Category: Learn How….

Possibility of owning vs renting

backyard

I love owning our home vs renting, for sure. My wife and I, when we were renting, talked about the possibly of getting a bigger place and I’m all for it. But, rent costs are going up in the area and I’m not renting at $1400 mo. No way! I’ll buy a home and be over joyed to pay a mortgage of $1400 though.

When we seriously thought of buying, the inventory had been very low because of all the natural disasters that had unfortunately happened. People lost their homes and had to find a new home, so the pickings were slim.

You know, everyone wants a 3 bedroom 2 bath but the pickings were slim. My wife had a good eye on what was available and in our price range, more importantly. We both want to be close to our jobs too, I hate driving. Merriell found this 2 bedroom 1 bath in our price range so we asked our realtor to show us the house. Nice home, good bones, big lot and lots of potential. The neighborhood was pretty damn good, nice wide streets too.

We have been through this process before so timing is of the essence at making a decision/offer. Knowing that the inventory was low and somebody else could possibly out bid us first, life comes down to a few moments and this was one of them. We ultimately made an offer and it was accepted.

Renting before, we had an upstairs, single garage, 1 and a half bath, about 35′ by 40′ lot, very small and it sucked at times. Already being use to a 2 bedroom, this home is perfect for our small family. When we finally moved in and everything was put away, what we got was a ton of SPACE.

Same size living space, basically a 2 and half car garage, huge front and backyard. It’s so much better than it was. Now we have family dinners and get togethers at our place. Optional fire pit action, outdoor seating, TV, arcade games, ping pong and night time lighting. Family fun. There is still a lot of work to do to this house and we have some upgrades we would like.

warming my feet on the firepit

We’re in it to win it. Merriell and I have comeback from being down and out since 2014 and that was our choice, but we survived and we will survive the foreseeable future as well.

Thanks for reading my wonderful life experiences.

Chris Tuttle

MTB solo pic Chris Tuttle

Discover How I fixed My Ellipsis 8 Broken LCD Screen

You know, I tried to use my tablet for everyday uses and it back fired on me. Me being a dumb ass, I left the tablet in the grocery cart and the cart dude and his machine smashed the screen to the point where the tablet wasn’t very useful anymore. My fault. I figured I could repair it myself so I looked on YouTube and did a search for my specific brand (QTAQZ3).

Here is the video I followed
https://youtu.be/yrDYcIW4Y5I

I couldn’t believe how easy it was and I did it with no special tools. When you purchase your replacement screen it comes with tools so you can install the screen.

Here is the link to the screen I bought

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077MLQ55D/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for watching

MTB Riding With Friends, Enticer Trail, What More can You ask For?

What an EPIC DAY of MTB riding!!!! Without a doubt!
So for the last 2 and half months I have been riding up and down this trail”Enticer”aka”Wintu Flow Trail” located in Redding CA. This trail is great for progression and that is what I did. If you are a MTB enthusiast like me and like to progress in this sport you’ll love this trail.
I will admit the 1st time I attempted to do this trail, I was a preschooler but now I am a college graduate. Haven’t done all of the features, there is still 2 others I am going to do as soon as my ribs heal up. Unfortunately I crashed off a drop at another location. Ride or die. I will upload that video soon.
Anyways, I have done several runs down this trail to learn how to jump all these jumps. The trail is 1 mile long and I am totally exhausted when I get to the bottom. I see other riders from time to time. This day I ran in to an old friend and got a chance to ride down this trail with him. Jeff Owens @jammminjo is a mechanic at the local bike shop “The Chain Gang” and has been a mechanic at a bike shop since I’ve known him. Ex BMX er, the guy can ride. I remember riding down the dual salom with Jeff years ago. Good times. Here is a video of us enjoying the trail.

Since I’ve been riding the trail for the last 2 months, I thought it was fair that I do a little work to the trail to repay the guys(trail builders) for their hard work. I brought my square shovel and a rake to fill in the berms. The “Enticer” has received a lot of attention since inception so it needs to be maintained. Also, I believe in Karma so it’s in my mind that if I give the trail some love, IT will give me some love back.
So, while I was doing some work on the upper berms, some riders walked up on me from behind, a bmx, Bodhi @bodacious130 and a dirt jumper, Ryan @smurfmurf116. Good kids. They helped me finish the berm up so that we could do an assault down the mountain and that we did. We all did a few runs together and here is some of the footage. Watch the video to the end and see us SEND IT on the big gap at the bottom. This trail is so fun and I am so grateful to the trail builders @reddingtrailalliance. Enjoy the video. I also got a video of the DJ crashing pretty good. Enjoy that too.


The day didn’t end there though. In the video with the BMX and DJ, just before we hit the BIG gap we past another rider. Well I had a chance to ride with him as well. Cool guy, Chase @8eightysixx, check out the video below. I can do this all day long.

Wintu Flow Trail Day #2 “I See You”

Like I’ve said earlier…it’s been awhile since I’ve jammed my DH MTB. It’s a different flow than a hardtail for sure. Hardtail is out of commission for awhile due to a wheel build. I guess I have to use the alternate, DH MTB.
Until it the rainy season I think I’ll be hitting ths “Wintu Flow Trail” MTB Redding CA Swasey Rec Area

Swasey Rec Area “Wintu Flow Trail” MTB Redding CA

Swasey Rec Area is such a great area to ride MTB in Redding CA for sure. An assortment of trails of all different riding levels but one trail stand out above all of them, “Wintu Flow Trail”.
Thanks to Redding Trail Alliance for building a 1 mile long slope style trail.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been on my Big Hit. Usually I am on the hardtail. Trying to get used to the suspension action has a little learning curve. We’ll revisit this trail with vast improvements, just wait. I am a firm believer of progressing in the sport whatever it is.

Salt Creek trail is challenging to all levels of MTBrs Redding CA

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Really quick..I want to say that this MTB trail, Salt Creek Redding CA is fantastic in many ways and I’l explain later. In the meantime please check out the NEW video I posted to my website. I think you will like it if you are an MTB enthusiast or you are my friend. :).
I will post some time stamps to go to throughout the video as you watch it. I fast forward through the long single track but real time the challenging parts. There is 9 challenging areas on Salt Creek MTB trail Redding CA.
Enjoy!