Back home, back at it

We are still getting a lot of storms.
Typical spring storms but thankfully no hail or tornadoes.
Saw this on my way to the grocery store.
Storm clouds and a double rainbow.

Later in the day it looked like this.

Went down to the pond again to see if I could catch any fish to see how they are doing.
Caught this guy.  He is fat and healthy which is good.

The new apple trees have blossoms this year.
(I'm sure the japanese beetles will love the apples)

The "Betty Magnolia" bush (that really is it's name) has a lot of blooms this year.
Alan tried to force it to be a tree by trimming it.
It kept reverting to a bush.
It's a bush.

This turkey has been coming up to eat at the birdfeeder.
We are certainly getting a variety of birds!
I'm going to call him Roscoe.
Or Barnaby.
Or whatever name I remember when I see him.

Did another pond check.
Another healthy bass about 12" long.

Also caught this little vicious fighter.
He was quite the fighter!
I release all the fish I catch back into the pond.
This little guy means our bass are making babies.
We probably need to thin some bass out or add more prey food.
Maybe next year we can have the pond guy come out and check it out.
We have almost no frogs or turtles now.

Alan's field of shame.
He thought he had a good kill on the dandelions.
I don't think so.

Saw this cute car when I was out and about.
He even has Fin's stormtrooper # on the bumper.

The sun on the way home was a giant orange ball one night on the horizon.
I tried to capture a pic but didn't do very well.

Did another training hike.
I need to try to keep the sun off me and that includes my hands.
The body is easy.  Hands....well I knew I needed gloves.
I wear gardening gloves all day so I thought I'd try these out.
The grippy part helps with holding the poles.
They cover better than cycling gloves.

The wild phlox is blooming.
It is so pretty to see in the woods.
I remember seeing it in the woods across from my house growing up.

I came across this newly dug hole on the trail.
Badger???
I waited but didn't hear anything.

So I walked up and around it and stuck my phone out over it to take this pic.
Whatever it is, it is big.
Woodchuck?  I don't know.
I didn't stick around to find out.

This tree (red oak?) has beautiful new leaves.
I'm assuming it is red oak since our red oak had similar leaves.

Hey Mr. Snail!  You're on the trail and you're going to be crushed by the mountain bike guy.
I moved him out of the way.

These were everywhere.
So delicate.  

There were thousands of violets too.
Purple, lavender and white ones.
Love spring flowers.

Also saw this guy.
Looks like a tick if you zoom in.
I sent it to Backyard Farmer.
They had it on their show.  In fact, it was the first pic they showed.
They said it is not a tick.  It's a mite.
It is amazingly red.  And harmless.

I stopped at an antique store to just browse around.
Came up on this and thought WTF???
Boy, that sure looks like.....

Then I read the tag.
Yep.  It is what I thought.
And it's freaking expensive.
I bet it has a cool story or two to tell.
I told Alan I would not make one for our house.

My cuben fiber arrived so I started making my sacks for my gear.
If you are not familiar with it, cuben fiber or dyneema is very strong and ultra light weight.
It comes like fabric cut off a roll.  It feels like plastic paper and you can sew it.
Then you cover the seam with dyneema tape and it is waterproof.

The coating on my hiking umbrella started to be rubbed off by my arm when I put it in the pole holder under my arm.
So I decided to make a lightweight sleeve for it.

Ta-da!
Protection without the weight.
The original sleeve was really heavy.  This weighs almost nothing.

I made a lightweight bag for my down jacket and modeled the size on the orange bag.

Ta-da!  I made it a dry bag with a pull tab on the bottom.
Makes it easier to pull things out.

I wanted a lighter weight fanny pack.
I modeled it after my gummy bear pack.

This is a fraction of the weight of the gummy pack.
It is a little wider so it can hold my phone, map book and snacks.
It also has loops on the side so it can be clipped on as a chest pouch and straps so it can be a fanny pouch.

I wanted to protect my stove so I made a little pouch out of the thicker dyneema.

And I wanted a pillow to sleep on.  HMG makes a stuff sack that has fleece on one side.
So I made a pouch with fleece on one side.  A bugger to sew since dyneema is slippery but it worked great.

I pulled out all of my gear, went through my list and came up with this big pile.
(it includes a couple of things I am loaning to Jody)
This is everything I need to complete the first two segments of the Colorado Trail.
I will be going with Jody and David.  (David has never done a backpacking trip)
We will drive to CO, stay at a 3 bedroom Air B&B house, then meet our shuttle gal at her house, leave Jody's car and get a ride to the Waterton Canyon parking lot where she will drop us off for our 30 mile hike.
Then when we are almost to the end I will send a Spot message to her to let her know we are ready to be picked up.
It's a plan.  We just hope it all works out easy peasy.