Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Camping in pictures plus some randomness...

First off, I felled my first tree today. With an ax and then a hand saw to limb it and then with a hatchet I am about 1/3 of the way through peeling the bark. I have calculated that I need close to 200 X 8 foot long logs (2 down... 100 to go). I am building my cabin 'piece en piece' style so I will build everything on 8' centers making it much more manageable. I am 'trained' or skilled in stone work and masonry so most likely the first 3 feet of the cabin will be natural stone. The first tree went smoothly and I could hear that faint whisper in the back of my brain that always urges me forward with challenges. I could very easily see myself in the next 3-4 years becoming immersed in building a home by hand. A loose glimpse of my vision is to buy land and very gradually build the cabin. Camping out for 3-4 months during the Summer while we build. Then eventually selling our home and moving in to the cabin and be mortgage free.
 I also bought a compound bow and arrows so very soon I will have a floor freezer full of this:

And this is me dorking it out Buffalo Bill facial hair style.


On the front of a package of fishing treble hooks... "We keep your family fishing"...

And on the back of the same package. 


Huge mushroom


One of my best friends. We met in the Caribbean. I was a smoker and alcoholic bartender and he urged me to race my first triathlon... he's one of the good ones.


Ben ready to fish!


I love my dead trees. Something about them draws me to them.


Camp fire on the river.


My world.


Me and Ben.


Crazy switchback.


Campsite on our 3rd night.


Big sky composition. This is close to the base of the BACK of Pikes Peak. These are the Collegiate Peaks on the horizon.


And here we go... a guy building his home by hand.


Love this! Dream it... then do it.


A little bit of Leadville buckle on a redneck by the fire... the Ranger was delicious. Benny stoking the fire. He's learned really well.


Toddler at 11,000 feet. It was cold! Loved it.

8 comments:

Brandon Fuller said...

Dang it! I may have to take my buckle out of the box and try and strap it on now.

Footfeathers said...

FUCK YEAH.
My mind and heart peel for you vision.

wende said...

When you say "the Ranger was delicious..." was that name of the beer you were drinking, or did you guys just finish off an actual ranger at dinner? The way you're looking in that photo...I'm not sure! That mushroom looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland--freaky, and what a color!

GZ said...

Cabin on grid or off?

Given the fire thing being on our minds ... I often think that a cabin, like the one you have pictured, out in the middle of a "prairie" (surrounded by mountains and forest at a distance) is the better bet. (like South Park)

David said...

Wow, incredible pics. Big Sky and the dead tree especially. Reminds me so much of the trips my family used to take camping in Wyoming during the summers, and I really think those trips shaped me as a person. Seeing the awesome pictures brings back so many happy memories, thanks!

Lucho said...

Brandon- Definitely! Yours was much more hard earned than mine! I had a pretty good day and felt great for 95 miles... just 5 miles hurt. What you did is most impressive. 99% of everyone else would have quit.

Tim- You'll have the chance to help :)

Wende- Ha! Ranger was the beer. Currently my favorite. Those mushrooms were everywhere! I have a ton more pictures I'll bring to KC in a couple of weeks.

GZ- It's pretty simple to be off the grid. We'll of course have a well, then solar panels and batteries are somewhat simple. Propane for cooking, wood for heat. The cabin in the pictures was at Eleven Mile Reservoir by Lake George. Just a bit past Fairplay. I love that valley! And I agree that the setting is quite nice. But I would say too that if I wait out the pine beetle and collect the wood for the cabin, in 3-4 years most of the forest will be thinned significantly and what was once deep woods will be clear cut. There will be fires for sure but a lot of the mitigation I have seen first hand will help to prevent a huge fire, just smaller contained burns. Mitigation is so critical! The pine beetle infestation has been caused by over population and improper conservation. Not unlike the bubonic plague in Boulder's prairie dog population or the wasting disease in the deer population. Things need to be thinned out.
Right now I am shopping for a 1/4 acre of affordable high country property and definitely Fairplay is on my radar.

Dave- I took about 20 pictures of dead trees. Something about them against a blue sky looks cool to me. Thanks!

Matt said...

Great pics. For some, stumbling around the blogosphere and seeing this post, they say yeah another blog of some guy doing his thing. For me, it was there's my kinfolk having a grand old time. Really cool to see the narrative playing out. . .

Ranger rocks. So does that cabin along with your vision. I want in!

Damn.. .

Lucho said...

Thanks Matt!