so gross....so awesome!

Welcome to life back at the Valley! What What!?

So here begins the real adventure in my freshman Forensics class at the Valley...and I'm one-upping myself this time I think!

In the past, we've used rats (quite unethically I must add) to accomplish a Body Farm lab during our unit on Forensic Entomology. We placed the rat off campus and took detailed notes over about a 2 week period as Blow flies, flesh flies, carrion beetles, rove beetles and others infested the carcass. Notes is pretty much where we left it...and some interesting pictures.

I've read up some more though...gotten a little wiser and hopefully more ethically minded and now, we've got an intense Entomology unit underway.

I've spent the last 3 days calling around to animal shelters in the greater Columbia area in search of an euthanized stray dog or cat. If you're not familiar with the controversial stray animal policy in Columbia, it goes like this: Strays picked up by animal control are dropped off at a specific animal shelter based on the county. The shelter has 2 weeks to find homes for the strays. If no home is found, the strays are euthanized and dumped in the county landfill.

So...why waste a perfectly good dead dog or cat in a landfill when my forensics students can learn from it? A couple of the animal shelters wouldn't go along with it, but one finally provided me with a cat!

Here's the issue...Euthanasia is done by a lethal injection of Sodium phenobarbitol. It immmediately shuts down the cerebellum...stopping the heart and diaphragm....no pain, real quick death.

...but it stays in the body as potential poison to scavengers. Typically the landfill workers are supposed to put a new load of trash over the carcasses once they're deposited, but SC has gotten in a little trouble before for a couple of bald eagles dying a the landfills while feeding on these euthanized strays.

That raises an important question with our lab.

Are we going to be harming any scavengers? Technically, Sodium phenobarbitol is not harmful to insects...only birds and mammalian scavengers like foxes, coyotes, etc. To deter these critters from feeding on our lab, and hopefully keep it just between us and the insects, we placed the cat in a cage out in the woods behind campus.

So here's to 2 weeks of observation, insect collection, and life cycle analysis as it relates to the post mortem interval of our cat.

...a moment of silence for the dearly departed...

...now let's collect some bugs!

happy hunting,
jeff

the more the merrier

So this is just awesome!

I'm taking a couple of mental health days away from school for an extended weekend that starts tonight (Wednesday, Sep 22) down in Charleston. Kelley, Erin, Patrick and I are heading to see Jason Mraz! That'll be fun times for sure.

The next two days, though, are going to filled with some much-needed surf sessions and family hang time in Chuck-town with the toddlers (Moira and Noah).

On Thursday, it looks like I'll be hanging out with some old friends I knew in high school (who don't know each other) while we're at Folly beach grabbing some surf. Daniel (the drummer from the band I was a part of in high school) and Phillip are going to join Patrick and me at Folly beach.

"the more the merrier" never sounded so good. Hopefully we'll have some good eats at Taco Boy, then Phillip, Patrick and I will hit the surf on the north end of Folly beach.

surf's up!

Ready!?...Set!?...ssshhhhhh....Balance.

That time of year is approaching...

...when days move fast

...when the "to do" list is long

...when the evening routine allows for not much more than veggin' out after the mental demands of the day...and whatever physical and mental demands little Moira puts on us.

...when BALANCE is the most crucial thing in contributing to daily joy.


I think I've learned how to say "no" pretty well in the past....I think I even blogged about it before. It's so great to be able to help people out with things they ask for professionally or personally, but at the same time, helping out too much can spread you so thin that you're worth nothing at all in all those places you've committed yourself.

I think my buddy Travis subscribes to the even more conservative "do one thing and do it well" mentality.

This year is going to be busy as monkeys on a bananna farm for me.
With the poor economy, I'm hearing about more and more teachers who are having to teach multiple subjects...that's me too. I'm teaching 3 different subjects and 5 actual classes. That's a LOT of stuff to have ready and prepared each day.

I'm also managing our school's ropes course this year...so I'll be busy on some Friday afternoons and Saturdays with that.

The big thing is that I'll be teaching guitar lessons again this year to try and bring in a little extra money. Around 3 hours a day of guitar lessons after a long day at school is going to leave me pretty taxed...and the big question is: how much of me is going to be left for Kelley and Moira?

I've mentally put a lot of my personal goals aside for this year. The rock climbing can wait, the surfing can wait....I want to make sure that any of my time left after trying to bring home the bacon (so-to-speak) is spent with my two ladies. Weekends are going to be sacred for certain.

So here's to a year of maintaining balance on that precarious edge between sure footing and certain loss of control!

Bookend

As a bit of a "milk-the-summer-for-all-it's-worth" trip, my parents took Kel, Moira, and me to the mountains a week ago.

We ended up in a great cabin/mansion in Foscoe, NC just under the now-closed slopes of Hawksnest Ski Resort.

The week was a truly great time of porch sitting, wine drinking, and quality family time.

Dad and I went up to the Hawksnest Zipline Course and had a blasty blast.




The whole family also went to the Banner Elk Winery and sampled the goods...then took Moira blueberry picking in a field right by the winery. It really turned out to be one of the better times we had on the trip just because she was so into it!




Kel and I went on a few hikes off of the Blueridge Parkway one day as well...and checked out the Ship Rock climbing area that I want to climb at some point...not quite up to that speed of lead trad yet, but hopefully next year!

We also went to a legit sleuce mining place called Doc's Gem Mine in Blowing Rock. It claims to be North Carolina's only educational gem mining experience that is recognized by the NC state department of education. It ROCKED! (sorry...I know the pun was lame) Doc will sit you down after you pan through a bucket of unfilterd ore and tell you what mine in NC each gem comes from as well as how it's formed...even down to how the gems get their color based on the elements.




So now that we're back, I've been at school pretty much every day this week eventhough we don't officially start until tomorrow (Aug 12th).

I've been doing lesson plans, fixing up the room now that I'll probably be in this classroom for a while, and basically just getting mentally prepared for teaching 3 different subjects this term.

I guess I'll go ahead and call the summer DONE....here's to a great year at the Valley!

Summatime

Just to interrupt some blogging silence, I figured I'd give a quick update on what's been happening since school has been out.

The Sunday after school was out, I headed up to Nantahala to get a recertification for my Wilderness First Responder. I stayed at a sweet little 8'X10' cabin on the river and had a little paddling opportunities as well.

I was home in Columbia by Tuesday night just in time to attend a 3 day teaching workshop on 18 facets of what best practices in teaching look like these days. It was a very welcome workshop since my time at UWC resulted in me basically becoming detached from pedagogical theory a good bit. One great thing I have to say about Richland District 2 is that they really put a lot of effort into growing great teachers.

The workshop was over on Friday and since then, we've been bumming around a bit. I went paddling on the Wateree, we saw a great friend from New Mexico for a little while on Saturday, we've done a lot of yard/garden work, and I've had a substantial amount of chill time as well.

This weekend will be the beginning of our annual beach trip with Kelley's parents to Fripp Island. It'll be a sweet week of family, keeping up with toddlers, eating too much, hopefully surfing a lot to work off all the food, and some good old fashion fun-in-the-sun!

peace,
jeff

Closure

Today is graduation for the students out at The United World College - USA...and I can't say that I'm not thinking of them at this cool time in their lives.

Kelley and I pulled a bit of a "jump ship" back in December while following what we believed (and still believe) was God's plan for us in coming back home to SC. From the outside looking in, it must have seemed so abrupt of a decision and resulting cross-country move.

Looking back now, I miss the important associations with the job but not the job itself. I miss the people. I miss the landscape of northern New Mexico. I miss the small but proud Gallinas river. I miss beer from the Santa Fe Brewing company and climbing in Comales Canyon with our good friends Tim and Hilary. The color of the sky in the evening, the thin nature of the high altitude air, the long hikes with Moira on any given afternoon when class is done...I miss all this.



But then I consider where my family has come...to our small and humble farm house in Elgin, SC. I think of how happy my dogs are again...and how happy Kelley and little Moira are on a daily basis.

To the current graduating second year students at UWC-USA, I wish you all the best and I congratulate you on a job well-started and well-finished. I only wish that our paths could have crossed when my family could have contributed more to the UWC community.

"I raise to you the parting glass....goodnight and joy be with you all" - Irish parting song

The Swell Season

So one of the main reasons that Kelley, Moira and I moved back to SC was to be close to family. We've been back to SC since December and we've yet to make it down to Charleston as a family to hang out with Erin, Patrick, Noah, and Wally (kel's sister, husband, little boy, and dog...in that order!)

This weekend changes our streak of absence.

We are heading down this afternoon to have an incredible family weekend. Watching the kids play and the dogs run around like crazies will be entertaining for sure. On saturday, Patrick and I will be hunting for some sweet swells at Folly beach while the wives hang with the kids and dogs. Kelley will then join us for an outing to see The Swell Season in concert (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova...the Irish/Czech folk duo). On Sunday, I think that everyone is heading to Sullivan's Island for some chill beach time with the kiddies.

And so literally starts the Swell Season for us....a summer of beach, surf breaks, kids, dogs, relaxation, and enough love to put it all into context.

Backyard Boots

The old cliche about how having a kid will change your life really is true. When I used to hear that as a teenager or even in my 20's (yeah...that's right...I'm now one of the 30-something crowd), I would always hear it with negativity. It's almost like the line was strategically delivered to emphasize the parts of you that could no longer exist once you have a kid instead of open your eyes to the new possibilities that non-parenthood doesn't understand or enjoy.

Case-in-point is this picture.

My days as a science teacher have been a bit stressful lately. Nothing serious or anything, just the typical public high school blues that make me really enjoy my homelife. In the afternoons lately, Moira and I will walk down to the garden and "check the specs" on what plants are doing well and which ones are not. We thin out the pear trees together (she loves throwing the premature pears that I pull off of the tree), inspect the squash, marvel at the height of the sunflowers, and get frustrated together at how bad our tomato plants are doing. She doesn't really care about the tomatos, but I like to think of it as a group effort...you know?

She loves to wear her boots when we head to the garden. She'll come up to you and say "boot on?!" and hold out her rubber boots. She'll then say her version of "garden" and...almost like magic...the blues of the school day are gone for good.

Bailed so that I can bail again

Over my spring break, my brother-in-law, Patrick, and I headed up to Linville Gorge for some climbing.

I still have my goal for 2010 of climbing a 5-pitch 5.5 climb in Linville called the Mummy. It's a bit of an introductory climb for people who get more serious about traditional rock climbing, but I feel like I'm still not quite ready for it.

Patrick and I geared up and hit the road early on Wednesday of that week (April 7). We heard that some bad weather was going to roll in on Thursday, so rather than head straight for linville and have a long hike+long climb on Wednesday, we did some climbing at Crowder's Mt. in Gastonia, NC first.

I lead a clean 5.6 sport climb and a nice and easy 5.3 trad climb at Crowders on Red Wall.

After that, we hit the road and headed for Table Rock at Linville Gorge, NC. Before the trip, I called the Grandfather Mountain Ranger District (like I always do) to check on route closure due to peregrine falcon nesting as well as to get any other information that I might need. I found out that the gate to the Table Rock parking lot (1.4 miles away from the parking lot on a steep, switch-backy road) was closed due to a "landslide" according to the ranger service.
When we started our driving approach to Table Rock on the dirt road, we saw what they were talking about. Downed trees were everywhere...most likely due to a really bad wind storm.

The highlight of the drive was when Patrick spotted a nice black bear in a tree not 20 feet from the dirt road. Awesome!

We parked at the gate, geared up, and hiked in to Devil's Cellar on Wednesay night.

By 10 am the next morning, we were at the base of Jim Dandy 5.4 on the eastern face of Table Rock. It is a 3 pitch climb that is almost 300 in length but, due to the traversing nature of the route only puts you up around 210ft above the route base. I was stoked about this climb as it would have been my first multipitch mixed route. I climed the first pitch really clean and enjoyed my placement choices in between bolts. I skipped the last bolt on the first pitch before the anchors because I found a cam placement opportunity that would have been more on line with the route I was climbing.

After I set up the anchor at the top of the first pitch (by a lovely pine tree growing out of the rock), Patrick climbed and cleaned the route and joined me 90 ft later. Right at this time, we saw the storm clouds rolling in and we both did that "I think we can make it" look at each other before realizing that we'd only gone 1/3 of the way and the liklihood of us climbing on wet rock...or...worse, getting hit by lightning was probably better than use finishing the route safely. So...we bailed.

I can't wait to go back and finish the route!

following the white rabbit...

...like any good addiction, it's the times in between abuse that leave you with a huge hole in your being that aches for the next fix...

...and so I have discovered traditional climbing.

My folks gave me a huge pile of gear for my 30th birthday this year because of my increased climbing efforts over the past couple of years and my goals of doing a multipitch climb in Linville Gorge by the end of this next year. Since Kelley, Moira and I moved back from New Mexico, however, I've had no time to get outdoors. I finally had that opportunity this past Saturday and I called up my old buddy Scott to head up to North Carolina for a little day trip. I've heard that the Red Wall at Crowder's Mountain takes traditional gear pretty well and that the rock is trust worthy. I picked the easiest route I could find in the guidebook (a long but super easy 5.3). The route was pretty uneventful except that it was super dirty. Literally while I was climbing and placing gear in the rock, I had to clear out dirt or move fallen branches. I set up a multipoint anchor at the top and belayed Scott as he cleaned the route. We walked off the top for our first successful traditional climb!



We were in desperate need for some of Scott's PB&J afterwards and then Scott proceeded to tick out his first sport lead ever. It was a real crimpy 40 ft 5.7 climb at the end of Red Wall at Crowder's and he nailed it. I cleaned it afterwards and then we went to David's Castle wall to do some top roping for the end of our day. We climbed Overhang Direct 5.8 and we both enjoyed pulling the sweet little overhang crux that's halfway up that route.



On our short hike back to the parking lot from the crag, we both agreed that the whole "trad" climbing thing is much more than it's cracked up to be. We're both addicted and will continue following that white rabbit as far as it takes us. Hopefully the next adventure will put us on some moderate routes in Linville Gorge!