Sour cream

Hey there you cheeky bumpers. Well, lots of hoop-la round these parts. Got the doors done today. Shanes going to be in Helena till Thursday, so we'll probably get them Polyurethaned this weekend. Hopefully have them up next week! Huzzah!

Dave is on his way over to make a jumbo jenga game for Trailer Trashed this year. Yep, you heard right, Trailer Trashed 2012 is just around the corner. Speaking of which, it's Feb 9-12 and Feb 16-19. Come on up and join the Trashing at Lost Trail. Sounds like they've been getting lots of the gnar gnar while dancing in the white room with the blowers. Yep, it's snowing.

So, I took some photos of a finished product. I made some Sour Cream! Well to be honest, it was suppose to be cheese, but it ended up as sour cream. Eh, whatch gonna do? Milk is milk I say. Actually, I don't normally say that. But eh, whatcha gonna do?

I just started another batch for cheese, that I will post pictures of the process. But for now, just enjoy the pic in all its sourey goodness.

Another half year, another bike

Well, another half a year, and another bike! Nice work Trav-aclaus! 2011 Gary Fisher Superfly 100. For you non-bikey people, that's an all carbon 29er! Hey-O! Nice work Santa. Next year I want a house of my own. I suggest putting a bid in on the duplex next to Cougars. Then we could be neighbors. Ohhhh, that'd be nice. Anyway, the cool thing about this bike is that instead of saying "Ott" on it where they put the racers names (which Cougar will tell you I am...in fact he'll even admit I'm the best mountain biker in Missoula) it says "douchebag." Perfect.

I'm in Madison, WI now. Hanging with the family. We're about to head to the capitol to check out the Christmas lights and maybe start an impromtu "Recall Walker" rally. Or, maybe just head to the Old Fashioned for Walleye or some brauts. We'll see how it goes. In this Christmasy tone, here's a pic of our family. From one good looking group to you good looking bumpers. Enjoy.

dead animals, ditches, drywall and doors... alliteration points in D.

Oh so much has happened since the last time I posted. I apologize to our followers for my lack of updates. But as we know life moves so quickly and we are all just struggeling to keep up and make sense of it all. Speaking of "followers," I am not sure what to call you. I don't care for the term "followers," so I'll take a cue from "Stop podcasting yourself" and have now retermed you all as "bumpers." So thanks for the interest and reading this, you good looking "bumpers."

I spent almost two weeks hunting this year. One week deer hunting and a half week elk hunting. The first week was prety eventful with a mule doe and a whitetail doe easing off into the white light after a sharp report from my ol' 130grain .270 bullet. First one went down on opening morning while I was extremely hung over. About a 260yd shot right through the heart, which I was pretty proud of considering my mind-numbing condition. The whitetail was shot from the same stand, but was only a 160ish-yd shot. It was a fast off-hand shot, so I was pretty happy with it. I passed up on some smaller mule bucks. I could have also shot a doe with my A tag where we hunt, but I was chasing that trophy. I did see a big ol' hoss tending his harem of 22 mule does, but couldn't get on him. Also saw a drop tine mule buck the final morning but could get a shot off on him.

I also spent a few days hunting elk with my college buddy Brian and Teal at our secret honey hole. Brian and I scouted out the area for a few days and then Teal showed up. Her first morning hunting we both managed to put down a cow elk within 10minutes of each other. We were done shooting by 9am and finally had everything packed out in quarters by 4:15. It was a long day for sure. So I have a good amount of meat for the year. I have been suprised by how tender the elk burger is! Having left my A tag unfilled, the hunting season ended pretty well. I'm satisfied with it all and am happy the butchering is done.

While I was gone Cougar got going on finishing up some drywall in the kitchen. So the kitchen is kinda torn apart and more cramped than usual, but it's looking like it'll finish up nicely.

Recently, I dug a ditch to run a electrical line to the garage. Let me recount a conversation I had with Cougs-McGoogs before hand.

Eric: "So you want the ditch running here, along the cement?"

Cougar: "Yes"

Eric: "How deep?"

Cougar: "not deep, just a few inches"

Eric: "just deep enough we won't hit it with a mower or something"

Cougar: "yeah"

Eric: "Is there any lines under here? like gas?"

Cougar: "No, it comes in from the road, not the alley"

Eric: "You sure"

Cougar: "Yep"

Later on he changed his mind to 18" deep and I then hit a gas pipe 12" down. End of story. As I write this I am sitting on a cinder block in the garage having put a few hours in on Cougars bedroom doors. They should be really nice when they are done. You can see a before and after of them. They had about 6 layers of paint and a layer of varnish on them before stripping and sanding. I'm in the middle of sanding them. They are a nice old Douglas fir. So anyway bumpers, that's it for now. Keep on looking good out there. Maybe Cougar will hop on here some day and give you an update to the ongoings of his life. Ok, back to sanding.

weekend of sports.

Deemed a weekend of rest by the Cougs, I breathed deep in relief. My hands were sore and soul tired.

I did find the drive to work all day Friday on cleaning out his workshop, or as it has been deemed, "the man space." Filled up half a dumpster of junk and sawdust that had been accumulated over the last few years. I spent a good hour afterwards just admiring the extra space and organization. A few boxes to still go through and a tool rack to hang, but that'll probably have to wait until after hunting.

The Packers had a game this weekend against the terrifying St. Louis Rams. Did I say "terrifying," sorry, I meant to say "terrible." Woke up early and with the help of Seafoam hurridly we made these delicious jalepeno poppers. Turns out the game wasn't on a station that Dave gets so we had to drop by the Tamarack. We returned to Daves after to continue our sports watching marathon that enveloped all of Saturday and Sunday. By the time the 9th inning of the Brewer game rolled around on Sunday night I was ready to be done with sports for the week. Oh, and Cougar made a tasty broccoli and cheese soup.

Today I spent the day getting my chainsaw in working order for hunting season. I'll be gone all of next week so please invite Cougar to do things, as he'll no doubt be lonely. Anyway, bad news and good news on the chainsaw front. Bad news - Homelite isn't made anymore and no one in western Montana works on them or stocks parts. Good news - I was able to fabricate a linkage rod between the trigger system and throttle out of a coat hanger. I even made an extra one. It's working swell! Off to Ace to pick up a few spare bolts that hold the saw all together.

Anyway, a nice weekend even if it was rainy. It's sure nice to see the sun out now.

The Playful Otter and Diligent Cougar Pub

I must admit, I am a little nervous writing my first post to this blog that is likely being read by thousands of people. I would like to welcome the many fans of this blog to my life. As you may know, I am the working adult in a domestic partnership with Otter Pop. As I was told yesterday, I am the person that does things, Otter is the creative force behind all of our great ideas. As such, I am sitting at work making money and writing this article as my boss looks over my shoulder laughing about Otter's and my relationship. As she laughs though, she has a great idea: The Playful Otter and Diligent Cougar Pub. What a great name! How could we not do this? Starting tonight, we will be serving homemade moonshine, cherry wine, apricot wine, and whatever is left over from James' liquor cabinet out of my garage. Come on down, we hope to see you soon!

last nights dinner and my pretty bacon

Last night I made us a lemon-pepper and herb halibut steak on the grill. But most exciting was that I made a shredded zuchinni and squash stuffed roll. The stuffed roll was awesome. 1/2 part zucchinni/squash mix and 1/2 part homemade marinara sauce. Oh and CougsMcGoogs volunteered some of his Mozza cheese to the dish! What a nice guy! But after all my hard work, he tells me he doesn't like squash or zuchinni! Geesh, no wonders the guys all ribs. Jamie Starks would not be happy with you're picky eating habits.

On a food related note, this is my 3rd day in a row of having bacon for breakfast. It's appeal is olnly growing. It slightly scares me that I may be addicted. But really, who am I fooling? I've always been addicted.

Oh, and Sea Foam was there last night too.

Cougar worked his fuzzy little tail off making a counter last year. He got a truck load of old gym floors for $25 or something. A picture of the counter being glued together. And a picture of the same counter today. Amazing!