Snow-Covered Forest

I think walking through the woods with my two beautiful white shepards during a snowfall can quite possibly be the most peaceful thing a person can experience. The dogs absolutely love the snow, they run, jump, and prance about, they bury their faces deep into the snow and come up smiling. Molly hears something in the distance that I cannot. She stops, her front paw comes up, pointing, listening, her ears stand up straight as she tries to focus on the sound, and then in a second she is gone. The chase is on! Her speed continues to amaze me, even in the snow filled forest as she leaps like a dear over fallen trees and dodges around the brush with the quickness of a rabbit. But this time the rabbit was quicker, as she emerges from the wood with a dejected look on her face as if to say; "I missed." But she quickly recovers and throws her front paws up in the air like a kangaroo boxer, and nudges Jake with her nose. Then drops to her belly in the powdery snow, trying to tempt him into chasing her. But he could not be bothered; he is searching for his own hidden treasure as he buries his nose deep into the snow every few feet, following along the path beside me.

As we walk, I cannot help but notice how quiet it is. No cars rushing by, no people talking, no TV or radio noise, no phones ringing, or computers buzzing. I do not even hear a bird chirping, or chipmunk scurrying through the thick brush. The deep snow muffles the sounds of the forest as it covers everything in sight; it weighs heavy on the branches, bending them over the trail, creating a portico of bright white and evergreen. I can hear the dogs light panting and I notice the sound of my footsteps. I smell the winter air, and feel the cold on my skin. I am totally focused on what I can see, hear, smell, & feel. All of me is right there at that instant. Is this what they mean by living in the moment? The dogs are always in the moment, and walking through the snow-covered forest with them, allows me to see why. The quiet of a snow-covered woodland can transform you; bring you into a single moment in time. It is here that we can finally hear ourselves. The snow muffles all of the sounds and the silence is embracing. If you listen, at that moment, you will find all that you have been looking for. Alone in the calm of a snow-covered forest, you can go inside yourself and discover the answer to a question, resolve an issue, heal an illness, or pray for a friend. Some might say you can hear the universe speaking to you. Listen.

I think I am a bad grill cook.

I think it's time to admit that I am not a good gas grill cook. Do you even understand how hard that is to say? Talk about taking a direct hit on your manhood. I wonder if any other men, throughout history, have ever been able to admit such a thing. I might even say my wife is actually a better grill cook than I am, which is an even a harder thing to admit.
(I can hear all you guys cringing and saying "ugh, he didn't just say that" )

It's kind of like golf. Every year I tell myself I am going to practice and learn to improve, but it never really happens. I think I know what the problem is. I don't have the patients to slow cook something, and pay attention to it the whole time it is cooking. Usually I forget to take the meat out of the freezer so it can thaw before cooking. I preheat the grill by turning it all the way up after lighting it. Then I throw the frozen burger on the warming rack in an attempt to thaw it out a little. After a while I will move it down to the grill and close the lid while I go prepare a vegetable or watch a game for a while, then come back and flip it over and repeat. As you can imagine the end result is a hard crusty exterior with a blood red middle.

Now, I am exaggerating a little bit. Obviously, if I did that every time, no one would ever eat my grill cooking. But the fact is my grill cooking never comes out as good as others. I have one friend that is a very good cook. There is an obvious difference when he cooks something than when anyone else does. I actually enjoy watching him cook almost as much as I enjoy eating his cooking. What I have noticed is, the time and effort put forth preparing the food prior to cooking it on the grill is far more important than the actual cooking. As a matter of fact, the time spent cooking at the grill is often the least concerning.

Preparing the non-frozen meat, mixing the proper seasoning, marinade, or sauce, and controlling the temperature at the grill, all play a key role in successful grilling. You would think that knowing this would make me at least a reasonably good grill cook. But, in my opinion, mine just doesn't seem to match up. Although I have received compliments when I did at least try to take my time and do it right.

OK , I take it back. I do not admit to being a bad grill cook. I can do it, if I just prepare ahead of time, take my time, and care about producing a quality end product. I am going to go try again.
Damn the propane ran out again.

I think completing small task can improve your mood.

If you really want to feel good. Complete a task, meet a goal, or finish a project. It does not matter how small of a goal it is, just the act of completing it can really improve your mood, and your self esteem. It must release some kind of chemical in the brain or something. I just finished one of my winter projects, I set for myself back in November or December, and it really got me thinking about the health benefits of completing a task.


It was not a big project. I painted the two Adirondack chairs we bought last summer from the unfinished furniture store. Every week, after we bought them, I kept telling myself, "You have to paint those chairs." Then I finally decided it will be a good indoor winter project. That way I didn't have to think about it for a while. I've found I have gotten quite could good at justification for procrastination. Well several weeks ago I was looking at the chairs and said, "you will never forgive yourself if spring rolls around and you still have not painted those chairs." So I bought the paint, and a brush. I set up the chairs in the garage and cleaned them off. Then, of course, they sat there for a couple of weeks. Finally I started painting, I did one coat, on one chair, then the next night I did the other chair. Then they sat for while. Eventually I got three coats on each chair.


When I finally finished this very small, seemingly meaningless goal, I was surprised at how good I felt. I remember thinking, " Easy big fella, it's just a paint job." That's when I realized it wasn't the task itself that matters, it was the fact that I had completed the goal. I am not saying this is an unusual thing, for me to complete a project. I just happened to notice this time, how good it feels.


So, if you are in need of a little pick me up, or even just want to be able to check something off the list. Pick one project that needs doing and just get it done, even if it is just a little one. You will thank yourself afterwards.

My handiness is second only to my story telling.

When I was about 12 years old I found myself in need of a place to store my clothes. So one Saturday afternoon I set about building a burro. I did not have money for materials so I had to make do with whatever my father had available in the garage. I found an old piece of plywood that was painted a puke shade of green. I also found some other type of board that seemed to be made from compressed saw dust. You could actually break it with your bare hands. There were also many other random pieces of wood, nails, screws, and such, lying around for me to make use of. I started by measuring out how many shelves I could cut from the sawdust board. I was able to get 4 pieces about 2 feet long, by 12" deep. Next I took the green plywood and drew out the shapes of the sides and the top. there was not enough to also get a back piece. I cut the side and top pieces out with a sabre saw. Then I attached them together with some small screws. I couldn't understand why it was so wobbly. Next, using some very small nails, I attached a few small pieces of wood, 6 inch pieces of 1/2 inch square pine, inside the back and sides, at about 1", at 12", at 24",and at 30", from the bottom. Then I cut the sawdust board shelves to fit. It was still a little wobbly, so I used a couple of thin pieces left over from the green plywood ,and fit them across the back and srewed them in place. That helped hold it all together a little better. When I was finished I was very proud of what I had accomplished, even if it looked like it was thrown together in 20 minutes. I dragged it into the house, so I could put it to use. When I walked through the living room with my hand crafted piece of furniture, I found several members of my family staring and snickering. Someone said, "We have been hearing sawing, and hammering, and drills going for the past 4 or 5 hours without a single break. We were expecting you to come in with some spectacular work of art." Someone else said "That's is what you came up with after all this time." I just turned and smiled and said, "I did the best I could with what I had to work with." That has been about the level of my Handyman abilities eversince. Oh, by the way, I used those shelves for my clothes until I graduated from highschool.

Positive thoughts would set this country straight

Mt Shasta by cursedthing

What this country, and the world, need is to move away from all the negative thoughts, words, and actions. I know, I know, easier said than done. Every where you look someone is complaining about something. The economy being a major focus lately. I know you can not wish everything good again just by thinking postive thoughts. But we are what we think about. The more we dwell on the bad, the more bad we bring into our lives. When you think positively you begin to act positively, and through those actions good things begin to happen. The more people dwell on the bad, the worse the situation gets. As more people start to think about and act on good things then the better things will get.

My life is getting better every day, and I hope that yours is to.

I think I am totally screwing up my puppy

I don't think I realized how different dogs can be to train. Molly, our new white German Shepard has been terrorizing our home. I thought I could handle any dog, because 10 years ago I had a Shepard mix puppy named Maya and she was a very good dog most of the time. I took her to puppy school and learned the basic training techniques, and she did well. So when we got Molly I figured, no problem I know how to train her. Well needless to say she has a few issues that Maya did not . She is afraid of any strangers that come into the house, and she violently protects her space from our 7 year old White Shepard, Jake. The more I try to work with her the worse she seems to get. I feel myself loosing patients and I know that can hinder the training. I wish I could be like Jake. He just ignores her even when she is millimeters away from his face, growling and snapping. (She has never bitten him). He pretends she is not even there, even as I am yelling at her to stop. Sometimes I wonder if he would just snap back at her or put her down, then she might get the message and stop.

We adopted Molly from a rescue agency about 3 months ago. She was 15 weeks old at the time. It is unusual to find puppies through a rescue, but Molly's mother had been turned into a shelter while she was pregnant and the shelter could not take care of the puppies, so the mom and her pups were rescued and placed in foster homes until they were old enough to be adopted. We decided Jake needed a new companion after Maya passed. I think Jake was just as happy to be the only pet in the house.

Molly and I have enrolled in a "good manners" training class and hope to find the source of her issues and stop this unwanted behavior. It is more work than I expected but once you make a commitment to a pet you have to stick with it. She is a part of our family now and we love her. She is very good with Jake when they are eating, or when playing out in the back yard, and when we go on walks together. But when she is laying in her spot, (her spot can be where ever she is lying down at the moment,) she gets real nasty if Jake comes walking by.

The problem did not present itself right away and it has gotten progressively worse, which is why I feel I am totally screwing up this poor dog. We will keep at it though, and I will update you all on her progress.

I think I like working from home

I think working from home for yourself can, and should, be far more rewarding than going to an office every day. Although I do miss the social aspect of working with a good group of people.

I have been working from home for a couple of years now, closing out contracts and disposing of assets for a company that decided to move their operations out of State. Although I am not officially working for myself, I have found that I enjoy working from home, setting my own hours, and having the time to do and learn other things.

As I wrap up the work I am doing now, I need to start thinking about what I will do for a living. In this economy it is difficult to find a job through normal channels and I really want to continue working from home. That is why I am looking into several different opportunities. Earning money working on-line sounds nice, but I have found there is lot of crap out there. Everyone wants to sell you an opportunity to earn money on-line. I am not looking to buy a job, I am looking to get paid to work.

I believe it is necessary, and desirable, to have multiple streams of income. So instead of looking for that one high paying, time consuming, opportunity, I have decided to try and find multiple, less time consuming, but still high potential for earnings. Nothing is easy but the process can be simple. I am learning how to blog and hope to find a niche subject matter to blog about and eventually attract money making opportunities from that. I also have started doing voice over work, which is expectantly slow but I will continue to work hard and market myself to build a clientele. I also do some article writing on-line through O-desk, and can generate some cash from that every week. I am also a process server and bring regular cash flow in from serving legal papers. The main focus of my time while working from home is developing a website for a water filtration products company and help them to increase their on-line sales. None of these things requires 40-60 hours of work per week on there own, but all can bring revenue in. As the voice over work takes off I will redirect my focus, or if I find the Water Filtration business is growing then I will maintain my focus on that. All the while supplementing my income with the other lines of business.

I will continue to look for other opportunities to bring in income from different sources. I think and believe I am onto something here, and am excited about continuing to work from home. Working from home allows me to spend more time with my wife and daughter and allows time to enjoy our dogs. Even in these tough economic times it is important to decide how you want to attack life and go after what you want. The important thing is to take some action today!

Please let me know what opportunities you have found that allow you to enjoy the freedoms of working from home, and still bring in a good living for you and your family.

Mack