Eating lots of steak

December has arrived with no snow, cold temperatures, and an unfinished house. I am feeling a pull to try and finish the east side of the house today; this would ultimately end the work on the 511 ranch for the winter. It is actually sunny, which we haven't had in many days, and looks like it will be in the 30's.

In the past few weeks life has been pretty mellow around the ranch. Max and I thought we would have started to teach skiing by now but we haven't since it hasn't snowed. I spent a lot of time studying for the GRE which I took yesterday. This involved lots of trips to coffee shops and the library, both of which fill time nicely. Many times Max would come with to drink coffee and do Sudoku puzzles.

Yesterday Tom arrived back at the ranch. He has moved in once again and is planning teaching skiing on grass. Unlike Max and I, Tom is not as concerned about the lack of snow as he bought some new skis that are "true" rock skis.

Patrick moved closer to town about a month ago and Aunge is moving to Big Sky in a few days so the ranch is going to quiet down for the winter months. This is going to be ok since there is less work than there used to be. Urban sprawl has brought many deer into the neighborhood. At first, this was fine, however, their predators, wolves, quickly followed. Instead of targeting the deer the wolves started to prey on our livestock and we lost quite a few head of cattle and sheep (sorry Jeff). As a result, we went to slaughter early and will have a mellow winter. We are currently looking into animal chain mail or a comparable body armor.

We have been making it to town once in awhile. We go in streaks of frequenting the brewery. Last Saturday was the Christmas stroll. It was nice to see some folks down there, some of whom may never speak to us again because the little "scene" in Mackenzie River Pizza. We should have known things were out of hand when the baby from the neighboring table murmured his first word and it was a cuss word. His parents happened to be "strict Christians." They seem to forget that God swears too. We thought that Max's stand up comedy routine might improve our image but just as he started to sing "Nothin' but a G thing" the black, aged manager walked by and it appeared that he was singing to her while mocking her. At first it looked as if she was going to slug the hell out of Max but after examining his general attire we think she assumed he was on a man date and thus they shared a minority status. He got away with all his teeth.

So, even though the wind is blowing cold we are enduring, even trying to emulate our Inuit friends to stay warm this December. May you have many adventures this month and always. Happy Holidays to all of the 511 friends.