DaedTech Digest: Exploring the Northeast

As with last week’s slow travel chronicle, I’m going to continue with a temporary break from answering reader questions.  (Though by all means, keep firing away with them.  I’ll get back to answering in due time — I just think it’s probably interesting to chronicle as I go, for those interested in this lifestyle).

The Vermont Countryside

Last Sunday, we found ourselves picking our way through underbrush, scrambling up a mountainside on rocks here and there and stepping over roots.  It was muddy, dreary, and generally damp, but the rain held off.

If you want a feel for it, look at the picture below.  We made an afternoon of hiking along Lake Willoughby, with a view of Mt. Pisgah, in Northern Vermont.  In this picture, we were looking out at the lake.  Our hike would take us through those trees and the bottom of the cliff faces on the left hand side.

This has been somewhat emblematic of our time here so far.  Dreary, chilly, incredibly scenic, and lots of natural sightseeing.

The day before, we hiked a bit by Jay Peak, and then just drove around the area, looking at the leaves changing over the scenic, rolling hills and small mountains.  But even on non-weekends, we’ve been making a point to take walks along nearby Lake Memphremagog or else to do short drives.

We’re getting our money’s worth with this excursion, peepling all the leaves there are to peep.

It’s Sightseeing… And Lots of Work

But apart from occasional snatches of tourism, we’ve been working a lot as our business grows in size and scope.  We’ve got a nice, spacious house that’s well appointed, and we’re set up to run the business.  So we do.

We’ve eaten a lot of utilitarian meals and spent a lot of weekdays working from the time we wake up until we go to sleep.  Logistics and errands bring us into town, and we’ve dined out a couple of times.  But mostly, we’re having the sort of weeks you’d have while busy at the office.

No television, no social life or plans, no movie nights, and no casual hobbies.  Such is this stint of slow travel.  We’re either working, or we’re exploring Vermont.

I won’t complain…

Picks

• I’m using Hubspot for a CRM, and it’s been pretty great for a free service.  Oh, yeah, it’s completely free.  So if you have a CRM that needs to grow beyond a spreadsheet, I’d give it a look.
• I have an Amazon prime membership, and I’ve been listening to Amazon music or Prime music or whatever it’s called this week.  I’ve been pleased with the selection.

The Digest

Hey, whaddya know — I actually did some stuff this week.  For the second straight week!

• Here’s a Hit Subscribe video from over the summer where Amanda and I (in a hammock) talk about how and why we founded the business.
• For any of you who are fans of my codebase research series, here’s another one.  I looked at what codebase properties extension methods correlate with.  Do they make your code cleaner?  Not really…
• Finally, on the Hit Subscribe experiment site, make me a programmer, I wrote a post answering some common questions about how non-programmers interact with a dev team.  This site’s target audience is non-programmers thinking of transitioning into the field, but I don’t imagine that precludes any of you savvy veterans from taking a look.

And with that, as always, have yourselves a good Friday and a good weekend.  And stay tuned next week for an account of our experience driving to Montreal.  (Probably.)