Snow biking/boarding

First of all, EAT IT PITTSBURGH. EAT CHEESE. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHEESE.

Now that I have that off my chest, what a weekend! The snow is a fallin' in southwest Montana. I had the pleasure of renting a snowbike on Saturday and Sunday was spent snowboarding through waste deep powder. And, on top of that, the PACKERS made me $20. Click on the link above for a short video. Kansas needs taller hills! Then I'll come back!

Belated Holidays

We've definitely been lacking on our posts the past couple of months. As a good friend put it "Get that Berndt Blog updated, i want to follow the lives as they trek through Montana". OK Miles - we're on it!

Over the holidays, we got to see lots of our Kansas peeps. Here are some snapshots of some Xmas family celebrations.

Our niece Syd, now known as Spider Pig!

I'm obviously lacking some pics from the Bennett/Pine Xmas, but I was able to find a nice Couson pic! Too bad everyone except matt looked at a different camera...

New Wheels

We have acquired another 23 year old vehicle. This one, however, runs. I sold the inoperable 1987 Suburban to a couple of gearheads and bought this 1988 Toyota Landcruiser. Now we are truly a Toyota family.

Animal Cruelty

Happy Holidays! Love, Kermit

Study Break

I took a slight respite from the monotonous droll of studying this weekend to drive down to Paradise Valley to shut our cabin down for the winter. Our road had 4 foot snowdrifts, so I had to drive through an adjacent field that had two feet of snow. Luckily I bought chains for my tires and had a shovel with me, cause I got stuck. Anyway, here are a few pics. I saw a herd of at least 200 Elk, a bunch of mule deer, and a fox that Moose scared off. I also took the dogs for a walk along the icy banks of the Yellowstone. Yes, I said "dogs". While everyone else is popping out kids, we're increasing our brood of animals. His name is Gus and he's fitting in well. He's some sort of blue heeler/aussie shepherd mix. You can visit him in K.C. in a couple of weeks.

I love "trash"

As most of you know, it snows here. For the past two winters I have relied on my technical shoveling skills to move the powder around. Well, the hard times are over. Two weeks ago, while walking home from university, I noticed that my neighbor had put their snowblower out for the trash. What?! For one, it's made of metal and plastic, so she could have at least recycled it. Second, donate the thing or get it fixed. We all need to stop buying new stuff every time we think something is broken. (I will stop lecturing now) SOOOOOOOOOOO, I politley asked if I could have it, asked her what was wrong with it, and was given the kind reply, "I don't know. I just bought a new one. You can take it. Good luck." Well, good luck indeed. I drained the old fuel, cleaned out the carburetor, adjusted the throttle, and brought this baby back from the dead. And just in time, too. We received 10 inches over the past two days.

The Exciting World of Rocks

No, I do not have a microscope "app" on my phone. These are pictures of rock thin-sections taken with the aid of my phone. (A thin-section is a piece of rock that has been attached to a glass slide and then ground down to 30 microns.) I have to look at these slides each week and learn to identify the constituent minerals that form the rock. I know how excited you must be just thinking about it. After staring down a microscope for hours on end, I then "get" to draw a picture. My drawings are on sale for a reasonable fee. Hopefully I can get a showing at a local gallery to help subsidize my education.

This is a sandstone. Notice the quartz, plagioclase, and volcanic lithic fragments.

Behold, an extrusive volcanic rock, better known as a clinopyroxene, olivine basalt. This can be found far off the coast of Alaska. The large, colorful easter eggs are olivine.

Plagioclase, quartz, biotite. (biotite rhymes with "dyn-o-mite")

Artist rendering of slide 2. Start the bidding at $1.