.

Those were our only ghouls for the night. After I post this we're going to eat some scary pizza (from Blackjacks) & watch Spider-man 3. Not sure if that's the most appropriate movie for Halloween night, but it's the only Netflix we have left to watch!

To Be Exact

For all you geeks and geocachers out there, here is the EXACT location of our cabin:

41° 26.372 N
106° 21.249 W

Told ya I'd give you more detail. :)

Somewheres over yonder there!

So, many of you readers have been inquiring as to the whereabouts of our new cabin. Your wish is my command and I am now ready to post that information. Said land is located some 9,600 ft above sea level, southeast of Elk Mountain, north of Medicine Bow Peak, east-ish of Turpin Resevoir and west-ish of Sand Lake. If that's too vague for you, keep tuning in for other posts regarding said location. Until then, please enjoy these latest pictures.

Majestic Elk Mountain can be seen some places on the way up to the property.

The pond on Oct 19th and then again just one week later!

J the Geocacher setting some coordinants on the GPS.

Blue skies smilin' on us & unspoiled scenery.

Ci-ci-ci-cioppino

Just when I think there’s nothing in the house to cook, J pulls a brilliant meal together that’s not only tasty but also uses up all the items in the frig and freezer that need using before they become the latest science project. On Friday night date night, J took freezer/frig/pantry inventory and came up with a tasty version of cioppino otherwise known as fish stew and traditionally served over spaghetti. The French call theirs bouillabaisse cooked with a long boil time, white wine & saffron; in Cajun country it’s called gumbo and served over rice. J’s version encapsulated a mixture of all three. Here is the picture documentary of the stages:

First sauté onions, garlic, carrots in a fine olive oil. Remember the carrots in the The Great Harvest post from a couple weeks ago? Well, these are those carrots!




Next, he added the tomato base for the broth. In this case we used Spicy V-8 from the pantry. At this point, plenty of seasoning was added. . . Old Bay, salt, pepper, oregano. . .etc. and big meaty chunks of white fish and andouille sausage. We had halibut in the freezer we needed to use.

Lastly, he added the salmon and let it simmer for a long while. Notice how the roux changed from red to a nice orangey yumminess. At the very end, he added the shrimp and mussels (not pictured here). He served it over rice and we ate it with flat bread!

I am so lucky.

HoliDAZE?!?!?

Okay, we made a trip to Home Depot today for some home improvement-y items. I know I shouldn't be shocked, but they already had the flippin' Christmas section fully displayed with rows of tannenbaums pre-decorated with those cutesy little lights. I am already sick of Christmas before Halloween. Sheesh!

All this thought of decking the halls while simultaneously watching the Slasher Movie Marathon for Fright Week has led me to decide to poll you readers out there to see what your favorite holiday is. Please see poll to the right of the blog screen. I am fickle and my favorite holiday changes from year to year sometimes even from month to month. So, don't wait. . .cast your vote now! ROCK the vote! Be a voter! Love to Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Polls close on Nov 4th! So do the RIGHT thing! ;)

Ice, Ice, Baby

Stop!

Collaborate and listen. . .

Took lots of pictures of ice this weekend. Ice is fascinating. As both my friend Slick and J have told me numerous times that you have to snap many, many pictures to come up with a few decent photos. Boy, is THAT the truth. I took so many pictures of ice experimenting with the different settings on my new camera. Flash on. . .Flash off. Zoom in. . .Zoom out. Wax on. . .Wax off. Taking pictures of the white, crystally, crunchy clean ice; the clear ice that clung to river rock; and the muddy, dirty but simply divine, shiny, chunky "chocolate" colored ice.

Here are the decent ones:

Dry Run

Since last weekend's weather was so crappy, this weekend was our first time up to the new property. We ran up there on Saturday with J's mom and dad following us. Got there about noon, assessed what project we could do first (since there are sooooo many projects) and started right in on them.

J's mom and I got busy cleaning the windows. Ugh. Did you know that flies crap? I had no clue that flies crapped. . .I thought they just sat on crap, hung out around crap, ate & reguritated crap but I had no clue that they actually crapped and that their crap could be seen by the human eye. Weird! Enough about fly crap! We got that all cleaned up and the windows sparkled like new in the sunlight. J & his dad worked on some siding stuff on the back of the cabin. J came in and put up insulation in the bedroom. Changed out the door handle. Took inventory of "stuff" we brought up there to leave. We all got quite a bit done and felt good to have at least a few projects 1/2 way finished before winter.

We tested the propane heaters and lights but since the water & toilet system had been winterized, we decided not to mess with that until next Spring. J's mom & dad left so J and I decided to explore the area just a bit before it got dark.


We heard coyote pups in the distance as we discovered this pond not too far from our property:


There is this super cool rock on our property too. Not that I'm going to be using my cell phone much when were up here, but it is nice to know we get reception out here in the boonies! The only place I got it was when I climbed up on this rock. Therefore, we shall call this "Telephone Rock" heh. There's another really cool rock that I like to visit on the property, but I'll save that story and description for another post.

We heard a couple moose "talking" to each other this morning, but never managed to see them. I'm sure we will eventually. Well, there will be more to come later. Don't wanna blow it all on one post! I've got lots of pictures to post so keep tuned in.

Luke's Ball

J was working out in the yard again today. One of the many tasks he did was to put a new tennis ball on the end of the post that is used to stabilize our tree against the wild Wyoming wind. Luke (the "L" of JAKL) apparently thought his ball wasn't "old" enough to not be his toy any more.

Here's his story come to life in these short videos:

Stinx

Oh, our baby puppy Artie (the "A" of JAKL) is so cute. I have this special nickname for him -- "Stinx" -- mostly because he's so stinkin' cute but also because he literally stinks. And he's really not a puppy, he's 4 years old. That's 28 in human years or something like that.

The Great Harvest

I was required work at one of our offices in Glenrock, Wyoming today. Got up at o'dark thirty, got on the road at 6 a.m. and was at my destination a little after 8 a.m. I made the 2+hr journey back and arrived home around 5:30p.m. This travel made for a long day, but the weather was fair and pleasant so I didn't mind the drive.

J was working in the yard when I pulled up. While it was mild today, the frigid weather at the beginning of the week wrecked havoc on our backyard garden so he was cleaning up the wilted and frost-bitten vegetation that occurred above ground and it became *my* job to recover and harvest anything left underground. Thus I share the last fruits of our (well, mostly J's) labor.

Dirty picture. I love plucking our produce out of the ground. I love that deep, rich soil smell that sticks to the veggies and your hands. It's the fragrance of the just rewards of the seeds we have so diligently sown.

Clean picture. The last of the salvageable goods left in the ground are all squeaky clean and awaiting consumption. The bounty consists of 3 beautiful beets, 4 handsome carrots and one pearly white onion.

The ONLY thing left growning is the basil. We've rescued the entire container from the freezing weather and it will live inside with us for the entire winter adding as much yummy flavor as our hearts desire to our red sauces and other recipes. The vibrant green color is testiment to the fabulous flavor. Yes, it tastes as good as it looks. Nothing like fresh basil.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

It's ours! It's official. . .the wonderfully beautiful, isolated, forest-y space is officially ours! Closed today on the property. We're going up on Sunday morning to take some supplies to start working on all the projects this Spring/Summer.



Lots of work to be done to get the little cabin oasis to look like we imagine in our wildest dreams! We'll obviously be posting much more on this subject. Now to think of a name for our little getaway! Do we feel a contest on the way for this blog, perhaps? I wonder how many of your readers would even participate.


At any rate, I am so excited about this, I could just pee my pants. I would say "we" but I really can't speak for the rest of JAKL as they don't have overactive bladder syndrome like I do. I do know that J is super excited to start working on all the challenges this property will present. I have never owned anything of this magnitude. I'm excited at the notion of the finished product, inviting friends and family up for some weekend fun.

Happy Boithday to me

So, it was my birthday today. YAY! I had a great day. The above message was waiting for me when I arrived to the office today. One of my office mates scrolled out the message with roasted pinon nuts on my desktop calendar before leaving for the field this morning to happily greet me. Another co-worker baked me a yummyrific carrot cake; I went to lunch with a few friends; and yet another co-worker performed a death-defying act of sk8r kwel-ness sans sk8board for my entertainment pleasure as evidenced by the following video clip (I apologize in advance for the kink in the neck. . .didn't know how to flip it!):

Wasn't that awesome?!?!? Dazzling and amazing I might add. However, I was hoping for something a little more dramatic so that I could submit this video to the channels that host "Most Daring" or "Most Extreme" videos and win large sums of money. . .but I think it's just barely good enough to submit for my 3rd ever posting on our brand-new blog. Heh, heh. I guess you just had to be there.

Later on in the evening, J & I went to grab a pizza and beer at O.C. for dinner. My birthday day was a pleasant one other than the fact that I had to actually work and not get to sleep in or watch silly movies like Tank Girl or Little Darlins or some other right-of-passage-chick-flick. But I'm not complainin'. Life's been good to me so far as evidenced by the Ghosts of Birthdays Past:

Number 1:

Year 6 - notice the crown:

Aren't the curtains groovy? Yes, it was the 70's.

And exactly 30 yrs ago today:

Happy Anniversary to us

It's J & K's 3 month anniversary! In case you forgot we got married on July 4th. Can't believe the time has gone by so quickly. Summer's quickly fading and Fall is sneaking up on us during the night and Old Man Winter will be staring us in the eye soon. Anyways, feel free to send any type of anniversary gift you see fit. Federal Reserve Notes happily accepted! heh.

Okay, here's a "How Well Do You Know Your Friends" type quiz for you: In what year did J & K's first date take place?

Please e-mail me your answers. First right answer will be the weener. . .I mean winner of fabulous prizes, namely MY everlasting friendship! :)

(Cyber)Space. . .the final frontier!

Aiight! Here we go. Collectively we, JAKL, just acquired some space. Oh, not just any space, mind you, but lovely, fresh-aired, forest-y, mountainous, isolated space! A space all our very own to enjoy wildlife and unwind from the craziness that life creates. Here's a photo so you can see the loveliness of it all.

Yep! That's me, K, there waving. But not in a friendly "hello" type of way more like a "HEY YOU KIDS GET OFF MY PROPERTY!" type way! Heh, heh. Just kidding! Come on in out of the chilly air!

In celebration of this newly acquired space, we thought it appropriate to acquire some long-awaited cyberspace in order to chronicle the life and times of us, JAKL, at our lovely space as well as document some of the other boring stuff we do during the time that passes. We are assured by friends and loved ones alike that our blog WILL be read on a regular basis. So here is our blog, brought to you by faith. We hope you like-y! Let the madness begin. . .