Dude Camp at Mt. Rainier

I've recently returned from a work trip up near Mt. Rainier National Park. It's my third time on the much fabled excusion (previously posted about here). When people ask about it, I have a hard time explaining it. There's the work side of it: lots of hours landscaping, manicuring, building, maintaining, and restoring the grounds of a nice mountain escape property. That's straight forward enough. But it doesn't even come close to capturing the feel. For that, I came up with the term Dude Camp.

Though not exclusively (Della was there for a few days last year), it is mostly dudes that make the trek to work the long hours in often inclement conditions*. As such, there is a very dude-y feel. Free time activities include playing poker, watching action movies, snoring, throwing horseshoes, and eating a lot. The dude food is a topic unto itself: steaks, beer, hamburgers, tequila, bacon, bourbon, brats, and more snacks than you could shake a Slim Jim® Meat Stick at. And I don't mean to imply that it's not awesome, because it is. Aside from the fact that I gain 7+ lbs in the 10 or so days, I'm in hog heaven.

This year's work projects included replacing an aging water feature with a very nice oriental inspired one. It was quite a bit less work than installing last year's basalt pentagon fountain. My project was extending the trail system that I worked on 3 years ago. The new sections complete a loop around the property that I mapped using GPS on my not-a-phone. I'll clean up the readings into a fancy trail map that we'll give to them. Good times.

Yes, I'd say Dude Camp was a success: jobs completed, fun had, and some money earned. If only all jobs included a once-a-day horseshoes break...
Wednesday May 6 2015File under: work

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Cards of Business For a Man of Business

Back in the beginning of my professional career, I remember seeing my friends get their business cards and hand them out with a sense of pride. It's like having a business card meant you had made it, you were a productive member of society almost. Well, my professional career was a short-lived one and I never got around to having a job with business cards. But every now and again, someone asks me for my card and I wish I had one to give them.

So I went and made my own! I've been toying with the layout in my head for quite a while and all it took was grinding it out*. While some of the "titles" aren't ones that I foresee ever gaining me much business per se (e.g. "Supertaster"), I thought this might give whomever receives it a better idea of who I am and what I could do for them.

I don't think I'll ever be in the habit of plopping these bad boys in the drawing for 15% off happy hour margaritas at the local drinking hole (they are a bit too tedious to make for that), but I look forward to the time when someone asks me for my card and I can say "here you go!" Professional career #2, here I come!

This is what it looks like close up, more or less

Saturday March 21 2015File under: work, misc

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Tulipy Commute


Skagit Valley is a pretty dang nice place most of the time, but for about a month in Spring, it's super nice. While much of that is due to the emergence from the rainy, short-dayed winter, them purty flowers that show up all over the flats contribute nicely. Normally, I barely see the fields of yellow, pink, and purple from far off on the highway. This year, however, I get to see them up close almost daily!

In a slight divergence from my normal schedule, the last couple weeks I've been hauling gravel, shoveling dirt, and building with rocks (which is typically more of a fall occurrence.)* As always, I enjoy the work and income but lament the loss of free easy days. But that's beside the point. The place we are working requires a commute through the tulips. The first week, the daffodils were just peeking through. Now they've mostly been topped and some tulips are in full swing. Next week, when we're scheduled to finish the job, everything should be going great guns!

The tulips are one of those Skagit County events I take for granted. The last time I truly took advantage was 7 years ago (posted here*). This year, not only do I have the lovely commute to admire them from, I will also be doing the tourist thing when a friend comes up specifically to see the tulips.

For those of you who haven't experienced the glory of the acres upon acres of color, here are some photos from local superstar photographer and ex-blog du friend-er David Clumpner. (You can look at his wedding photography website here.)

Saturday April 12 2014File under: Anacortes, work

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More Housesitting Features

I've often said that my chosen profession, housesitting, is the best job one could have. And it is. I get to stay in nice houses, snuggle on animals*, always shop at new and different grocery stores, and make a little money on the side. But every now and again, there's a different perk, one that I would have never expected going in. I get to see so many neat and different house features.

Sure there's differences in architecture, design, and even stuff as little as appliances. And all those are neat. But recently I came across two house features that I just loved.

Feature 1: Magic sucking wall dustpan*

Central vac was something I only learned about through housesitting. And in my long career, I've come across it enough times for it to become common enough. But this extra use of central vac was just too dang neat. Basically, you just sweep your pile into the wall and it disappears. No more dustpan. No more leaning over. Just sweep and you're done! Not that I'd ever have central vac, because I can't imagine it is very efficient, but I can appreciate a neat feature when I see one.

Feature 2: SECRET BOOKSHELF!!

In movies, it isn't uncommon for the dectecive to snoop around until he finds the secret book on the secret bookshelf that, when pulled, reveals a hidden room*. But those don't exist in the real world, do they? They do! At my current job, THERE IS A HIDDEN ROOM BEHIND A SECRET BOOKCASE! The story goes that the builder/first owner of the house had kids so built in a bunch of neat features like this. Besides the book shelf, there's another mini-room only accessible via crawling under a bed. So neat!

Yeah, housesitting is a pretty dang neat way to pay the bills (or avoid them). I know on all jobs, there is always something new to learn or discover. But with housesitting, you can do it all in your skivvies!
Thursday March 20 2014File under: work

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Sucked Back In

Two weeks ago, with a stomach full of all-you-can-eat Chinese food and dirty, cold, and wet, I came home from work a happy dude. Why? Because it was the end of my work for the season. For the past couple years, I've been doing a month or two of mason/landscaping work in the fall to refill the coffers, strengthen up my lazy back, and justify such unwise endeavors as all-you-can-eat Chinese food buffets.

After two weeks of much enjoyed time off, with a little of this (Chautauqua Board retreat) and a little of that (chillin' with my homies, I find myself back on the job. I'm thinking this stint will be a short one, because my pile of to-dos is not so tiny* and working outside in the winter in the Northwest isn't as much as you may think.

But just as the weather, hard work, and lack of free time reminds me of why I don't like working, the camaraderie, sense of purpose, and the scrilla reminds me why I do. So I guess it all comes out in the wash. Which reminds me, I should go do wash.

(In my occasional self-portraits series, here's me looking ever so happy to be back on the job.)
Thursday December 13 2012File under: work

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Working In the Rain

Today is the first day I can ever remember taking a significant portion of work off due to weather. Every now and again, we'll knock off an hour early if it really starts coming down, or take an extended lunch to let a system pass, but today, we knocked off at 12:30 (and would have left sooner if the dump truck hadn't have run out of gas).

Working in the northwest during the fall and winter, you wouldn't get a whole lot done if you only worked on the nice days. And there is an element of pride to getting things done rain or shine. But working in wet clothes and cold gloves isn't a whole lot of fun either.

In celebration of an unexpected half-day off, I built a cozy fire (that doubly serves to dry out all my gear), made a pot of soup, and zoned out. Yeehaw for rain delays!

(Oh, and for all you clever clever folks out there that reply to my work stories with "You work!?!?", I'll have you know that I'm in the home stretch for the year. Another 2 weeks and I get back to the way life should be: sleeping till 9:07 and lots and lots of computer time!)
Monday November 19 2012File under: work

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60-Hour Work Week

It's not often that I can say I worked a 60 hour work week. In fact, I don't think, outside of volunteer work*, I've ever put in that many hours in a week. This past week, however, I worked 60 hours hauling gravel, weeding, spreading bark, building trails, painting, planting, driving a fully loaded truck, crawling under the house to do plumbing, and more. And while I am pooped, I'm happy.

In terms of jobs, you couldn't really ask for a better gig. We spent the week just outside Mt. Rainer National Park*, working on a million dollar cabin right along the river with beautiful grounds complete with waterfalls, private forest paths, and beautiful stonework everywhere you turned (my personal favorite being the spiral outdoor shower*). My boss has been going down there for a week or two per year for over 25 years and to see the culmination of all that work was amazing. And to participate in the storied trip was a real opportunity.

In our few off hours, we played horseshoes*, frisbee golf, poker, and ate well! It was dude time. There was even a surfer movie and some Simpsons. The combination of working and living together in a place where it is all about the work* really suits me. And with the overtime I logged and the spare change I put away, I could see doing it every year, if I'm lucky enough to be asked back.

Yes, work comes in all shapes and forms. A week working under the sun in a beautiful place with a bunch of cool dudes is one of my favorite forms.
Tuesday May 22 2012File under: work

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Herding Cats

I now know where the term "herding cats" comes from and all too well what it means.

I'm at a new housesitting job this week where 2 cats are my charge. In the housesitting realm, I consider cats to be the easier of the household pets–no walking, no scooping poop (unless they are indoor only cats), etc. The instructions read "At night, bring Gus into the house and put Baily into the garage. They might need some coaxing with a can of tuna."

The first thing I realized when I went to bring the cats in for the night is that I didn't know which one was which. Hmmm... But worse, there were 3 skittish cats running around the yard to choose from. So not only did I have to pick which one went where, but I also had to deduce which ones to herd in the first place.

In both instances, I let fate decide. I got the opened a can of tuna, placed it just inside either door, and lied in wait. The first cat* to fall for the tuna-in-the-house trap got to spend the night in the house. Same with the garage. I mean, each should know where they belong, right?

Wrong. Since that first night, I ran into the neighbor at frisbee* and he let me know which was which. It turns out that I got the right cats but the wrong places. Alas. But since I've known, garage kitty has wised up to the tuna baiting, so I'm going to need to develop a new strategy anyway.

Yep, house/petsitting is a good job. But it ain't always easy.
Wednesday June 9 2010File under: work

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Productive Time on the Road

I just got back from a nice little week-long jaunt down through southern Washington and Portland. But besides being a great trip, I can say that it was productive as well!

First stop was in Olympia to help Jule finish up work on his stone patio (with a little extra landscaping thrown in for good measure). The whole thing turned out great* and even left some time for family meals, some frisbee golf, and a trip to the theatre.

Next stop: always wacky Portland. The plan was just to hang out, see friends, and of course get in as many pub quizzes* as possible. The result, however, is that I somehow talked my way into helping Andrew and Gretchen build the lovely pathway you see here. We gathered the broken concrete for free via craigslist so the only cost was the sand. I think it turned out awesome! (North agrees. I couldn't even get him to look away from the path to get a decent picture*.)

Last stop on my productive week on the road was a trip up the Columbia River for a "business meeting"*. While the meeting was productive, the train ride really took the cake. The views as we cruised along the Columbia were spectacular!

It is a nice feeling to combine seeing good friends and traveling around with being productive. Maybe I'll have to try that again soon*...
Sunday May 16 2010File under: work

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I Love My Job

I love my job. For those of you who don't know (or are saying to yourself "You have a job!?!?"), I am a professional housesitter*. While technically the focus is usually on pets, since I do the plants, mail, papers, etc., I think "housesitter" encompasses the job better than "petsitter".

Why do I love this job? It's always different. I get to shop at different grocery stores, see different views, hang out with different pets, get to know different neighborhoods, and ride different buses, just to name a few things. And while housesitting requires you to be around the house as much as possible, it still leaves time for me to do my thing: make and do crosswords, draw comics, read, watch t.v., make websites, etc. But what I like most of all about housesitting is that I can see the direct result of my work. There is no middle man between me and the people for whom the service is being rendered, and they always appreciate it so much. That, the being able to directly help someone out, is what I love most about my job.

Do you know someone who needs a housesitter? I'm always looking to take on new clients and move into new markets*. And the jobs don't have to be in the northwest. I'd be happy to do a stint in Delaware, California, or Germany. Just get ahold of me and we'll work something out.
Monday April 12 2010File under: work

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