Man Week - Overview

One word: awesome.

After being back in the real world for a full week, I've had some time to look back, appreciate, and miss the time spent out there. It was a good week. While I don't think I got as much done as I probably should have with an entire, uninterrupted week, I also didn't try to kill myself. I got some good, quality, relaxing time to myself, as well.

Some highlights of the week:

• The first night out there was probably the most impressive. It was the beginning of the week, so I had the whole week ahead of me. I was out there by myself, so I had time to just sit and think and enjoy. The sky was clear without a moon, so I was able to see tons of stars and listen to the night sounds. That was a happy night.
• Friday night, several friends came out for dinner, fire and smores. I smoked a brisket all day (which didn't turn out all that great, unfortunately - but everyone pretended to like it, which I appreciated), so we dined on the picnic table after the sun had set. Shortly thereafter, we moved the party to a nearby campfire as the temperature was dropping. A cold front had just blown in, so the temp was dropping into the 50s, perfect weather to huddle around a camp fire. The sky was clear, so we pretended like we knew what the constellations above us were. And of course, you can't have a camp fire without a healthy dose of smores. It wasn't until someone looked at their watch and realized it was after 1:00am that the party started to break up. It's a sign of good company when you don't even realize 4 hours have passed.
• I was able to get some winter rye grass seed planted, which I had been talking about for a few weeks since I bought the seed. Hopefully, something useful will come of it.
• Several large cedar trees met their doom this week. I need to get back in the habit of taking out a couple of those bad boys every week, so that slowly the land will open up, instead of trying to clear an entire section in a single, infrequent, rampage.
• I had limited cell phone connectivity, which was overall a good thing. It was good enough to receive texts and the occasional dropped call, so I could keep in touch with Jenna and others. However, the service was not good enough to successfully and reliably connect to the internet (I can use my phone as a modem for my laptop). This meant I was unable to consistently sign on to work and check e-mail, which I tried to do throughout the week. So, thanks Sprint for your crappy service. No really, thank you.
• And lastly, the weather overall was fantastic. I had some gorgeous, sunny, cool days that made working all day outside a joy, and I had some rainy, gray days where I was able to lounge in the recliner with a book and a glass of wine without feeling bad for not being outside. Oh yea, and the pond filled up half way with that rain. All in all, a good mixture of weather. I couldn't have asked for a better week.