England and Idaho

Wow, it has been a while. We decided to escape the Pucon winter and went to England in June and July. Abbey got into Oxford for a summer high school program, so we changed our plans of going to costa rica and instead went to England as a family. We tried a new website called trustedhousesitters.com and were able to book several housesitting assignments throughout England. It worked out pretty well and we had free places to stay most of the time. I highly recommend this site if you are traveling. England was quite impressive. The castles, abbies and mansions were amazing. Everything there is so old and everything is made of stone. So cool. Bolsover castle was definitely the coolest thing we saw. We all loved that castle. Mikey and I did jiu jitsu along the way. Met some great folks. Ate some great food. The food in England is awesome. We had some world class thai food and fish and chips. The nicest town we saw was definitely Oxford, where Abbey went to school. Just a beautiful city that was not bombed during WW2, so many old, beautiful buildings. Exeter was nice. York was nice. All in all, it was a good family trip and was nice to be all together again after a crazy 2 years. After England, Mikey, Jak and I went to see the Brown family in Idaho. Jak was happy to see Sofia and the boys again. We did lots of jiu jitsu and had some great talks. We helped Sam's dad a bit on the new addition and learned some stuff about building. It was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it every year. We are now back in Chile and spring is here. The paddle boards are out. Warm weather is here.

Fall in Pucon

Another night of not being able to sleep. So instead of laying in bed, I do what I always do and crank out some unique websites and work. Have to take Monica to the airport early AM to see her mom who is in the hospital.

Anyway, the blueberries (arandanos) were awesome this year. We picked a ton at a friend of ours farm. Loaded the freezer for a while. I am going to plant a few this year. The blackberries were good as usual. The weather was kind of funky during blackberry season, but we ate tons for free. And the chestnuts (castanas) are in season now. Free food every day. We are up to 30 something rabbits now. We ate a couple this week that were delicious. Chickens not laying yet. We ate the 2 roosters this month. No toleration for crowing at 5 AM.

So summer is over. Tourists gone. Weather has still been nice into the end of April, but it looks like some rain is moving in. The boys and I all had terrible cough, congestion this month. Not sure exactly what it was, but it sucked. I never made it to Cochamo this season. Something always seems to come up.

Mikey and I are working out every day with juijitsu. It is awesome but really hard at my age. My competitiveness keeps me going. And it is great doing it with Mikey.

Abs rocked her SAT. 1450. She is going to Oxford this summer for some classes.

Share Your Dreams is going to be awesome...

Chile Catchup Blog

Wow, it has been over a year since my last post. We have been crazy busy. We moved to a new house near Caburga in March 2016. It was small, but warm for the winter. And cheap, since we were more caretaking it for Terry so it did not get robbed. Wyatt built a cool forge while we were living there. And we made some great friends with the Appel family. It was nice being near caburga where we could paddle often. Monica found a steal of a deal on paddleboards so we have 2 now. The only thing bad about caburga is the road out there. Terrible potholes. I sold Roundeyesupply.com in March 2016. It just got to be too much of a nightmare dealing with my sister. And I don't really want liars and thieves in my life anyway. I have tried hard to remove all toxic people from my life. Life is too short to deal with lovers of money and people that would screw anyone for a dollar. I am still helping the buyer transition for now. I hit a dog going home to caburga one night. Did a bunch of damage to my car. Dogs in Chile suck. Monica went back to the states for 5 months while we were living near caburga. What started out as 2 months turned into 3, then 4, then 5. She did a body fitness competition with her sister. It was quite a breakout from traditional Monica as she has never done anything like that in her life. But she looked quite amazing. She really transformed her body over those 5 months. Abbey decided that she wanted to go to school in the states, so she is living with my parents and going to high school. She seems to be doing quite well and eating super healthy. We thought we were going to stay longer in the little barn house, but the owner finally sold his place in CA and called to say he was coming down. So we had to move again... We found a place close to town in a quiet area with great internet speed. Our new landlords are very nice and a friend of ours just moved in next door, so it worked out well. Although moving sucks. After living in the same house for 9 years, we have moved 6 times in 6 years. No more for a while I hope.... We started a local homeschool group with Jakjak, Kayler and Noa. It worked pretty well. They are all 3 very bright kids that work hard and love to learn. We alternate teaching day to day. Tortuga and I went to a cool concert in Santiago, 2Cellos. And Joanie, Danny, Michael, Wyatt and I scaled volcan villaricca and looked down into the heart of the beast. On the food front, we are up to 24 rabbits and 8 chickens. Not so much on the garden front yet, but plenty of berries to eat in the woods for free. And chestnuts. We lost several animals to stupid chilean dogs until we reinforced the fence enough to keep them out. Pain in the ass. Wyatt and I finally broke ground on share your dreams and it is getting built slowly but surely. It is going to be a really cool site. It has been about a year since Michael and I began jui jitsu full time. We are going to compete a little bit this year. And finally, I accidentally ran over George, our dog last week. He died after 2 days. Everyone was pretty sad about it. He was a good dog.

Summer in Chile

It is great to be reunited with the family after a year of dealing with satan and his followers in atlanta. What a nightmare that turned out to be. Seeing people that go out of there way to convince everyone around them that they are christians, yet lie and steal and cheat every day. Quite sad indeed. It is pretty easy to tell true christians. They live like Jesus. Fake christians are vocal and try to convince everyone around them that they are christians to take advantage of people in business and other areas. We have visited the coast the last 2 weekends. Very nice. Mehuin and Quelue. Valdivia didn't look like much, though. Good cheap fish in Quelue. Tortuga found her favorite dish in Chile, ceviche. It is delicious. Jak started summer camp this week. He is digging it. We have been climbing a few times in Cerduo. Michael is getting better. I want to check out cochamo and Pienetas soon. The town was super full on new years, but not totally full yet. I am surprised as the weather has been incredible. Abbey and Wyatt are food nazis now. They mean well, but are so extreme in everything related to food. I am trying to get them to understand that moderation is the key. They are eating so healthy now, that it is ok to not be 100%. It is hard to fault them for this, but they don't know 100% about some things and that is where the debates come in. Tortuga and I swim way off shore every morning for our morning workout, then I head to the office. It is refreshing and peaceful in the lake in the mornings. We are still struggling with the spanish. Mine is sort of spanlish at this point. But is is very difficult to hear and understand it when they speak so fast. This has been quite a life changing experience so far. We'll see what the future brings. I am about to reinvent myself again in the business world. Lots of big ideas, just have to pick one and roll with it.

Gun facts about Australia

I decided to write this to clarify the facts on the Australian gun ban since liberals like to lie in the media. If you look at the australian governments stats on their own site here : Australia Gun Stats , you will see that after the gun ban/confiscation/disarmament in 1996, crime skyrocketed. Sexual assaults went up, armed robberies went up, unarmed robberies went up, kidnappings went up. Innocent civilians were unable to defend their families and property against criminals who still had guns.

Now, when things started to change for the better was around 2002/2003 when australians realized that they actually needed guns to protect their families, children and property from bad guys. Crime got so bad, then from 2003 until current day 2015, firearm ownership in Australia has increased dramatically. Up almost 40% in the last few years. Australia Gun Ownership Increases

And with that increase in gun ownership has come drastically lower robbery rates and slightly lower murder rates. Basically the same results that history has always shown time and time again. Criminals don't like to deal with armed families. They want helpless victims. Let's think about it, would you want your daughter facing a 320 lb rapist with her bare hands. Or would you want her to have a gun and be trained how to use it. It is kind of a no brainer.

In all fairness, Australia has never really had a big murder problem, anyway. So there are the facts for you.

Another quick page to look at is this one with 6 charts of crime before and after gun bans in various countries. All 6 of the gun bans resulted in higher crime and murders. Gun Bans Before and After.

Almost there ....

Just got back from Chile. I took Wyatt back down after he worked with me this summer. He is doing a good bit of programming in java and making games. We had a good time together this summer. Tres, Wyatt and I were pretty active every day after work playing basketball, swimming, running and more. I miss climbing and jui jitsu, though. Pucon was amazing as usual. I went kayaking one day after work with a friend. Beautiful clear water. Met some more expats down there as our network grows. Abs came back with me to get her ortho work done. She will be getting them off soon. And then hopefully we can be reunited as a family. Tortuga got approved for her temporary visa. yeahhhh.

Balls Hot Here

Man, I forgot how hot Georgia gets in the summer. Not fun when you don't have AC in your van. lol Wyatt came back to the US with me to work on his programming and spanish. Some of his stuff is pretty impressive for his age. Just have to figure out how to harness it and make some money.

I took abbey down and got her settled in to Pucon. It rained every day on my short trip. Tested my work phone down there. Worked like a charm. The internet is awesome. Took jak to a hot spring one day. It was as nice as pagosa springs.

Everyone is still struggling with the spanish. It is not easy. I guess it just takes time. Got the car in our name finally. Found a decent mechanic in town.

Wyatt and I went up to Gehrigs last weekend. Great time. Good food, sailing, kneeboarding, hail storm, good times. Did a little grappeling with Gehrig. Fun times.