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I spy...

I was looking for directions on Google Maps today when I realized that Google had just added "birds-eye" views for Fort Collins. So, of course, I went to see what our home looks like. Much to my surprise, I found that Google just happened to catch us on the morning of March 29, 2012. Our moving day! So, you better think twice before deciding to run around naked in your back yard. You never know when the aerial photography plane is going to fly by!
Recent posts

Highpointing

Yesterday, the Curious Souls decided to take the dog for a walk. We were looking for somewhere that we had not yet been before, so we chose the  Pawnee National Grassland.  There were two very short trails in the western part of the grassland near Crow Valley Recreation Area. We hiked them both in under an hour (I said very short, right?) and were left wanting more. So, eastward we went on our way to  Pawnee Buttes . Along the way, we discovered the  Cedar Creek Wind Farm  and plenty of wide open space. After the Buttes, we looked at the map and discovered that we were only about 20 miles south of Nebraska. And, to seal the deal, we noticed that just over the border was also the highest point in the state. Here we are at the aptly named Panorama Point.  While only 5,424 feet in elevation it did have some lovely, long, expansive views into the seemingly infinite plains around us. As far as either of us could remember, this is the first time we...

Chickens Are Scarier Than Crows, Didn't You Know?

The garden is in!  If our Scarechicken does its job, we will soon have a nice crop of heirloom tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, green beans, basil, parsley and thyme! Huge thanks to my parents for their help getting the area ready. It was a jungle!

Camping is Fun!

Sitting on the bank of the Poudre River...   ...and cutting up watermelon for dessert.

Is Lying Such a BAD Thing?

So do you know how we said we would never have a mortgage again ? Yeah, well, I guess we lied. Just over two years since we short sold our house in Phoenix, we read the tea leaves and determined that a mortgage is just exactly what we should get our hands on. Can I get a woot woot for debt?! Why? Why in the world would we consider going into debt again? The boring reasons are the extremely robust rental market in Fort Collins (the rental vacancy rate is 3%), boring old math (it is currently cheaper to own than rent) and the fact that we love-love-love it here and have no plans to ever leave. But really, we just want to paint the damn walls a different color. Do we need another reason? So we are buying a foreclosure (oh, the irony), close enough to bike to town but in a rural part of Fort Collins (we are on a quarter acre and are zoned as a farm). We can't wait to be surrounded by silence and Republicans. Here is our new mountain chalet in all of its glory. We have some work t...

DIY Wort Chiller

We here at Curious Souls H.Q. are always looking for ways to save a buck or two. So, when shopping around online for a wort chiller for home brewing, we found the following prices: $65 @ Midwest (plus shipping) $70 @ Northern (plus shipping) $39 @ Amazon (plus shipping) So, off to the hardware store... 3/8" (internal diameter) Vinyl Tubing (10 feet) = $4.15 Sink to hose adapter (varies based on your type of sink) = $4.79 3/8" X 20' Copper Tubing = $24.13 Vinyl Hose Coupler = $2.49 Hose clamps (x2)  = $1.70 Band-aids (x2 or x3 or x4) = $1.00 For a total of $38.26 (pre-tax, no shipping), we decided to roll our own. Here's how it went down... ( vid link ) And, of course, there is the joy of having made something all by yourself! Priceless & fun!

Our latest DIY adventure... Homebrew!

After participating in a few different brewery tours around town, the Curious Souls wondered "how difficult can this brewing thing really be?" Today, with a few beers (for inspiration), a few friends, and an extract kit , we decided to try it out for ourselves. Enter (stage left) End of the World Brewing... ( Vid link for the iPhone impaired ) Easy, right? Just like making stew... or tea... or stewing tea... or something... And now, we wait (quite impatiently) for the little S. cervisiae to do their job.