Crazy weather, bad day...

So, today here in Boulder we had some interesting weather...High was around 90 degrees, which led to the usual afternoon thunderstorm, and the, I hope unusual, 30 minute hailstorm. It was 90 degrees today and now there are spots with 6 inches of hail still piled up. The bad day part is that apparently really hot car interiors plus suddenly freezing windshields tends to lead to cracking, in my case a nice 12 inch crack. I took pictures of it all, but at the moment I seem to have lost my USB cable for my camera, so the bad day continues. On the bright side we built some more walls today and we didn't have as many volunteers, so I got to do more of the work myself instead of just having to supervise. Oh, and I crushed Mike Heaton in disc golf the other day when he was out here, but then we both lost a disc, so I guess that wasn't good either. Oh and feel free to comment on here ya all, it provides emotional reassurance that I'm not just talking to myself when I write these things, which would be depressing in a way. That's all I got.

Fun toys to play with...

So thanks to the folks at sunbelt rentals, I have now been certified to operate a number of forklifts seen above. Also included a picture of an event that caused some forklift operators whole life to flash before their eyes...

Spider pig...

For those interested, if not my favorite, at least the most memorable part of the Simpson's movie...

Spider pig

Finally building...sort of

Future site

Excavation begins

Our affiliate finally got the land purchase squared away with the city, so after a year break, can start building again. Big thanks to the National Guard for letting us use their armory to build and store our walls until our foundation is in. As of today, the excavation and compaction is complete and the foundation should be going in later this week. We are putting in a five unit building this year, followed by a four unit one starting next spring across the street. We are trying to get these homes LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) a new national standard for green building. All sorts of new fun options, tankless water heaters, 92% efficient furnace, solar tubes to light interior hallways, dual flush toilets, and lots and lots of caulking and insulation. Stay tuned for further updates on the house...

Trip up Grays and Torreys

On top of Grays, looking over at TorreysA couple of goats on Grays

A couple weeks ago hiked a pair of 14ers with a couple of the AmeriCorps folks(Laura and Julia) that just finished up their year with Habitat and wanted to do some hiking before they left town. I must say the 9,000 ft elevation gain from here in Boulder to the top did not agree with my not yet fully acclimated lung capacity, so while there were frequent "breather breaks", it was a great time. Even got to see some mountain goats. Had a bit of an adventure getting to the trailhead over the "4 wheel drive/high clearance recommended" road in Julia's car(I'm sorry I ever doubted you mystique), but were able to climb both and be back down before the afternoon storms hit. That's 4 down, 50 more to go...

Hello!

So if Mike Heaton can figure out how to put together a blog, anyone can do it right? Just wanted to put together an easy way to keep all of you updated on what I am up to out here in the beautiful state of Colorado. Have recently purchased both a new laptop (hmm...they have the internet on computers these days) and a digital camera, figure I should put them to use...