# Summer Break - see you in August!



## drmike (Jul 18, 2014)

Well it is that time of this year where I bow out for a month to tend to everything else offline.

Part refocus, part "vacation" and a whole bunch of other work during my offline time this year.

I'll be cutting out tonight and trying to stay away until the 18th of August.

Anyone needing anything or something requiring my attention, throw me a private message.  I get those in email, which I will be checking here and there from my phone.

How about everyone else?  You have plans before summer evaporates? Get outside and enjoy it.


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## splitice (Jul 18, 2014)

Enjoying the winter over here in the southern hemisphere....


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## MannDude (Jul 18, 2014)

Enjoy!


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## trewq (Jul 18, 2014)

splitice said:


> Enjoying the winter over here in the southern hemisphere....


It's fun isn't it! Spent about 15 minutes this morning getting ice off my car.


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## k0nsl (Jul 18, 2014)

Do enjoy it @drmike. Are you going out of town, perhaps even leaving the country? I've got plans like that, can't say exactly when (don't like to have dates for this on the Internet) - but they're in the works, and I'm really looking forward to it!

Anyway...enjoy!


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## GreenHostBox (Jul 18, 2014)

I'm just waiting for summer break to end so I can have some laugh at hosts deadpooling.


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## drmike (Jul 18, 2014)

k0nsl said:


> Do enjoy it @drmike. Are you going out of town, perhaps even leaving the country? I've got plans like that, can't say exactly when (don't like to have dates for this on the Internet) - but they're in the works, and I'm really looking forward to it!
> 
> 
> Anyway...enjoy!


Staycation if I am lucky.....  Nothing official on the calendar, but wouldn't mind getting out to the forest and resetting.

Have other work obligations piling - IRL stuff   So focusing on that mainly and doing the Matt Cutts style 30 day internet detox mainly. Lots of the obligations are untethered things - tech free and involve a good amount of regional travel (something I've done little of recently).


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## raindog308 (Jul 18, 2014)

Just came back from my summer vacation.  Took the fam over to Glacier National Park.  We've been there before but you can never get enough...it rivals Yellowstone in my mind.  Absolutely spectacular.

We hiked, drove the white-knuckle Going-to-the-Sun Road, saw lots of wild life (black bear, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mule deer), hung out at the falls, etc.

We also went to the Garnet ghost town - an abandoned mining town high up in the mountains near Missoula.  Extremely cool - backroads forever, then this neat preserved site where you could walk through the hotel, houses, etc. as they'd been left in the late 1800s.  Some are staged by the park rangers but some are just as they were.

We also toured the Missoula Smokejumpers base - fire fighters who parachute (out of DC-3s!) to fight wildfires.  Very cool.  Not envious of the 110# pack (~55kg) pack they carry though.

BTW - you should never get this close to a bear on foot  We were driving in the backwoods near Garnet when my daughter exclaimed that there was a bear. We stopped and took pics of him from our vehicle - he was perhaps 10-15 yards away from my driver's side window and was pretty mellow - munching away on something.


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## drmike (Jul 18, 2014)

Wowzers! @raindog308 beautiful photos there.   That's real living!

That section of the US speaks to me, except for the winters....


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## yomero (Jul 18, 2014)

@raindog308 Pretty stuff really. I just wonder when I will be able to see this kind of stuff with my own eyes n_n


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## GIANT_CRAB (Jul 19, 2014)

gonna start up my new summer host cus its summaar


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## raindog308 (Jul 19, 2014)

yomero said:


> @raindog308 Pretty stuff really. I just wonder when I will be able to see this kind of stuff with my own eyes n_n


Yomero, you're in...Mexico?  Am I remembering that correctly?

Lots of American tourists go to your country to see things (Aztec ruins, Cancun, etc.)  Only fair you should come up and see the Rockies.


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## MannDude (Jul 19, 2014)

Great pictures @raindog308 , that's more my type of vacation. Nice and scenic. Lately I've been yearning for a vacation aswell, getting out and about to get back in nature sounds awesome right about now. 

I really want to go to the Grand Canyon and go hiking/camping for a week. That sounds so nice. Drove by it a few times a few years ago when going back and forth between Nevada and New Mexico for work, but never had time to stop. Though at least it was scenic between the two places.

The American west and southwest is great.


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## Schultz (Jul 20, 2014)

It'll be interesting to see which providers deadpool this summer


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## yomero (Jul 20, 2014)

raindog308 said:


> Yomero, you're in...Mexico?  Am I remembering that correctly?
> 
> Lots of American tourists go to your country to see things (Aztec ruins, Cancun, etc.)  Only fair you should come up and see the Rockies.


Indeed, I am here =)

Well, yes, we have pretty things here too. But as some people says, we tend to forget that we have these places around the corner.


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## mikho (Jul 20, 2014)

yomero said:


> But as some people says, we tend to forget that we have these places around the corner.


Thats true wherever you are from. The nearby places are sometimes the toughest to reach.


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## drmike (Jul 22, 2014)

Well I am doing a partial vacation so far....

Spent this past weekend in the car driving several hundred miles spec'ing job sites for real work purposes.  Was nice to get outdoors and take in a change of scenery (not places I frequent normally).

This weekend I intend on visiiting a nearby lake for some quiet change of pace time.

Week has been all work so far... more of the same overload.


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## drmike (Jul 22, 2014)

Spent today taking a literal nap.  Haven't done one of those in probably 5 years... 

Did some much needed gardening, with more needed the next few days, my schedule allowing.  Working on rooting cuttings for new plants.  Did some rooted creeping transplants to better spots and put a good 40+ rooted plants into proper soil so they can live their life.

Not too bad of a day all considering.  Need more bug spray / predators and a tall cold drink. 

Staycation continues.


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## MannDude (Jul 22, 2014)

drmike said:


> Spent today taking a literal nap.  Haven't done one of those in probably 5 years...
> 
> Did some much needed gardening, with more needed the next few days, my schedule allowing.  Working on rooting cuttings for new plants.  Did some rooted creeping transplants to better spots and put a good 40+ rooted plants into proper soil so they can live their life.
> 
> ...


What all are you growing?

I was going to do the garden thing this year... but waited too long.


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## drmike (Jul 22, 2014)

MannDude said:


> What all are you growing?
> 
> I was going to do the garden thing this year... but waited too long.


Right now, mainly perennial plants.  Lots of herbs, flowering plants, etc. Trying to get more medicinal and tea type herbs.

Cost of plants has just skyrocketed.  Like a simple herb plant at a nursery here might run you $7-10.... Same plant I can grow out from a cutting in 30-45 days from another plant.  My cost = my time and some water.  I've probably rooted and transplanted a few hundred plants in the past month.

I just about entirely ignored the common annual plants people tend to grow (i.e. tomato, corn, peppers, etc.).  Need to find a regional CSA to buy a crop share of something organic to cover those (store produce is horrendous and good stuff is offensively expensive).

Probably going to venture out to a farmers market tomorrow and suppor the local, albeit it, moronic "traditional" farmers.

Trying to get a more permanent plant setup - ala permaculture.  Without the hard land layout like permaculture does with zones for plants.  Doing the first year of a mulch planting system.  Everything barren and unlikely to reseed/no perennials was covered with inches of hay.  Weeds were supposed to be reduced, but have been enormous instead, but the pull out full roots and all easily by hand... So it's semi beneficial while building top soil from the decaying hay.


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## drmike (Jul 27, 2014)

My Vaction....

So I anticipated being out and about more and this week I was out in field on the road just one day.  Rest of the week had me balled and chained to the desk, where I am prone to ping things on vpsB in between tasks.

This upcoming week, definitely tuning out here more.  Even if it is just to tend gardens.  Been taking the portable outdoors and doing some work in the days to break up the indoor annoyance.

Have at least one field day scheduled (these are out to customer jobsites usually a few hours of driving).


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