What Have You Been Up To?

"So, what have you been up to lately?"

I've been asked that question a lot lately, and usually I answer something along the lines of, "working and sleeping. That's about it," which typically gets me a response along the lines of "welcome to life, kid". However, if I really thought about it, I still get to do a lot of cool stuff.

Do I have as much free time as I did in high school or college? No way. 10 hour shifts take a good part of your day, and on the days that I do have a little bit more time I come home from work absolutely exhausted.

Yet, the ability to rest often comes through occupation. People do things to unwind. It's strange how after a 70 hour work week a doctor will choose to spend his weekend cycling 50 miles. That sounds like work. But, that's what we do.

As for myself, I am no exception to the rule. I spend all day on my feet training clients, demonstrating exercises, and occasionally picking somebody off of the floor (moving treadmills don't stop when you like sometimes), yet I still find time to get out there and do things.

To start with, I've still been doing a great deal of hiking, leading me to some pretty cool, little-known vantage points of my city.

 I found this cool goat and his little buddy while meandering about an absolutely stunning cemetery during one of my recent lunch breaks. He's there to clear out the brush.

A buddy went hunting for quail, and brought me a few to try. 

Tastes like chicken. Looks like frog. 

We recently got a double hammock, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Retreat from society, find awesome spot, sleep in a tree. It's hard to find a better spot to take a nap. 

 I've been hiding some of my own geocaches lately. I'm pretty proud of this one. That's a camouflaged PVC pipe zip tied to a tree. You fill it up with a gallon of water, cover the hole at the bottom, and the cache floats to the top!

The floating cache!

This one just required solving a pretty tricky puzzle. A little plastic ammo case I got for $3 at Rural King, one of the greatest stores on the planet.

And, I've been working on my knife making skills. I cut the rough outline of the knife out of a piece of steel I got from Lowe's using an angle grinder. A bench grinder has allowed me to smooth down some of the edges, but it still needs a lot of work. Hopefully, it will look like the plastic version at the right when it's all said and done.