Wassaaaaaap!

A Good ol'e fashion Corvallis weekend

what a great weekend around OR! On Friday we went out with some friends to a super secret, chop your head off if you tell anyone, chantrelle spot and loaded up on the fleshy fungi of the NW. Saturday, was a house cleaning day (not too much fun but we did sleep in till noon, which is a rare thing and needs to be celebrated. That night we did go over to Will's to enjoy some homemade pear brandy and another concoction that although tasty, was about the sweetest drink I have ever had. Keith, ariel, Col, myself and Becca all headed over to Squirrels later to enjoy some pitchers (it is still just barely warm enough to make use of the outdoor patio there at night) and talk of sinful things.
Then today Rhiannon and her family hosted an apple pressing party in the orchard below the house at Beazell where we pressed about 15 gallons of lovely cider. There is a very, very old orchard with a single tree of each different variety and the apples are delicious and huge! Keith even showed up (I hope he made his flight) for a few hours. The potluck randomly had a bit of a middle eastern theme and was half desserts, which was fine by me! My goodness, I forgot to mention that Deverton even came down for the party! It was quite the collection of miscreants in the orchard for that afternoon. What a good bunch! It felt like 2003 seeing those faces all in one weekend!
It was grea

More gear for the garage

Colleen, as you know, really doesn't like climbing. And I as you may or may not know, don't like running. Nor does Col like biking down mountains crazy fast, as I do. For a while we have searched for something to do together that we could both enjoy immensely (if we aren't having immense amounts of fun, it just doesn't count). Last fall we found that sea kayaking was something we could both enjoy a lot. We tried another trip this fall, to really make sure that this kayaking thing is really for us, and guess what, it was still as great. So we splurged and bought two demo sea kayaks at end of year sales this year. They are awesome! So far we have only taken them out on the willamette and to the roll session at OSU (we were such outcasts with our huge boats!) . It is still so nice to be able to have toys for water now! Boats are the one thing that we have avoided up to now; dont know why, it just seemed like too much to have to move around I guess. I can not wait to take them out and explore!

The Keating Quandry

poor communication

Sometimes work really sucks. I have my boss and another guy (i guess technically my other boss, but he is in new mexico) both pissed off at me. They didn't talk to each other until the last second to decide which project I would be working on for the next 4 weeks, so now I am working on two at the same time. The catch is, both projects have stipulations in the contract that there has to be someone "on the ground" with knowledge of GIS (me). Being in NM and OR at the same time is a little tough, never mind that I am trying to juggle both projects work loads in my head. Of course one is bound to make mistakes (I only made a small one) and the stress of one boss having VERY poor communication skills and not knowing if the contract manager is going to call off the project because we arent meeting the specified obligations has them both on edge. I misinterpreted something in excel and put in a wrong acreage for a few units. This was caught 3 days before work is even starting, thus isn't that big of a deal, but with all the other stress, they are both really pissed at the liddle mistake. I am hearing a lot of "there is no room for errors!" right now. Grrrrr. and I havent had a weekend in 2 weeks and probably wont get one for another two. 12 hr days are fun! Shoot me in the face !
And to really compound things, just as all this is coming to a head, the massive shit I took in my boss's bathroom an hour before (mind you his office is in the basement of his house) rockets out of the toilet when a coworker tries to flush and floods the bathroom. That was the final straw. Holy shit.

one year of UAP

I have worked for UAP for one year now. It really doesnt feel like it has been that long, which is kinda strange. I guess though that is pretty good; I am not falling into a "tear-my-hair-out" mindless routine of a job. This work runs on an annual cycle and I am just now on the same New Mexico project, where I kicked things off shortly after starting last year.
This is where I state lessons learned and all that, but that is way too much thought for typing and watching TV at the same time. So on to more superficial, narrative things! We went kayaking.
Col and I and 3 others went sea kayaking up in the San Juans again for laborday weekend. This trip wasnt quite the same as last time though; there was whitewater. Yea, Whitewater. The tidal currents in the sound is incredibly powerful, and the area we were paddling in had some pretty serious water movement. One small island we were camped on the second day had 4 foot standing waves 50 ft off the tip, and 3 standing whirlpools that literally would swallow a kayak. Oh, and there was a channel we had to cross that had standing large whitewater chop moving at 5-8 knots 3 miles long and 3/4 of a mile long. Needless to say, Col and the rest were freaked out, but we finally came to a decision on a crossing point and pulled it off with much trepidation. This trip definitely had a little more spice to it. But less alchy. That was a bummer. We definitely burned though the wine too fast. And didnt bring enough whiskey. There, thats my "lessons learned" for this post. No photos, I forgot my camera for this trip.

Donorcycles are bad Mmm'kay?

My boss got a motorcycle a few months back as a mid life crisis kind of thing. He has been riding it around like bikes are going out of style recently. He finally decided he was comfortable enough to ride it on a point to point ride, and we had a meeting in Burns, OR. Myself, and another coworker drove, and Greg never showed up. Then we got a call that he had been lifeflighted to the Dalles hospital. Some jackass in a truck didn't see him and took a turn tight in the wrong lane. We're not sure yet if it was a hit and run (we've only gotten two broken messages) or if the guy stuck around. My boss has 7 broken ribs, a punctured lung, spleen damage and a helluva concussion. He is very lucky to be alive.

Needless to say, I suddenly have my hands full for a few weeks keeping up with his projects. I have heard the term "trial by fire" several times during the last year (I have worked for UAP for a whole year now) and I am pretty sure that this is the real trial by fire.

On a lighter note, Col and I ran off for a quick weekend backpacking trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness. The goal; a 35 mile hike around North and Middle Sister. Aside from some really sore feet after the trip, we had a perfect trip.

"Ya Sunafabeech"

Yesterday we had a day of down time in San Jose, so we walked around the city's largest park (similar to Golden Gate Park). At one point we were talking about how in both visits by Colleen, she hadn't had a single bad interaction with any Costa Ricans (with the exception of being whistled at by every third male in the vicinity) and neither had I. Then, cruising through the park, this guy runs after us saying "hey wait, hey wait" in pretty good english. We stopped and he immediately demanded "monies" from us with a palm out and a wild look in his eyes. We said no and kept walking. Soooo he decided to follow us for a short time yelling "Ju SAN oofa BITCH!" but in a much more hilarious accent than I can portray just by typing (woulda been perfect for a video blog). As we kept walking, we marveled at how educated even the crazy guys in the park are. He spoke fairly good english and knew how to curse us in a very appropriate way under the circumstances. I guess its not nearly as bad as some travel experiences I've heard of, but it was still pretty random.
Off to Monte Verde!

Costa Rica

I know its been a while, but I have been rather busy with the whole wedding thing and all. Aside from a minor rain shower (in the desert of all places!) teh wedding went perfectly. She said I do, we had a really great bunch of folks there, and we were blessed with an incredible sunset before driving ioff into the night. There are pictures on Facebook if you care to look.
Since I am in Costa Rica right now, I'll tell you about that too. We are here for the honeymoon and I took all my yearly vacation and lumped it together for a 3 week long trip. This place is great! Below are the two update emails I sent out, so I'll let them do the telling.

7/6/08 We are nearing the end of the first portion of our honeymoon in CR and it has been exceedingly relaxing. We are in an americanized beachtown, Tamarindo, that is the surfing capital of CR. First off, thank god Colleen speaks spanish, because I would be so lost with out her translating. Col instructed me on the finer points of surfing, and I am now hooked on it. I got one perfect big wave and a few other pretty good ones and that was the end of it. I think I can understand a little of why people like surfing so much. I also went for two scuba dives yesterday at an island chain off the coast and swam with a bunch of sharks. Other than that, we have been doing a LOT of lazing on the beach and drinking coctails at the happy hour at Joe´s Bar (reccomended spot if you ever come to CR). We are heading off to the jungle for a 4 day raft trip on tuesday on a river typically rated in the top 5 rivers worldwide for rafting. Cant wait for that! Then it is off to La Fortuna for a few days of lounging in hotsprings, then hiking in Monte Verda, where monkeys, kinkajus, toucans, zillions of frogs and butterflies, and sloths live. That should be the highlight of the trip (if we dont get too sick before that). We will check in after the raft trip to see if you guys would like any souvenirs. Pura Vida -Ian and Col

7/11/08 We survived rafting quite well, and this morning ran my new favorite stretch to date. We did a 3 day on a short, mellow scenic river first, and then this morning spent one hour on a helluva run. In that hour we ran 12 class 4s and 4+s, traveled approximately 12 miles and didnt have a single swimmer. The river never slowed down, there was maybe 1 100 yd stretch where we werent paddling and got to take a break. The rest of it was constant class 2 and 3. The trip is supposed to take 2.5hrs, but the water level was ´good´ according to the guides, which means it was quite high. here is a kayak video from youtube of the run (we were in a raft)Day after tomorrow, we head off to Monte Verde Cloud forest to check out the rainforest and wildlife! Talk to you soon!
Sorry, no pictures to oupload yet. They'll be up eventually.

Ramblings from the field

Heading out to a 1500 acre job in Fields, OR (at the SE end of the Steens Mtns.) I stopped off at Smiff for a long, easy climbing day with Keely (Keelia as she now has begun using her full name). We hiked out to the marsupials and managed to climb about 1300 vertical feet in 11 hrs of climbing (including the 2 hrs spent in a cave waiting out a lightning storm). My goal was 15 pitches in a day and we managed 16. We ran up the marsupials traverse, mini-halfdome, round river, and “birds of a feather,” 5.7, on the wombat (summit above Koala Rock). It was so much fun climbing at no harder than 5.8 for the whole day. No pictures though.

I got to spend a day and a half alone in the desert and had a blast. I had to hike into the work site to look at some things, so I made an evening of it and brought sushi, a camera and some beer up to a peak. This is what I wrote as I was sitting up there, and it is a little embarrasing to have such an emotional time, but it was kinda cool. So I will share it with you, unedited:

"Every now and again one has such an intense moment alone with nature that you can only laugh outloud in joy, and shed a tear simultaneously. Feeling the pureness of nature is a joy that is completely inexplicable; it can only be experienced.

To try and tell of the quality of the experience is pointless. A sunset, a flower, a mountain, the wind; it can only be understood in the context of what someone already knows.
To seek new, deeper experiences from nature is the only way to truly understand what she is capable of (a boundless perfection and utterly incomprehensible beauty).
As I cry joy right now, I can’t fully even get ten percent of what I am feeling inside. The tears are the only evidence of the beauty of the desert. I do nothing more than write feeling as this sunset passes, but I understand more of nature with every experience. I am a rich man!
To describe the feeling as spiritual does not do justice to the deepest enveloping joy I get from sitting on a windblown ridge, or on a dirt game trail while writing this. This place of reverence provides all that the soul could ever desire!"

Yea, so that is my little time in the desert. Oh, and Malheur Wildlife Preserve is fucking amazing! There is more biodiversity there than anywhere else on the west coast. The large majority of birds I saw there I have never seen before. I wish I could have spent more time there and had a big ass camera lense. I also got to check off Alvord Hotsprings from the "to sit in" list. It is a funky little concrete tub in the desert, but boy are the springs hot.

From work, we got snowed out, rained out, blown out, but luckily no mechanical problems. Heres the snow day in June and the helicopter doin its thing.
In a week and a half, I will be married. Whoa! We all new it was coming, but it does kinda sneak up on ya like that. I am really stoked to be marrying such a fine woman. We have a beautiful life together and I am glad it is now going to be permanent.

Malheur County

"The entire population of the world - 5.4 billion people- could fit into Harney and Malheur counties alone with 103 square feet per person, a population density little greater than Hong Kong's. (Oregonian , July 25, 1993)"

And yet, those two Oregon counties are two of the largest and least populated in the lower 48. And that is where I am headed next week for work! The Steens Mountains are gorgeous high desert, but aside from that, there really isnt anything in southeast OR. I will be staying in Fields, OR. Heard of it? Probably not. The population is around 10 and it has 5 buildings, 3 of which are motel rooms. Yee Haw! I cant figure out if this is going to be more or less fun than working in New Mexico for a month. Nah, nothing can be worse than that.

Colleen and I also have gotten a lot done on the house recently. Since the weather was pretty much shit everywhere for Memorial Day, we stayed home and got hella shiz done on the climbing gym and back yard. We have spent near a grand on plants at Garlands (veggies, dogwoods, gardenia, seeds, dirt, blueberries!, roses, and rhodies) , I have spent near a grand I think on the climbing gym, and it is really great to see it all coming together.
If you havent seen the house yet, I've added some photos of the inside too now that we have gotten moved in.

At Night

I have a slight sleepwalking problem. It manifests itself frequently when I am sleeping in unfamiliar places. With this job I travel a lot. Therefore sleeping in a lot of unfamiliar hotels. This morning, just past midnight I woke up, ...shaving. I haven't done that before. I finished shaving, looked at the clock, and went back to bed for a very difficult night of attempted sleep. When I got up, I figured I had already shaved, so I just got ready and went. It took me a little while, but I eventually realized that I hadn't finished shaving. There was a significant neck beard on one side of my face all today. Score!
I am a retard. (at least I didnt end up in my roommate's bed or anything!)

A bunch of us climbed Mt Hood last weekend. It was really wet. And cold. A front moved in a little quicker than we had hoped. This was the most unpleasant summit to date, but it was still done safely, just a little less than ideal. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, eh!

granted, its a little old, but here is a gem from Jon Stewart.


And another

STEWART: Yes. I feel like, you know, I feel like the best thing to do is to convince the country that our God is the one true God and that others are less.
KING: American God, you mean?
STEWART: Yes. The one that blesses us for our manifestness.
KING: He doesn't bless England.

STEWART: No. No. He doesn't care for them. He feels that they're pasty.
KING: Pasty?
STEWART: Pasty and he doesn't care for the food.
KING: But Canada.
STEWART: Happy to have them in the attic, but not so crazy about them in general.
KING: He's a judgemental God.
STEWART: Very angry. Loves the Americans. Very big. Wants us to have bigger cars. Wants us to have bigger cars and as a little goof on us has only made a finite supply of oil. It's very -- he's very funny. He's a trickster. Here's another little joke he did. He promised three different religions they were the chosen ones, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and then, funny, follow me, he put their holiest sites all in the same place. And then he backed away and he just wants to see who wants it more. That's what this is about. This is God going, hey, show me something, people. ...

O is for...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/story?id=4755949

...aaaand Obama is spot on, once again.


Just to follow up on the last post, this is from this weekend. Tombstone pass still has 4-6 ft of snow and the snow level reaches all the way to the Mt. Jefferson turn off on hwy 20. Mt hood Timberline is reporting a 238 inch base currently, with 10 inches in the past 24 hrs and a total snowfall of over 800 inches this season. Wow.

Winter hasnt left yet...

Dang, I am getting so bad at this bloggy thing. Work and house being the usual excuse. Well, climbing as usual is in there as an excuse. The warmth crept up for a weekend recently and a really great crew of old OMC and some new was at smith for a 80 degree weekend. But now it is supposed to snow in Corvallis Sat, so winter clearly isnt gone yet. 2 weekends ago, Bryan, me and some other folks wend rafting and skiing for th weekend. I played hookey on Friday and enjoyed an incredible powder day at skibowl, with much hucking of cliffs and carving up an EMPTY ski hill. I have never actually ridden an empty ski resort all day and it is really fun when you ca look at the steepest face and know that around half the lines are yours. Then carrington and crew showed up, we rafted the white salmon in the morning, in the snow, and then went back to skibowl to finish off the night with some margaritas and another 7 hours of snowboarding. That, again was one of the best ski days I have had, just for the sheer amount of alcohol that was consumed. Bryans tab was $235 for the evening (4 guys drinking, I was DD. :P )and that included 5 rounds of double margaritas with everclear. I dont want to say that anyone was being unsafe, but gawd damn, watching everyone crater at the bottom of the cliff band after drinks was HILARIOUS. Especially Bryan, because he went off, hit a lower cliffband, and then bellyflopped from about 15 feet.

Yep, life is still rockin!
(Darrel on Round River at 9pm below, Rob on Buffalo Warrior above)


I am taking on a lot of "real" work for my job now. In Hood River yesterday we completed 4 herbicide application that I have been planning for the last 2 months. That was kinda nice to see things go off without a hitch. I think after a brief lull in the next 2 weeks, I may be off to Idaho to go bombing around the desert on ATVs for a survey job. sounds kinda fun huh. This summer has another 400,000+ ac fire survey/application that I might be running a crew of 10 or so college studeents on. That sounds entertaining as fuck. I hope we get that bid.

Been a long time...

Hi! I'm back! From where, you ask? From the depths of new-housing! we've got 3 new big planter beds sunken into the back yard hillside, a halfway built climbing gym in the garage (hopefully finished by sunday), another ferret and a whole lot of house plants. ...Col and I have been busy. I tell ya though, I would really love to just run off and go to smith, or leavenworth, or redrocks. Thats where everyone else is right now and I wanna goooooooo! Damn spring breakers. At least I can consol myself with the knowledge that the weather is crap now so I might as well hide out in my man cave and build a home gym. (It is snowing in C-town now and it is 90 in palm springs, where Col is)
I am really stoked on this climbing wall. I havent been this excited in months!
Oh, and now there are two ferrets running amok in the house. Colleen's sister found one for us at a humane society last month and she nursed the little guy back to health for us. So we have Sid and Huey now.

Portland Iditerod

If you havent heard of the real iditerod, it is a grueling dogsled race in AK. Portland does it's own version in true portland fashion. It is very similar to a hash. The humans are the sled dogs and one person is mushing a shopping cart decorated to some theme (my favorites were the Mormons, the cavemen[had a propane campfire in their cart] and the pope mobile cart) Col, her sister, myself, and 3 others created a team for this years Iditerod, and we got 3rd place out of 700+ people and were the front runners for most of the race (totally irrelevant because no one was keeping track of winner or loser). Being in front just ensured no waiting in long bathroom lines at each pitstop bar, getting served first at the bar, and getting a table between legs. One of the best times I have had in a long time. And definitely the most drunken exercise I have evre gotten. Those carts were heavy! Our theme was white trash, and we were hauling a singlewide trailer as our "sled". I had cutoff jean shorts that were a little too short after the second trimming. I think some folks got a helluva show when I was climbing a tree ;) We made the video 3 times, the first is right behind the ninja at the start and the second is near the people in the tree.

Urban Iditarod

Contact info

Our new addreess is
3304 Nw Foxtail St.
Corvallis, OR 97330
My phone # is 509-539-8780
Col's phone # is 503-810-1931

Hopefully with this new address all the moving, new phones and other uncertainty in my life is over now. What a relief. To this point in my life I have had over 10 different phone numbers, just under 30 different addresses, 12 different jobs, and lived in (I think) six different states on both coasts. When I look back on it, wow, what a ride! Oh, and just a guess, but with all the camping I have done, I would guestimate I have lived in a tent for at least a year after adding up camping trips and working for the USFS/BLM. I should really keep a running tally on the blog of how many days to date I have slept outside. That would be an interesting lifetime figure to see.

Moving day

Aside from a few small hiccups, the moving in process has been rather quick, and relatively painless. Colleen and I had a minor disagreement on what should be moved and what was “packrat junk” but after bashing her over the head with a good dose of logic talk and some large chunks of foam, I got the things over that were necessary. It seemed rather wasteful to throw away perfectly good things, but she insisted on getting rid of some! And then right when I am about to concede that I might have some things that can go to the trash, I find a bag of used bags that colleen had been packratting for the last several years. Yes, a trashbag full of neatly organized, yet tattered, Ziploc bags that god only knows what she was saving for. Sorry for the rant.
As with any new house, it takes a while to get used to the new surroundings; especially at night. I personally feel it was karma after all the heckling I got about keeping sentimental junk, but in the middle of the night I woke up just in time to hear Colleen walk headfirst into a wall while trying to find the bathroom. Hah! Another nighttime run in with an inanimate object! She blames it on poor vision but I think she has a drinking problem…

While moving into this house, "Big Pimpin'" has been stuck in my head all day. :)

Juvenile pranks

Who the hell throws eggs anymore as a form of retribution?!? That seems a little highschool, dont ya think? This morning I went out to my car and there was egg shell next to my car (and fairly far away from it which leads me to think the tool is a horrible shot). And not only did my car get egged, Colleen's did too. Who the hell hates both of us enough to waste 30 cents on eggs? There are starving kids in Africa people! This only kinda pisses me off, but not really even at all, because it is really just inconsequential to my life. The rain mostly rinsed it off before I even saw it. Same with Colleen's car. Just lame.