Around 11:30pm last night I heard noise outside. When I opened the van door at 7:15am this morning I saw that whatever it was had gotten into my trash again. Second night in a row, which had never happened to me before these two incidents. I pulled up the game camera footage and mystery solved: it's a fox. That's the first real win for the camera. Up to now it's been feeding me a steady diet of moth and bug videos. The fox footage is good stuff. That's why I got it.
Yesterday was a good day. I like being here. Right now I feel like I wouldn't mind extending the stay. I'm putting in long hours and getting a lot done. I did run through my Claude compute again yesterday and I'm going to have to conserve it for the next few days. Seventy percent of my weekly allotment used, doesn't reset until Wednesday at 7pm. I burned a lot working on the third Hi-Fi Lonesome video and making these little educational Field Guide games. I made a new one about the marmots I saw everywhere on my hike up to the lake. I'll have to hold off on more of those for a while.
Just before sunset Shannon and I walked up to the old abandoned mine about 100 yards up the hill. I took some photos. I want to do some research and get a better understanding of what all the equipment still up there was actually used for. I'm amazed by the number of abandoned mines in Colorado. They're everywhere around here.
I've fallen off my regular exercise routine lately and started back up a little yesterday. Did the support hold on the rings for 60 seconds. I open my palms out when I do it, which tilts you forward on the rings and targets the upper chest a bit more. It feels like an intense complete upper body workout in a single exercise. Everything is engaged.
It's Sunday. Shannon is riding her bike four miles into town to explore. There are hot springs in Ouray I'd like to visit whenever we break camp here. Yesterday I filled the solar shower with river water for the first time, didn't bother heating it up, and had a nice shower on the side of the van. So simple and makes such a difference. I love that solar shower.
I have a long list of tasks today. The more I create, the more ideas I have, the more things feel important. I know if I don't execute on them now they tend to get buried, and the time passes, and things get lost in the shuffle. I don't stress it, but the discipline matters.
I mixed a new batch of electrolyte potion yesterday. The last batch I'd made at the North Rim on May 17th, so it lasted three weeks. Deep supply of bulk powders, should last a long time. After mixing I stowed all the bags in the back of the van, which freed up some living space. It's tight in here with the bike and DJ gear, but it's not bothering me. The place is reasonably together. There truly is an art to living in a space this small. A delicate balance of optimizing but not over-optimizing. Over-optimizing is a waste of time because if you stow everything away you're just going to pull most of it back out in a few hours.
Most of what's on my immediate plate is video editing. So much great footage has piled up. The Million Dollar Highway looks great. The hike to the lake is fun to watch. Time to make the doughnuts.