A learning weekend.

This past weekend, Cindy, Zach and I traveled to Northern Utah for a mission farewell. It was kind of a spur of the moment and Cindy pulled a wild card to get me to go. It is about a 9 hour drive and at first Cindy tried to sell it to me by saying that we could go shopping. I told her that the secret to a sell is not to try to sell something by offering something that was a reward for your self, but by offering a reward that the person you are selling it to, would want. Shopping is not something that interests me one bit. In fact I hate shopping. I am even getting to the point that I don't like shopping at sporting goods stores. Maybe I have everything? I don't know. So she hit me below the belt by saying that I could purchase a gas boat motor that I had been looking at. So of course I went. It worked out pretty good and we had a really good time. We didn't ever spend that much time shopping. It was nice to see familyand friends and even get to know family and friends that I didn't know. I learned a few things this weekend and I thought I would list them.

Lessons Learned this weekend:

1. I learned that City folks laugh at you when they ask you to go in and get a knife and you don't have to because you already have one in your pocket.

2. I learned that there are people that are crazier about duck hunting than I am.

3. I learned that Rick has a specific time set out every day to tan.

4. I learned that Rick takes his tan very seriously.

5. I learned that cats, if treated right can eventually evolve into dogs.

7. I learned that a great way to entertain kids is to teach them death and submission holds. (I hope they don't use them)

8. I learned (from church) that Rick is not Satan, and that no matter how much you like Ozzy Ozbourne you can still raise good kids.

9. I learned that the only services on the 180 mile stretch between Rock Springs and Rawlins are for fireworks and porn. (which leaves me with the question, What goes through a persons mind when they stop at the porn shop 100 miles from everything? Are you just driving along that miserable stretch of road of I80 and the thought pops into you mind...."Man this trip sucks, I've gotta see something necckid."? I mean the thought did pop into my mind about needing fireworks. But I'm a redneck, I need fireworks. (I just got confused and went to the wrong store)J/K

10. I learned that in the town of Rawlins WY. Meth is considered one of the four basic food groups.

11. I learned that if you ever needed to staff a carnival, Rawlins WY is a great place to start.

So I guess that it was a learning experience and I had a good time. It was nice to see everyone. I wouldn't even have minded one more day.

Rainy Days

Iv'e never understood why our society calls a bad day a rainy day. E.G. "I'm saving up for a rainy day". Today is a rainy day in Sheridan and I love rainy days. It is impossible for me to have a bad day when it is raining. I love the smell, the coolness, and the wet look the earth gets. I probably should move to Washington State where it rains all the time. I wonder if I would get tired of the rain? I really don't think that I would. Today has been a nice cool 70 degrees and that is the way it is supposed to be. I think that we should call bad days "hot dusty days" or "I aint fishin days" or "Hillary Clinton just got elected days" I mean those are bad days not rainy days.
Today I was at my construction site inspecting and taking pictures and a couple of bucks jumped up. Here are some pictures. You may have to click on the pics to see the buck good. That is a good day when I see a buck. I live in an area where I probably see at least 10 deer on a bad day. When I see a big buck that makes me happy like a rainy day. So to say the least, bucks+rainy day=happy Dave.

Rattle Snakes

This morning I was driving up the drive out of the Ranch and near the mailbox found a rattlesnake coiled in the road. I was in a hurry so I pulled up to the snake slowly in my car and ran it over. It made a popping noise similar to that of a small balloon popping, it was kind of gross. I left my car on top of it and got out of the car to check it out. It was decent sized, so I took out my pocket knife at cut off the buttons. It only had about 9 buttons. I hate rattle snakes and this unfortunate snake was in a highly traveled area. I jog past the route every couple of days and my wife takes the baby for walks to the mailbox quite often. It was about 3/4 miles away from the house. I just didn't want to take the chance of someone getting bit, or my dog getting bit, or a cow getting bit for that matter. It was kind of odd and I noticed this but I actually felt bad about killing the snake. I don't know why. I mean with my hunting situation I kill a lot of animals. In fact to give you a number, in the past year, I have killed 3 deer, 1 elk, 1 antelope, 20 geese, 30-40 ducks, a couple of pheasants, 200+ prairie dogs, 10 rabbits, 4 raccoons, 7 skunks and a partridge in a pear tree.(there is probably more but I think you get the picture) I don't waste animals, I eat every thing I kill except the prairie dogs , coons, skunks and rabbits and don't remember feeling bad about killing any of them. But snakes I feel bad about. I just can't figure it out. I don't kill any other snakes besides rattlesnakes, but it is weird. maybe I am weird, well there is no maybe about it. I don't think that I have ever killed a snake and not felt bad about it. Maybe I am not supposed to kill snakes, I can't figure it out. I was never taught not to kill snakes, I hate having them around, I am scared of snakes, but I feel bad about killing them. Maybe I am just screwed up.
Any analysis would be appreciated.

Here is a picture I took at the construction site that I am over seeing. It's kind of a cool view.

Photo Contest, Mesa AZ

These are photos submitted by Chel of Canyon Lake near Mesa AZ. Not too bad for AZ

More Canyon Lake

Canyon Lake

Photo Contest "Ennis Montana"

The Following pictures were submitted by Ricky Sixx of Madison County, Montana.

More Madison County

More Madison County, Montana

Life lessons from a laxative.

My senior year in high school, near pinnacle of my wrestling career, I had a life lesson. It was about mid-season wrestling season. I was having a good year and doing quite well. In fact I don't think that I had lost any wrestling matches up to then. I had just made a weight cut from 152 to 145 lbs. It was one week before Christmas and I had just one match before the Christmas break. It was a dual meet between Pine View (a St. George team). I was lined up to wrestle a tough opponent, a kid that I had wrestled previously and beat. The first match was a tough match but ultimately I got a lucky head throw and pinned him in second round. I remember feeling lucky because I could tell that if I wasn't on the ball all the time with this kid he could beat me.
Well, the morning of the dual meet came and I got on the scale at about six AM and realized that I was about 4 lbs over weight. I was feeling a little lazy and didn't feel like running all morning to loose the weight so I sluffed class and drove up to Wal-mart for a little diet aid. I had heard from a couple of friends that they were successful loosing weight fast by taking Ex-lax, so I thought I would give it a try. I hadn't ever tried this magical chemical and to my surprise it came in little chocolate bars. I though it was too good to be true. I bought the box and went out to my car, read the directions and took two pieces of chocolate. I liked the chocolate though it had a little chalky taste to it. But who cared it was chocolate, I hadn't had that in a couple of months. Instead of going back to school, I went to the mechanics shop at the college where I had a class, and a fellow wrestler was there working on his truck. I decided that I would hang out with him just in case the chocolate kicked in. After about an hour of helping my friend I realized that the chocolate wasn't working. I figured that it was because I was dehydrated, and figured that it may take a larger dose to make it kick in. So I took one more bar. Another hour passed and I was getting worried. No happy ending. So I wisely took another bar. By the end of the school day, I boarded the bus with 5 servings of Ex-lax brewing in me. I couldn't explain it just the fact that maybe Ex-lax was like firecrackers, every now and then you get a pack of duds. The whole trip down I spit in a cup to try to get a little more weight off, and when we got to the other school's locker room fortunately I was only about a half pound over weight. So I threw on some plastics with some sweats to cover them and went for a run. It only took about 30 minutes of running to get down to the weight that I needed to be. I weighed in, made weight, showered and got ready for the matches. Still no moving experiences. The Pine View Gymnasium was packed that night as I warmed up. My School was only 45 minutes away, so most of my school was there, friends, family and of course girls that I liked. I was excited. I wanted a quick win. Then I could relax, get some cookies and take a break until after Christmas. After watching the lower weight my match came, I ran to the score keepers to check in and get an ankle band. I strapped on the identity band and ran out to the middle of the mat. The referee had us shake hands, and then it happened. I felt a rumble that I had never felt. It felt like it had come from the very depths of hell. It felt like the final battle from Braveheart had just erupted in the lower most part of my colon. I knew that I was in trouble.
The referee said "wrestle", and we were off. We circled, and instead of my regular low stance I had an awkward high "clenched stance" which allowed my opponent to easily take me down. I remember falling to my belly trying to decide how to better keep my dignity. Do I loose the match and loose my state ranking? Or do I loose something else and loose all social status that I had ever earned or for that matter would ever earn? While I was trying to make up my mind my opponent turned me and got a couple of more points. Here I was trying my best to keep the floods gates closed. It seemed like my stomach was going through stages every 10 seconds for each dose that I took. I found myself praying one of the most sincere prayers that has ever been uttered on a wrestling mat. I made at least 10 promises to God of things that I would change in my life, if only he would help me pull this off. I found myself humbled, trying to think of any sin that I could sell off in exchange for some type of saving grace. Then I happened, I noticed an opening in my opponents game, the same opening that I had found in our previous match. A perfect chance to stand up and sink a head throw. I reached up and sunk the head lock deep and threw him hard onto his back. The position gave me the advantage and there was no way in the world that this kid was going to get away. It took about 15 seconds for the referee to hit the mat. I had won and I knew who was responsible. I jumped up. We shook hands, my hand was raised and I ran off the mat. I made it. I knew how I made it, and I knew who made it possible.
Ever since then, I have found myself in similar situations, not Ex-lax situations but others that my dumb decisions have gotten me in to. I find myself selling off sins for some type of redemption. It's kind of funny and strange is some sort of sick way because it always seems like I get bailed out. It seems like I am always finding mercy, even when I don't deserve it.

My Pocket Knife

It's Friday and I just got back into the office. The 98 degree heat is getting to me so Cindy, Zach and I are going camping in the mountains to do a little fishing and get out of the heat.

I want to write about my pocket knife. Last Christmas my wife gave me a pocket knife. I was a yellow handled, three blade, stockman Case brand knife. It is a pretty nice knife. Case makes a good knife they normally use Chrome vanadium for the steel which is a good steel for a blade. It sharpens easily and does a pretty good job at staying sharp with regular use. Chrome Vanadium corrodes if you don't keep it clean and oil it regularly. The stockman is a knife designed for stockmen. I'm not much of a stockman so I use mine for other purposes. I tried to take care of the knife, just because its a good knife, (and the last Case my wife gave me I had for 1.5 weeks until I lost it.) But I got a little careless with the new knife. During a visit to my parents house for my Baby's blessing I would sneak out to the garage and cut pieces of cake for my older brother and I, I think that the cake was hidden from my brother and I. In the heat of the cake battle I didn't take the time to clean off my knife. I just licked the Icing off the blade and put it into my pocket. Later when I returned to Sheridan I pulled the knife out and cleaned it up. One thing that I noticed was a little black spot on the blade. I didn't think much of it. I noticed that every time I used my knife and didn't clean and oil it immediately after the spot would grow. I went fishing a couple of days ago and did some wading. I got my shorts wet and in my pocket was my knife. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the knife until I pulled it out a couple of days later. When I opened the blades I noticed that my main blade was completely covered in rust. Not only that but the rust had spread to the other two blades. I think that it will take a lot of work to get the knife clean again, a lot more work than it would have normally taken if I would have took care of it in the first place.
I think that we are a little like a good pocket knife. If we keep ourselves clean mind and body, we are able to function the way that God intended us. I think that we need to be very careful that we don't corrupt or allow the little corruptions to enter our lives. I don't think that we wake up one morning corrupted and lost. I think that it happens a little at a time. Perhaps with an unhealthy thought. We dwell on the thought until it makes sense to us to make an action. Maybe not a big action at first but before we know it we find ourselves making the big actions . The sad part come when our actions start to bring others down with us.
I guess my point is if we stop ourselves at the thought we can save a lot of cleaning at the end.

Dusty and hot

I am dusty and hot. Have Dust in my eyes, have dust in my clothes, have dust in my ears. It is dusty and hot. I have been working on a water tank and it is dusty and hot. I think that they should used the water truck more to wet the ground because it is so dusty and hot. It is a 100 degrees at the water tank and that is hot. It is Wyoming and it is not supposed to be hot. When you combine the heat and the dust you get dusty and hot and that is what I have is dusty and hot. I wonder if that is what it is like in hell? Is it dusty and hot? I bet it is. I bet that it is dusty and hot and you have to wear contact lenses in hell and have to deal with dusty and hot. I am back in the office and it's not so dusty and hot but I am still dusty. I think that I want to be good so I don't have to be dusty and hot for the eternity. I think that being dusty and hot is the worse thing that you can be. I might take a bath in a couple of days so I am not so Dusty and hot. I don't think that anybody likes someone that is dusty and hot. It is OK to just be hot just not dusty and hot. I wonder if I sprayed myself with Endust before I went to work if I would get dusty? That may be worth a try. If it works I think that I will make a product that combines Endust with some high class Cologne like Stetson. I would be a rich Jose. Don't anyone steal my Idea. I know that no one has ever thought of this. If you are interested in purchasing a bottle of my high quality dust-repelling cologne, then just leave your info in my comments box. And send me 20 bucks.

Beautiful Mesa

This is a photo submitted for the contest. This little piece of heaven is called Mesa Arizona. Enjoy.

Wyoming Vs. Montana

My Uncle, (I will not mention his name, goes by the screen name of Ricki Sixx) and I were having a discussion about what is prettier country, Montana or Wyoming. He felt that he could make a good argument for Montana. I told him to send me some photos and I would post them and people could vote. He declined. Today I was actually working on the Montana/Wyoming border and took a photo of Wyoming and turned a 180 and took a photo of Montana. I will let you be the judge.

Wyoming



Montana

8 things about Cindy and Me Tag

I was tagged to write 8 things about Cindy and Me, so here goes.

1. After 7 years of marriage I don't think that we have ever run out of things to talk about. Because of our talkative nature our friends think it would be funny if Zach turned out shy. So far I don't think that is possible

2. We like to take slow romantic rides around on the ranch with Zach sitting on our laps and shoot prairie dogs.

3. Cindy is about 10 times smarter than I am. (I probably didn't have to mention this because if you know us you already know that.)

4. She kissed me first. (Cindy will deny this but it is true. It happened during Happy Gilmore.)

5. I always jokingly tell Cindy that I am just a Paycheck and a Pretty face. The fact of the matter is that is all I have to be. Cindy is a good enough mother and wife that it makes up for all of my shortcomings. She is even pretty enough to make up for my "pretty face"

6. We don't "fight". It's kind of weird but we just always get along. I think that I can attribute that to her temperment. I always tell people that In seven years of marriage I have only raised my voice once. And that was over something dumb.

7. We met at a sporting goods store. She was as pretty as I had ever seen. And I was as nervous as I had ever been, but I asked her out anyways. I had to.

8. After seven years of marriage she is still as pretty as I have ever seen and I still get nervous around her.

More mountain Pics

Only in Wyoming. July is kind of funny in Sheridan. We have fireworks on the polo fields, 3 hour parades, world class rodeos, and my Parents and little brother came up. We did a little of everything even went into the mountains and did a little fishing. I dont think there is ever a dull moment. Cindy and I went camping up in the Bighorns on the Fourth with some friends and had just a fantastic time. My


Zach loved the Rodeo

Zach and Uncle Doug. Zacchy loves Uncle Doug.



Our family on the mountain




Zach and Me on the mountain



Zack on the mountain

The long awaited 4th of July pics

Alright. I have about 10 minutes to upload a few Mountain pics from the 4th of July. Here are a few and will be continued hopefully when I get back into the office. So here they are.

Have a nice day.

To be continued........

My Boring Blog

I know that my blog has been lacking in many areas. With my blog I usually try to fulfill one of two goals. 1. To make you leave my blog enlightened for the day or 2. To make you leave my blog feeling dumber. I don't like to just throw something out that you can look at and not be affected. I realize that the past few blogs, (due to me being busy or out of the office) forces me to drop meaningless blogs with a few pictures. I will try to post at the very least some decent pictures. I do in fact live in probably the coolest place in the world. (if you dis-agree send pictures of your surroundings to dgr@entechusa.net and I will post them on my blog for a comparison. I still have some 4th of July pics that I need to bring in, and I will post them I promise. I keep forgetting my camera when I come to work. This is a picture I took this morning from my construction site. It is overlooking the small town of Ranchester, Wyoming. I could probably throw a rock from where I was standing and have it land in Montana. I am sorry that once again I have failed to make you dumber. If you would like the "dumbed up" effect. I would suggest Hilary Clinton's Web page. It seems like her words never fail to have that effect.

Out of the office

My blog has suffered because I am out of the office supervising a watertank build. I still have a bunch of pics from the 4th that I will post. Here is a pic I took today.

Heat and Love

Heat can be transferred three ways: 1. Conduction, Convection or Radiation.



Conduction can be viewed as the transfer of energy from the more energetic to the less energetic particles of a substance due to interactions between the particles.



Convection heat transfer occurs between a fluid in motion and a bounding surface when the two are at different temperatures.



Radiation is energy emitted by matter that is at a finite temperature. Usually the emission is attributed to changes in the electron configurations of the costituant atoms or molecules.

If the love you give to your fellow man was a type of Heat Transfer how would you classify yourself, and why?

I would like a reply from anyone who reads my blog. Thank you.



Unlike conduction and convection, radiation does not require the presence of a material medium.

Friday Again

I don't know what has happened. This week is over and I haven't blogged once. I got a little behind with a couple of days off and here I am typing some weak blog again about how I want to be off work and out fishing. I have so many pictures and things to write. Perhaps I will have to do them at home. I hate getting on the computer at home first because it is too much like work and second, I have dial up. (yeah, we just got that Internet thing here in Wyoming). My fourth of July Blog is pretty much shot. Its the sixth of July and just doesn't have the same effect. Last night some old guy about 90 years old showed up on our door step and said that he lived on the ranch when he was a kid and just wanted to look at it. I took him for my now famous auto tour of about 12 miles of road. I learned a lot. He showed me where a guy was buried who was shot in a gun fight out there. He showed me where outlaws had their hideouts, he showed me old gold mines, he told me about his dad kicking him out of the house when he was 16 because he caught his dad with some lady, he even told me about the miracles of Viagra and some crazy herbal male enhancement drug that he was taking. (yeah it was interesting.) So I think this weekend I am going to go out and dig up a 150 year old body. Perhaps find some gold. I don't know if I will dare post the pics of my finds this weekend.