Brandon O'Brien

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 @ 3:15 PM in Miscellaneous

The garden in my front yard has been hit or miss the last few years due to the amount of sun I get (hint: it's a lot). Rather than have another year of poor return from my garden I decided to build a sun shade out of 3/4" PVC pipe and some screen.

The cost of the materials was pretty cheap and it only took about a half hour to get it all put together. I also put some chicken wire around the garden to keep small animals out. This year rather than planting a big mix of vegetables I stuck with 6 Big Jim Green Chile plants. I'm really hoping that this fall I can roast a batch of my own green chile.

Teaser photos:

Shade box

Garden

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Tags: garden, green chile

Posted from: United States

Tuesday, May 6, 2014 @ 4:07 PM in Miscellaneous

Erin and I had planned on doing the La Luz hike today. La Luz is a trail that goes up/down the Sandia mountain in Albuquerque. It's about 8 miles each way with about 5,500 feet of elevation gain from the bottom. Since I can't take Canyon on the tram and she loves the exercise, I told Erin I'd meet her at the top and hike down with her (since that was Erin's plan). I got to the La Luz trailhead around 8:30 this morning, paid my $3 parking fee and then started hiking up.

The hike up went fine. I only saw a few other people along the way and Canyon got to run around and even got to play in some snow that was in some shade near the top of the trail. As always, the mile and a half of scree fields was pretty monotonous but we made it through.

We got to the tram station a little before 11:30 and had lunch. I made some quesadillas in the morning and also brought some food for Canyon. The only people up there when I got there were some construction workers who seemed to be working on the new tram station. I text Erin and told her I was up there but it didn't seem like the trams were running. Apparently the tram is closed every Tuesday, which we didn't know about.

Without anyone to wait for now and the cold winds that were blowing really strong at the peak, Canyon and I started the hike back down. We made really good time on the way down, but by the time we were about 3 miles from the car it really warmed up. I kept giving Canyon water and pouring it on her to help cool her down.

My total moving time for the hike today (up and down) was 5 hours and 2 minutes. I think that's the fastest I've done it so far. I was hoping to finish in under 5 hours but didn't quite make it. I'm sure I'll be doing the hike several more times this summer so maybe one of those times I'll break the 5 hour mark.

Now that my legs are completely worn out and Canyon is passed out it's time to think about dinner and a shower.

Teaser photos:

La Luz trail

La Luz trail

Canyon at Sandia Peak

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Tags: la luz, albuquerque, hike

Posted from: United States

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 @ 4:35 PM in Miscellaneous

The fence and gate that enclosed my backyard had been there since I moved into my condo back in June 2007. Constant exposure to the Albuquerque sun, wind and occasional rains really took their toll. The wood was warping, the knots were popping out, the discoloration was hideous and one of the pieces had snapped due to a big knot coming loose.

I decided it was time to replace it with something that looked nicer so I went to Lowes and bought some new wood and some stain/protectant. After several days of staining the wood, letting it dry and then staining again, it was finally looking good enough to put up.

Actually putting the new boards up wasn't really that hard. The gate part was really easy and I took the chance to upgrade the rope latch to a metal one. The rest of the fence was a little tougher since I had to contend with a giant rose bush full of thorns. I eventually got a tarp and put it over the bush so I could work without getting cut up.

Unfortunately I miscounted when I was figuring out how many boards I needed and was off by one. I had to use two of the original boards where it hits the wall since I didn't want to have to go get a board and spend another few days staining it.

All in all it looks much better. It's nice to finally be knocking projects off my list. Between that and getting my roof leak fixed it finally seems like there's an end in sight to the projects. Next up is fixing the damage to my kitchen ceiling caused by the aforementioned leaking roof.

Teaser photos:

Before - the original fence / gate

During - the gate is complete

After

From the inside

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Tags: fence, backyard

Posted from: United States

Monday, March 24, 2014 @ 4:30 PM in Miscellaneous

I got pretty used to writing daily travel journal updates while spending 6 months in Europe so I decided to update my website and add a non-travel blog. I probably won't be updating it every day like I was when I was in Europe, but I'll keep it updated with all the random stuff I do and trips I go on.

Since I've been back in Albuquerque I've been spending a lot of time running and hiking through the foothills in my backyard. I had almost forgot how nice it was to have such easy access to some really nice hiking, running and mountain biking trails just outside my back door.

I was out the other day and discovered a full mountain bike course full of ramps about a mile and a half from my place. I bought a commuter bike that will work well as a starter mountain bike too. I have some mountain bike tires that I'm going to put on it and take it out and see how the little mountain bike park is.

I'm attaching a photo gallery of random photos I've taken in the foothills over the last couple months. I was out trail running with Canyon a few weeks ago and saw a huge herd of deer. That was actually the first time I've seen them this close to town.

Teaser photos:

Albuquerque Foothills

Albuquerque Foothills

Albuquerque Foothills

Canyon in the Foothills

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Tags: albuquerque, foothills, new mexico

Posted from: United States

Saturday, April 28, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

I'm trying to take one day each week and go on a few mile hike and explore the area around Albuquerque. Today I decided I'd go up to the top of the three extinct volcanoes just west of Albuquerque. They're located in the same Petroglyph National Monument that I went hiking in last weekend.

The day was perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky and it was probably 80 degrees with a little bit of wind. The hike I took went through all 3 of the big volcano cones and was probably about a 3 mile hike. The views were pretty neat from up at the peaks and completely different than what you find down in the city or over at the Sandias.

The hike lasted a couple hours and I took about 140 pics with my Nikon D50. There were very few people out when I was there... in fact, I went about an hour without seeing any other people. It was a nice relaxing hike. I think next week I'm going to hit up the La Luz trail over on the north side of the Sandias.

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the hike. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Sunday, April 22, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

Today I was working on some website stuff and kept looking out my window and getting distracted by how nice it was. After wrapping a few things up I decided to take my Nikon D50 out to the Petroglyph National Monument here in Albuquerque to check it out.

I got there at about 2:30 and saw there was a sign in the parking lot saying the gates closed at 5:00. I was thinking about trying to get all the way to the Volcanic cones, but realized that was a lot farther than I had time to go. The temperature was perfect, but it started to cloud over after I had been walking for a while. The hike was mostly on sand with some desert brush and a lot of basalt rocks laying everywhere.

On the rocks there are Petroglyphs that were carved into the rocks from the natives between 1300-1600AD. Unfortunately there has been some vandalism around them (people carving their initials into the rocks next to the petroglyphs), but there are some that have been left untouched. I ended up walking for about two hours, which I'm guessing was probably 3-4 miles (considering I was taking a lot of pictures).

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the hike. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below. Also, I did use the appropriate color profile on these, so they're much brighter and vivid than the previous sets I've uploaded.

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Saturday, April 14, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

My parents are in town visiting from Tampa, FL and we planned on taking a hike today in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains here in Albuquerque. The weather had been pretty crappy the last few days (rain and snow) and the weather was calling for today to be nice. We crossed our fingers and hoped the rain wouldn't make the trails all messy and muddy. Luckily by the time we got up to the trails the sun had burnt off most of the water and the clouds had parted.

The weather was pretty much perfect when we got there. It was sunny with a few clouds and probably about 65 degrees. As we were walking I was taking pictures with my Nikon D50 and new Sigma 10-20mm lens. I got some really nice shots and uploaded them to the gallery here. We ended up hiking around 2 miles and got to see some great views (and even a few rabbits).

The trails we hiked at can be reached by going east on Montgomery until it turns into a one lane road (this is past Tramway). Turn left on Glenwood Hills and go about a half mile. Turn right on Trailhead and you'll reach a big parking lot. There were a lot of mountain bikers up there as well as hikers and joggers.

After the hike we drove a little farther south in the foothills to look at some condos I saw online. I'm totally going to have to find a place in the foothills so I can be right at the mountains and trails. If anyone knows of a place around there, let me know.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

Eric, Matt and I just completed one of the single nerdiest things I've ever done in my life. We camped out at Walmart for a Nintendo Wii. I'm not a console fanboy or anything, but the Wii seems like it's a pretty solid piece of hardware and has some cool games so I figured I'd wait with them. I called Walmart last night to find out how many they had and they told us around 30.

Our original plan was to show up to Walmart around midnight and wait in line. We went by around 9:30 to check out the situation and the lady told us we'd have to wait outside for a while, then we could go inside. Eric and I came back home and put on our cold weather clothes and then met up with Matt again at Walmart. By now it was around 11 and we went to sit outside.

I went inside to double check that we were in the right place and discovered about 5 people waiting in the Lawn and Garden section. They had a sign up sheet and everything. I quickly called Matt and Eric and told them to come inside. We got there, signed up and waited, and waited, and waited.

We talked a lot with the other people, played Simpsons trivia, watched movies, slept (or tried to... as much as you can on a cold concrete floor). The 30th person finally showed up around 4:15 in the morning. Walmart wasn't doing anything to help with the flow of people or organization, so we all took it into our own hands to make sure a riot didn't break out.

The first few hours went by pretty quick, but the last two seemed to take forever. Finally a Walmart manager came over, gave everyone tickets and had us go buy our Wii's. I got Zelda with mine. I probably wont be able to play it for at least a week due to moving and everything.

Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Friday, January 6, 2006 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

I've spent all day getting a great workout, even though it was unintentional. Lifting boxes, beds, couches, TVs, tables and more have left Eric and I completely worn out while moving into our new apartment. Even though the apartment is just around the corner from my old place, it has still taken the good part of a day to get both of our things moved into the new place.

Eric and his dad showed up around 11:30 with the Uhaul and we signed the lease and got the keys to the new apartment. After unloading all of Eric's things, we went to my apartment to grab the big items like the couches, kitchen table, my desk and a few things that are just a little bit too big to fit in my car.

The new apartment, which is located at Blackbird Farms is very nice. There is a lot of room for everything and we even have a huge storage closet that would be big enough for someone to put a desk in there and turn it into a tiny workcenter. The bedrooms are a little different in size, but it doesn't seem too noticeable and the bathroom even has a nice closet so we don't have to store everything on a metal rack. We even have a really nice view outside our balcony of a field. The view at my old place was of a retirement home.

Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States