Busy 2010

It has been one busy year and I can't believe that it is already 2011. Our house is finally feeling like home from the help from our great parents that have both visited and were put to work. We have had lots of events to go to and help organize and are finally glad that it is down time for both of us.

Here are some highlights from our summer events.

The weekend of Memorial Day we spent out on the Playa for Black Rock Rendezvous. Cory was on the Playa from Friday morning till Monday evening. He had to be a presence there to represent the BLM and then to lead a tour on Saturday. I arrived on Saturday evening and helped with the Kids Camp on Sunday for Nevada Outdoor School.
Saturday evening there was a Dutch Oven Cook Off and then a huge raffle of tons of different prizes.Later that evening, we roasted marshmallows and made s’mores and then a small group of us headed to one of the hot springs.


Megan and I working with the kids on a project.

Sierra Summit Camp - June 14-17
In June we took 44 kids from Winnemucca to Tahoe on the train for four days and three nights. I was lucky enough to be a bunk mom, so I got to spend 24 hours with 6th grade students. Needless to say I was pretty burned out by the end of the week.


My cabin group of 11 girls


Andy (my boss) and my trail group the Funky Monkeys


Jen, Jessica and I on the way home from camp.



Dutch Oven Cook Off - July 10th





I got to help make Beer Bread


Waiting Patiently for the food


All of the food cooking


Time to Eat! Cory's parents were here so they came to the event to support NOS.


Our NOS Family Camp out we had in the middle of July


Cory enjoying some of the Dutch Oven food


Megan and I at Girl's Camp in August


The Girl's and I on our Scavenger Hunt

Burning Man August 29 - September 6
Cory had to be there before and after the event to help with setup and tear down. I went for work and got to experience the festival for 2 days. I must say that those 2 days were enough for me and will probably last me a lifetime. Here are some of the pictures from the event.


This is the BLM base camp. I got to help construct it when I arrived.


Some of the art work constructed at the event from a distance.


Cory and Curt sitting in the BLM art car.

A few of the Art Cars at the event.












The Huge Burning Man statue they set on fire at the end of the festival.


Cory on the playa where a goggles and a bandana to keep the dust out.


The fireworks on the last night of Burning Man

National Public Lands Day happened the weekend of September 18th in Winnemucca. Cory and I spent all Saturday morning picking up trash at an old dump site. Luckily the weather was pretty nice and we had a nice turn out of people to help with the project.

National Public Lands Day in the Black Rock - September 25-26
I worked the kids camp for the weekend and Cory helped on one of the big projects of putting up fencing around a sensitive dune area. Volunteer efforts resulted in the removal of 3.8 tons (7,600 lbs.) of refuse material, and the construction of 2,200 feet of buck-and-rail fence.




Cory working on the project.


The fence when the project was completed.

NOS Day Camp


Jen and I with the kids.


My trail group


Playing earth ball with the kids.

Pictures of the Playa and the event

Week 4 of Renovations

I dropped my mom off at the airport at 7:00 AM on Saturday, May 15th, and booked it back from Reno to get back in time for my first Water Canyon Event which started at 9:30 am. Thanks to my friend Elizabeth for helping me stay awake the whole trip. The event was unsuccessful. My co-worker was the only one to show up but we did have the opportunity to herd some cows. I didn't accomplish anything this weekend on renovations. I went home after my event and took a much needed three hour nap. It rocked! Cory was out of town this weekend till Saturday night on a training expedition. On Sunday we were super lazy and didn’t accomplish anything and loved every second of it.

Pictures on the way from Reno

Week 3 of Renovations

This week we really kicked it in gear with the help of my mom. She is a miracle worker I swear and came to the rescue when we had really reached our low with home improvements. With her help we accomplished painting the kitchen/dining area/living room. She also helped paint all the woodwork trim and doors down our hallway. We also were able to paint our huge back closet and organized the crazy backroom where the movers put all of our boxes.

Living Room/Kitchen Before







Back Closet Before



We did have some hardships painting the kitchen/dining area/living room and got off to a rough start. It seems to me that my mom after painting her whole bedroom and master bath forgot some of the basics of paining. For example, once you have painted the ceiling you need to be careful when you are trimming the walls not to get paint on the ceiling. Unfortunately, for her she learned this at the end of painting all the way around the room and had to go back the next day and fix this mistake. She also had a hard time painting the right color on the right part of the wall. We had decided to paint our kitchen a nice sage green and the ceiling a yellow/whitish. She was in charge of trimming and was painting away with the green and I looked up to discover that she was starting to trim in the ceiling with the green even though the ceiling was completely already painted the right color and that color was not green. Needless to say, it was lucky I caught her early on in the process and only a small portion had to be covered up. I blame it all on her giving up drinking wine while she was visiting.

The Workers











Painting Back Closet

Kitchen/Living Room After







Even with our little setbacks it was sooo nice to have her here and be able to celebrate Mother’s Day with her. This was really great since we haven’t been able to celebrate Mother's Day with her in the flesh for the past 3 years. Thanks so much for your help mom you totally helped make our home finally feel like home to us!! I am sorry for all your battle wounds you received while you were here. Did we ever get a total count on the number of bruises?


Matt's mother's day present - It isn't mother's day if there isn't rock invovled



In the midst of the painting we discovered that the dryer was taking three times the amount of time it should to dry things. Cory went into our crawl space below the house and discovered that our dryer piping goes under the house and below our guest bedroom and out the side of the house (probably 15 to 20 feet of piping) instead of it going five feet to the right of the dryer and out the furnace room. Cory took apart all the piping and found that each pipe was half full of lint. Can you say Fire Hazard! Cory spent most of Saturday afternoon trying to get new piping and when that failed he resorted to having to clean out the old pipe by blasting them with water. Now, after the whole fiasco I can say that our dryer works much better and I feel safer. We will hopefully be fixing the dryer vent soon though and having it go out the furnace room.