The Big Move

We’ve found the house of our dreams and are now looking forward to getting into it.  This comes at a big price of course, namely our sanity.  Saturday, December 5, 09 was to be the first foray to the new house with some of our belongings.  It isn’t our house yet, but we do have permission to move stuff into the garage, so we set out to fill it up.  When the signing happens on the 14th we want to be able to move right in.

Saturday was spent cleaning out the basement and above the garage.  Bonnie packed up tons of stuff and we moved it all out to our garage, which we’ve been using as a staging area.

Of course Sunday was the first snow storm of the season.  I got up, shoveled the truck off and loaded it up and made the first trip to the new house.  Bonnie couldn’t help move at first because someone’s got to take care of Rowan.  She did get some stuff packed up, but babies are such high demand little critters it’s hard to get anything done. 

We threw Ro in the truck on the second trip and he slept and Bonnie was able to help out this time, and man, did it go a lot faster with her helping.  I called Chey who put some of her plans on hold and she watched Ro while we made a couple of more trips.  In the end we emptied a good bit of our garage and got a lot of stuff stored over the garage at the new house.  Sweet.

Bonnie has been going crazy keeping track of all the details of the financial side.  Seems like there’s some kind of little emergency every day that has to be dealt with.  Ahh, such is the nature of buying a house.

Getting Big!

Guess who’s sitting up by himself now?

Yup, once he figured it out he got it down cold.  Ok, he’s still a little wobbly, but before too long he’ll be asking me for the car keys and I fully intend to enjoy him while he’s still a baby.

Awhile back I promised to put a picture of Chey on here of when we hiked Mt. Katahdin a few years ago.  It’s the highest mountain in Maine at just over a mile high and it’s a pretty tough hike – especially if you’re out of shape like she was at the time.  Not to mention the fact that we got up at 4:00 am, drove to Katahdin, climbed it and then drove home again.  Look at her expression in this photo.  I love it.

 

Here I am on that same hike, cool as a cucumber.  :-)

One of these days we’ll all hike to the top.  It’ll have to be when Ro is older of course, but before I get too old to hobble up there. 

Thoughts on the Economy

Notes:

-Jobs are still being lost – just at a slower rate
-Jobless recovery?  Who are they kidding?
-Double dip recession?  The 3.5% increase we saw was due to cash for clunkers and the real estate tax break.  There really hasn’t been a break in the recession.  This was an artificial bump in a chart – something made because of the government’s stimulus package.
-Fiat money system.  You can’t keep printing money and putting it into circulation without debasing the dollar eventually.  Hyperinflation could become a real possibility.  Look at Germany before WWII.
-History shows that every time a government has tried to print it’s way out of debt that it debases the currency of the time causing an economic disaster.  Ancient Rome did the same thing, although it took hundreds of years before it finally fell.
-The banks on wall street are taking stimulus money that they should be lending to U.S. consumers and are investing it instead.  With a 0% interest rate that’s quite a deal for them and very hard to resist for companies that are only in it for the bottom line.  The more money they can make the happier they are.    To hell with the rest of the country.
-The U.S. has built up massive debt over the last 30 years with the advent of credit cards.  It’s not that credit cards are a bad thing, it’s just that most people who use credit cards do so irresponsibly.  If you don’t have the cash to pay off your debt at the end of the month then you shouldn’t spend, but people do and that’s part of the problem with the economy today.  U.S. citizens consumed like crazy, buying everything from cell phones to new cars on the credit cards running themselves into mountains of debt.
-Now that we’re actually seeing the evil of our ways and trying to spend less, the country is in big trouble.  Spending creates need.  When consumers are buying stuff inventory levels drop and businesses must manufacture things in order to keep up with this demand.  Well, we spent and spent and spent, and now that the bubble has burst and people are looking around and saying, “Well, I wish I hadn’t bought all this stuff now,” so they stop buying.  This creates a vacuum where there used to be a demand for goods and services, and with this drop in demand people are getting laid off from their jobs, and the cycle goes around and around.  The more people that get laid off the more people are being thrifty with their money.  The banks are supposed to be loaning the trillions of dollars to the consumers so that they can go back to consumers, but with the higher standard the banks are demanding for credit card holders it’s harder for users to get approved for credit.  With this lack of cash being spent there is no demand and thus more jobs lost.  Until this trend is broken there will be no recovery.  There can be no recovery.
-If the government keeps giving money away they might as well put money straight into the bank accounts of all it’s citizens instead of trying to run it through the banks.  People would take the money – whatever it may be, let’s say $10,000 – and spend it on something extravagant that would help boost the economy. 

This will never happen of course, at least I hope not.  But it does show the idiocy of what the government is currently doing to the economy. 

Hiking report for Chairback Gap 11/8/2009

On Friday Dave Maddox and I loaded up his truck and took off for the Gulf Hagas area.  We got there around 7:00 pm and grabbed one of the campsites along the side of the road just after you pass the Katahdin Iron Works.  We set up Dave’s tent, made a fire and some coffee, and hit the rack early so we could get a good head start the next morning.

We got up around 5:00 am on Sunday and were on the trail a little after 7:00.  It was fairly cold and we hit snow almost immediately.  The trail goes uphill fairly steady at that point for a couple of miles and we were taking it easy as the snow obscured the footing just enough to make it dangerous.  I was taken out of that area by ambulance once and have no desire to do it again!

Our goal was to get to the Cloud Pond lean-to, which is about an 11.3 mile hike; however, after the first couple of miles I was thinking that it wasn’t going to be possible given our slow pace.  When we hit the Chairback Gap boulder scramble I knew we wouldn’t make it to Cloud Pond.  The slide is steep and was covered in just enough snow to make it slippery and dangerous.  We took it easy going up and Dave still managed a pretty nasty slip about 1/4 of the way up. 
Boulder Scramble up Chairback

It took us a little under four hours to get the 4.3 miles to Chairback Gap.  It was about 11:00 am by that point and if we were going to go another seven hours we’d be on the trail way after dark.  Since we were having a hard time seeing the blaze marks with all the snow we decided to set up camp at Chairback and just climb to the top of Columbus and see what it looked like up there. 

 

Dave on top of Columbus

It’s a small hike and little boulder scramble to get to the top of Columbus.  There isn’t a whole lot in the way of a view, but we did get a few pictures while were up there.

After we got back from the top we got some wood together and got a fire going and just sat back and enjoyed the evening.  I’d forgotten how quiet it gets in the back country.  It’s so peaceful up there when the conditions are right…

We turned in around 7:00 as it was starting to get cold.  I had my mp3 player with me with some podcasts on it and I listened to that for awhile before I fell asleep.  I usually like to write in my journal, but I forgot it this trip!!! 
Me and Dave

We got up Sunday morning around 5:00.  Dave had basically frozen his ass off all night even with his –20 sleeping bag.  I was a little chilly if I didn’t have my –15 bag zipped up properly, but for the most part I felt fine.  Bonnie is often disgusted at how warm I stay when I’m sleeping.  Anyway, I think part of Dave’s problem had to do with the fact that we were sleeping on a platform in the lean-to and that cold air was circulating underneath us all night long. 

 
Lean-to – this is where we slept

A couple of notes about the trip:

1.  Bring my freakin’ journal next time!

2.  The little butane stove doesn’t work for shit in cold weather.  The next time I go on a cold weather trip make sure to bring the good camp fuel heater.  The butane stove would eventually heat the water up, but it took a long time and the flame never really got what I would consider to be hot.

3.  Dave wants to look for a better sleeping mat.  He thinks part of the problem of being cold was the fact that the sleeping mat wasn’t adequate. 

4.  Get new gaiters.  The ones I have are old and no longer adequate.

5.  Need new cold weather gloves.  Also, when hiking in the winter bring a pair of lightweight liners next time, so as not to have my warm gloves all wet and sweaty when I really need them.

6.  Have a set of warm dry clothes in the vehicle for the trip home.  Driving home with wet pants and boots sucks major ass.

7.  Get a new filter for my water filter.  Also, evaluate how long the pump filter will work in cold weather before it freezes up.  Will probably have to melt ice and snow in order to get water in the deep snow.  I’ve done this in the past and it works well.

8.  Cell phone coverage in the back country continues to be a problem.  I was able to text Bonnie a few times, but for the most time there was no signal on my phone.  Dave’s worked a little better, but he went a good bit of the time with no signal as well.  Instead of becoming dependent on cell phone communication it makes sense to be better prepared to do a self rescue if needed.  Also, an extra day or two of food in the field is a good idea. 

Let it snow!

This past Friday we had a couple inches of snow at the house and Bonnie took that time to get Rowan out for his first look at the snow. 

As you can see he seemed to be enjoying himself as Bonnie (aka Rudolph) pulled him around the house a couple of times.  This is really good practice for when he gets on the big sled this winter and we drag him through the forest for some winter time fun.

Winter’s Coming!

With winter on the way I’m already turning my thoughts to ice climbing and camping out.  This weekend Bonnie and I bought a toboggan for our camping trips.  The toboggan was originally designed by the Micmac Indians for transporting heavy loads over the snow.  http://www.answers.com/topic/toboggan#

Anyway, we bought an 8’ toboggan that had only been used a couple of times for $50.  And yes, Bonnie found this treasure on Craig’s list.  I’m looking forward to trying it out with some gear on it!

And with winter comes ice climbing.  I had Chey out last year climbing with me in the Camden Hills and we had a good time.
            Chey ice climbing

Bonnie went out with me, but by that time she was about seven months pregnant and couldn’t climb due to the fact that her seat barely fit around her.  Below is a picture of her belaying for me while I climbed.

      Yeah, she’s cool.

Here’s one last picture.  This is me doing the lead climb to set up a belay station. 

This section of the climb isn’t too challenging, but it’s a good warm up and pretty fun.  Bonnie will be up there this winter. 

Cold weather camping with a baby

It’s near the end of October now and Bonnie and I both love cold weather camping.  One of the big questions is, “Can we take a six month old boy cold weather camping?”

Answer:  My ancestors lived in the cold for thousands of years so why not? 

The first thing I did was to research the web using a “cold weather camping with baby” search string.  As usual, I found some really good advice about cold weather camping mixed up with some information  that was just wrong. 

If you’ve never done cold weather camping and you think we’re crazy for even thinking about doing it with a baby you should probably stop reading here. 

Having done the preliminary research here’s some (hopefully) good ideas that I’m going to put to the test.  First – dress the baby much as you’d dress yourself for cold weather.  Layer him up!  I’ll be discussing this with Bonnie for more ideas, but my first hard and fast rule of cold weather camping is that you do not wear cotton.  I’ll say that again.   No cotton.  Cotton kills in cold weather folks.  Therefore we need to find some synthetic clothes for the Little Guy to wear.  The first layer is synthetic and then a sleeper made from light wool or something like that.  Then one of his little sleeper bags all stuffed inside of a bigger zero degree kids bag.  Heat is lost through the head, so we need to make sure he has a good warm hat.  Lay him between us on his own sleeping mat and he should be good to go. 

Don’t think that we won’t test all of this out either.  We set up my friend’s (Dave Maddox) tent yesterday to see how it does through a windy and rainy day.  First of all, this is a North Face three person four season tent that is far superior to what I’m currently using.  Thanks Dave, I have serious tent envy right now.  Anyway, Bonnie, Ro and I went out this afternoon in the middle of the rain and hung out for an hour just to see what it’s like. 

First of all, the tent itself is awesome.  I must have one.  I set up my little ultralight tent, which is now about ten years old, next to Dave’s and when I looked inside it was drenched!  I’m glad I took the time to set it up last night otherwise the next time I was caught in a rain storm in it I’d have been miserable.

Second, it was warm enough that it doesn’t even come close enough to consider it cold weather camping (at least in my book.)  Bonnie and Ro hanging out in the tent

We made some coffee, laid out the sleeping bags and talked about ways of keeping Ro warm when it comes time to do a real cold weather sleep out.

Other cold weather considerations for a baby.  When you’ve got him on the toboggan and you’re pulling it through the woods and sweating your ass off guess what?  The baby is just riding and needs to be dressed accordingly.  Again, layers of synthetic clothing or wool, and a good hat and mittens are crucial.  A little gem I found on the web that makes good sense:  if you touch the back of the babies neck and he’s sweating, let him cool off a little bit, he’s too hot. 

I can tell you from personal experience that if you get wet in cold weather you're about two seconds from getting hypothermic if the temperature drops and you’ve stopped moving.

The big day

Well, Today I finally paid off my last credit card.  Hard to believe after I’ve been paying on the damned things for about five years now.  I walked away from the divorce with about $35k in debt, yep, $35,000.  Most of it my own damned fault too. 

Instead of declaring bankruptcy I dug down deep and with a little financial advice from Dave Ramsey I put a plan in place and stuck to it for over five years.  That’s a long time, but I finally did it.  It’s almost an anticlimax after all this time, but I’m so happy to be done with it. 

Hiking Mt Megunticook

We picked up a backpack carrier for Ro yesterday and took it for a spin today up Megunticook to Maiden's cliff.

This is going to open up a lot of possibilities that the little Snugli front carrier didn't and we're both really excited about it. Finally back to hiking!! And just in time for fall as Bonnie noted.

We've got a sled picked out for winter and we're looking forward to pulling him through the snow on our snowshoes. I can see a winter summit push coming up for Ragged this winter. Not when we need ice axes or crampons or anything like that, but maybe a deep snow hike with him all bundled up in his snow suit. Can't wait!

We left the parking lot this morning around 11:15 or so. The hike to Maiden's cliff is pretty easy and we made it up there in about a 1/2 hour of fairly slow walking. I had my pack, which is stuffed full of surival stuff (that comes in handy when hiking) and some food and water, and Bonnie carried Bowling Ball Butt in the baby backpack. (How's that for alliteration?)

Once we got to the top we stopped at the cross for a little while to enjoy the view then went a little further along the ridge trail and laid out the sleeping bag liner, broke out some snacks, and sat back and enjoyed the beautiful day and the incredible view. And what a beautiful day it was!

There are more pictures, but they're on Bonnie's camera and I don't feel like messing around with it right now. So, you'll just have to wait for the scenery pictures.

The Little Guy

Watching the sun set...

Here's me and Rowan on top of Spruce Moutain here in Maine a couple of days ago. We put him in the baby carrier and he tags along with us whever we go.

Rowan is a little over four months old now and it's really amazing how fast he's growing. He went to the doctors last night and weighed in at a whopping 17 1/2 lbs, which puts him in the 90th percentile of his age group. He's a beast!

Bonnie and I have started taking him on short hiking trips and it's really fun to watch him experience new things. Bonnie loves to take him and put his feet in the grass, or let him run his hand over some leaves, or let him get his feet wet in the pool. All new and exciting experiences for him.

He's really becoming quite the little chatter box too. I like to tease Bonnie that it's her side of the family manifesting itself. In the mornings when she's getting him ready for daycare he starts yelling at her and can get himself worked up into a pretty good lather. It's pretty entertaining watch him.

Rowan will experience the great outdoors. Bonnie and I love to hike, camp, climb, ice climb, and anything else that will take us outside and keep us there. Cheyenne (my daughter) isn't as interested in being outside, but she does know how to handler heself to an extent. If I give her a match and tell her to get a fire lit she can do it. Not bad for a 17 year old. I've got a good picture of Chey taken on Mt. Katahdin a couple of years ago that I'll publish here later.

Here's a picture of Ro in the carrier.

One last picture of Bonnie and Ro: