Ski Bum Poet

Check it out.. wanted to mention an article I wrote for my job that outlines effective link building campaigns for your web site by using online press release distribution services like PRWeb.com. This has been our secret sauce as a new company. I just checked AvantLink’s history at PRWeb and we’ve produced and distributed 17 articles in the last 18 months at 200 smackers a pop. Seems like a lot of money but the ROI we’ve seen from branding our company as an authority in the “performance based marketing for merchants” space makes it a no brainer. Yes, we are the authority. Take a look at the results, to wit: over 92,000 results for the search term AvantLink in Google. Not bad for a company that started out in October of 2005!

Here’s a snippet from the article:

Once your press release is published, many news and related websites will pick up your article. Don’t be satisfied with just this. Blog about your press release, linking directly to the news source with a trackback URL. You can also post your news to different social bookmarking sites and social networks. Finally, add a Press Room to your site where you can feature the article.

read entire article | digg this shizzle

Interesting experience today. So there I was workin’ away on the web this morning when Adah, our white Kuvasz, started getting all antsy in the house. No biggie. She’s always worked up at the deer and any other animal outside….even at 2am. Here she is shortly after she became our pet:

At any rate, what Adah was worked up over today was a male Kuvasz just like her that was hanging around out in the yard for a bit. He had a brand stained on his nappy coat, so I knew right away that he wandered from the sheep herd about 8 miles up the canyon. Kuvasz is a very interesting breed. From the Kuvasz wiki page:

Kuvaszok are relatively intelligent for dogs and are often described as having a clownish sense of humor which can last throughout their adolescence and occasionally into adulthood.[2] They are an intensely loyal yet patient pet who appreciates attention but may also be somewhat aloof or independent, particularly with strangers. In keeping with their origins as a livestock guardian, Kuvaszok are known to be fierce protectors of their families.

As you can assume from that description I was a little hesitant to approach him. He was salty, dread covered and BIG. I wasn’t sure if he would snarl at me, and I was a little concerned about the dogs getting out and scraping with him. I let Chip out first and he ran up and they did fine. So then Adah said Hi. When I walked out I spoke in a calm and low voice and his tail wagged so I felt ok about it. He was approachable and by looking at his teeth I could tell he was still a young one…less than a year.

Well of course I wanted to keep him as this is Adah’s story as well (she wandered away from her sheep herd and found a family), but of course I knew that wasn’t an option. So I loaded him in the Subi, which was a challenge BTW (he didn’t know what to make of the car), and took him back to his herd. I had enough time to dig his demeanor, name him Magnus and snap a photo from the car right before I let him out with the 2500 sheep.

I told Danette if he finds his way back to our house again (he got a glimpse of the good life Chip and Adah were livin), we’ll have to talk her Dad into taking him in. He’s due for another canine companion.

Adah and Magnus (Adah is on viewer’s right…the smaller of the two):

We just had a cooooold storm move through the region for June 6th-7th. Up in Timberlakes we only got about 3 inches of snow but the temps dropped to 25 chilly degrees for two nights in a row. The baby greens, baby chard, radishes and sugar beets  (about all we can grow up here!) barely made it, and I lugged all the other summertime container gardens into the kitchen for two straight days. They were lookin’ a bit sad but at least they survived the cold. Let’s hope that’s that! I am kind of over snow for this year.

As reported at AltaCam on the ski forum, the upper elevations of Little Cottonwood received over 15 inches. There were sure to be some Alta hippies up there makin’ turns, but I wasn’t one of em. The photo below was taken from our deck on June 8th in the AM hours. That’s a direct site line to Brighton and Alta. Three days ago there was barely snow to be seen from this same view. Not to shabby for June in the Wasatch…although we’re trying to get the Crest Trail to DRY OUT not fill in with snow again! But it was a good storm for the reservoirs…

Attention Utah Internet Junkies… Ever heard of Utah Broadband? If not check them out and you’ll be glad you did!

I wanted to post and mention that Danette and I recently dropped our ISP at Allwest (DSL) in exchange for MUCH better Utah wireless Internet service from Utah Broadband. We live in a remote area of Wasatch County and fortunately we had the line of site necessary (to their Brighton tower) to access the UBB network. Incredible technology as well as top notch service!

This company is expanding quickly so chances are you can get on board with them. Their current coverage reaches a wide area. From their coverage page:

Utah Broadband has the largest coverage area of any local wireless ISP. We have continous coverage throughout all of Salt Lake, Davis, Utah, Summit and Wasatch Counties. Below are rough estimates of our coverage area. If you’re not sure if you are covered, just give us a call!

Believe it or not, up in Timberlakes in Lake Creek Canyon (Wasatch County, Utah) we are now getting a sustained connection speed 7Xs faster than what we were getting with Allwest. I understand we were at the end of the line for Allwest, but the fact that we were paying what every other one of their customers were paying for their DSL service was a joke. The connection speed was at a crawl and over the course of the one year we used them they were down no less than 100 hours! Considering the fact that they never once offered reimbursement for the downtime we experienced, I have no problem ranting about them here. Friendly operators and techs only go so far…

So if you want highspeed wireless in Utah, check these guys out. And be sure you said the Ski Bum Poet sent ya! Actually, I do have a contact for UBB so drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch. My email: garymarcoccia@yahoo.com - Phone: 435-785-8067

I’m guilty. I am now almost a month behind in posting to my personal ranting platform, aka the Ski Bum Poet blog :). Sorry ’bout that…but what can I say…for a long time running now when the ski season ends, I disappear. Although in the past I would retreat deep into the deserts of Southern Utah, Moab specifically to thaw out, so to speak; nowadays I just disappear from posting and ranting about life and skiing in Little Cottonwood! For the most part, anyway. We did take one trip…

Danette and I went to central NY to visit my family. They live near Ithaca in a small town called Erin. It was a good time. The forest was turning green and there were some nice days of both sun and rain (living in Utah I miss those long, sustained rain storms that rhythmically hit the roof all night long)…not to mention quality family time. My parents have two catch ponds on their property to channel the runoff from the hill around the house, so I threw on the ‘ole white mister twister and caught large mouth bass (1-2 lbs) pretty much at will. Thanks to Dad for letting me catch his pet fish he feeds all the time I was nice and gentle and they all made it back into the ponds safe and sound, spare a sore mouth I’m sure.

Below is a good picture that’s featured on Danette’s Baby Belly Page of us and my folks at Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca, NY. That park is really impressive. A little piece of trivia I learned on this trip: Taughannock is the highest free standing waterfall in the Northeastern US…even higher than Niagra Falls. From the Wiki page I linked to above:

The main cataract of the falls is an astounding 215 ft drop, making it 33 ft taller than Niagara Falls and the largest single drop waterfall in the Northeastern United States.

So yeah, that was a good time. We returned to a lush green Timberlakes…which was nice. Apparently we had a ton of rain even in the higher elevations of the Uintas while we were gone. We missed a small flood according to Karen and Greg, our neighbors. I felt bad…Greg had to come up and dig out the culvert that runs under our driveway b/c the clog was starting to flood their yard. Thanks Greg

We’re both doing fine. Danette’s pregnancy is going smooth and I have great confidence that she’ll meet her goal of a natural delivery. That’s one strong woman. I am getting excited to meet our child face to face. Feeling some strong kicks in that belly of hers!

I’ve been getting some good pedaling in since we returned namely in Park City. Mountain Trails is doing a great job as always of cleaning up down trees and winter time debris. Kris Gray and K.C. Gaudet from The Pedal Wrench have been showing me some nice loops from town that I didn’t know existed. Go figure. I lived there in PC for two summers and never even knew of some of these interconnects. I guess I was spending too much time Deer Valley lift & shuttle freeriding, and not enough trail riding. So the cookie crumbles. At any rate, we’re having fun and I am hoping to get my hands on a 29er (29 inch single speed trail bike) and join the WXC gang in PC. WXC = Wobbly Cross Country

At any rate. That’s that. Besides some killer progress at AvantLink (check out one cool merchant that just launched with us - Upside Over - a store dedicated to outdoor gear for kids), I’ve been laying low working, riding and oh yeah, fishing up a storm. GBM