Nepal (Part 2)

A continuation of our nepal trip from the lower elevations rice & bananas to the pine & fir forests.

Tiny goats greeted us upon arrival to a small village.

Our view from our teahouse. Honestly, felt a bit like Hawaii

Mule pack string crossing the M. Kola River. The suspension bridges were largely designed & built by European Firms.

Chicken Man! How would you like to carry this stinky chickens for days?

The transition zone between temperature lowlands and moderate fir & pine.

Sarah assisted by our trusty Nepali guide Shree.

Sarah conquers her fear of trail bridges. Let's just say I learned not to jump on the bridges while she was still on, can you say doghouse?? :)

Maoists were present many places in Nepal. The circular marking with scythe and hammer is their symbol.

Making a pass on the Buddhist prayer wheels. As we traversed into higher country, Buddhism became the dominant religion.

View of Manaslu from our hotel room. Our first 8000 meter peak!

Yup, this stuff was nasty as you can tell by me facial expression. Local homebrew 'Millet Beer' should not be consumed...under any circumstances...ever....

The impressive Manaslu massif.

Sarah excited about the squat toilets. About 90% of toilets on this trip were good ol' squatters, the others consisted primarily of non-flushing 'European' toilets.

Awesome rock massif behind this small town.

Awe inspiring views of Gangapurna.

Small town of upper Pisang.

Nepal (Part 1)

Well, the trip of a lifetime was indeed a trip of a lifetime. Sarah's trip o' a lifetime was doing the Annapurna Circuit in Himalayan Nepal. 140 miles of trail, 32000 feet of elevation gain and 32000 feet of loss. High point of 17,800 feet and low of 3,000. All in a ll, a pretty amazing trip!

We departed to nepal on a 48 journey to actually get there from Helena to Salt Lake to LA to Hong Kong to Dhaka to Kathmandu. We arrived in Kathmandu bleary eyed and exhausted. The next day we rested and ended up going on a tour around Kathmandu. We saw all sorts of sight, Buddhist Temples, Hindu Shrines, etc, and of course some monkeys:

Our nepalese guide was, other than leading us into a den of touts(where we purchased a homemade Tibetan thankpa), a rather nice bloke. This was a cool shot from Kathmandu looking at this Buddhist temple:

The following day we departed on a long, arduous, terrifying bus ride to the beginning point of our trek. Let's just say if I hadn't of been infatuated with our drivers mole and his awesome horn, I may have vomited out of sheer fright.

Vehicles here share a narrow strip of pavement and play chicken to see who gets it the longest. I would fail miserably every time if i was driving.

As our eight hour trip neared its end, we found ourselves in farms of millet and corn, with a raging river nearby. This looks like Africa:

We spent the night at a rustic guesthouse, and I was nearly concussed by hitting my head on frame of the mens outhouse. It literally knocked me to the ground, where I had a large nodule on my head for a few days, of which I tried to nurse sympathy out of Sarah to no avail. Did I mention we stayed in a town called Buhbuble (means penis in Hindi). Heh.

The views in the morning were awesome, this of Manaslu, our first 8000 meter peak!

Sarah's first trail bridge, one of many. Let's just say she conquered her fears on this trip!

Our hotel had awesome views and a tree of life just down the trail!

The hotel also had awesome views of this poster in our room! Our room was covered in similar, awesome posters!

The next morning we got to visit the local school, where signed their log book, talked with some kids and gave a donation.

Then we continued up the trail, seeing these cool waterfalls along the way:

Our Travels (The American Southwest)

Hi all, me again. This is a continuation of the previous post. This chronicles our adventures through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on a bridge inspection trip that Sarah was able to tag along for (and get paid!).

Our first Armadilla! That's right, pretty awesome! Hey was a quick little guy, quite scampery. - Canadian, Texas


Not gonna lie, the Ford testers messed up the headrests in this vehicle.


Was Ryan a beaver in a past life? - Red River, New Mexico


Great colors outside of Red River, New Mexico.


Trusty ol' Explorer. A bit more trusty than my ol' 94 Eggsploder I drove in High School. We forded the stream about 10 times on this road.


Sarah chillaxin' in at on of the nicest places we stayed at. Jemez Springs, New Mexico


Small froglet just across the border into Arizona.


A rather large Saguaro Catcus outside of Globe, Arizona. Sarah wouldn't let me strap it to the top of the Explorer. :(


Sarah enjoying a beverage at Bisbee Brewering- Bisbee, Arizona

Our Travels (July to September)

Well, over the past 6 months, we have traveled quite a bit! Our friends Lance & Kelli's wedding, numerous concerts, hangin' out with the folks outside Ennis, and our anniversary. ! I'll start the photo journal chronologically....

At Lance and Kelli's fantastic wedding in Polson, MT


With the folks on the nightmarish 'Grizzly bear' slog to a lake in the Madison Valley. (Jenn's dislodged toenail and Sarah's 2" scar will haunt me forever, my fault of course, due to our challenging bushwack for the first 3 miles).


Flea loves sleeping in the sun!


She also loves the water!


Great paintbrush on our hike to a lake on the great Rocky Mountain Front!


Sarah at Lone Peak brewery in Big Sky, pretty tasty beers. Neat shirt huh? I got it for her in NYC!


Willie Nelson still hard at it in his early 80's. Good concert at the Big Sky pavillion.


Ryan on his favorite ride at the Billings Zoo


Our one year anniversary! Wahoo! At one of our favourite breweries, Red Lodge.

Recent Events

Dearest readers, I must apologize for my inexcusable behavior over the past few months. I know most have you have been fervently checking my blog daily, awaiting an update. Things have been busy. I know, poor excuse right? We have been working on the house. Things have gotten sidetracked a bit by a wedding, a visit to with my parents, two week trip to arizona and a four week trek in Nepal. I'll get to those in later posts, this post shall focus on what we have been up to with the ol' homestead.

We left off with us finishing painting our bedroom (and me coincidentally making a disaster of the drywall in the living room!)

We took down the big pine tree in our front yard in August, as its massive root system was causing some issues in our basement bedroom.



Poor tree. It was in fine shape, but it was just too close to the house. I wasn't there for the removal, but apparently I wasp nest resulted in Mr. Bucketman to retreat, poor guy. He should have got a bonus for dealing with our pesky wasps.

Here's a good action shot.



It only took a few months, but I finally mudded and taped the drywall that I put up in July, in September :).



We proceeded to paint the trim in the dining room..



And the resulting paint fight ensued. It took weeks to get all of the paint off!


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Sarah painting the dining room our honeyish color. Good work sweets!