Dan's visit

This past weekend, Dan flew out from Chicago to visit and go shooting at a relative's ranch.

We had a good time camping out in the middle of nowhere, shooting Prairie Dogs, and staying up watching the sky and talking.

We also took a run up to Trailridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park this morning before I had to take him back to the airport. Dan was very patient and understanding while Corben fussed for much of the drive.

When we dropped Dan off at the airport in Denver, we said goodbye then Emma yelled out the window, "Daddy, I don't want Dan to go!" On the way home from the airport, she told me that she thought it was neat that Dan had stayed at our house, and wanted to know when he was going to be back.

Thanks for visiting Dan!

the state of things

I haven't talked much about work on my journal, so here goes...

I am meeting with new folks (for potential new business) now once to several times per week. The word is slowly getting out that I am here and in business.

Studio North continues to make use of my services on different projects and in different capacities, which is much appreciated and enjoyed. I had hoped that I could continue to stay plugged in once I left. It's good to talk to folks from there several times a week.

I am refining my business plan. I'll post some highlights once the revision is more complete and solid.

At this point, I am definitely in the "struggling as we start a new business" stage. We came knowing several things about starting a new business:

• Most fail
• It can take several years to start seeing payoff
• It's really hard

Hopefully the first one won't happen. We can't let the second happen (I won't put my family through this for that long without it being worth the while). The third is true, but I feel like I am holding up well.

That pretty much summarizes business. Oh, and I seem to find more irons to put in the fire every day, so who knows what else is coming!

We're doing well. God is good.

sad day

Andrew, Sarah and Mary are moving back to St louis. I helped Andrew load his truck up and we sent him off about an hour ago.

Nancy, our kids and I will get to spend the next day or so with Sarah and Mary before they fly out. It's been great living in Fort Collins together for the past 6 or so weeks. We are definitely sad to see them go.

a good day in Nebraska

Windmill at sunset
Originally uploaded by John Daharsh.

I was in Western Nebraska yesterday visiting a relative's ranch.

I went with my brother-in-law Andrew and we had a great time.

The ranch is beautiful, and we had great weather and a beautiful sunset. Here's one of the photos on my page at flickr (click to go there).

You should also notice the new flick daily zeitgeist along the left side of the page. It shows photos that I have uploaded to flickr and will take you to that site if you click on one.

prairie dogs

I have a relative who ranches cattle on a BIG piece of land.

Last year, I took a group of guys from Illinois and we went out to Western Nebraska and did what we could to help him with his Prairie Dog problem.

This year, one of the guys, Dan, is coming back out and we're going to give it another shot (pun there, in case you missed it).

Well last year I had topo maps ready for the trip -- which ended up getting us out of trouble when I missed a turn and got completely turned around. This year I bring you thermal imaging!!

The image is actually rendered using an application called "dem3d" from the USGS and USGS DEM data. Email me if you want to make your very own rendering of someplace near you.

hello from Flickr

This past weekend I started an account on Flickr and posted some of the photos from my galleries. If this works right, I'm able to post images from Flickr into this journal, which would be very cool.

Nancy and Corben on the hill Originally uploaded by John Daharsh.