Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

It was January 15th the last time I wrote here. I had high hopes of a winter full of ice-fishing, shooting trap in the snow, telemarking, x-country skiing, hare hunting, packing up hills, going to the gym, perhaps painting, making beer, and perhaps getting out and doing something more exciting so I could write about it.

Since that day approximately 5 weeks ago I have accomplished none of those things except brewing beer. I guess we can see where my priorities lie.

Ahh, it's been a typical winter for me...at least as far as my mental state goes. I have such a hard time this time of year, but I'm starting to question whether or not it's because of "winter" in and of itself. For longer than I can remember it's been bluebird weather. No snow, no rain, barely crossing the freezing point at night. Nothing is changing except our snowpack which keeps dropping at a significant rate. The NEPA season is definitely upon me and I think that is the reason I get in a funk this time of year. I work on every project this District decides to pursue, because for some reason EVERY project needs a map (I personally disagree.) Right now we have two large projects progressing at the same rate and at about the same stage of analysis. Last Thursday I had an all-day meeting for one, then spent Friday frantically making all the updates so the specialists didn't have to wait (because our timelines are so freaking tight.) Then, following a very short weekend, which are all like that anymore, I had another all-day meeting for the other project (no shit...10 hour day and spent 8 hours of that in that meeting.) Yesterday was spent making THOSE changes. It's been like this for weeks. In and out. Needless to say, it can easily make a guy crazy. On the weekends, Sarah and I try to get out on Saturday since we see so little of each other during the week and I spend Sunday at the trap club shooting while Sarah studies. The weather doesn't change, the work doesn't change, the pattern/routine after work doesn't change, the weekends are all the same...before a guy knows it, it's Monday and the whole thing starts again. It's tiring, frustrating, irritating...any synonym will work here.

Okay, got that out of my system, let's look at some accomplishments.

Not sure if I mentioned it or not, but I went out with the guy who does our snowpack surveys one day. That was a good time spent getting paid to play in the snow up at Lookout Pass. At the time they were only sitting at 5 feet total and it was STABLE. Fun to ride in on sleds, cruise around on snowshoes and dig holes. Makes me question my career choice, but I suppose given my current situation I'm still available to go out with folks who DO these fun things...so it's not all bad!


Dan checking the layers


Where we were!

Boy this is sad, I'm drawing a blank on other things that happened. That's not good.

Uhm, the beer making thing went well. By far the most time-consuming part is the cleaning / sanitation. The pre-packaged mort definitely took a lot of work out of it too. But, the process took a good couple of weeks and I just bottled it on President's day. I'm taking my time and letting it age for a solid month before trying it out. Fortunately that's working out well with St. Patty's day!

I just started a gallon of wine too! For some reason I'm still a sucker for the wine-process...probably because it's simpler. I was hoping I'd have enough leftover blackberries for a full five gallons, but I don't. I had exactly four pounds, which is what it takes to make a gallon...so that's what I'm doing. I'm guessing it'll be fairly decent come next fall / winter. Turned out very well last time so I'm eager to see if I can replicate the results. If I can, I'm going to try and get 20 lbs of blackberries this year.

I got my MVUM approved Monday. The first one ever made on this Forest and the culmination of four years of work! Cheers.

Boy, I'm having a terrible time writing this. I just cannot think of things that have been going on.

As an indicator to what I deal with at work, I created this yesterday:

I'm tired of the last-minute "I need this NOW" crap because it interrupts my workflow and makes me sloppy. I'm rapidly realizing that I need to learn to say "no" and only do what I can if I want to put out a quality product.

Reading back through this it's fairly obvious that my job is stressing me out.

But at least it's snowing outside! First time in months!

Whoops.

Nope.

It turned to rain. Welcome to Coeur d'Alene.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!