Snow Storm Coming

I'm not sure how much we are supposed to get, but I know it is supposed to start sometime tomorrow evening. After this front goes through it is supposed to be cold, -13 for Sunday night. Monday is a Holiday (MLK) so we have a long weekend. I actually had planned to work and have that 8 hrs for a later date, but I had forgot that the kids are out of school and Heather will be at work. I also considered going fishing but that would be out also. I could use up some of their ski school tickets and go do either one, but I'll probably just stay home with the kids unless I really need to work. If that is the case though, I'll just work Monday evening.

I'm planning for Isaac and myself to drive to Glenwood Springs and buy some ice fishing equipment at a store a friend at work told me about. If they don't have much I'll drive on down to Rifle. If we drive to Rifle we will probably check out the lakes there that I plan to fish. I'm pretty exited about getting to ice fish for the first time. The friend of mine at work (Eric) has done some ice fishing. He actually caught quite a few perch a few weeks ago at the lake I plan to go fish. I think we may try to go fish Stagecoach Reservoir near Steamboat Springs in the next few weeks. It is supposed to have some really big trout in it.

I did find out when I called the DOW to change my address in their system that they go by my drivers license date for residency qualifications so I can not purchase a resident license until March 19th. I'll have to go ahead and buy the NR fishing license. I'll also have to apply for a limited turkey permit as a NR because the deadline is Feb. 2, but I'll get that money back because I don't have any chance of drawing the tag. My unlimited (over the counter) tag won't have to be bought until April so I'm ok as a resident there and my big game applications aren't due until April 2.

Speaking of big game. Bighorn Sheep has been something I've dreamed of hunting for a while now, but a guy can litteraly apply for 20 yrs and never draw a tag. I have built up 3 preference points for Sheep in Wyoming so within 4 yrs I'll start to have a chance there. The good news is I found out that a ewe (female sheep) tag is fairly easy to draw here in CO as a resident even though there aren't that many available. Most people don't want to lose the preference points they have been aquiring to hunt a ram. If you draw your first choice you lose all preference points. Since I have no points in CO, I will only lose the one point I would get when I would have applied this year and not drawn. If I list a ewe as first choice I have a really good chance of drawing (greater than 75%). I had no clue this was possible. Even though killing a ewe is very tough, I"m pretty exited about the chance to hunt sheep. If I am lucky enough to draw, I have figured out that I should be able to take a week of vacation and still have time to come home at Christmas if it works out. If I'm lucky enough to kill one, I don't have to wait 5 yrs to reapply like I would if I killed a ram. I'm hoping to be chasing sheep in the high country next season.

On another note the Tahoe's front end has been making the occasional pop as I round a turn. I checked it out and I can see that the front sway bar's end link on the driver's side is shot. The replacement kit, which is for both sides, costs in the neigborhood of $45 dollars at NAPA. I really have no way to change it myself here so I've set up an appointment monday to have it fixed. I figure it will be a couple hours labor which is liable to be $75/hr. I'm guessing $200 max. I hope I'm wrong and it's less, but I can live w/ 200 much better than 500.

I'll keep you posted on the fish and if I draw a sheep tag in the spring, everyone will know that for sure.