Drought

We've been having a very dry and very hot July.  I haven't had to mow the yard this month, and I'm not complaining.  It was 105 degrees in Des Moines today, which is a record.  It's super dry out there, so the humidity is low, the grass is dry, and there are no mosquitos.  The downside is the damage it's doing to the crops.  They're not doing well from what I hear.  A poor corn harvest will result in higher food prices, higher fuel prices, an on and on.  We need rain.

Lots of Birthday's in July around here:  Happy Birthday to my Mother, my Father, my Father-in-law, my Niece, my Nephew, and three of my fellow Troutslayers.  I probably forgot a few too.

Peace-
Matt

Leftovers

Peace
Matt

Colorado

What a great vacation! This one really felt like a vacation too. For over a week, I literally did not think about my job or bills one single time. I didn’t worry about my family because they were all with me. I didn’t worry about spending money because I saved it all ahead of time and paid cash for everything. It was all good. So good.

After we arrived home, I felt like I was in a fog for about a day and a half. I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep, the change in altitude, the weather, or just coming back to reality. Vacation deflation I guess.

I can see us living in Colorado some day. It won’t happen while the kids live at home, but it may happen after they’re gone. People who know me, know that my favorite thing to do is to drive around and look at stuff. I want to spend my retirement doing that in Colorado. It might happen.

We spent July 3rd hiking through the Ute TrIbal lands just south of Mesa Verde National Park. It was a private tour, led by a local Ute named Scotty. Scotty took us for a long drive on the reservation's gravel roads in the tribe's 15 passenger van. We then hiked many miles looking at thousand year old rock art and cliff dwellings. There were lots of artifacts left by the original inhabitants; pottery shards, weapons, bones, corn cobs, etc. We were allowed to climb everywhere and handle everything, as long as we put it back down where we found it and took nothing. It was really mind blowing, and extremely reccomended.
Most of these photos are just snapshots.  Abby took several of them.  She has a good eye.

Peace-
Matt