The Parrothead!

Stacey and I are really excited about our most recent purchase. We just obtained our own motorhome. That's right, a house on wheels, and it's pretty incredible. I found an awesome deal on Craig's List. I looked at it one day, and bought it the next. I couldn't let this little gem slip away. Check it out below, and then I'll tell you more.

The "Parrothead" is a 1971 Dodge 24 foot motorhome. Some may call it old, but I call it classic. The previous owners were some amazing people from Post Falls, ID. When they got her, they completely refurbished her, rebuilt the engine, redid the interior walls, upgraded the electical and plumbing systems, installed a surround sound system, added a marine-grade water heater and pump, installed new passenger seats, and had a professional artist paint the parrot on the side. To be honest, the parrot was a major part of the appeal.
The day I purchased her, I immediately drove her over to Montana. She's going to be Stacey's home for the summer. I bought this before Stacey ever got a chance to see it. She was pleasantly surprised by the comfort and quality of this rig when I arrived. Driving this thing is a ton of fun. It's big, bulky, and takes a while to stop, but it's pure joy. I get the same feeling in this rig that I get on boats. I love boats. They have this very care-free quality about them. The Parrothead is basically a fun boat on wheels.
This rig also has everything on board that you need to survive. In the head, it's got a marine-style toilet and shower. In the kitchen, she's got two sinks, a 4-burner range, an over, a microwave, and a propane/electic refrigerator. For heat she's got 2 hydronic boat heaters and a propane furnace. For relaxing, she's got 4 very comfortable swivel chairs (with seatbelts) and a queen-size bed. For entertainment, she's got a TV, DVD player, Dobly Digital Surround Sound complete with an awesome sub-woofer, and satellite radio (so we can listen to Radio Margaritaville) which we already owned.

New Brew

Here's the picture we plan on using for our most recent brew. Our friend Josh took this picture in Glacier Nat'l Park last summer. We liked it so much we named our latest beer, "Curious Goat," after it. It's a nice smooth, very malty dopple-boch. Boch just so happens to mean goat. So, we thought the name was fitting.

Here's a finished version of one of our labels. Chocolate Legs was in my opinion the best beer we've concocted. We combined a dark stout with home-brewed espresso and bittersweet dark chocolate. It turned out way better than we imagined. We just didn't have the carbonation figured out yet, and it was a little puny in the alcohol content arena.

We call our little home brewery Muddy Boots Brewing Co. We named it after our fondness for hiking, and the tendency to get off of the trail with very muddy boots. After a long day on the trail, it's really nice to enjoy a cold brewsky. Should we ever go anywhere with this commercially, we'll definitely cater to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Our brews:

• Chocolate Legs - Chocolate Espresso Stout
• Drunkin' Punkin' - Spiced Pumpkin Wheat Beer: We created this one for Halloween. It's so bad that I refuse to drink it. I've renamed it Satan's Piss Pot. From what I understand, beers that include spices need considerable aging before being fit for consumption. So, we're giving it a little more time.
• Appleknocker Apfelwein: Not a beer, but a nice apple wine. This one is strong. It'll lay you out.
• Curios Goat - Dopple-Boch: This is our first lager. The others were ales. It's very smooth. It's also the first time we exclusively used malt as the fermentable sugar. In the other brews, we added corn sugar (dextrose) in addition to the malt. Supposedly, an all-malt beer is far superior to beers using dextrose. I can't really notice the difference, but I like this beer.
  

The Bison Range

The National Bison Range near Moiese, MT

It's springtime. That means Stacey has headed back over to the Bison Range to catch Pronghorn fawns. She does this every year in order to tag them and take a tissue sample. By tagging them, she can visually identify every individual on the range. This makes behavioral observations much easier. By taking a tissue sample, she can genetically identify them and construct pedigrees. This is important since she's looking at problems associated with inbreeding in a small population.

Here's a picture of Stacey just after catching one of the fawns. This one gave her a pretty good downhill run, but she managed to nab it.

Whenever possible, I like to go out on the range and help her out. Here I am holding a fawn's mouth closed. This keeps it from crying out and attracting the attention of predators. They're super sweet little critters. I love getting the chance to hold them, but my heart goes out to them too. They don't know that I'm not going to eat them.