Yay Shift Work!

Got a new job that involves some swap around shift type stuff. Spent the last few days playing fun sleep schedule games.

B 12 is my friend.

Won't be talking much about the new job, since it's dispatching for the local Sheriff's Office and I can't talk about a good chunk of it, but if any entertaining bits that I can talk about come up I'll probably share.

Right now the funniest bit is that the deputy that responded to AD's great deer-killing accident at Blogorado 1 didn't realize until the fourth day of my training when he was told that that bunch of crazy people and the guy posing with the deer head was involved with me.

One of the other dispatchers got to remind him of it. She was the one who sent him on the call and remembered it when we were discussing the Elksplosion... because I showed her the pictures on the blog, she commented on the hat and cig, and I had to explain where that came from.

I think it's gonna be fun, based on the amount of laughter around the office during my training days.

Farewell, Freind

Tonight, the world lost a little of it's sunshine. A good friend of ours passed away after a long fight with liver failure.

I had known this man literally as long as I could remember. I went to school with his son, he was a friend of Farmdad's, and I can recall a lot of time spent hanging around looking for trouble to get into in his shop. He had a huge heart and a laugh so infectious the CDC really should have known about it. 

He never, ever gave up. I swear, he was a poster child for living life to the fullest, and for taking everything life could throw at you and tossing it back with a grin. If I know anything about laughing in the face of life, I learned at least a part of it from him.

Some of the Blogorado crew got to meet him, that first year. Those who didn't, missed out, I think. Though, I think anyone anywhere who didn't get the chance to know this man lost out, so take that for what it's worth. 

Rest easy, Jesse. I am proud to have known you, and I will never forget the lessons you taught me, intentional or not. 

Retail Pot

Well it's been available for two days now and nothing horrible has happened.

Perusing a list of licensed retailers, I see that there are a couple about three hours from me, but I'm not going to be running out to buy my legal ounce. It's not part of my lifestyle, and that's where the doom sayers fail to recognize human nature.

See, for those of us who haven't been smoking pot recreationally, this change pretty much means... nothing. Just because it's legal doesn't increase the desire for it. And, anyone who is a pothead today was a pothead last week. Maybe some people will try it because it's legal, but I foresee far more tourist dollars from experimenters than in-state.

On top of which, the current retailers were already medical marijuana dispensaries, since the licensing regulations gave them a head start (like, no straight retail licenses effective until next year) and they'll be desperately trying to make as much money as they can before it becomes more widely available. Unfortunately the only real advantage they have over the illegal market is the availability of the alternate delivery methods... tinctures, candies, sodas, and other sundry consumables.

The reason I say that is because with a 40% tax they can't match "black market" prices. See again, anyone who is a pothead today was a pothead last week, they're not going to have a problem with buying it illegally, since they've become quite accustomed to breaking that particular law already.

Meanwhile, the press is painting this as an amazing experiment in legal pot, watched worldwide. Holland, however, is sitting back munching brownies and saying "I told you so, man. Want some recipes?"

Seriously, this is only an experiment in public opinion, since the availability of marijuana, in large part the usage, and for sure the methodology is not actually going to change for those toking up.

There aren't many retail stores available either, but never fear, Colorado residents. If you want to exercise your new found freedom to spark up a doobie, you don't have to drive for hours to acquire your legal ounce... You can grow it!

Six plants per person, says the state law, grown in an enclosed and locked space, with three of them being allowed to be flowering at any one time. Harvest must be kept in the locked enclosed space as well, but you can give your friends up to an ounce at a time, if they're also Colorado residents.

Out of staters are only allowed to have a quarter of an ounce at a time, and are reminded that many ski areas are located on federal lands, where pot is still illegal.

If you have a burning need to experience the mind altering joys of "puff puff pass" by all means come visit. Unfortunately since my county voted against allowing retailers, you won't be giving your tourist dollars to my area, but what the hell, rock the ganj anyway if you want.

New Year

If you're looking for some kind of uplifting, deep thinking, high hoping schmutz here, I ain't got it.

Other things I ain't got include resolutions, so you won't find that here either.

I've always been a sort of plan for the worst and hope for the best kind of person and I figure 2014 will continue to prove to me that that's probably the least stressful way to go about life without giving up on caring entirely.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a Debbie Downer here... I just don't know what 2014 is going to bring yet. There are goals I want to accomplish and things I want to start doing more, and others I want to start doing less, but those decisions and the steps to start implementing them started months ago, for the most part, so making them resolutions doesn't make much sense.

What I do know about 2014 is that I'll take whatever it throws at me and come out still breathing, still kicking, and still able to find something (some days anything) to smile about. I'll keep loving those that I care about, and being the best person I can be. I'll cherish the friendships I have and the memories of those that I've lost over the years, just like before.

I'll be a shoulder for some friends, a vent for others, and they'll variously do the same for me.

And at the end of this year, as with the last, if I've been honest with myself and stuck by my own lights for what is right, I won't have anything to be ashamed of, and hopefully I'll have a few things to be proud of.

And that's really it. I hope for all of my readers a happy, healthy year, full of laughter instead of tears, but being a pragmatist, I advise you all to stock up on Kleenex anyway. It's not like it goes bad after all, and there's always flu season....

The Genes Will Out.... Brickscuit Edition

I grew up in a mixed family. I don't mean racially or even religiously, mind. No, the conflict was about biscuits.

See, Sugar had only one use for canned biscuits (she called 'em whop-biscuits for the sound the can made) and that was monkey bread, because it didn't matter what kind of dough you used. 

She was adamant, biscuits should be homemade. 

The problem was, Farmmom couldn't make biscuits. She was perfectly willing to learn to make biscuits it just never seemed to work. Sugar handed over her awesome biscuit mix (recipe here, seriously try it) over and over again but they just never came out right.

And by not coming out right I mean we used them for batting practice, and to play fetch with the dogs..

"You're kneading them too long, you want to knead them just long enough to get the dough to hold together." Sugar told Farmmom. Farmmom tried again, and again they came out hard. So Sugar, convinced that short of baker error her biscuits were no-fail, made up a batch and counted strokes with the spoon, as well as how many strokes to knead the dough, and wrote the recipe out for Farmmom that way.

And they still came out hard as rocks.

The next time Farmmom tried, Sugar was standing over her shoulder confirming that she was doing everything right, walking her through it step by step. They slid the biscuits into the oven and Sugar was sort of smug and triumphant, because she knew they'd come out this time.

Except they didn't. Brickscuits again.

Sugar finally gave up on teaching mom to make biscuits, and we became a whop-biscuit household. 

By the time I was big enough to make biscuits Sugar had pretty well stopped. Her arthritis made it hurt to knead the dough. Not that she used whop-biscuits, mind, she just didn't have biscuits at home anymore. So I had never tried to make biscuits until the other night.

See, Farmmom and I had been putting together some holiday goody boxes for our renters, and we were including some cactus jelly, so I thought some biscuit mix would be a nice addition, and whipped some up. Had some extra, so I figured I'd give it a shot, and finally find out whether mom's Brickscuit genes won or not.

The verdict is that Sugar's genes beat out Farmmom's, and I'm now on biscuit duty. 

(For the record, the difference in the biscuits pictured is actually two different ways to do em. The big ones are made according to sugar's instructions, buttering half the dough and folding the dough over creating a two layered biscuit. The smaller ones are single layer, which is how most people do biscuits. In the future I'll roll the dough out a little thinner for the two layer version. Nothing wrong with em, they're just big honkin biscuits that way.)

Green Chili ala Poppa Dick

It's been cold.... and I mean COLD for the last week.  Yesterday I made a pot of Poppa Dicks green chili. This recipe works well with any meat from pork to venison.  I used some venison that our renters gave us. Farmdad was bragging and someone asked for the recipe so here we go.

Poppa Dicks Green Chili

1-2 lbs of cubed meat
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 large can of green chilies
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cumin
2 diced jalapenos ( according to taste)
salt & pepper

Brown the meat, celery and onion in stock pot.  Don't cook it done just brown it a bit.  Then add the tomatoes, green chilies, jalapenos and spices.  Add water to cover everything.  Bring to a boil.  Turn heat sown to just a simmer and let it cook for several hours.  The longer it cooks the better it is.  Add water as needed.

Hunter Safety

So, I finally got my hunter safety certificate this weekend.

I know what you're thinking, and the reason I've never gotten it before now was mostly that I had other people to do the hunting for me, since my main goal is getting something tasty to bring home and eat, rather than the thrill of the hunt.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the rush of getting a big buck, or successfully stalking an antelope. I get that it trips people's trigger and that's awesome. But that's not me.

I'm not against stalking an antelope even though I may never do it... but my reason would be more along the lines of "but the deer is standing there looking at me like I might have a snack for it while the antelope saw me blink and he's over the horizon."

I'm willing to put the effort in for the good meat, but good deer and good antelope are pretty interchangeable to me flavor wise, but the effort to get them is vastly different. Especially since in my opinion if an antelope isn't pretty calm to start with and dropped in its tracks it's bad antelope, not good.

So, mostly, when I got a craving for game I'd tell FarmDad or Darlin Man "Go shoot some x and I'll cook it" or just "Go shoot some rabbits and we'll throw em in the freezer" because I love rabbit.

But, this weekend there happened to be a class and it happened to be free and also happened to be conducted by the most entertaining and personable game warden we've had in these parts for ages, so I figured it would be less boring than it could be and figured I'd go ahead and get it done.

Did, didn't learn a whole lot I didn't already know via osmosis, but it was entertaining. We had several kids in the class and the game warden (quite correctly) built his teaching around them, not the adults (of which there were also several,) and got really interactive with them which was fun.

Got a hundred on the written test and got handed my card since I have my concealed carry and thus am assumed to have safe firearms handling skills which are part of the whole thing here in Colorado, but I went out to watch the live fire anyway because I enjoy watching the kids get to shoot.

All in all there are worse ways I could have spent that time, and now I can get my own danged small game license and get my own danged rabbits... though I did discover via our game identification/habitat handbook that we are viable habitat for spotted skunks. I don't think I've ever seen one, but I totally want a pelt.

Also, in-state mountain lion and bear licenses have plummeted, cost wise. On the bears that's mostly because the bait-is-bad contingent got baiting for bears outlawed. I can understand the part where drawing them in from miles away isn't sporting, but I also understand first hand the consequences of the resultant population boom (they got rid of the spring bear season at the same time, IIRC.)

Over a hundred bears have been euthanized just so far this year, just in Colorado Springs, according to the game warden. Just in Colorado Springs. The population pressure without the control and higher likelihood of a successful cull that we had with the spring hunt and the bait has resulted in less food to go around and more bears coming into contact with humans.

Which is why I never reported the monster black bear that would walk down our alley when Darlin Man and I lived right by that little dry creek that backed onto undeveloped hilly scrubby area. Because he wasn't getting into the trash, he wasn't going after the dogs (he checked them out a time or two but believe me if he had wanted to eat them the fence we had there wouldn't have caused him any inconvenience at all) and he was literally just passing through. But if I'd called him in, he could have been euthanized for that. There was a certain amount of nothing you can do, keep your trash cans fastened closed and don't interact with the bears kind of attitude where we were but in other areas they have gone to a no-strikes policy. Bear is in town, gets reported, bear gets tranqed or trapped and loaded up, taken out of public view, and put down.

So, being the proper nature lover that I am, I do have a bit of a yen for a black bear hunt. It'd be neat to be able to have a bearskin rug from a bear I got, and that would be one more bear towards a properly balanced system in which we get a good number of healthy bears doing their ecological job instead of a bunch of borderline or unhealthy bears that come into town because there's not enough food in the hills, but there is in all those garbage cans in town.

I don't know that I ever will do a bear hunt, since we don't have enough in this area to make it a problem, and I don't really know the area over west by the foothills where they are a problem well enough to feel comfortable hiking about in them by myself. Here we get the occasional bear on a telephone pole or last year I think a little cinnamon stage juvenile took over someone's doghouse because he thought it was a good place to den up. Over there we were picking up trash all the time and watching Gigantobear (I'm telling you that black bear had to be hip high or more on me at the shoulder, and built like a brick shithouse... he was big for a black bear) take his evening stroll down the alley because it was easier walking than the streambed.

So yeah, if I could get a decent guide that I trusted to hunt with for a bear hunt, I'd definitely consider it. On the other hand it's not at all like it's a driving passion or anything, so I probably won't look too hard.