It’s Christmastime, and here at the Bratten’s “Good News Ranch” we have a couple of new traditions we are enjoying to celebrate the good news of the coming of the Christ.
First of all, we made this meaningful Christmas log decoration that holds seven plaques. These plaques each show quotes of Jesus, naming some of the reasons he came to earth. We are spending some time each evening for the seven days prior to Christmas to focus on Jesus’ words, light the candles, talk together, and rejoice in his coming.
Jesus said:
I came… to show you the Father. If you have seen me you have seen the Father. (John 14)
I came… because the Father sent me; not to be served, but to serve. (John 8:42, Matthew 20:28)
I came… to preach the good news of God’s Kingdom. (Luke 4:43)
I came… to heal the brokenhearted & deliver those who are crushed, that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. (Luke 4:18, John 10:10)
I came… to proclaim release to the captives & recovering of sight to the blind. (Luke 4:18)
I came… to call sinners to repentance; to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 5:32, Luke 19:10)
I came… to bring light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness. (John 12:46)
Secondly, we got a nice tree this year and enjoy having it in the house to make it festive. We threw out all the old tree ornaments and made all new ones which all point to Christ, rejoicing in his coming. The tree is topped with a beautifully lighted star Tim made.
Below is a gallery of some of the ornaments.
We still have our large lighted star outdoors, high above the house on our antenna tower for all the neighbors to enjoy during the Christmas season.
We hope you all rejoice during this Christmas season in the coming of Jesus, God’s Son, who came to show us his Father.
As it may be obvious, this website hasn’t been updated in quite some time. I tend to do updates in the fall & winter, when I have new ideas or information, particularly regarding the vegetables I grow. Here’s a few highlights until I have time to do some more writing.
SQUASH: This year we created a new bed outside our garden area, with in-ground beds (not raised beds) just for the winter squash & pumpkins. It’s fenced in from deer, bunnies & ducks, and seems quite successful. Soon I’ll be harvesting those, as we had a bit of frost yesterday morning.
TOMATOES: This year I grew a few tomatoes in our newest raised bed in front of the greenhouse. This is our warmest, most protected bed, and I thought tomatoes just might do okay. They did! More on that to come…
DUCKS: Our latest flock of ducks is now 1 year old, and they’re a lot of fun. They’ve been taking turns with laying eggs & molting, and we’ve had a constant supply of eggs since January. Our one runner duck is very entertaining & adventurous. I’ll update the ducks page soon.
FREEZE-DRYING: We purchased a freeze-dryer in January of this year, and have been using it to freeze-dry eggs, our garden harvests, and many other things. I’ll do an update on that soon.
That’s it for now. It’s time to go out and do some real work.
It’s the first part of May here in the Rockies, the weather is warming up, and it seems like time to get out planting! Note the key words, “seems like.” It sure does seem like it should be the right time, but it just isn’t. The weather is so unpredictable here this time of year, that although the forecast currently looks warm enough for the next 10 days, you just never know what may happen. Last year (2022) we received about 28” of snow between May 20-24, other years we’ve had snow in June, and it can happen any year, even after several very warm days.
In our earlier years of gardening here, we did everything we could to get an early start. We were successful at keeping plants alive, but it was a lot of extra work. We made hoops for our raised beds to allow covering them with plastic, frost cloth or shade cloth as needed. We started several plants under our grow lights and in the greenhouse to give them a good start, then transplanted the cold-tolerant plants out as early as the first or second week of May. All said and done, those plants did not die and produced nice, edible veggies.
But truth be told it was a lot of work covering things nightly and other plants of the same variety planted out just 2-3 weeks later when the weather was more consistently above freezing caught up quickly to the first group. In many cases the second group produced healthier, larger, better produce. Think broccoli, cabbage, other brassicas, lettuce or spinach.
Over the years I have become less prone to race out to the garden, and this year I am even more relaxed. Yes, I have a small number of those plants growing in the greenhouse for a good start, but I am not in a hurry to transplant them outside. By waiting just one or two additional weeks, I know they will do well and grow fast once outside, and I won’t have to worry so much about covering them every night, uncovering them in the mornings, or running out to be sure they’re protected from hail.
While I wait for the right time to plant, there is plenty of other work to do getting the raised beds ready by adding compost & amendments to the soil, starting seeds indoors, pruning & removing greenhouse plants to add to our composter, & tending the greenhouse plants that soon be transplanted.
I’m also reviewing all my old garden notes and putting them into a new format on the computer so they’ll be easier to access and keep up to date.
We used to have a couple of blogs prior to this website, which were hosted on Blogger. One, “Golden Gaits Garden”, was started at our former home in Wellington (2009) when we began growing vegetables & raising ducks. It ended in 2017 when High Country Living went live. The other, “Mountain Gaitway”, began in 2014 after we purchased this property in Guffey and began planning our dream home. It primarily chronicled the building of our home & development of the property here.
In the process of “de-Googling” ourselves, we’ve removed these blogs from Google’s Blogger and have incorporated them into the blog pages of High Country Living. In the process, many of the photos were lost from those blog pages. I (Laurie) have completed the chore of finding photos that fit the descriptions in those blog pages.
It was a chore, but fun to reminisce as I read through those pages, looked through hundreds of photos on my computer, and recalled all that we’ve done here to build up this property. We’ve done a lot on this property, and even the small accomplishments were a big part of the grand scheme. Not many folks will likely ever read these pages, but for us it’s like a diary of some of our adventures together.
The archives of these old posts can be found at the links below:
We have certainly been blessed, and every day we are grateful for the way God has led us. First, by bringing us together back in 2008. Then, by guiding us to understand more of His truth as shown by His son, Jesus. We decided to stop listening to other people, and only listen to Jesus, in the gospels, for a year. After that year was up, our minds & hearts were clear of the things that distracted us from our Father. We have no desire to go back to the way we were. We listen to Jesus, who came to show us the Father, our Creator, and guide us to His truth.
After all that, we are in awe that He’s brought us to this beautiful, quiet oasis here in the mountains to enjoy in our retirement. In all that we do: gardening, building things, ham radio–we’d give it all up if it were to come in the way of knowing Father more fully & doing what He desires.
To say we’ve been “hamming it up” doesn’t mean we’ve just been goofy. We’ve been hamming on the radio, adding to our collection of ham radio equipment, adding to our collection of amateur radio operator friends, adding to our collection of amateur radio knowledge & licenses, and adding to our collection of websites. All this, along with all of our other projects including increasing our solar power, has kept us busy!
HAMMING ON THE RADIO
Laurie (KØLTH) has been having fun trying different frequencies & methods, responding to other hams calling “CQ” from all over the world: US & Canada, South America, Central America & the Caribbean, Europe, Japan & even Indonesia. Most of these types of conversations (QSO’s) are quick hello’s and an exchange of name, location & a signal report. Most of the hams outside the U.S. are contesters, trying to get as many contacts as they can from as many different locations as they can. They are typically nice, but not chatty. Some are a bit more relaxed and like to talk, but they seem to be few and far between. From within the U.S. & Canada, there’s a mix of contesters and folks who like to chat (“rag chew”). It’s hit-&-miss when answering these CQ’s. I (Laurie) prefer chatting and talking a bit more than the quick hello, but finding out how far this wire antenna will send out the waves is a fun challenge as well.
It took a while for me to get up the nerve to send out a CQ, looking for anyone to respond. Finally, after getting more confidence in talking on the radio, I’ve been doing that more now, and I find that folks are much more interesting & chatty when I’m not just asking for the signal and moving on. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve “met” a lot of interesting folks. Hams are mostly men (OM’s), and even though there is an increasing number of female hams (YL’s), there aren’t many on the radio! I’d like to help change that.
Tim (KØCKR) doesn’t do much of the distance radio (DXing), but chats with a lot of folks nearby on the local repeaters, exchanging info about ham radio: getting questions answered or offering help when needed.
RADIO EQUIPMENT We have added a second radio to the shack inside the house, so we can scan the local repeaters on one while using the other for other radio projects. We’ve also added a 40′ radio tower for one of our antennas (and perhaps more in the future), which puts the top of the antenna about 50′ above ground. This has really helped with our reception.
For the Christmas season, Tim thought it would be fun to put a Christmas star on the antenna, high above the house. He found a lot of the materials at thrift stores and put it together. The first couple of nights we had it up, we noticed cars slowing down & even stopping in front of our house, presumably to look at the star. Tim got to thinking that since it’s powered by our solar system, it’s a “solar-powered star”–think about that….. It’s a small thing, but we hope it will help neighbors remember that it was a star that pointed out the birth of God’s son!
We’ve also added a radio & antenna to the car, so we can listen in and call out when needed and we’re on the road. This may come in handy if there’s an emergency situation and no cell phone coverage. This radio can also be taken out and used in the workshop when Tim is building & experimenting with new antennas.
RADIO FRIENDS We’ve become quite active in a local radio club, MARC (Mountain Amateur Radio Club). Most of these folks are in Teller County (next county to the east of us). Because of the topography & distance, these folks are closer to us than most of the hams in our own county. We’ve also gotten to know several people from the Fremont County area, and it’s been a lot of fun getting to know these people and sharing experiences.
There are a lot of radio “nets” where people get on the radio together and talk mostly about radio activities, but also some personal stuff. Hams are quite friendly with each other, and even when we haven’t met face-to-face, its easy to call some of these folks “friends”. We look forward to meeting more in person.
KNOWLEDGE & LICENSES Laurie got ambitious over the summer and studied for the highest amateur radio license “Amateur Extra.” She took the exam in September and passed, so she’s now able to use more of the amateur radio frequencies. She also decided to become a VE (Volunteer Examiner), so she is now credentialed to do that. She’ll do that with the MARC group.
Tim put off taking the “Extra” exam due to so many other projects on his plate, but has studied to take that exam at the end of this week. Certainly he will whiz through that test.
In addition to what we have to study for the exams, we’ve been learning a lot and applying new skills. One is a digital mode called JS8Call. I won’t go into any detail on that here, but that mode along with many others may be used with weak signals, which some folks are limited to particularly when power is out and they are using batteries.
HAM2HAM WEBSITE We decided it would be helpful to ourselves & others to work on some projects together & learn some new things, so we started a website to organize that effort. Ham2ham.net is where we communicate what we’re doing or would like to do in the future.
STAYING SHARP As we grow older we don’t want our minds to turn to mush! We both believe that by learning new things and exercising our brains we will stay sharp as long as possible. We’re certainly accomplishing that with all the ham radio adventures & projects. Stay tuned for more…
The GARDEN SUMMER of 2021 was fabulous. Great weather, abundant harvests & no rodents made it a hit in my book. This year the pasture grasses stayed greener longer, the wildflowers flourished, and there were a good deal more ladybugs in the garden (and very few grubs).
Maybe next year I’ll get to the point of knowing just what to start when, and how much of each thing at a time. There were a few too many of some things and not enough of others. I’m getting much better at that each year, and if I follow through on this year’s notes next year, I should be good to go.
HIGHLIGHTS FIORETTO SPROUTING CAULIFLOWER: I’m really glad I found this sprouting cauliflower. I like this better than the regular crown type of cauliflower: it is much sweeter and delicious simply steamed. Some of them were beautiful & picture perfect like the one in the photo, others rather scraggly in appearance, but all of them were just as tasty no matter what they looked like.
ONIONS: I started more onions much earlier than before, first in soil blocks under lights then transplanted to the greenhouse prior to going outside. All-in-all they did quite well in numbers, but still small-to-medium in size. I admit I planted them a little closer together than recommended, but perhaps in these conditions they just won’t get any larger. The more the merrier.
GREEN BEANS (BUSH): This year I grew the same bush beans, SPEEDY, and they over-performed. I might say that I have too many, but frozen beans are great and the freezer full of beans will provide many green bean casseroles along with just plain ole’ steamed green beans as a side. The lady bugs may have helped to keep the aphids off!
CELERY: This was my best celery year so far. I did a different variety this year, TANGO, so perhaps that contributed to the success. I also gave them a better start in the greenhouse prior to going outdoors. Too bad they don’t store very long and I don’t eat that much.
SQUASH: ZUCCHINI & the SMALL WONDER SPAGHETTI Squash were plentiful. See my newest favorite zucchini recipe HERE. The CELEBRATION harvest was fewer and BUTTERBUSH not so great. I won’t be doing Butterbush again.
BRASSICAS: In addition to the Fioretto, all the brassicas did well, as usual. No surprise there. We had lots of broccoli & broccolini, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts and rutabagas. I grew a bit too much cabbage & too many rutabagas, but next year I should get the amount more suited to my needs.
OTHER than the above, peas, lettuces, carrots, parsnips & beets all did well.
DISAPPOINTMENTS GARLIC: I thought I may never bother with garlic again. The seed garlic I usually purchase through mail order is expensive, and the yield I get isn’t worth the cost. This year I planted 26 cloves and harvested just NINE wimpy little bulbs. Perhaps the winter was colder, or because I planted the garlic on one of the outer, perimeter shadier beds it got colder. I’m not sure. None of the garlic at the edge of the bed grew, only the inner row, and not all of those. I got some sale garlic this year, so I’m trying just one row in one of the inner beds, well protected in the center of the bed.
2021 Potatoes
POTATOES: This year the potato plants certainly flourished, as seen in the photo, but unfortunately the yield wasn’t so great. This year I planted Chieftain (red) and Caribou (russet) potatoes. Both varieties were small in number and in size, but in good shape & delicious. Perhaps the trial planting method this year inhibited their growth. I tried placing the seed potatoes ON TOP of the soil, covering them with many layers of mulch, but apparently that didn’t work as well as promised.
ASPARAGUS: Most of the asparagus that came up this year was very skinny and froze before I had a chance to harvest it, even though it was covered with frost cloth. Not sure what to do about that.
ME: The only other “disappointment” is my inability to eat everything I grow before it goes bad, particularly the things that need to be eaten fresh. I need to do a better job of spacing things out.
GREENHOUSE The only things grown in the greenhouse during summer months were TOMATOES & WINTER SQUASH which both did decently. I tried a new variety of tomatoes, Cordova, which suffered from some BLOSSOM END ROT & APHIDS, but eventually I managed to control them both to get some nice tomatoes off those plants. Some greenhouse space was planted with cover crops or let to rest. I really don’t need anything else in the greenhouse during the summer, and the rest period is good to prepare for a busy winter of growing.
COLD-CLOSET-ROOT-CELLAR Aside from the garden itself, we’ve found that we can keep our “cold-closet” cold by adding ice to it in late summer after I begin harvesting root veggies and before the nights are cool enough to keep it cold. Now that our electricity is solar, we don’t pay any extra to use the freezer space for freezing ice. Several water bottles frozen and swapped with another batch of frozen bottles every other day or so kept the cold closet around 45 degrees beginning the end of August when we needed it for beets & rutabagas. (Next year I plan to start the ruties & beets later in the summer for a later harvest, thus enabling them to store longer into the winter.)
FALL & WINTER
GREENHOUSE: For fall & winter the greenhouse is filled with tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli & cauliflower. I’ll be saving space for my “onion nursery” to begin in February, like last year.
OUTDOORS: The last of the potatoes, carrots & parsnips were harvested before the ground froze, mid-November. Most of the beds have been put to rest by topping them with compost which was made throughout the summer & fall. The remaining beds will wait for compost early in the spring.
Other than that, winter will hopefully be spent updating all of the vegetable pages here with growing instructions and recipes.
We have recently become Ham Radio Operators, working from our shack here at home. Now that we are off-grid, Tim got to thinking that hams can be very helpful with communications during emergency situations such as wildfires or winter storms. When there is no cell or landline phone capability, no internet and no power, hams can still operate with radio waves as long as they have power. WE’VE GOT POWER when all else fails, and now that we are hams we can communicate with the outside during these emergency situations. To see how hams can help in this way, here’s a video of Walter Cronkite speaking of ham radio’s contributions in a wildfire that was not far from here several years ago.
TIM (KØCKR) was a ham starting in 1979 when he first took the test & got his license. He maintained the license until he let it expire in 2009, when he had no radio and wasn’t interested in sticking with it at that time. He recently decided to renew his license (which required taking a test) and get a radio.
LAURIE (KØLTH) became interested in the hobby as Tim was studying for his test. When I (Laurie) told Tim I was interested, he was quite surprised. He just hadn’t thought I might want to learn all the electronics & radio wave information necessary to operate as a ham. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it was quite a challenge to do the studying in preparation and then take the exams.
For those who don’t know, there are different levels of ham operators. TECHNICIAN is the beginner class: Technicians are only allowed to operate on a small number of very high frequencies. The GENERAL class is the next step up. Generals can operate on many more frequencies, considered “high frequency” radio bands.
Tim and I are both “Generals”. Since Tim had previously been in the 2nd level, he only had to take the Technician exam and was then “grandfathered” in to the General classification. As a new licensee, I had to take both the Technician and General exams. I studied hard and took both tests on the same day. I was very pleased to pass both tests!
Shortly after Tim got his renewed license, we got a radio (transceiver) and antenna and began listening to and transmitting out to some local repeaters. These repeaters are put up by local clubs to help transmit locally. With all the mountains around, line-of-sight transmission is difficult. These repeaters take ham signals and retransmit them all around the local area. It’s kind of like a “party” line. Everyone on the repeater hears what everyone else is saying. We’ve joined one of the local ham radio clubs and have begun meeting a few of the people we are hearing over the repeater. The main topics of discussion for most of these hams are antennas, radios, how strong their signal is, and so on. Some of them do various contests to see how many people they can contact and how far away they are. Some of them participate in climbing to mountain tops and seeing how many people they can reach using line-of-sight, and how far these people can receive their signal.
In addition to local communication, we are now able to receive & transmit all around the world. It’s amazing how these radio waves work! One thing that’s great about our location is that we have plenty of room on our 40 acres for antennas, and no homeowner restrictions to keep us from putting them up. A couple of weeks ago a friend came to help us put up a temporary “dipole” antenna (just a couple of wires strung between two trees and hooked together. This allowed us to hear and communicate with people all over the states, and even Italy and Slovenia!
Horizontal Loop antenna follows these lines through the trees.
In the past couple of days Tim and I put up a “horizontal loop” antenna, which is a loop of wire about 300 feet long attached to six of our pine trees. The loop is about 35-40 feet high. This will now allow us to transmit on many more bands, all around the world. It was rather challenging to get it up into the trees that high, but we did it (well, mostly Tim–I helped).
Ladder Line connects horizontal loop to radio
Loop of wire extends over the garden
Perhaps in the future there will be more updates on our ham experiences. We look forward to meeting more people and becoming available to help with communications in emergency situations.
**UPDATE!** In the past few days I (Laurie) have been able to contact six different countries (including U.S.)! I’ve spoken with other hams in Canada, Russia, Spain, Slovak Republic, and Indonesia. Usually they are short conversations with people trying to make several contacts, but some speak at more length than others. Most hams are men, and they are very interested to hear any woman making contact. Women are called “YL” (Young Lady). A common good-bye said by hams is “73”, meaning “best wishes” or “best regards” or something like that. But many will tell me “88”, which means “hugs & kisses” or something along those lines. It’s a kick.
There has also been a contest going on over the 4th of July weekend by the original 13 Colonies. Each of those states tries to make as many contacts as possible, and they are on the air often. They also are glad to hear a “YL” respond!
Tim was busy this winter putting in our solar power system, which has been a great addition to our home. The system now fully powers our house, so from now on out we are not dependent on the grid.
After a few months of hard work the project is complete. Prior to starting the project, Tim estimated that we would need 15 kW of power per day. This system provides more than that, and plenty of power to extend through several cloudy days. We are quite pleased with the result. At some point Tim may add a section here on how he did it all. If there is ever time….
We like the solar idea so much we decided to add solar panels to the electric golf cart we use to get around the property to haul tools, garden tools, etc.
Additionally, he is now just about finished adding a roof over a portion of our back deck and stairs leading to the ground from that side. You can see it to the left of the solar panels. We felt it would be good to have a secondary exit to the ground in case the front exit is somehow blocked.
Our other big project of the year so far is that we have both become ham radio operators. You can see one white vertical antenna extending up at the right side of the house, and we’ve just completed an antenna in the trees behind the solar panels to transmit globally. It’s pretty hard to get a photo of it. Our ham experience is detailed in another post.
It’s the end of February, and despite the winter cold, the garden is not far from my mind. The greenhouse has been keeping us supplied with veggies all winter, in addition to what was stored from the 2020 summer garden outdoors.
OUTDOOR GARDEN
GrowVeg Garden Plan for 2021
My GrowVeg Garden Planner is complete for summer 2021. Some changes are likely to be made, but the plans are in motion, the seeds have been ordered and arrived, the calendar reminders have been set. A few seedlings have already been started.
I have been using this GrowVeg Garden Planner for many years both in my former garden and here in Guffey. GrowVeg has made some changes this year due to the end of Flash Player, and now it’s faster, easier to use, and they’ve made some great changes. I was able to be a beta tester for this new planner, and had a lot of fun trying it out during the later planning stages.
As always, I’ve rotated my crops as much as possible and have planned in advance which beds will be started earlier and which will be later, as well as which will be saved for my 2022 Garlic. This year I will try a few new varieties of veggies I’ve grown before, but no new veggies. As usual, I’m keeping the things that need to be covered the most in the interior beds, as these are the easiest to cover with plastic over the hoops. The perimeter beds are primarily garlic, onions, potatoes, beets & parsnips. The horizontal perimeter beds across the top of the plan receive the most sun in the fall when it is lower in the sky, so I’m planning the crops to be harvested last in that area: my second planting of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, some spinach, lettuce and carrots. All of these can be harvested after a few light frosts, and the sun will help them warm up to grow as long as possible.
Tim & I are planning better ways to cover the perimeter beds with frost cloth for those first few weeks when there will likely be frost and a snowstorm or two. Our old frostcloth has gotten rather ratty & mouse-eaten, so we purchased enough new frostcloth to cover just about all the beds. This is in addition to the plastic we use to cover the most susceptible plants in the interior areas.
Hopefully this year we will not have the problems with the mice and pack rats as we did last year. The bait traps Tim had put out really seemed to keep them under control the later part of the summer. By having them in place throughout the winter & spring, we hope to prevent all damage to the garden. We may make a few changes to the way we protect things from the spring cold & snow with better supports for frost cloth and/or plastic, and make it easier to put them out at night and remove them in the morning.
GREENHOUSE The greenhouse has been growing great! In the fall I planted some broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes & zucchini. We’ve really enjoyed eating these fresh from the greenhouse. A couple of my tomatoes have produced the best tomatoes I’ve ever grown in the greenhouse. The Oregon Spring & Siletz tomatoes have been big, meaty, juicy, with few seeds and easy to peel when I don’t want the skins. Since I’ve had such an abundance, I’ve frequently used them for any recipe that uses diced tomatoes or tomato sauce. I think they liked the location (or I did a better job of keeping them fertilized!).
Greenhouse Plan for February 2021
I’ve used the Garden Planner extensively for the greenhouse as well. The “In-Ground Dates” feature in the planner is especially helpful. The photo at the right shows the greenhouse plan for the end of February. With the Planner I am able to show specific plants for each month of the year. Since my greenhouse is used constantly, taking out old plants and replacing the spot with new ones, this really helps me keep track of things and plan ahead. I’m able to start seedlings on my grow bench under lights, preparing them to go in where something else will be removed. At the bottom I’ve added our three cold frames, which may be planted in March with lettuces, spinach, and perhaps some onions to transplant later to the garden.
GREENHOUSE COVER CROPS This year I’ve felt like I may have been overworking the soil in the greenhouse. Even though I typically refresh the soil by adding compost, vermicompost, aged manure & fertilizers each time something is planted, I fear that is not enough. Without going to the trouble of allowing a long rest period or removing all the soil and replacing it, I’m experimenting with planting some cover crops, some of which are shown in this February plan. I tilled in some well-aged horse manure or some fairly fresh duck manure and a bit of vermicompost, then scattered seeds of mustards, cowpeas, buckwheat & daikon radish. I’m giving them a chance to sprout & grow a bit, then tilling them in. In some cases, I’ve planted pretty soon after tilling these in, but in some of the larger areas I’m experimenting with solarizing the soil by covering the area with clear plastic. The solarizing should heat up the soil and kill diseases which could be in the soil. Hopefully this will only take 2-3 months and should help recondition my tired soil. There should be an update later on how well this goes, but I won’t have actual “data” and will only know by how well the plants grow. As it is said, “Only time will tell.”
There are many websites and publications that discuss things like gardening or cooking at high elevation or high altitude. Often it seems like the words “elevation” or “altitude” are used arbitrarily and interchangeably. It is certainly inconsistent, even on websites focused on a scientific approach. Since I want to be grammatically correct, I looked it up to be sure.
ALTITUDE is generally used to indicate an OBJECT’s relation to sea level, such as an airplane, hot air balloon, or spaceship.
ELEVATION is generally used to describe a PLACE on earth and its relation to sea level, such as a city, mountaintop, or a home garden.
HERE’S MY DILEMMA When I talk about the garden, or the act of gardening, am I talking about the PLACE ON EARTH where I’m located, or is the garden or a plant in it, or even the act of working in it, an OBJECT at that point?
Is the act of cooking in it relative to this place on earth, or relative to using an OBJECT such as a pot or pan?
At one time I went through this website and changed every reference to my high location from “altitude” to “elevation”, to be more accurate. Then I realized that most folks search for information about gardening or cooking by using the word, “altitude”, such as “high altitude gardening”.
In the end, I don’t really think there is a black-and-white, right or wrong answer. It really doesn’t seem to matter. The dictionary is not helpful. I’m going to use “altitude” and “elevation” interchangeably, to the best of my knowledge.
Laurie (KØLTH) has been having fun trying different frequencies & methods, responding to other hams calling “CQ” from all over the world: US & Canada, South America, Central America & the Caribbean, Europe, Japan & even Indonesia. Most of these types of conversations (QSO’s) are quick hello’s and an exchange of name, location & a signal report. Most of the hams outside the U.S. are contesters, trying to get as many contacts as they can from as many different locations as they can. They are typically nice, but not chatty. Some are a bit more relaxed and like to talk, but they seem to be few and far between. From within the U.S. & Canada, there’s a mix of contesters and folks who like to chat (“rag chew”). It’s hit-&-miss when answering these CQ’s. I (Laurie) prefer chatting and talking a bit more than the quick hello, but finding out how far this wire antenna will send out the waves is a fun challenge as well.
