Pics from Brixx

back in the game

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That raises an important question with our lab.

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

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

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

...now let's collect some bugs!

happy hunting,
jeff

the more the merrier

So this is just awesome!

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

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

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

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

surf's up!

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

That time of year is approaching...

...when days move fast

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bookend

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

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

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

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




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




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

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




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

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

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

Summatime

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

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

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

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

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

peace,
jeff