The smell of a wet dog...or a punch in the nose

Stealing the Sun

2012-01-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

So at long last I've decided to work seriously towards a recording project. Over the past couple of years, I've cranked out song after song and have been dissatisfied with my own recording engineer ability using protools out of my workshop. Due to his extensive recorded artist list, uncanny engineering ability, musical talent, and all-around "good-guyness", I've chosed to go with Kenny McWilliams at Archer Avenue Studios for the project. The album will be called "Stealing the Sun" from what I anticipate the title track to be.

I'm estimating the disc will have around 12 songs on it, ranging from bare-bones acoustic folk to more emotive and produced pop. Instrumentation will probably be centered on the acoustic, but will have a couple of tunes that are more heavily leaning towards piano. There will be lots of bass, background vocals, harmonica, and maybe even a little drum set to give things a finished sound.

My main hesitation with all of the extra instrumentation is that I still want this project to be something that I could produce the basic spirit of at a live show without tons of extra help.

I've worked on comissioning an artist for the album already and it is now down to collecting funds as the only thing really that stand in between us and the final product.

Check back often over the next few weeks for updates and sample tracks.

climb

2011-07-15T05:42:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen asked me to take him climbing. We decided on July 12th-14th to set out for Table Rock, NC in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area for some multi-pitch climbing. He had never climbed outdoors or had any experience as a second climber on a sport or trad route. Regardless, we climbed 3 pitches of Jim Dandy (5.5) on Tuesday afternoon followed by 2 pitches of Cave Route (5.4) before heading back to camp. The climbs went REALLY well. Both of them only finish halfway up the east face of Table Rock but, being multi-pitch climbs, were very exhilarating. They also got us extremely pumped for the possibility of reaching the top of Table Rock the next day. As a side note, after we climbed Jim Dandy on Tuesday afternoon, I played the old "see how close to the tip you can catch the rope" game as we pulled our rope down from the last belay station. Usually, a catch within 6 inches of the tip results in the catcher getting a 6 pack of beer from the climbing partner....silly climbers games. I caught it an inch from the tip, but Stephen wasn't aware of the game until I caught the rope....epic fail! no beer! and I doubt I could do that again!

Because of the extreme heat, we decided to start Wednesday off by waking up late and then going to Devil's Cellar for some rappelling. Stephen had never done a long rap like that so it was really fun. It's almost 150 ft from the top of the cliff to the bottom at Devil's Cellar and the last few feet are basically a ranger-styled rappel where you just drop free on the rope without your feet on the rock. 3 other student groups were at the cellar that day rappelling and having a blast too.

We hiked back to the parking lot around 12:30pm to regear for what was supposed to be a Cave Route/My Route combo to the top of Table Rock, NC. After finding a group of 4 at the first pitch belay station of Cave Route, we decided to go back and climb Jim Dandy to get up to Lunch Ledge (the halfway spot on Table Rock I mentioned earlier and the beginning of "My Route" 5.6). We were both tired on the start of Jim Dandy and I got a little psyched out about doing My Route. I felt like my climbing was off on pitch one of Jim Dandy on Wednesday...which should have been an easy pitch. Pitch 2 went really well though, and I was feeling so comfy on the rock that I ran out the entire 3rd pitch...stupid really...but fun as all get-out!

At Lunch Ledge, some storms started rolling in to the north. There was a great deal of lightning and we waited about 30-45 min through a short shower before deciding that the weather was favorable enough to make the push up My Route to the top.

Here's the breakdown of difficulty and length of each pitch of the big climb. Total length that we climbed was ~ 435 ft.

Jim Dandy 5.5 = P1 5.5 (90 ft), P2 5.4 (100 ft), P3 5.4 (90 ft)

My Route 5.6 = P1 5.5 (155 ft), P2 5.6 (40 ft), P3 5.5 (50 ft)

I finally got up the nerve and geared up for My Route. The first 40 ft or so is a scramble up sketchy terrain to the first bolt. Pitch one is 155 ft and very intense for the grade of 5.5 because of the great exposure. I feel that I climbed my personal best on this pitch. Stephen seconded like a champ and we took a break at the belay station on the top of pitch1 of My Route (technically the 4th pitch altogether of our push towards the summit). After getting myself pumped, I started out for the crux move on pitch 2. It was a bulge that you have to work out and over with a whole lot of air underneath you! :)

I can't believe it, but I nailed it! I had originally felt very shaky on this move in April when I climbed this route as a second climber with Scott leading. The rest of Pitch 2 of My Route was run out all the way to the belay station. The belay station for pitch 2 was a natural belay, meaning that I had to use my cams to create anchors in the rock. I used 2 #1 Camalots and 1 #3 Camalot to make the belay. An equalized cordellette finished the belay setup and Stephen started working the pitch 2 crux. He took one fall at the move, but found the holds and then crushed it. At the top of pitch 2, there was a blueberry bush in full production. It was VERY welcome after all the work getting there! Nom Nom Nom!

Pitch 3 was GREAT! It was balancy at first, then great hands and feet on a flake to the right. This was the most exposed section of the climb. Pulling out onto the flake to the right leaves you hanging over about 385 ft of air and slick rock. It was exhilarating to say the least!

After Stephen met me at the pitch 3 anchors, we were done! We looked around at a perfect summer day in NC as far as the eyes could see, but then we ultimately walked back to the car. We agreed after that the climb is what was meaningful...not the mountaintop itself.

"we are conquerors of the useless" - Yvonne Chouinard

until music or the great outdoors brings us together again....cheers.

- jeff

Sum Sum Summa Time

2011-05-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

So the high school job is coming to a close for yet another exciting summer season. I'm trading in my biology, anatomy and environmental studies for sunshine, climbing gear, a surfboard, my straw hat, home-grown veggies, pool-time, and enough time with Kelley and Moira to make up for an entire school season of what feels like absence.

Kelley's taking me to Bonnarroo for our anniversary!

We're spending a week at Fripp Island with Kel's Parents!

We're spending a week in Foscoe, NC with my parents!

The rest of the summer will hopefully remain unplanned.

So here's to you and yours as you work hard to hardly work over the next couple of months.

cheers,
jeff

Rainy Friday at Brixx

2011-05-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Reese Bolte on Bass, Kelley on vocals, and Jeff on guitar and vocals.

So Friday night at Brixx this past week was a BLAST! We had a rainstorm come through and force us to move inside before the first set was even over. That sent some people away and we totally understand, but some very devoted friends and family stayed for some fun times.

Come catch us this coming Saturday night at Stingers in Irmo!

cheers friends,
jeff

Shout out to the party people

2011-05-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

So Saturday was a whirl wind for sure.

I got up around 8 and drove to Lugoff to help a good friend with some french drains at his house. He let me drive his tractor around as we brought in dirt or pushed dirt around. Guys and "earth moving" machines are always a winning combination.

After I got back from that, Kel and I had to pack up, get little Moira settled with my parents and then we took off to our first playing engagement.

We played a Kentucky Derby party in Woodlake subdivision. The people were super nice and very enthusiastic...definitely into the more folky tunes we play. Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, etc. were perfect for the event.

After that we went to a slightly more energetic crowd in the same neighborhood for a birthday party. They had us set up on a deck overlooking their patio. Instead "playing a party"....it was more like we crashed a party and turned it into a concert! The people were SO receptive to our music. After our 2 hours, they actually started shouting "encore"...that's a first for us since we mainly play restaurants and parties that never pay that much close attention to the music. It was a big bonus for the night for us.

So...moral of this episode...we REALLY like doing the party scene so far. Keep 'em coming guys!

cheers,
jeff

Older event....new pics....World Grits Festival

2011-04-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

Best Host EVER!

2011-04-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Kelley and I played a 50th Birthday Party for Bob (names have been omitted to protect the only-slightly-innocent) in Monks Corner, SC last night. The place was completely decked out when we got there....fire pit...drink coolers EVERYWHERE....Margarita Machine...eats....and to top it all off, the guy had completely assembled a...dang I don't even know what to call it....good thing you can see it! The shelter we were playing under was furnished with legit light cans and everything! As private parties go, it was completely awesome. The people were super cool and we ended up playing for a good 4 hours straight.

Moral of this story...for all those times that a musician experiences bad hosting, small crowds, marginal payment, etc...every now and then something comes along to make it all seem worth it.

We finally hit the road around 12:20am or so and pulled back into the homestead in Elgin by about 2:30am. Long night, but great night.

Here's what was said about the night:
"Thanks again Jeff & Kelley...now that my mind is cleared of all signs of Pina Colada, Margarita and Daiquiri juice, I wanted to thank you guys again for the most awesome entertainment. My friends are still talking about you guys...I really enjoyed my party thanks "in big part" to you guys. I will keep my ear out if anyone else is looking for some live entertainment. You guys rock...!

Take Care,

Bob"

Thank you Bob!

- jeff and kelley

Pics from Brixx

2011-04-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

back in the game

2011-04-10T17:39:00.001-07:00

So, amidst being a husband, daddy, high school teacher, chicken farmer (just a few), and rock climber, I've also been teaching guitar on the side...and Kelley and I have been singing out in public again. It has been SO much fun to get back in the game, and I'd really like to give a big shout out to Brixx Pizza in Sandhills and Stingers in Irmo for helping us get serious about playing in public again.

We are in the middle of a busy month in terms of music for us. We just played Brixx this past Friday and did the World Grits Festival down in St. George, SC today...which was loads of fun for sure.

We'll be at Brixx again this coming Friday night from 8-11pm and at Stingers in Irmo (directions to come) on Saturday night from 8-11pm.

We'd like to try out some new original tunes this Friday, so at some point in the second set, be ready to give a good listen for feedback purposes on some of our own stuff!

Peace and thanks for all the support!

jeff

so gross....so awesome!

2010-09-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-08-16T07:35:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-21T09:01:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-01-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

...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!

Wednesday Afternoon Fly Fishing at UWC

2009-10-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

So this fall term has been a very busy one for sure at the UWC. I'm involved in residential life for the first time, which means doing dorm check at 9:30pm two nights a week. I'm also running 3 club activities: Tai Chi, Fly Fishing, and Medical Club.

My classes have been pretty active this term and I've been busy grading, teaching, doing field work, and improving (I think) at the art of teaching IB biology.

Wednesday afternoons are a much-needed escape for me. Fly Fishing meets from 3-5:30pm. We bus about 20min. west on the Gallinas river to some private property and have a go at catching trout with lures that we tie ourselves. There are a couple of ponds there in addition to the river where students can practice catching some monster trout. River fishing is much more delicate and technical. There are big fish there, but they are picky eaters for sure.

Yesterday, I fished with:

Prince Nymph - caught the biggest Rainbow trout of my life in the river (~2.5 lbs)
Wire Caddis Nymph - caught a big Rainbow in the pond
Hot Butt Caddis Dry Fly - caught 2 brown trout in the river...good size, but not big. Caught them both on casts that were about 50 feet in length.

Some thoughts from the river:

Wind blows through the grass
Mountains rise in strong circumference around the gentle Gallinas
I become the fish I seek.

Big Girl

2009-08-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

So this is little Moira Josephine Gregory at 8+ months of age. She won't crawl, she still doesn't like to sleep all the way through the night and she's a picky eater, but boy does she love to WALK!

She still needs a little help with walking (we hold one hand with her), but she can take about 5 steps by herself before losing balance.

I think there's some metaphor in this whole "I won't crawl before I walk" thing...

...at the very least, her ambition is inspiring!

The Hermit

2009-08-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

So it's officially the Alumni Reunion time here at the United World College and "students" from all the way back in the 80's through the present converge on the campus to pretend that they're younger and to relive some old UWC memories. It seems like a pretty fun time, and our friend Jeremiah does an amazing job at organizing and running the whole reunion.

Today, I led a hike for about 9 of the Alumni up Hermit's Peak...one of the more prominant peaks in the Sangre de Cristo mountains that is about 20 miles west of campus. The peak itself is at an elevation of 10,263 feet above sea level, but really only 3700 feet higher than Las Vegas, NM (which is the nearest town to the UWC). It was about a 4 mile hike to the top and it gains about 2,000 feet in elevation.
The peak itself used to be called Cerro Tecolote (Owl Mountain)until the 1860's when Juan de Agostini occupied a cave near the summit. Agostini apparently was born in 1800 as an Italian nobleman's son and later studied for the priesthood, but refused to accept his eventual vows. This cat walked most of the places he ever went to, and his walk to the summit of Cerro Tecolote evidently was something like a 600 mile trek from Kansas. While he lived in his cave on the Summit, he befriended a local group of Penitentes and they evidently thought him a saint.

Only living there a few years, he left to have more foot journeys in excess of 250 miles each and finally ended up in a cave on another peak near Juarez, NM. A friend he met near there was concerned for his health because of hostile locals and asked him to burn a fire every night so the friend would know he was alright. On an evening in 1869, the fire didn't burn. The friend headed up to the hermit's cave and found him with a knife in his back. Evidently, people would still hike up to Hermit's Peak (Cerro Tecolote) even until the mid 1960's to pay homage to Agostini and visit his cave. The Penitentes would continue to make rosaries out of native plants that they took up to the cave at Hermit's Peak.

The hike up to the peak was really nice today. I've been hiking in Sebastian Canyon every day now for about a week, and I feel like I have my altitude lungs back as well as improved knees since a bad backpacking trip earlier in the summer. I have to admit that I'm feeling much more spry on my feet than I have in a long time.

Along the way, I saw tons of these little moths that I mistook for butterflies. Gnophaela vermiculata is the official name. Pretty little guys were everywhere on the trail today along with some Pine White butterflies. At the top of Hermit's Peak, there was a massive hatching of lady bugs as well...my phone was dead though, so sorry for no picture of that.

my dog has a stiff neck

2009-08-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

What's with the dog posts lately? I guess there's just a lot of canine drama around the Gregory house recently.

This is Camden, our sweetheart. When we came home Thursday night from Walmart, poor little Cam was having some major hip issues. She was squealing horribly and couldn't really walk. She's always had bad hips, but we couldn't figure out what would have caused them to flare up so bad in just the 1 hour that we were at the store. We came to the notion that she and Jack must have gotten into it a little while we were gone. We figured that Jack flipped her so that she tweaked her hips.

Camden and I went to the vet today and he heard the whole story and did a physical exam. He came to the conclusion that when she and Jack got into it, he probably caused her to yank her neck too far to one side, causing a mildly inflamed disc. It just so happens that the small nerve the inflamed disc encroached on was giving her a hightened sense of pain in her hips. Poor thing!

She's getting better after some TLC from Kel and Me, and, as funny as it sounds, she seemed to appreciate me taking her to the vet.

my back yard

2009-07-28T15:42:00.001-07:00

It's true what the mysterious "they" say about how being away from home makes you miss it so much. This past year, we were SO homesick for South Carolina. The summer vacation that we just came off of was indeed a breath of fresh air. So good to see family...so good to feel the humidity and the mosquito bites...(I know that sounds weird, but it was). At the end of it all, though, it's also nice to be back in New Mexico where we can get our little baby Moira on a schedule again, and where we can see some of our newer good friends.

It's also good to get back to the wilderness out here. This is a shot I took last year on one of my day hikes behind my house. Over the past 3 days, I've been doing either 2 short hikes a day or 1 long hike. Today's hike was a long one for me...probaly about 7-8 miles round trip in some pretty mountainous topography. The baby girl has been strapped into a child-carrying backpack that I tote on each of the hikes and she does SO well. She usually talks her baby talk for the first 20 minutes or so and is then hiked off to sleepy land for a good 30 minutes before she wakes up again.

How much of a blessing it is to have such beautiful land that we're free to explore literally out of our back door.

So to all those natural born explorers out there, the proverbial door is always open and the guest room can be cleaned up anytime you want to come visit. :)

the smell of a skunked dog

2009-07-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

So I'll finally have a post that lives up to my blog's namesake...except instead of a "wet dog", picture a "skunked dog".

This is my little buddy Jack just after he had a glorious chase down the hill from our house after a wiley brother skunk. A short battle ensued, but sadly, bearing only shiny white teeth and no projectile vileness, Jack quickly found himself standing in a cloud of "parfume de mephitus" (ode de skunky). I have to admit, it smelled completely different than I expected.

I'm sure I'm not the only good South Carolinian/New Mexican who has driven down a backroad on a mid-summer evening and caught a whiff of that unmistakable odor that seems to give the olfactory receptors a stiff uppercut. You know it when a smelly old "pole cat" is around. But this smell that Jack was wearing was a bit more like death mixed with pepper spray. The poor dog just put his ears back, tucked his tail and slinked back to the front porch...where apparently he had a grave misunderstanding that I was actually going to let him back inside.

I tied him up, snapped this quick photo, and got online looking for "de-skunking" remedies. I had always heard an oatmeal bath would do the trick, but I wasn't sure. I also heard that a tomato bath would work, but I was a bit sceptical. Turns out that a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap works pretty dadgum well at getting most of the horrible perfume off.

Our house does stink a little bit, but with a 7 month old baby girl living here, I'm sure no one will notice the difference!

a "simpler" life

2009-07-26T09:44:00.001-07:00

On our way back west from our Summer in SC, Kel, Moira and I stopped off in Mansfield Missouri for a visit to one of the homesites of Laura Ingalls Wilder (the author of all of the Little House on the Prairie books).

We honestly had sort of planned our trip so that we would specifically go through Mansfield and see the house. As we approached, however, there were no signs or anything about the museum/homesite. We kind of expected it to be a tourist trap and were pleasantly surprised to pull up to a very well preserved site with little to no "tourist" trappings.

The house was where Laura actually wrote all of the Little House books by hand after she and her husband Almanzo moved to Mansfield from her prairie home in Des Met South Dakota.

Kelley and I walked through the small house that Almanzo built himself and left in such a relaxed frame of mind after having witnessed the "simple" life that hard work and few luxuries produces.

It was a great end to our wonderful summer back east.

Driving on the Parkway

2009-07-20T17:58:00.001-07:00

It's the "end" of our little family summer back home in South Carolina and we decided to pull away for some time to ourselves before having to head back to obligations and excitement in New Mexico. We decided to take a lazy trip back west by heading up the Blue Ridge Parkway first, then deciding how we would get home from there.

The beauty of the trip is the spontaneity of it all. We started out by leaving charleston last Thursday and ended up at Lake Jocassee (Devil's Fork State Park) by nightfall...since then, it's been the Blue Ridge Parkway the whole way until today (Monday). We stayed at Mt. Pisgah, Doughton Park VA., Roanoke Mt. VA, and now a Holiday Inn express for a little break from the camping life.

There have been TONS of cool sights along the way, and we've definitely been taking advantage of the whole "drive awhile, stop awhile" mentality of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most memorable stops so far have been Brinegar Cabin, Mabry Mill, and Roanoke Mt. park where we saw a surprise bluegrass concert on Sunday night.

We also had an unexpected reunion with our friends Tim Okeefe, his sons Devin and Colin, and his wife Heidi Mills when we stayed in Devil's Fork State Park. We haven't seen them in some time and it was so good to catch up! This is our little Moira posing with Heidi and the Okeefe boys.

So from here the plan is to spend a little time in Shenandoah National Park before heading west for sure. The only major places we want to hit on the way back are Mammoth Cave and the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. If we hit those soon enough, we may head past our New Mexico home and go to the Grand Canyon and Canyon DeChelly before calling it quits on our road trip summer.

Happy Trails!

Too Many Variables

2009-07-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit frustrated right now during my summer vacation. Not mad or anything, just perplexed a bit...

...The UWC just got in its grade results for the spring 2009 International Baccalaureate (IB) exams and I specifically got my individual grade results for the kids who were in my bio class this year. They were AWFUL! I had way more failing grades than I ever expected and didn't have the number of great grades that I thought these kids were capable of.

I sent an email to our vice president making sure that she knew I wasn't happy with the results and that I'm more than willing to work to figure out how to remedy the situation so that:

#1, the current first year students who will be taking their exams next year don't have to suffer the same fate and

#2, so I can sleep at night feeling that I'm a halfway decent teacher.

The thing is that this whole bad grade thing isn't real simple. There are way too many variables to try and break down "where it all went wrong" so-to-speak in my teaching.

Variable 1: Not my kids

I took over this year for the previous bio teacher who is now in California somewhere. Evidently he was a chemistry teacher by experience who was filling in as bio teacher last year (for just one year) before he left. Out of basically 13 overarching concepts that need to be covered within the 2 years that the students take biology, he only covered 4 in the first year, leaving me 9 major bio concepts plus all major labs to get done during the second year. That's a lot to do from September to March (march is when we have our trial exams and basically it would be nice to be done with concepts by then).

Variable 2: Rookie year

I've never taught International Baccalaureate (IB) Biology before. I've also never been a father before (both of which happened this year). This means no experience with what the IB asks on the final exams (even though I've researched previous exams) and limited experience in how they externally moderate the labs that I grade for the kids.

Variable 3: Subjectivity and Higher Standards

Evidently (from what I've heard) the IB organization that grades off my students' exams has gotten very strict over the past 2 years...almost to the point of being unrealistic with grading. In addition to this, there is also a high degree of subjectivity to the way the final exams are graded and students from 2 different IB schools could get a completely different grading experience based on what Examiner grades their papers. This seems normal, but the level of subjectivity is astounding.

Variable 4: Careless Kids

Don't get me wrong...UWC kids are bright...some of the brightest in terms of book smarts that I've even been around. I've heard, however, that in many cases this spring, my kids put off or ignored studying bio altogether for various reasons.

WHY?

Did they think that the concepts were too hard for them to understand at the last minute...so why bother?

Did they think that they knew the material well enough and they needed to concentrate on other subjects?

Were they too overwhelmed with the crazy exam schedule that the IB organization puts them under and they were too tired to remember and communicate the concepts that I thought they knew so well?

Could it possibly be that some of the kids actually "threw" their own grades...thinking they wouldn't perform well anyway...just to spite me? (man I hope not)

Variable 5# Teaching

Is it my teaching style?
Many of these students come from very strict educational backgrounds that are majorly teacher centered. When we do group activities, simulations, long-running labs, and so on that are student-centered, I wonder if these kids have a hard time learning the same way. Would it be better if I just lectured...Ferris Bueller style at them so they could get very concise notes...instead of truly learning through experience so they'll remember for a lifetime. (I'm a little bitter about this one)

Variable #6 Labs

The IB requires that bio students complete 2 full labs in which they design the labs themselves and come up with a real meaty lab report. After I grade these labs, some of them are sent off for "moderation" in which an IB employee looks over a representative sample of them and my grading of them to determine if I am being too easy, too hard, or just right in terms of assessing my students' performance.
Did I screw this up and therefore jeopardize the lab component of their final grade?

It's so tough that during the middle of the summer (when I'm away from school and when I like to evaluate my previous teaching year), I have nothing concrete with which to judge my performance this year. My vice president is disappointed, as am I, and I can only hope that...since I've covered 9 out of 13 topics as well as 2-3 major labs with the current first year students, this next year will provide them with the extra time needed to prepare better ahead of time for their final IB Bio exams.

Patches

2009-05-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

So evidently I either forgot or gave up in terms of uploading all of my journal entries from the Yellowstone Trip back in March...so on to greater things.

This first year in Montezuma has been a rollercoaster to say the least. Moira was born in December and the whole year was spent for me trying to balance out a new career at an IB prep/boarding school, fatherly duties, tai chi classes, fly fishing classes, etc.

I'm older than I was before, but I don't really feel it. Watching Kelley become the wonderful mother she is has given me an incredible amount of energy. Her instincts are so keen and her power with that kid is remarkable at the very least. We've hit our breaking point a few times through this spring...like when that favorite pair of jeans starts to wear at the knees and the fray begins to accelerate with every bend.

We thought that coming out here would be good for us...forcing us to learn to raise this kid on our own, without the direct help of family when things got tough...and God is good at giving you what you ask for! It has been a lot tougher than we realized, but I think we met the challenge head on, and are now better because of it...really frayed at the knees, but that only shows character in my opinion.

Yesterday Kelley repaired those favorite jeans of mine with a mended belt loop and a big patch on the left knee with bright yellow stitches on the borders. They've aged with me throught this year and now are ready for another gauntlet. This summer break that is ahead of us will be much like the patches that fixed my worn threads.

Tomorrow afternoon marks the day that Kelley and I have been looking forward to since Christmas time. After an all-employee meeting here at the United World College in Montezuma, New Mexico, we're packing up the kid and the dogs in our pimp-daddy gold colored covered wagon and we're heading back east for a summer of family, friends, surf, and adventure.

Potential Stops along the way:
Boiling Springs State Park - Woodward, Oklahoma
Village Creek State Park - Wynne, Arkansas
Cheaha State Park - Alabama

We'll have a six hour drive ahead of us tomorrow evening that will put us in the pan-handle of Oklahoma and then it's drive drive drive until we feel like stopping. We'll most likely be home thursday evening or Friday morning.

I don't really have any plans for the summer other than a beach week with Kel's parents and an adventure with the old Spring Valley Outdoor Adventure club to our stomping grounds (Linville Gorge).

The freedom that the summer hopefully has in store for us is so appealing and it will be a much needed break...mending the fray from this year...so that we can all come back west in August refreshed and ready for another challenging and meaningful year.

3/8/2009

2009-03-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke at 6am and were driving towards Lamar Valley by 7am. It was truly an amazing experience traveling into the heart of such a wild and harsh place. We saw bison in the valleys...and then in front of our bus on the road.

We stopped several times on our way to Lamar Valley...watcing coyotes, elk, and big horn sheep.

Once we got to Buffalo Ranch in Lamar Valley (one of the original sites of Buffalo re-introduction into the west), there was activity from 6 of the druid peak wolves on top of the ridge. They had evidently made a kill an dwere taking turns feeding on the carcass. We only saw them when they came up for air after feeding and walked higher up on the ridge. The snow was falling heavy though and visibility was poor. I only caught a glimpse of a gray wolf through my scope.

A magical moment did occur, though when a lone moose cow walked out into the valley right in front of us! (30 yards) She seemed a bit sad and lost (being that there was no appropriate habitat for her down in the valley at that time of year and that the wolves were so close). She looked thinned from the harsh winter but she was still so beautiful.

We skiid for a few hours after that up towards a place called Tower Falls. It was my first time on cross country skis, but it was so nice. The overlook at the top gave a nice view of the river below and some sulfur deposits where a thermal vent was exposed. There was also a nice view of a rock formation made of columnar basalt...formed when hot magma cooled fast...but not fast enough to form obsidian.

After the ski we returned to base camp and grabbed our swim suits...that's right...in sub-freezing winter at Yellowstone, we all took a dip...in the "boiling river"...the main public hotsprings at Mammoth Hot Springs. The water temperature was around 90 degrees Farenheit while the ambient air temp was around 0-10 degrees Farenheit.

Yellowstone Journal - 3/7/2009

2009-03-15T11:17:00.001-07:00

Traveling through Wyoming after leaving Denver at 5:45am. A dusting of snow covered southern Wyoming up until Douglas.

We have to continue into Montana and enter Yellowstone from the northern entrance because the southern routes are closed for the winter. The total trip is ~1200 miles and we've currently gone 573 of them. We hope to make our Mammoth Springs base camp by 6pm.

- - - We actually arrived at 5:15pm, set camp and met with Merideth and Tory (our guides) who, with the help of their friends, had a wonderful dinner of beef stew prepared for us.

After some camp games and briefing time, we all bedded down. Tomorrow is the change to Daylight Savings and we leave base camp at 7am to travel to Lamar Valley to start our wolf observation. We are scheduled to ski after that.

- - -I can now feel myself slowing down a bit mentally...in a good way...preparing myself to listen to what this amazing place has to offer. The wind rattles my tent as the waxing moon shines down from the star-scattered sky. The earth groans all around me with life...but also with a sense of urgency and possibly even resentment. Even this place that Teddy Roosevelt tried so hard to preserve is endangered by human impact, both near & far...physically, spiritually, politically.

This week I will listen. I will give ear to what this land wants to say, and I will carry its words back to others who will listen.

I've been accused of it a time or two...

2009-02-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

...being a 6-year-old that is.

I can't help it man. For some reason I still have that natural desire to plunder around for shiny stuff when I go into people's houses. I'd rather be out in the woods building a tree house than sitting inside doing "grown-up" stuff. I'd just assume not eating brussel sprouts and if you want to go on a bike ride with me, we better be heading to somewhere with a big dirt mound we can use as a ramp or a hill to ride down. I don't mind working at all, but you better spell work "P-L-A-Y", or at least make it seem like it's fun to do.

And so, in appropriate kid spirits, Kelley let me drive us all up to Agua Piedra 2 weeks ago to do some sledding on a school day (after work of course). I used my brand-new birthday/christmas gift...my Mountain Boy Ultimate Flyer and zipped down the hill like a monkey on a banana peel surfboard. I have to admit...being from the east coast, I've never been on snow like this, or a hill quite that steep...it was AWESOME (and I screamed like a little girl).

So here's to harnessing your inner 6-year-old!

cheers,
jeff

Muse

2009-02-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

I've been busy in the past 2 weeks getting some new song-writing done. I don't know where my muse was hiding, but I've found her again and she's back in full force. I'm not suggesting that my new music is good or anything, but it makes me happy at least.

Here at UWC we have a really nice recording studio that I have free access to, and I've been taking advantage of it. One of our first year students, Tyler, is a very accomplished studio engineer and has been helping me put together the rough cuts for what might turn into a full album at some point.

Most of the tunes are typical for me, but at least 2 of them are more rock-influenced, and one of them is a reggae tune...definitely different for me.

So over the next month or so, if you're interested in hearing some of the stuff, please let me know and I'll get you some music files.

take care!
jeff

Eyes on the horizon...

2009-01-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

I dream of it at night. My thoughts sit on it during the day.

It has become an idol that has taken over every fiber of my being. (well, not really, but that just sounds cooler)

As Kelley and I have spent over 6 months in New Mexico now, we have come to love so many things about it. The weather, the stark landscapes and beautiful vistas have pleased us so much and renewed our love for the west. The kind people and completely different perspective on life has both satisfied us as well as made us so very appreciative of our home in South Carolina.
Then with the "onlslaught" of Moira, our connection to South Carolina has been growing even stronger as we are missing parents and our siblings (Kelley's sister, her husband, and our little nephew).

So with all of the thoughts being thrown back to the east coast, my mind has drifted to surfing again and I so long for this coming summer's vacation in South Carolina. We have plans for beaches and I have plans for waves...good ole dirty, salty, short SC waves. And so I will get a longboard...

...this longboard, in fact. I'm hoping that it will bring Kelley and me some great times at Hunting Island and Folly Beach during the summer months.

My two girls

2008-12-10T20:00:00.001-08:00

I don't need to say anymore.

Any Day Now...

2008-11-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

The bags are packed, the car seat is ready, the diapers are here and the rocking chair is all greased up and ready for 2!

We got word from the doctor this past Wednesday (Nov 26th) that the baby could come within' the week!

We can't wait to meet the little girl!

When the snow comes...

2008-11-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

...I'll be ready!

Yesterday I received an early Christmas present from my amazing "in-laws". I swear I think they completely understand my inner-child. Because of our recent relocation to more alpine climes, Kelley and I have been eagerly anticipating a good snow like we've heard happens often here. I guess Mom and Pop Bateman have anticipated our anticipation, because they put a lot of hard work and love into finding me a perfect sled for the winter weather! They did some research and found Mountain Boy Sledworks, which is based out of Silverton, CO. They bought me this "ultimate flyer" which, honestly is a moving work of art. I feel like a 6-year-old again! I can't wait for it to snow!

It'll be just like Christmas Vacation baby, "preparing to set a new landspeed world record...Clark W. Griswald!"

The Folks

2008-11-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Last week my folks came out for a visit to Montezuma. These are some pics from their time at the UWC and in Santa Fe

Another day...another dollar

2008-10-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry for 2 posts in one day, but I thought I'd post some images from our field work today. We've been heading to the Gallinas now every day for about a week to do this last big ecology project.

This is my first year, Higher Level Biology class hard at work in the Gallinas river area just west of campus.

The kids were given the following prompt as their lab: Design and conduct an experiment to survey a biotic component or investigate the relationship between a biotic component and an abiotic component of a river ecosystem.

The rest is up to them. Here's what some of them are studying:

1) stream richness vs. stream flow rate as determined by measuring the number of different species (and # of individuals in each species) of aquatic macroinvertebrates (water bugs)
2) grasshopper population and distribution study using the capture-mark-release-recapture method
3) cattail distribution study as affected by soil moisture content
4) a few other various plant studies and how varying abiotic factors affect plant distribution
5) pocket gopher population study (capture-mark-release-recapture)

Pretty cool stuff huh!?

cheers,
jeff

New Pajamas

2008-10-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like it...

As the cold of the New Mexico fall has us getting cosy by the space heaters and enjoying some cinematic adventures on our TV, the icing on the cake is a new pair of Pajamas for a very pregnant Kelley.

We went into Santa Fe yesterday for a doctor's visit and a small trip to Target (a rare luxury for us in our small town). I got a new fleece hoodie and kelley got some bangin' new owl pajamas that definitely had her in high spirits last night....evidently Camden(black dog) and Jack (brown dog) liked them too!

As mid-October is finding me busy in the classroom, nights have been a really great yin to the yang of the daytime. Kelley and I have been spending some great quality time together getting ready for our soon-to-be munchkin to finally arrive. The nursury is set, my rocking chair is ready in the bedroom, and we've been playing tummy games with the not-yet-of-this-world kiddo when we get ready for bed. Kelley can scratch or push on a part of her belley and little Moira will kick at that spot! Pretty cool stuff.

cheers,
jeff

Luck of the Kiwi?

2008-10-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

It's not my intention that this become a blog just about my fishing experiences, but...

My parents recently (within the past year or so) had a journey to New Zealand with some friends of theirs. On returning, they brought me quite possibly the best gift that they could have brought me from New Zealand...a greenstone fish hook. I didn't realize it at the time, but there's a bit of tradition with these necklaces in that it is VERY bad form to buy one for yourself...kind of a like giving yourself a nickname! The fish hook itself represents prosperity and safe-keeping over the water. It's a bit of a fisherman's guardian angel.

Since receiving it, I feel like I've been having a bit of good luck in the trout-catching department. Yesterday's outing was definitely one to make me even more convinced.

I was done at school by 12:30pm yesterday because of the academic festival we're having instead of normal classes this week. I ate lunch, talked with Kel for a bit, and then went down to the Rio Gallinas...about 5 min. from my house. I only fished for an hour, but in that time, caught 4 trout worth mentioning...2 of which were over 16 inches each! These are some of the biggest that I've caught yet. The weather was perfect...high 70's and low humidity...sun shining...and the bugs were out, which was making the trout rise. I caught a brown trout on a store-bought stimulator caddis fly with an orange tail...he was enormous feeling on the end of my light-weight fly rod. After that I decided to try one of my home-tied caddis stimulators just to see if they'd hit it...and that's when I caught the biggest fish yet...a deep bronze-colored German brown trout. He hit the caddis upstream in a deep pocket and we fought for a good minute and a half as he tried to take the line under a clump of beaver-chewed river debris.

Good day fishing?...or luck of the Kiwi necklace? Either way, I'm happy to be fishing in New Mexico!

cheers,
jeff

"can't catch it in a camera"

2008-10-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday had been planned (at least in part) for over 2 weeks. One of the teachers here at the college had a friend coming out to visit and a few of us had planned on taking the day to go climbing as a way to get to know the visitor a little better.

So when Kelley and I were in Santa Fe, I stopped in at REI and bought a couple more pieces of climbing gear...a daisy chain, some locking carabiners, and a new chalk bag.

As the time got closer my days in class just happened to be spent taking the kids to the Rio Gallinas again as one of the last parts of this huge unit on ecology we're doing. As they planned out their field study, I walked the river and started noticing the trout in the stream. My "other love" was now groaning once again from the river to my soul and I went and bought a fishing license this past Friday. During my fishing outing on Friday afternoon I began to think about what the climbing would be like on Saturday and as I mulled over the terrain that we would be in, I realized that the Mora river ran straight through the area...deep inside of Carson National Forest. It was set then...

...I would ride the harley with climbing and fly fishing gear riding on the passenger seat(like some turtle with an adrenaline addiction)up New Mexico Hwy 518 and have what would become a day to rival days.

---------------------------------------------------

We ate breakfast at a friend's house on campus and then I took off early to scout out the fishing spots before we all went climbing. 5 minutes (by road) from our climbing spot I found a great section of the river where the pools were deep and the trout were active. I couldn't wait until after the climbing, so I put on all my gear and caught a little brown trout within the first 4 or 5 casts.

I had seen my friends pass in the car on their way to the crag, so I got back on the bike and met them at Comales Canyon in Carson National Forest. The hike in was enough to shake the cold of the morning ride and I found them setting up gear at the bottom of a rock face called the Water Wall. We climbed until about 3pm. I climbed a 5.8+ that was really fun and tried to climb a 5.9+/5.10A route. I only got 1/3 of the way up, but the first few moves were great and tired me out.

Then it was back to the river. I went further up 518 towards Taos only by a few hundred yard and found a great public camp right by the river. I put the rod together, donned my waders and vest and stepped softly down into the stream. The willows on the riverbank were enough to buffer my casting from the harsh wind that had picked up. As the sun came out, I decided to try a dry fly (I had been fishing nymphs all morning and the previous day). I put on a stimulator caddis with a bright orange tail and crept up on a deep hole with a steep rock as the outer boundary...I could feel the trout waiting.

A long cast found my caddis laying down at the full extension of the leader and tippet where it paused for a brief second before the water exploded. A beautiful brown trout had been fooled and was now on the end of my happy line. Soon in the net, I marveled at its golden color...the spots on its side beaming with color like I had never seen.

I fished the rest of that afternoon careless if I caught another after that magnificant fish. I was soon back on the motorcycle and heading home through some of God's most amazing country...the bright yellow sunshine of the turning aspens like islands amidst the deep green of the alpine spruce and fir trees.

Home came quickly and much welcomed by my tired but happy body after a day that a camera could do no justice to.

Today I am tired

2008-09-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Darkness to offset brilliance

Women to show us all that we are not

Winter to remind us of summer

and bad days to put into sharp relief those that are great.

"Mojo"...a better name for a bike than a child.

2008-09-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

So Kelley and I went to Santa Fe last Friday for an appointment with our perinatal specialist. They drew out a pedigree of our family's possible genetic conditions, talked with us about a few concerns we had, and even took us into the ultrasound room where we got yet another peak at our soon-to-be baby girl. We've picked the name "Moira Josephine Gregory"...

...after we picked it I quickly realized that I would have an excuse to call her "Mo-jo"! It seems, though, that neither of the pairs of grandparents really like that idea much...so we'll just stick with "jo" for short until her friends pick their own nicknames for her later in life! :)

We're both so excited about her arrival in December and I think that my excitement for her getting here is getting close to Kelley's excitement for getting her out of Kelley's belly!

The name "mojo" is just too good to waste though...so I've affectionately named my Harley in honor of what no one will let me name my own child! :)

On Saturday (the day after our trip to Santa Fe), I got on mojo and rode the beautiful ride to Taos, NM. It takes you up on New Mexico Hwy 518 through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Desert turns to arid uplands, which become alpine forests complete with Aspen groves that are already in peak color change. Then the road descends into Taos, which is such a hip place as well.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be able to experience life this full.

cheers,
jeff

A day in the life...

2008-09-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ok...so this is not the EXACT spot on the Gallinas River that we went, but today my first year students are completing part 3 of their training in random sampling as part of our ecology unit in IB Higher Level Biology. We took kick nets, sorting containers, a flow meter, pH meter, temperature meter, clip boards, and field guides down to a section of the river that runs right through campus.

Within 30 minutes we had collected caddis flies, mayflies, a stone fly, damsel flies, and even a planarian. The whole point was to qualitatively assess the richness, and therefore overall health, of the Gallinas River at that spot. I'm not sure whether it was our brief sampling time or not, but I expected to see more stone flies and we didn't. Stone flies are very sensitive to pollutants and are therefore generally the first order of organisms to decline in population size when a river is getting polluted. Interesting stuff...

The real point is that it is SO FLIPPIN' COOL to be able to take a 45 min. class period and get done in the field all that we were able to get done! Where else can this happen?!

until next time,
jeff

Fast Times in Montezuma

2008-08-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since we moved to New Mexico.
In that time, I've come to appreciate drier air, bluer skies during the day, starrier skies at night, hummingbirds by the drove at our little feeder outside our front window, and a hiking trail at the back of my driveway on which a 15 minute hike leads up to a spot where I can see clear across the sundrenched plains of New Mexico.

I recently spent 3 days at Ghost Ranch on hwy 84 in northern New Mexico. We took the whole student body there for some orientation activities. How amazing it was to look up to the cliffs painted in such vibrant colors that it even makes your eyes question themselves upon looking. We swam in a deep turquoise lake, rode mountain bikes through the desert, played music at night, and my motorcycle brought me home safe to Kelley and her parents who were in town for a visit while I was gone.

So this is where my mind is upon class starting this coming Tuesday. I'm still marvelling at the beauty of this new place that Kelley and I can now call home. Soon the focus will turn to lessons, labs, extracurricular activities, marking papers, and the business that surrounds such a culturally and academically rich environment as the UWC. I can only pray that God gives me the faith to depend on Him daily for the strength that Kelley and I both need to survive out here.

cheers,
jeff

Surfing so good, a lady took her top off!

2008-07-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

So there we were...patrick and I...in some of the best surf we've had yet in SC. The waves were long, tall, and we were catching rides right and left.

I actually finally was able to turn down the wave and ride the face...talk about hangin' loose!

Then...towards the peak of the high tide, some people from Michigan swam out into the breakers and joined us for a bit. For one of the middle-aged women, it was her first time in the ocean and you could tell. "Damn! this water is salty!", she said. "They sure knew what they were talking about!"

They got closer and closer to Patrick and I because there was a slight riptide pulling them down the beach. When they got to me, I politely told them that we had been waiting on these waves all day and that we would probably hang out there a while, if they didn't mind. "Good" one of them said, "we'd like to watch!" I told them that we sucked at surfing, and suggested that they might just enjoying us wipe out. I then (also politely) warned them that if they kept swimming between us and the shore, they'd probably get hit by the surfboards. The middle-aged woman's response was "honey, if you mean to tell me something, you might as well just come out and say it. I'm from Michigan and if you're trying to tell me to get the hell off of your wave..." "Get the hell off of my wave!" I interrupted with a big smile. She laughed hard and I caught a couple of more really good SC waves...unseasonably good in fact.

As I paddled back out into the surf...the Michiganites had drifted back into our area and this time the woman shouted "Don't you come over here surfer dude" as she proceeded to swing her recently removed bathing suit (a one-piece by the way) over her head like a lasso.

Patrick and I laughed and laughed at the slightly uncomfortable situation and kept surfing to the sounds of "ride'em cowboy" coming from the middle-aged, naked, toothless woman.

So there you have it...the boys from Columbia have gotten so good at surfing that a lady took her top off.

Back in the waves

2008-07-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

It's been roughly a year since my first surfing experience. Kelley and I have really been enjoying our summer vacations with her parents and we're at Fripp island again for one last east coast hoorah before we take off for New Mexico.

I rented a little 7'3" fun shape foam board from the local rinky dink beach shop. The guys there are super nice and definitely family-oriented.

My brother-in-law (Patrick) and I went surfing (or trying to surf) out at the Fripp beach today...it was flat, choppy and confused, so we relocated in the afternoon to Hunting Island. The change in surf was amazing to say the least. Some of the waves were really great and I got up more times than I could count. Which is really what it's all about! A little tanner, a little more worn-out, and definitely more in touch with my zen...I left the beach happy and feeling accomplished in my still-newbie-surfer status.

Today I focused on trying to turn down the face of the wave. A couple of times I actually got up early enough on the wave to turn down it successfully...but these waves still are way to short to enjoy a real long ride. My rides today lasted between 2 and 12 seconds tops.

we'll see what the tide brings in tomorrow!

just some new pics from hiking in new mexico

2008-07-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

a view to the south where you can see the resevoir.

just a hiking "shrine". put a rock on the pile when you pass by....mine's the red one on top.

can you see the coyote? click on the picture for a bigger view...it's fuzzy, but he's standing on the right edge of the clearing.

Bear tracks! probably an adolescent bear at best, but it rained really heavy around 4am this morning...this picture was taken at 5:40pm. So the bear is "in the area" :)

a nice rainbow at the end of my hike. Ah...new mexico...the land of enchantment.

A diversion from the Tao of Joe

2008-07-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

I'm in New Mexico for a week! The main purpose is training in the International Baccalaureate curriculum in biology (which is definitely intense and taking most of my daily time). But let me just say that the faculty I have had conversations with, the hikes I have been on, the feeling I got when I walked into what will be Kelley and my house in 3 weeks...all these experiences have been nothing less than complete affirmations that our journey to the American West and the United World College is completely part of God's plan for us.

I'm really sad to leave Kelley home this week and have to do all this alone, but she'd be bored with the meetings and wanting to get the house set up anyway, which is understandable.

I won't go on anymore than just to say that I hope life continues to progress in an upward motion from here. This is amazing and a dream come true in that I can now fully provide for my family, live in a nurturing evironment for my wife and my soon-to-be munchkin, give myself to both family and job without feeling like either is a "job", and live in some of God's most mysterious, haunting, and beautiful country.

peace,
jeff

Chapter 2 continued - "The Wave"

2008-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

...

3) Catching the wave

So you've paddled out, you've been waiting around for a while...and if you're like me...it's usually on my back checking out the cloud patterns or something you know?! Totally...as a matter of fact, I'm probably not the one to give you advice at all on how to actually catch the wave man. For me, a good wave usually just finds me and the whole "drop in" thing just happens. He yeah!...I remember so many of those rad cloud patterns. Some of the big white fluffy ones can take so many shapes! penguins, squid, coconuts, fire urchins, chickens...oh...sorry...andyway.
For a lot of people, I hear that they have to start paddling in the same direction as the wave...matching its energy, and then pop up when they feel the surge of the wave under their board. That sounds good too bro.

Life application - If you can learn to enjoy whatever you find yourself doing (and there is usually some element of everything can can be enjoyed or that is at least interesting in a cool sort of way) then life stops seeming like a series of tasks to get through, and becomes so rich with experience and opportunity to learn.

4) Helping the surfer-in-need

You know dude...life would be pretty boring if there weren't other surfers to enjoy it with. I'm not one of those territorial chickens, you know...always guarding the surf like I own the waves at a certain beach. Heck no bra...I've learned about the KAVU lifestyle! "Become a local...worldwide". In fact, it's that mentality that took me to Antarctica where I met my bud Cody. Anywho...one of the most crucial parts of surfing (other than having a blast) is meeting all the other cool surfers out there...on the beach...in the surf...whether they're shredding it up or whether it's shredding THEM up! We've always got to be there for each other so that surfing continues to be FUN and not something that keeps emergency rooms filled. So dude...if you're riding that perfect wave and another guy (or chick) is flailing in the soup (the "soup", by the way is all of the churned up water where a wave set crashes...you can get stuck in it sometimes if you're not careful), you've got to step in and help them out. Who knows!? you might just meet your next best friend bro!

Life Application - uh...pretty obvious here bro, but... RELATIONSHIPS ARE WHAT GIVES LIFE ITS MEANING. You can't just paddle out and ride 'em in alone all the time.

Keep contributing to the collective pool of individuals that make you a part of something greater than yourself.

Chapter 2 - The Wave

2008-06-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

So dude, I've decided to go ahead skip all the useless crap so that I can share the ways of the wise surfer right up front. (in case you stop reading this "book" because the surf is up for a while)

Check this simply analogy: Life = The Wave

Steps to catching a wave(and how surfing can apply to life)
1) paddle out - lay flat on the board with your weight centered, use long, slow, and smooth paddling strokes to get you out into the surf. Don't paddle OVER the big surf...simply push the nose of your board down and paddle under the crest of the wave. Don't fight it man, just torpedo right under it.

- Life application - when preparing for any new curve that life throws at you, keep your eyes on the eventual goal and take small, purposeful, effective steps at getting there. Don't beat yourself against the problem that you're facing, just use your head to help you think your way through it.

2) wait for "the" wave - At most beaches around the world, waves come in sets. Depending on the weather, tide, or lunar phase, these sets can vary. Sometimes the ocean will be completely flat, whereas ,on other days, every wave in a set will be "the" wave. Regardless, at some point, you're going to have to figure out how to sit and wait. Bra, you've seen the surfers at the beach...sitting out there in the waves on their boards...waiting for what seems like forever. You've got to pick the right wave carefully...even artfully. Waiting takes skill too dude...if you TRY and balance on your board while sitting, you'll most likely just tank and get a lungful of water. You've got to completely let go and, in that zen-like fashion, find a calm that will allow you to absorb all pitch and roll from the waves under your board...then you just sit in the flux and wait...there's no stress here, because you're just as calm as a chicken from cheboygan...chillin' out.

- Life application - So if "life = the wave" then you're already in the thick of it by the time that you're waiting for your set. Life is tossing you about as you're trying to stay calm so that you can choose the best path, dude. If I've told one chicken, I've told a thousand, you've got to stay calm when things get a little choppy out there. How else will you maintain your clear head to think through the situation and make the right choice on what to do? It's totally like being calm in the surf when you're sitting your board, bro. You've got to just chill and wait for life to present the right wave to you...then there will be no question of what to do...ride that sucker!

...more to come...

The Tao of Joe

2008-06-13T06:04:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1 -

Life's not easy when you're a chicken living in a world of penguins. #1, you can't even fly very well. #2, you sure as heck can't swim. So dude, you've just gotta learn to surf.

Check it out...

The world as we know it can be broken down into a few crucial and gnarly units.

1 - friends
2 - food
3 - fun

Joining all of these things together?...a rest-easiness and laid-back mentality made possible by the understanding that there is something much bigger out there that flows through us all bro. What all that really means is that we don't have to be afraid of what we don't know. Things will all work out in the end just fine...like they're supposed to. The biggest thing is to enjoy the ride while you're on the wave.

______ check back often over the next week as I have some pretty high hopes for where the successive chapters in "The Tao of Joe" will take me.

Our House...in the middle of our street.

2008-06-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've written and I feel guilty. So very sorry.

Today was spent doing some "staging" for our house to be sold quickly. A pregnant k-time and myself worked all day going through clothes, closets, rooms, and every other nook and cranny of our house to decide what items get trashed, get donated, or get ready to be sold so that we can make our house a bit more tidy. I've gotten a couple of inquiries about the sale of the house and we might even have a couple coming by tomorrow to check it out...so we needed to get ready.

I'm really bushed at the current moment, so I think this post will be brief. I'll only add that I've solicited the help of a street army to help me sell the house. Instead of going the route of a real estate agent, we've decided to sell "by owner" and I've posted an event on Facebook letting all my "friends" know that I'll pay one person $1000 who actually refers the eventual buyer of our house. I've gotten some pretty good response and so far about 69 people are keeping their eyes and ears open for anyone looking for housing in the northeast Columbia area.

Fun times. more later,

jeff

The light at the end of Columbia

2008-05-13T20:08:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the cell phone image, but I think it's kind of fitting for this post.

The spring time is in full effect and the school year is winding down...and finishing up pretty quickly at that I might add.
My bio class is taking their EOC (end of course exam) this Thursday and that basically means that we have a whopping 2 weeks left in class before summer is official. In my anatomy classes, I'll have to turn in grades for seniors by THIS Friday. THIS FRIDAY! normally I'd be siked as all get out, but right now, I'm experiencing some mixed emotions. On one hand, these are my last 2-3 weeks at Spring Valley High School EVER! On the other hand, these are my last 2-3 weeks at Spring Valley High School...ever...you know what I mean. There's the wonderful excitement of heading to New Mexico that is intimately coupled with the fact that I'll miss all the wonderful people I've worked with.

A great cure for mixed emotions over the past couple of days has been the fact that my wife is increasingly pregnant. I've been really happy to help her out at home as she's been feeling pretty lousy with morning sickness. Interestingly enough though, she's seemed to be really happy through it all...I'm not sure if it's simply with the excitement of the baby to come...or with the excitement of the baby to come in a completely new and adventurous home for us in New Mexico. Either way, it's really cool to have her this upbeat through all the physical discomfort.

A second thing that has been helping my mixed emotions is the great motorcycle rides I've been on lately. The picture above is from a pretty short ride I took the other night into the northeast countryside of Columbia. Pretty cool. I also went out towards Boykin 2 days ago on the bike. Sunny...windy...and riding through fields of wheat on the back country roads was just amazing.

So the instant gratification of the bike rides and the life-changing anticipation of our child-to-be are carrying me through as I finish up what has been an amazing 4 years in Columbia.

Dreaming Big - also slack lining and Tai Chi

2008-05-07T19:34:00.001-07:00

Ok...so this is NOT me...but maybe it will be one day. Over the past couple of days I've been practicing what seems to be a growing pass-time among an interesting culture of miscrients...called slack lining.

A good friend of mine (Scott) got me into it and I have to admit it's addicting. Essentially you take some 1-inch tubular webbing, string it up between some trees and "give it a go", meaning try and walk across that thin strip of seat belt material! I ended up putting up a "training rope" above my head that ran the length of the slack line just to help me get the technique down. It worked really well and I feel almost slightly confident on the slack line now.

The fun thing is how it is great training for Tai Chi. The other night when I was teaching a Tai Chi class I acutally took my slack line and we worked as a group helping people figure out how to keep their balance on the line. When we went back inside the studio to do some balancing drills and our forms, the improvement in the students was amazing.

Interestingly enough it is also very theraputic. For some reason the required focus on the line gives me a bit of clarity and relaxation that rivals my tai chi training. Maybe if I keep at it, I'll include it on my next excursion to Devil's Cellar in Linville Gorge,...or since we're heading out west, maybe I'll find a nice deep slot canyon to slack line over!

A Good Cry

2008-05-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

"I wanna know where children would go
if they never learned to be cool
Cause nothin's achieved when pushed up a sleeve
so nobody thinks you're a fool" - Missy Higgins

I'm hoping the children go to the UWC in new mexico. I'm dreaming that they sacrifice self for knowledge and for the benefit of others. I'm honored that Kelley and I will get to be a part of that scene come August of 2008.

Last night K-time and I headed for Asheville for a Missy Higgins show at the Orange Peel. It was interesting because here's this HUGE artist in Australia that is made to open for some very good, but admittedly less popular artists...even here in America. Missy played about 7 or 8 songs...and I cried the whole time...seriously.

I think it was Art Garfunkel who once said that their goal (Simon and Garfunkel) was to make good music..and good music gives people goosebumps. Well last night my eyes had goosebumps. I don't know if the excitement of our move to New Mexico, now coupled with the possibility of a young one coming along next December for us, has gotten to me more than I realize or what, but I felt pure unadulterated catharsis last night through her songs. The whole venue...audience, room, and sound system combined truly provided an atmosphere where the sound stood a chance to cut deep into your heart and your mind. The lyrics came to life as Missy's crystal clear voice filled the room.

Kelley looked at me about half way through the show and noticed the tears. "Are you alright?", she asked and kind of laughed.

It was good to be affected in that way. To escape to such a hip town as Asheville on a Saturday night and to find yourself being reached at such a deep level.

There's nothing like a good cry.

Kel and the Fish

2008-05-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

So yeah...it looks like the 4th year of our marriage has proven itself a year of amazing things to say the least...

Kelley truly learns how to sew and get great at it...
Jeff gets "teacher of the year" and then finds another job in New Mexico...talkabout a cosmic "peace out"!
...and then...Kelley gets pregnant!

That's right, you're looking at our new little 7-week-old...fish. It's funny because I always show this one picture (below) to my biology students during our unit on evolution. It's a 4-week-old human embryo compared to a fish embryo...the kids can never tell them apart. See for yourself....can you pick which one is the human? Evidently God was so satisfied with the early stages of embryological development that he made most "higher" organisms share developmental characteristics. He probably also figured: "One day, my humans will come up with a way to look inside a woman's belly and see the developing baby...I think I'll make them look like fish for a while just to make all those silly sheep-like humans have a good laugh!"

Anyway. It's WAY early into the whole process and we're definitely in that stage where miscarriage is possible. We even found out that there might be a little complication to the pregnancy with some genetic stuff going on with K-time. Nothing serious, but we're waiting on some tests to come back. So needless to say, we're extremely excited, but also a bit nervous at this point about everything coming out healthy for both Kel and the "fish".

God-willing, by December 17th of this year, we'll be the parents of a wonderful, healthy, and happy new baby...and we'll join the ranks of those trying desperately to bring new life into a world of turmoil...maybe our offspring will learn how to live peacefully with each other. :)

Looking to the west

2008-04-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

So it's official.

Come August, Kelley, the dogs, and I will be heading for the southwest. We have had an amazing job offer at the United World College-USA in Montezuma, New Mexico.

The college is a 200-student boarding school that uses the International Baccalaureate Curriculum to unite students from all over the world under the umbrella of education, service, and experiential wilderness expeditions.

I'll keep this short as I'm sure there will be more posts to come concerning the issue, but essentially this is my dream job...come true!

Kelley and I will be living on campus with the dogs and the international students and enjoying some pretty rigorous biology, sweet trips into the New Mexico wilderness, and some great service opportunities as well.

Columbia has been amazing for the last 4 years since we've been married...but it's so cool to feel a pull towards the west.

Here are some pictures of the castle at the UWC and the New Mexico countryside.

In between

2008-04-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

tangibly nervous

a fledgling pushed from the nest

catching wind at last

The Land of Enchantment

2008-04-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

Over 3 and a half years ago, Kelley and I got married and spent our honeymoon in New Mexico (Santa Fe to be specific). This past week, we had an opportunity to head back out to the land of enchantment and were able to have some good reminiscent vibes from our honeymoon time as we explored some new places.

We hardly ever get to travel, so the trip came about at a good time and was really fun for the most part. I guess the only drawbacks were the short time we actually got to spend in NM and the long lay-overs due to delayed flights.

Early Friday morning we woke up from our hotel room in Albuquerque and drove north past Santa Fe on our way to Las Vegas, New Mexico. The arid climate and sparse vegetation made for such an amazing view that we both have come to love as we've spent time in the west. You can probably see for at least 40-50 miles out there....compared to 600-700 yards most places in South Carolina.

Anywho...not much of an "inspirational" blog at this point, but more of a documentation that we went out to New Mexico for some "covert operations" that are yet to be disclosed.

"How can you buy or sell the earth?" (a long blog)

2008-03-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a wonderful weekend vacation with my in-laws in the mountains of North Carolina. My recent reunion with the hobby of fly fishing had me quivering with anticipation for the trout that were awaiting me in the Nantahala River. I literally felt a groaning within as we got closer to the mountains...a strange inexplicable magnetism to the stream somewhere in my gut that seemed to make the harsh lines that seperate man from wild soften and dissolve.

As soon as we arrived at the cabin and upacked, I put my gear in the car and headed for a local tackle shop to go about the legal process of fishing in NC (don't want to upset the people who "own the river"). I got my license and asked about a good public access point and fishing location on the Nantahala River. I was told of a place 5 miles down Wayah road between a bridge and a powerhouse". It sounded cryptic but I thought I could figure it out.

I found the bridge and figured, to be safe, I'd just fish in the river near the bridge since I wasn't sure where the powerhouse was.
I stepped in, tried to "listen to the river" a bit to get my fly choice right and then on cast #2 I caught a beautiful "brookie" (brook trout) that, up to that point, was the biggest of my life.

Then they pulled up. You know who I mean too.

Trout in one hand and fly rod under arm, I raised a friendly peace sign to the federal officers in their white ford SUV. "You guys came at just the right time" I said as the senior officer and his side-kick stepped towards the stream. "They're hittin' on the blue-wing olives today!" I said excitedly. "is 'at a fact!?" the older one said with a smile and followed his seemingly interested comment with "we'll need to see your license".

At this point, I thought the check was routine. They saw my SC plates, they knew I was an out-of-towner. No big deal. What I didn't realize is that I picked the wrong side of the bridge to fish on. Literally 20 yards in the other direction and I wouldn't have been sandbagged with a stiff $125 fine for fishing in federal waters.

When I realized that I was actually getting a ticket for being 20 yards in the wrong direction, my blood boiled. I stayed calm and polite so as not to make matters worse, but inside a tempest was brewing.

How can "we" (meaning the desk-anchored bureaucrats) draw imaginary lines to seperate what we consider to be our side of the sandbox from "the other guy's side". For a species of organisms that has such a blip of an existence on our planet, why do we feel like we as individuals, or as small organizations, are entitiled to what has been here long before us and will continue to be long after we're gone? As Christians, what kind of stewardship is that kind of thinking?

So with that...here is a quote from Dwamish Chief Sealth of Seatle in a letter written to President Franklin Pierce in 1854:

..."how can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man. So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us...

This we know: All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself..."

- Chief Sealth, 1854

well said my friend.

therapy

2008-03-22T06:42:00.001-07:00

Things have been pretty topsy turvey lately...not bad at all; I just seem to have a few loose ends up in the air that need to miraculously tie themselves together and float back down to earth to give me a crystal clear message of the path Kelley and I should take in the next year or so.

So in the meantime of unsettled in betweens, Kelley and I both have found shelter and guidance in our God, but therapy in Missy Higgins.

This girl is a lyrical gangsta from down under and I highly recommend a good listen to both of her albums. Check her out on iTunes.

peace out,
jeff

Mr. Angry Face

2008-03-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

hehe....I can't help but laugh at people who get angry for no aparent reason...or who let their environmental conditions get them all riled up to the point of explosion.

I had a phone call this morning that ended up with the person on the other line venting very angrily at me...evidently something I didn't do was the straw that broke the camel's back.

So I figured I'd write a little self-help post for how to 1) deal with anger and 2) deal with angry people.

If you are Mr. Angry Face:
1) make sure you don't stop breathing
2) go ahead and start communication with whoever is making you angry - better to be
honest up front than hurt because you were afraid of conflict
3) seek proactive solutions, not face-saving excuses
4) make sure you don't stop breathing

If someone else is making Mr. Angry Face at you:
1) make sure you don't stop breathing
2) ask them nicely: "Do you think you can you calm down and talk to me normally?"
3) put yourself in their shoes: if you want the conflict to resolve, you've got to give them some sort of credibility in the argument, or it's always going to be an argument.
4) make sure you don't stop breathing

For either of the above categories: if steps 1-4 do not work for you, please either 1) consult the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's section on "what to do with angry Vogons"
or
2) sock your anger oponent directly on the nose

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Into the wild...

2008-03-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

"But there are men for whom the unattainable has a special attraction. Usually they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to brush aside the doubts which more cautious men might have. Determination and faith are their strongest weapons. At best such men are regarded as eccentric; at worst, mad..." -
Walt Unsworth - Everest

So some books on the "I've read them lately list" are: Into the Wild and Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer) as well as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Nothing too "out of the ordinary" here because they're all best sellers.

Just thought that I'd get some thoughts down about the Krakauer books. I guess Into the Wild really spoke to me the most...if for nothing else...simply because the 24-year-old kid who leaves family and society to seek out "the wild" of Alaska ended up getting some pretty bad press for evidently being a nut job.

He abandons mom, dad, and sis and leaves for what would become 2 years of adventure around the midwest-western US. He meets some great people along the way and experiences what many of us would consider to be true freedom...then he gets his heart set on Alaska and stops at nothing to get there and prove it to himself that he can make it on his own. He dies after 113 of living in the Alaskan "bush" - in reality only about 30 miles from Healy Alaska. The cause of death was some poisonous fungus that grew on some seeds he collected...so he wasn't necesarily stupid to the point of death...he was simply unlucky.

Still in all...one trend that shows up in the story is that every time he gets close enough to someone to build a solid relationship...he bales out. Parents, close friend Wayne Westerberg, Ron Franz, Jan and Rainey, everyone. Is that normal? Does true freedom require isolation? Can happiness and freedom coexist in reality if "true happiness" requires someone to share it with?

I relate to this guy none-the-less. Not so much in his need to abandon his loved ones...but in the groaning deep within his belly that calls him to experience the unabridged, viceral world. At what point in my miniature adventures would people have called me crazy, mad, or even mildly eccentric for a need to escape from the safehouse geometric prison of modern society to the unpredictable organic of "the wild"?

High Fidelity

2008-02-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

So I just saw High Fidelity last week with John Cusack and Jack Black.

I've grown to respect John Cusack a lot over the past few films I've seen him in. He has a real easy way about his acting, and in High Fidelity, it was done a bit like Ferris Bueller...direct camera delivery from the main character as the story progresses.

Really good movie. One of the cool things I took from the movie was how music can truly be such a soundtrack for our lives if we let it.

So since I was broke on Valentine's day (and since both Kelley and I don't put too much stock in a national holiday for balloons, flowers, and chocolate) I made K-time a "mix tape". It was really just a playlist for her iPod, but the songs told a bit of a story of us over the past year.

Putting together the right playlist truly is just as much of an art as writing your own song. You've got to pick tunes that say what you want musically as well as lyrically for your specific situation. For Kelley's playlist I narrowed down her iTunes library to about 50 songs to choose from. The final list was 17 songs and took me through an emotional rollercoaster that let me relive the past year of our lives as I listened to the music. Pretty cool.

So now we're off into the freedom of a 3 day weekend...and I'm interested to see where the music will take us.

Pipe Dreams

2008-02-09T08:48:00.001-08:00

It's not all over yet, but the cold is starting to break a little...reminding me of one of the sweetest weeks ever this past summer at the beach...

That week of surfing truly left an impact crater on my heart, mind, and soul. As plans drift towards getting kelley out of her current job and into sewing, we've been planning some much-needed "away time" for the summer. A study abroad is in the working courtesy of the Gregory clan, as well as yet another fantastic week at the beach courtesy of the Bateman tribe. These are exciting indeed and it's always good to get to hang out with the folks, but I think I might have gotten Kelley excited about another idea as well.

In an effort to trim down our "heavier loads" physically, we're working out to lose a few pounds each so that we can truly enjoy a week chasing the waves on the carolina coast. With her not working and me on summer vacation, how cool would it be to throw the dogs in car, the board on the roof, and hit the road for some camping and surfing....heading to wherever the waves are. That much exposure might even get me ready to catch my first tube.

Until then, the pipe dreams will carry me through the doldrums of spring term.

Launching KG THREADS (and other stuff)

2008-02-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

My wife is deep into the process of starting up her own business. It's really way into the beginning stages right now, but it's fun and it's showing at least some progress! She is making handbags of all different shapes and sizes and has been selling them around the northeast area of Columbia, SC. She's REALLY good at it and the cool thing is that this whole business thing might allow her to quit her current job.

Today we oficially started her new website, http://www.kgthreads.com

Check it out and let me know what you think!

In other news: I was elected as Teacher of the Year for Spring Valley High School. I'm still not sure how to react to the whole thing. It is such an honor, but for some reason I'm hesitant to go shouting it from the rooftops. Putting it on my blog (that maybe 3 or 4 people read) is a big enough step for now! :)

Listen to the river

2008-01-14T18:17:00.000-08:00

Back when I was at Furman for undergraduate studies, I sometimes had a weakness for skipping out on western civ or poli-sci and hopping in the Jeep for a day of fly fishing in the middle saluda river up in Jones Gap State Park. Jones Gap is a valley in the mountain bridge wilderness area, and a river runs through it. The river, more like a creek, is home to native rainbow trout. I've only gotten the small dumb ones to bite, but I've heard tall tale of anglers pulling 14 inchers out of the Middle Saluda in Jones Gap before.

It's been over 6 years since then and for a while, my fly fishing went dormant. I explored other avenues of life and forgot about my passion for listening to the river. Over the past 2 weeks, I've found that passion again, this time in Columbia at the lower Saluda below the Lake Murray dam.

Unlike the spinner fishing I grew up on, fly fishing is much more about preparation and awareness. Hours of tying flies on Friday night make the trip to the river on Saturday that much more worth it...especially when you pay attention to the insects around you so carefully that you can tie on a fly that almost resembles them...

...and then it happens. A rainbow trout rises, popping at the surface to bite the Blue Wing Olive fly that you spent so much time perfecting the night before...

...as the line tightens against the fish you feel the world slow its spin...the wind through the trees and the sun off of the river seem to harmonize in a chord that only you can hear...and for just a moment, the world seems perfect...

it's the kind of perfection you experience in your wife's embrace

or from the look in a baby's eyes

I plan to keep listening to the river for a while, and see where it might take me.

Chicken Joe

2008-01-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

So quite possibly one of my new favorite movies is "Surf's Up". Sounds like a cheesy Disney cartoon flick, but it's filled with so much philosophy that I really dig.

One of the main characters finds his way from being an up-tight, fame-hungry, out-to-prove-his-worth-to-the-world surfer...to a pretty laid-back guy just looking for some fun.

The other character that I can relate with is Chicken Joe. Quite the oposite of our high-strung hero, Chicken Joe has made an art out of relaxing and playing it cool.

So let us learn from Surf's up a bit.

Recently I've been spending my Christmas vacation at home...much unlike the Christmas vacations of the past, which have been filled with adventures here or there at break-neck speeds. Most of the time those adventures made me much more tired at the end than I was willing to admit.

During the break I spent a lot of time working on little projects around the house that ended up being very fulfilling in the long run...and I think I made my wife happy as well...which is always good for the soul!

All this to say "thanks" Chicken Joe. I'm a little older now...a little wiser hopefully, and a little more able to know that the trail will be there when I need it, but for now, it's good to sit back and enjoy the homestead for a while.

Addicted

2007-11-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

For some it's caffeine.
Others find themselves controlled by sex, gambling, or drink.
Some truly rebellious might choose their vice from hash, chasing the dragon, or even some black tar heroin.

My poison? Linville Gorge.

I know my last post was about that small slice of heaven, but we went back again with the OA crew from the Valley...last weekend (November 17th).

My time in between our adventures in Linville has been spent hanging out with my smokin' hot wife, getting behind on grades in the classroom, taking kids to Camp Greenville, going to weddings, playing music, and so on. It's been great, don't get me wrong...but there's something about Linville that keeps calling me.

This time Lonnie Hoke and his son Tom came with us to take some pictures and share the trail.

The adventurous highlight of the trip was a slackline that we set up over the Devil's Cellar.

Inside The Devil's Cellar

2007-09-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Last January I had the notion of going on a hardcore backpacking/rock climbing/survival trip to the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in North Carolina. I wanted to pick a time in the semester when the escape and visceral experiences of the wild would make the most impact on my conscious and subconscious alike...so over spring break of 2007, I packed up some climbing gear, warm clothes, and brought 2 adventurous high school guys along for what turned into a trip of perseverance.

Our original goal was to find a place called "The Devil's Cellar" to go climbing in at Linville. Due to the fact that Devil's cellar is not as popular of a place to go to, the topographical maps as well as internet resources don't have that much info about it...and we never found it. The trip was great in its own way that spring though and it inspired us enough to want to go back....and so we did.

This past weekend, 7 high schoolers who had a profound impact on the formation of the Spring Valley Outdoor Adventure Club (as well as myself, Kelley, our dogs, and one of the guy's mother) packed into a bus and headed up into the Gorge. We arrived around 10pm at the Table Rock Parking Lot and piled out of the bus, eager for what the weekend had in store.

We quickly met "Bob", one of the contributers to the www.linvillegorge.net website that catalogues much of the park's trails and geographical features. Our meeting must have been providence, becuase he gave us the exact trail head that we needed to take in order to find the Devil's Cellar.

We ended up camping at a spot near the parking lot the first night and waking up early saturday to set up some top rope climbs at a place to the south called "The Chimney's". It's a fairly popular spot and we ran into several other climbers and hikers. We enjoyed some fairly casual climbs and then packed up for our quest for the "Devil's Cellar"

Some obsure photos and blogs online describe Devil's Cellar as a being a cravass between the north face of Table Rock Mountain in Linville and a pretty impressive butress that must have fallen from the main mountain ages ago. The result is a 30-40 foot wide miniature slot canyon that plays host to some great rappelling, top-roping, and trad-climbing. From the top of the butress that is accessible from the trail, there is 180 degree exposure to the north of linville gorge which allows you to see Mt. Mitchell and beyond to the west, Granfather Mt. to the east, and the entire north end of Linville gorge. It was sure to be magical to say the least...if we could only find it.

We hiked the summit trail to Table Rock and took the 2nd fork to the left like "Bob" advised. Everyone stayed back here except for Kai aka "Sky Ember" and myself. We were determined, since he went on the spring trip with me...he felt the anticipation just as I did.

A hard hike through thick rododendrons and thorns put us at the base of an enormous cravass...gray rock towering on each side of us like guardians to some promised land. We had found The Devil's Cellar...

What ensued was a full 24 hours of camping, rappelling, top-roping, and even a trad climb by our own Scott aka "Walkabout" Bolte. I can truly say that an effort to put our enamored state of emotion into words is futile. Suffice it to say that it was the best outdoor experience I've had...ever.

I get by with a little help from my friends

2007-09-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I had a sleepless night. I evidently caught some funny little viral parasite that kicked me into a post-nasal-drip frenzy. The next day at school was tough because I ached from fever that was fighting the little cellular vermin crawling through my tissues. I dedided to take today off as a recovery day so that I can be effective in class tomorrow instead of being like a zombie, which is how I felt in class yesterday.

When I got home from school yesterday, my amazing wife had bought the entire cold and flu section of CVS for me to experiment with...I'm serious....she bought me those effervescent shower tablets that release this amazing smelling "get better" vapor, she bought cough syrup (the gold standard of "get well"), and she got me some daytime sinus relief for when I get back in the classroom tomorrow. I was overwhelmed with gratitude, so I tried to clean dishes today in my sickness and hang a window curtain she was wanting hung. I hope she understands how good it made me feel to have her care for me.

In addition to my super wife, I had some kids from school call me to see if they could bring me ice cream since I was sick. What is that?! Who does that for a teacher?! It made me feel so good, I'm about to explode! the picture at the top of the page is a couple of these kids on a tubing trip with our Outdoor Adventure Club at spring valley.

So...I used to think that I was an island. I sunk deep into chair cushions under direct lighting and read the tales of Louis L'Amour about adventurous loners who made a way for themselves in the woods. The romance that poured from the pages attracted me and made me feel comfortable in my awkward social status during high school and even college. I tried to appear fiercely independent as a way of errecting some sort of defense to hide my insecurity. But now, older, fatter, possibly wiser (I'm still not sure about that one), I realize that it's by the grace of God that I can live from one day to the next...through the love of my wife and family, and...with a little help from my friends.

"hook it to hell and gone"

2007-08-23T16:19:00.000-07:00

This was the quote from "The Legend of Bagger Vance" when Will smith's character was telling Matt Damon's character to go ahead and hit the ball into the water so that he could forget about the score and enjoy the rest of the golf game without any pressure.

This week marked that magical time for me when all the highschool kids come pouring back into H-2 at Spring Valley. This is, in fact, the last crop of kids that will finish a course in H-2...since the 70's...as Spring Valley is in the middle of the construction of a new building...but I digress...

I hit up my bio kids pretty hard this week on one of the more boring, arduous units in biology on Photosynthesis and Respiration...it's mostly memorizing molecular pathways without gaining much holisting understanding of what goes on....I try and maximize their holistic understanding while minimizing the mundane memorization, but it's still a tough unit. This year is the first time I've done it on the front end of the semester.

Hopefully the result will be similar to "The legend of bagger vance" in that the kids will enjoy the rest of the term once this bear of a first unit is under their belts.

I will diminish and go into the west and remain Galadriel

2007-08-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ok....time for some painful honesty.

I, more than anyone I know, long for external approval.

Nicole Nordeman said "I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me...I enjoy an accolade like the rest..."

For some reason my whole life has been spent chasing favor like she described. When I was a high schooler, I longed to be myself yet be accepted. In college I was lucky to find a few guys who were either quirky like me, or mature enough to appreciate my quirky nature from their normal perspective. In the "professional" world, it's been a bit tough. I don't feel like I fit the mold of what a high school teacher should look like or act like. Administrators have mistaken me for students countless times....and some have definitely talked down to me like I indeed was a student. I feel a bit like Pete Mitchell from Top Gun with the way I teach...like I've always got something to prove in the classroom. My methods are a bit unorthodox, my dress a bit hippie, my grip on the whip of discipline a bit different from most...

In fact this desire to please has led me to basically stretch myself thin like Bilbo Baggins because of all the extra tasks I take on. I feel like saying "no" will mean that people won't like me...won't think I'm "cool"...won't remember me.

So...in effect...I have distributed my attention to so many places at once that I can no longer keep a grip on all of them...and I truly begin to suck at everything. Now that's what you call ironic.

I've got to stop this clinging to affection and attention with white knuckles. I have to quit trying to please my "superiors" so much by all the extras I try to take on...and simply focus on doing a good job at what is expected of me in the first place.
So, if you need me to help out with your cause, I'm busy. If there's something that you'd like me to do this Saturday night, sorry. I've got a hot date with my wife.

Therefore, I hereby title this year "the year of no"...in an effort to make my life...and more importantly, my family's life, "a year of yes".

cabin fever

2007-08-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

This week I've been a shut-in. I left this last week before work starts back completely open on the calendar in hopes that I'd have a "last hoorah" of the summer in the great outdoors.
Instead, the early August heat wave has blown its hot humid breath in my face and caused me to backstep into my living room, shutting a seemingly permanent door on the rest of the world. Literally, I left the house for about 3 hours today....and other than my tai chi class last night...that's all I've been out all week. I don't think I can remember the last time in my life when I was a shut-in this bad.

Another crack at it...

2007-08-08T07:59:00.001-07:00

So my real job is soon to begin again.

I'll inevitably have the first-day-jitters like most other teachers have when the kids come back each year. I've been told that if you don't get that nervous feeling at the beginning of each school year, you may as well go ahead and hang it up and go for a "normal" job.

Hopefully, though, this year will be much more effective than last year. I'm older now, wiser now, fatter now...and that's got to count for something right? I feel like I've prepared more along the lines of "long term planning" this year than I have in the past in an effort to provide the kids with a complete package of self-acquired knowledge from now until December. For example in my Forensics class, I've prepared a fictional case with real evidence to be processed that begins on day one and will be solved in December. Every unit we cover in the class will be tied back to the case we're trying to solve. When the kids leave, they'll take with them a disc that houses all the evidence items, witness statements, pictures, labs, etc. that they needed to solve the case.

In Biology, I'm going to start at a completely different spot in the content in an effort to give the kids a better understanding of our modern view of life on the planet.

The first year of the Spring Valley Outdoor Adventure Club is about to start as well...which gives me a "tingle in my innards" for sure.

So with all these plans, goals, aspirations, and interest outlets, I guess you can say that I'm more excited about this year than any of the previous years. Teachers are definitely underpaid for what they do on a daily basis...BUT...that doesn't make me any less thankful that I can continue to hone my craft at influencing and being influenced by all the great people at Spring Valley High School.

eggshells

2007-08-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Whenever you're near I get the feeling of crunching underfoot

Eyes fixed on you, and the surroundings, I trip and crack something with my shoe that sounds expensive...possibly even valuable

"What was that?" I wonder as I see your cheeks turn bright red and beads of sweat raise up on your forehead.

"What?" I ask "Did you hear that?"

And then it hits.

I look down to see shattered remnants of fragile feelings that were laid bare for me...for us...for love...

...and I wonder why I always seem to first discover these feelings by breaking them like eggshells.

the life of a procrastinator

2007-07-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

I've always heard that ignorance is bliss....I would have to say from experience that so is the procrastinator mentality.

It's the same mindset that fuels the disorganized soul's constant state of mess as well.

Just recently during my summer sabatical from the life of teaching high school students, I have made a very strong effort to organize my life, my teaching, everything really. It all started in the garage and radiated like a cancer through my house and my life. I discovered new worlds as I cleaned out old cabinets and closets. I found trinkets from my childhood that reminded me of a past life. I cleaned and cleaned, making order out of chaos and forming new places to keep the things I use on a daily basis instead of things that I will never use again.

In this process I probably "stored" some very important USB and Firewire cables that help me run recording hardware on my computer so that they can never be found again. It's funny. When my life was in disorder, I knew where everything important was. All I had to do was reconstruct the last event in my mind that I used said object, and, oala! I knew where I could find it. Now that things are "in their place", I'm at a complete loss.

So here's to progress, organization, doing things on time, and everything else "Type-A" that fights the natural order of entropy.

The smell of a wet dog...part 2

2007-07-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

It seems every time you hear about a match-making service or watch one of those old "Love Connection" game shows on the Game Show Network, that people always claim "long walks on the beach" as one of their main interests. Seriously though....who doesn't like walking on the beach at sunset?

For the last night of our vacation at Fripp island, we took the dogs and headed down to the sandy strip for some fun in that perfect time between sunlight and moonlight. There were more people there that night than on the previous nights and we had to leave the dogs on the leash for a while. Other people were walking as their kids rode ahead on rusty beach house bikes, then stopping, looking back, and waiting for mom and dad to catch up.

A group of people down towards the inlet was trying to fly a very large power kite...you know...the kind that you use for kite surfing or for use with a mountain board or 3 wheeled kite luge. They kept having problems with it and it would go down hard into the sand. Jack and Camden watched it for a while trying to figure out what it was, but then they finally turned their attention to the bare strip of beach in front of them with no walkers, bikers, or wave watchers. They turned back to look at me as if to question whether the leashes would be coming off soon.

As soon as I unhooked their tethers, the dogs took off like it was one of those posh greyhound races where people bet while sipping mint julips. Jack really does run like the wind.

Jack ended up finding this shecrab on the beach trying to bury herself and lay a load of eggs. He would get close and sniff her out, then she would snap her claws as quick as a ninja at his nose and he would jump back before trying to sniff her again. He began to enjoy the game and soon started to fake a paw fight with her. She really didn't enjoy the idea of a 60 lb dog crushing her and her future progeny, so she dug deep and disappeared.

Between watching the dogs, walking with my wife, and enjoying the picturesque scene at the eastern edge of America, it was one of the more memorable nights I've had in a long time.

bumped, bruised, and happy

2007-07-25T15:28:00.001-07:00

When I was a kid I always used to come home with some fresh scrape or cut after riding my bike or playing in the woods until sundown. A nice shower, a good home-cooked meal, and one good night's sleep later and the injury became a battle wound that I was proud of and that I could tell the story of how it happened for ages to come.

Then I calmed down in life and became more careful...I guess it's a sign of maturing, but I almost forgot what it felt like to get scraped up when I was out exploring and adventuring. It probably also meant that I began to stop pushing my limits...I began to take the safest way out of every situation and found a comfort zone that I was eager to stay within.

This past week in the surf at Fripp island has produced many a scrape, bruise, muscle pull, and general body thrashing of the funnest kind. I walk out of the water each day watching myself bleed from a new spot because the rough edges of the rental board catches my foot as I pop up on a wave. I even got snagged by a jellyfish today on my left forearm. I have to say that the pain feels good. I feel like I earned each ride today and that, at the end of the day, each bump and bruise was a medal of happiness that will remind me tonight of how I caught myself living again today.

Why the buzz?...

2007-07-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

You've seen the movies, you've heard the beach boys, you may have even been to a surf shop or two and seen those expensive pieces of fiberglassed foam painted in a rainbow of colors.

As a kid those surfboards always sucked me in like a tractor beam. I was drawn to them almost the same way I was drawn to guitars in a guitar shop...but I didn't live at the beach, so..."out of sight, out of mind" right?

Just recently my adventurous spirit has gotten the best of me and I've been trying to experience those things I've always wanted to, but never had the chance.

I have to say, with experience now, that surfing is possibly the most fun thing I've ever done.

When you see that wall of water rising up before you, capable of smashing you into the sand below, it normally brings a feeling over you that can best be expressed by "oh crap" or "yeeehhhhh.....doh!" But with this 9' board, I can blend with that wall of water...matching my intent with that of the wave, so that what results is a beautiful display of power and grace....supple strength...yielding intensity.

If you can't know what I'm talking about because you've never tried...please make some time to try this addictive hobby.

For those of you who have already experienced this, please...for the love of God, keep surfing.

"hang loose"
jeff

drop in...ride it out...feeling the flow

2007-07-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

So today I lived out a dream that I've had since childhood. It actually kind of happened randomly too, which made it even sweeter. I ended up leaving my bathing suit at home accidently yesterday as kelley and I drove down to Fripp island.

This morning while everone else went out to the beach, Mrs. Bateman and I ran a couple of errands....including getting me a new bathing suit. At the surf shop that is close to Fripp, they ended up renting surf boards for pretty cheap and I rented one for the next week.

As Mrs. B and I walked out onto the beach...her carrying the surfboard over her head...Patrick, Kelley, and Erin just cracked up...well actually Patrick threw up a "rock on" hand and an afternoon of longboard surfing ensued.

Most of our time was spent wiping out, but each of us caught a handfull of waves that we rode in all the way. It's such an amazing feeling dropping in even on a small wave, standing up on the board, and feeling the surge of the ocean as it meets the shore push you along for a 10 second ride.

It's almost like the brief meeting of wave and land issues forth a surge of energy that we can tap into for a short time and witness a pure moment in time that will never happen again.

It's raining babies...

2007-07-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Jacob Moody (married to the amazing Kelly Moody) and their son Micah Lee Moody.

So life cycles in such an amazing fashion.

when you're young, you watch as all your friends have teeth coming in...then a short while later, you compare each other's battle wounds as teeth begin to wiggle and fall out.

During the teenage years, you hear horror stories about how your friends are getting hair in really weird places...and then it happens to you.

After high school you begin to think of your own choices in the context of your friends' choices in college or job after graduation.

Once college is done, you start to hear of people getting married all around you.

Mid 40's hit and we get phone calls from buddies that just bought Corvettes or Harleys or that have just taken up surfing.

70's and 80's come around and we start to get those dreaded phone calls that our roommate from college just passed away or that Sue Johnson down the hall in the elderly care facility just got taken to the hospital complaining of sharp chest pains.

Right now I'm finding myself in the life stage where all my close friends are at the fruitful point..ushering in the next generation. It's a beautiful picture of life and the constant drive to move forward into the future.

Still though, you have to cringe a little when you think of the world we're bringing them into. My prayer for my friends (and soon myself hopefully) is that we'll be patient and kind but steadfast in our approachability, principle, and faith. That we can be examples that God would have us to be and point our children towards His truth.

The calm before the......

2007-07-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Storm is marching on the horizon

Droves of adolescents in eager and bittersweet paradox

A dread of assignment but even thicker boredom with that loneliness that is summer

So I'll vacate to the shore for a week of calm before the...

...kids.

eyes skyward

2007-07-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'm hanging out in Barnes and Noble right now on a Wednesday enjoying some $4 internet and I figured.."heck..why not add a post to the blog since I'm spending the cash".

This Friday Kelley and I are heading to Fripp island for a week of escape. Evidently the place we're staying has 3 golf carts for putting around the island and it's really close to the beach.

I love these summer trips with the Batemans. They are so generous with their time and money when it comes to allowing us to share some vacation time with them. It's good for kelley and me as well just in that we get to go and have some married couple time away from Columbia.

I've been looking forward to this trip since winter time.

There's got to be a parallel here. Wait for it.... It'll hit...

Okay maybe not. The other day Bobby Hatfield and I were talking about the anticipation of Christ coming back. We were mentioning how Jews (at least the Jews who practice cultural Judaism,God bless them) often live in a state of complacent unexpectance. I hope that's a word.

Like they're saying the One has yet to come, but I haven't really seen much in practice or public statement about their eager awaiting of the Savior to come. This, admittedly, might be because I don't talk to many devout Jews. I apologize if I've offended anyone....totally not my point.

On the contrary, I think the offense is pointed at myself in my own faith. I do believe the Savior has come....and is to come again. Yet I often live life in a way that represents MY complacent unexpectance of His return.

So as I look forward to a week at Fripp island, I'll teach myself to keep my "eyes skyward".

Brainstorm

2007-07-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

this evening

a violent storm ransacked my house

no...my mind...

thoughts like rubble lifted high into my conscious cloud climb

circling/spiraling/as if they were following some Pied Piper of inner monologue into the vast unknown of mental altitude.

then broken; smashed against the reaches of my cranial universe

falling back to where I lay my head like an endless drizzle of muddled nonsense

"what should I wear tomorrow I should go by the office before the seminar is at Richland Northeast in the media center has enough computers so that we can load the recording software is so easy to use for basic educational podcasts can't even be downloaded because the district doesn't have a good enough server that holds enough space when I go to teach the tai chi class tomorrow night should the students learn Xiang Gong or just more basic forms but we're heading to Fripp Island on Friday and I have to get the tires replaced on the Matrix before then so that we can learn to surf in time for Patrick's wedding but school starts back on the 8th or is it the 13th and then... I have those seminars...... to give... at ETV... on the... 31st ...........through ..................................the......................................... 3rd....................."

the rain stopped

I'll chance a zen-like sleepwalk through the humid and thick calm of a clear mind after a brainstorm.

Selling Thunder

2007-07-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

That's right! In an effort to explore some new hobbies (i.e. surfing), I'm selling the hog. You can check out all the details at this link
http://www.hdtrader.com/58359

I hope this thing goes to a good home!

Of Rocks and Men

2007-07-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

For me lately, the "juice" has been climbing. In gyms, outdoors.....whatever. I just want to feel my fingers grip into something more steady than just me.

Maybe that's the metaphor that subconsciously jumps me about climbing. God....the rock.

So picture it for yourself.....the image above might help....

...you've tied in to the rope and you have a good trusting relationship with your belayer.....there's a metaphor in itself, but I'll restrain myself from digressing...

...you ease yourself onto the rock face and begin ticking away at hand holds and footholds...one after the other in smooth sequential climbing fashion. As you get about 50 feet above the ground and feel the wind rushing by and that light sensation in your stomach that makes your right knee shake at the possibility of falling, you just grip down harder.....maybe adjust your left handhold a bit so you can rechalk your right hand and prepare to keep pushing....it's then that it hits you.

The only possibility for failure in this situation is me. The rock's not going anywhere and this equipment that I've spent so much money on is very unlikely to fail.....but my grip is what's shaky...and my stamina is what's limited. Isn't that why I come out here every weekend, in the first place, and tie in so that I can test myself against this solid rock? So that I can draw near to something so permanently fixed that's been around, for all intents and purposes, since the beginning of time itself?

And so as I test myself against the rock, gaining my steadfastness from its permanence.....hardening my grip to more closely resemble its fixed nature...I improve at my craft.....slowly....surely....humbly.....with no hurry to be "the best" or to break records.....but simply to undersand and know....therefore becoming a part of the very thing that allows me to elevate myself to a place of clearer perspective.

rock on.

Concerning Ants

2007-07-12T05:29:00.001-07:00

Tiny, but proportionally bearing superhero powers, the ant is usually the recipient of shoe attacks and chemical warfare not only in our backyards, but around the globe. I too take part in the efforts towards species extinction of many different species of ants and have sworn to take the issue up with God on the day of judgement. "What's up with ants anyway?"

In Africa, ant troops have been known (I'm not making this up) to swarm into houses and carry human babies away, eating as they go.

In Australia, the Juming Jack ant can leap up to 2-3 feet in an effort to bite and KILL an unsuspecting victim....that means you buddy.

So given the alternative, I'll take the good ole South American imported fire ant anyday of the week. Yes that's right....the land of the free would have been free also of fire ants were it not for careless cargo ships bringing goods from South America into the gulf coast. That's how we got both the red and black fireants.

As we speak there are probably hundreds of these little guys hanging out in my house.....in the walls...under my kitchen counter. Lately K-Time and I have had our house become infested with them. When we got back from our Anniversary trip to the beach, there was a strong line of them coming out of the wall where our kitchen counter meets the wall and moving into the sink....where we had left one plate with a tiny crumb on it. I bought that Ortho Home Defense stuff and have been declaring martial law on any ant I come in contact with.

So in an effort to pay homage to the hundreds of ants I've brutally murdered under foot, finger, or death spray, I'll say this for the little guys.
1) They are team players.
2) They can smell better than my dogs.
3) They can carry stuff WAY bigger than they are.
4) It sucks when they bite you.
5) They're like Frodo....small but capable of making a huge difference.

So when you go out today and see that mound in the yard or a line of ants moving towards some food item, think about all the cool things about them before you stomp their lights out.....but please....don't refrain from stomping (or spraying) their lights out.

Hang loose

2007-07-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

Sunlight fills the space around us like folk music from the radio on a spring night....comforting, warm, blissful lethargy.

A lazy roll of my head to the side to catch the sillouhetted shape of my beautiful wife laying in the sand beside me...

...waves continue their steady, comforting connection with the beach beneath us.

no time but for the two of us. present. happening. now.

no thoughts but for what we've missed out on in the past year....wait....

..."do I look skinnier than her?" she says as some girl walks by ...."Babe..." I say...

..."You're totally skinnier than her"...

...Now no thoughts but for what we're catching up on.

gratitude for time to do nothing....together.

Spent a week there, one day.

2007-07-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

There's a John Denver song called "toledo ohio" in which the singer/songwriter completely trashes the evidently boring town of Toledo....home to honest scales, good bakeries, and people who go to bed at 10pm every night. One of the lines says "you ask how I know of Toledo Ohio, well I spent a week there....one day".

I used to get this feeling sitting in class in high school.......like the day would NEVER end. It felt like someone had forgotten to tell the sun to slip over the horizon and we accidentally just stayed in school for 48 hours without knowing it.

It's exactly the opposite sentiment of these lyrics that would describe the last three years of my life. Kelley and I entered into a new chapter of our lives 3 years ago that I like to label "The Good Old Days"......yes I know that I'm currently living IN what I'm calling a bygone era, but I really have a hunch that when I'm old, I'll look back on these years as the best......actually, I'm hoping that the "The Good Old Days" will include the entire remainder of my days on earth, but who knows right?

So the one bad thing about "The Good Old Days" is that you feel time differently when you're in them. I remember working at Lost Valley Ranch in Colorado and thinking that time moved by different, slower, lazier, but in a good way. Here in "The Good Old Days", life seems to race by like it has somewhere extremely important to get to. I'm trying to fill the time with rock climbing trips, backpacking adventures, lazy canoe trips on summer mornings, and other assorted outings with Kelley and friends to try and make Father Time smoke a big fatty full of lethargy, but I've had limited luck so far. So....it's been great....but it's gone by way too fast.

So in another effort to tranquilize that bearded mythical figure who commands my aging and to give Einstein a fighting chance at convincing more of the world of the theory of relativity, Kelley and I are heading on a road trip this weekend with the simple goal of slowing down and enjoying the 3rd anniversary of our marriage.

I feel that fun times are afoot.

Independence at the hand of tyranny

2007-07-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone.

The day that represents freedom from taxation without representation, religious oppression, and the long arm of England that reached across the big pond to stick its filthy hand into what WE rightfully owned........

So hopefully by now you've picked up on a little sarcasm....and I would hope so because I'm laying it on pretty thick. Don't get me wrong, I love this country and consider myself spoiled and blessed to be a US citizen with a mortgage, a wife and 2 kids (yes I count my dogs as kids)......but I think it just simply wouldn't be American to be an unconditional patriot.

I HATE the seedy side of our freedom. To say that we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave almost gets my blood boiling every time I hear it. We (the mainstream of America.....Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, just to name a few non-pc divisions of our culture) enjoy freedom as we know it at the expense of what once was an amazing culture of indigenous tribes that thrived in the US and Canada without an understanding of land ownership or how one man could tell another what rights or lack of rights he has in life.

I won't go on forever because I can feel even the soap box beneath me groaning at the prospect of hearing yet another angry tirade on behalf of Native Americans. Just consider what July 4th must feel like to a poverty-stricken nation whose "sovereignty" is merely lip service to try and patch up old wounds that have festered and refused to heal.

"For the times they are a changin' "

2007-07-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

too much before
caught up in "what if's"
careless of life, careless of gifts
do what we can before what we do dies
a moment in time, a restless night.

magic in air...
summer of life...
A best friend, lover
musician, wife...
do what we can before what we do dies
a moment in time, a peaceful night.

the exponential human population growth

2007-06-27T09:19:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! Help me celebrate the birth of my friends brand new baby boy Emmett Stallings!

check out http://emmettstallings.blogspot.com and look at the picture of the little booger!

New Comic Ideas

2007-06-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Global Community

2007-06-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

The NECC conference reaches much further than I realized. After a workshop this afternoon, I went back to the GWCC to hang out in the hallways and get some free wireless internet. In the process I met a fellow person in need of electricity and so shared an outlet and a spot on the hallway floor.

Cecilia is from the Philippines and is a NECC award winner for the work she is doing in global community wikis with her students. She has recently set up a great site that allows students to log in and upload videos and pictures that spread a message of hope across the planet. It's almost a "here's what I'm doing in service" wiki that connects many students so far from Japan, Australia....and soon the US. I'm looking forward to more service learning in my classes, clubs, and youth group...and I'd love for us to get involved with her site.

So congrats Cecilia, and keep in touch from the South Pacific!

Web 2.0 Workshop....no web...no workshop

2007-06-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

One of the fears of teachers everywhere who use technology is that inevitably, the technology WILL fail at some point...and.....then what? The workshop I was in today was on the Web 2.0 trend of open-source softwares and user-ownership over information sites and corporate sites alike. Funny thing was...the web was down during the workshop. The presenter was really flustered and I ended up leaving early because I wanted hang out at the conference center for a bit.

As technology-minded educators in the classroom, we always strive for using technology in such a way that it transforms our education process....meaning that we use the technology to allow us to accomplish things with the students that we would otherwise not be able to do. So what happens when it fails? Honestly....usually a digression to didactic learning where we deliver content without the aid of technology. Teaching at its purest form. This is often a fun challenge. To make teaching interactive and stimulating without the maelstrom of media that the kids usually get caught up in....aye, there's the rub. The trick is for the teacher to not get frustrated with the lack of technology when it breaks down and to simply keep the mind on the goal.....student learning.

The Adventures of Gas Man

2007-06-25T09:05:00.001-07:00

Had some down time in a workshop and couldn't resist making this. Enjoy.

Swimming with the fishies

2007-06-25T04:49:00.000-07:00

Once we got through with our workshops and the keynote address last night down here at the NECC conference in Atlanta, we were able to go to the Georgia Aquarium as part of the conference package. There were about 3,000 of us trying to get in at once, but it was great all the same.
I saw my first cuttlefish in person! For those of you non-dorky types, I'm shameless in admitting that I'm fascinated with critters of all sorts, but when it comes to salty sea critters, cephalopods are my favorites.....octopus, squid, nautilus, and the masters of disguise...cuttlefish.
Here are a few pics as well as a pic of the most amazing whale I've ever seen in person. The beluga whale. Watching these guys was almost zen-like.

All this said though, I'm really not keen on being away from kelley for this long...especially over a weekend which is my only real time to hang out with her during the summer. I'll be glad to get home on Wednesday.

cheers,
jeff