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Summer is Here (ugh!)
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Well folks, summer has once again descended upon us here in Arizona with triple-digit temperatures starting the first week of June.
I was outside cleaning my pool around 4pm one Saturday and felt a strong breeze hit me that felt more like a blast furnace! A couple of beers later, I hopped into the pool and cooled off…aaaahhhhh.
This time of year is not much fun for ATV riding in my opinion. The only way to make it enjoyable is to head up north around Flagstaff or into the Bradshaw Mountains for a cool cruise with some friends. I didn’t get much riding in over the winter months, so hopefully I can hook up with some of the guys at Riding Arizona and go riding.
New Host and New Domain
Posted by: | CommentsFebruary 2010 was not a good month for my web hosting. I was using a virtual private server (VPS) that I had to manage on my own. Sadly, due to my lack of technical skills in this area (but I am learning), I found out the hard way that no server is immune to brute-force attacks . I stumbled across the security log files and found TONS of login attempts originating from China.
Luckily I had backups, so I decided to move away from VPS hosting for now and go with HostGator.com shared hosting. I’m still using the performance plugins and tweaks mentioned in previous posts, so hopefully performance will not be too bad.
If you encounter any issues, let me know.
-Jeff
Camping & Elk Scouting in Munds Park, AZ
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For the weekend of October 24th, 2009 my friends invited me up for the weekend to tag along on their scouting efforts to locate elk in the Coconino National Forest, near Munds Park, AZ and Mormon Lake, AZ. The big hunt is the day after Thanksgiving, so everyone was focused on scouting instead of taking it easy and having family time. I am by no means a hunter (yet?), but I’m trying to learn some things each time we camp.
Friday Night
As usual I arrived at camp later than anticipated – around 6pm. Everyone else was set up and getting comfortable when I arrived. Since I was invited to sleep in the trailer, I didn’t have to set up my camping gear in the dark…phew! It wasn’t long before we all got hungry and decided to grab some dinner at the Mormon Lake Lodge. Fish ‘n Chips and Coors Light never tasted so good on a cool, fall evening!
After dinner we all headed out on forest service road 132B and 132C (I think). We wanted to learn more about the road and see what the conditions were like. After about an hour or so of exploring in the dark, we decided to head back to camp and get some rest because Saturday was going to be a busy day.
Saturday
Around 5am everyone got up (except me) to go out scouting in near-freezing temperatures. One of the guys brought homemade breakfast burritos for everyone. I ate mine with coffee around 8:30am when I got up. It was strange being at camp alone while everyone else was out, but I made the most of it and enjoyed my breakfast, then took some pictures (below).
I managed one scouting trip on Saturday night which included a 2+ mile hike over to Newman’s Tank – which is basically a watering hole – off of forest service road 132D. Because of my ailing knee, I wasn’t able to join the guys each time they went out scouting, so I had to make the most of this one. Sadly, I forgot my camera on this hike, so I don’t have any pictures to show you. I can tell you however that it was a nice hike through open meadows and semi-dense forest. The ground was covered with a lot of volcanic rocks, and short, thick grass. Along the way, I was worried about my knee, so I took my time and was careful not to trip over anything.
We noticed elk droppings in various stages of decay. Some appeared only days-old, but nothing really fresh. When we reached Newman’s tank, we discovered there were already two blinds set up. They were made of natural materials and somewhat shabby. The watering hole was surprisingly fenced in which made it look like a culdesac. I noticed a large opening in the fencing at one end, but no evidence of tracks leading out.
Sunday
Ah yes, the mandatory camp break-down and haul-out. I didn’t have much to pack up so I helped my host clean up and put things away. The ride out of the forest wasn’t too busy with the usual line of trucks and trailers. I managed to get on the freeway within about 15 minutes from the time I left camp.
Overall it was a great weekend…thanks guys!
Photos
Crown King Annual Chili Cookoff – 2009 October
Posted by: | CommentsSeveral people from Riding Arizona are planning on taking the back way up to Crown King, AZ this Saturday to attend the annual Chili Cookoff. I had plans to join them but had to bail out due to a knee injury. I have a medial meniscus tear and it’s quite painful at times. I would have gone riding with them but I don’t want to make it worse. Read More→
Performance Updates – Caching
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s nothing I hate more than a slow website. I’m somewhat obsessed with performance on this site so I spent some time recently to implement caching. There were two parts to this effort:
- Implement both database and application caching on the server level (Linux).
- Implement a caching plugin that would cache the blogging software and all the bits and pieces that make up this site.
The plugin I decided to use is called W3 Total Cache by Frederick Townes because it makes use of server caching (in memory vs. disk). The server caching software I selected is memcached. Combined, these two solutions should improve overall performance.
Since I’m running my own server, I had to do a little research to get memcached operational. Fortunately Frederick has some great instructions in his plugin documentation.
If you encounter any problems, let me know.