"bee" pollen
Saturday, March 28, 2009
nasty little guys
Although very important and cool looking up close, I never had any clue how miserable these little things can be! Wow, anyone have any good allergy remedies? We have been eating "bee" (local) pollen, which seemed to help until two days ago...
"bee" pollen
"bee" pollen
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Our Inside Jokes
you know how you think of something and it just makes you laugh? We have a few clips that friends have showed us that make us just laugh out loud and then repeat lines from the clips. Let us share the laughter with you so you can be on the inside of the jokes too:
Trigon "karate" video
Trigon "you know what he did?" video
CK Lewis on Conan
Trigon "karate" video
Trigon "you know what he did?" video
CK Lewis on Conan
Thoughts and Prayers
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of our friends and family in Fargo and throughout North Dakota. It looks quite crazy there and we wish we could be up there to help the communities! We are shocked at the predicted crest level and can't imagine the stress many of you are feeling.
This will pass, hang in there and know we are praying for you. Keep safe, we love you all.
This will pass, hang in there and know we are praying for you. Keep safe, we love you all.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
gabe's version of "un-established campground discovered with a special ending on how it lead to me getting an x-ray
Ok, so here we go.
The story begins with Shan and I cruising up to Wet Beaver Creek area to camp Friday night and then have some other peeps meet us there on Saturday. Well, we didn't get up to the campground til about 630pm and all 12 sites were full. We were told of a "secret" spot just down the road that we could scope out if the campground was full. Side note: this "secret" spot was provided to us by a woman that would be meeting us on Saturday with her husband and 6 month old daughter. Another family of 3 would be joining us on Saturday as well. 8 people total. Back to the story, the "secret" was in fact a cool place but had enough area to accommodate 2 ultra light backpacking tents max. So after doing some recon on this spot, realizing that it was not going to work, it getting dark and us checking out some sweet frogs in the creek next to the spot, it was off down the road again to see if we couldn’t find a spot to camp. At this point it’s about 7ish and we are both getting hungry, like real hungry. Instead of wandering down random roads to see if we could find a "dispersed" camping spot, we decide to pull over and cook dinner. It was Friday so we had veggie burgers and chips with bud light lime (which, btw, is one of the best "summer" beers ever.....ever). After appeasing our appetites we determined there was another campground about 20 minutes away that we could check out. We drive its full, story of our lives. So at this point it’s been narrowed down to "dispersed" camping. We begin by driving down NF618 towards Bull Pen Ranch trailhead. We start by checking some pullouts to determine if they'll work and are disappointed time and time again. The first one that looks somewhat ok was very eerie, all the trees had "landscaping" around them (rocks lined up nicely to form a ring around the tree) and firewood already stacked. Seemed a little to domesticated (i.e. used by some weirdoes from Camp Verde). We pass on that one. Next one, we pull in and the headlights shine in the spot and it looks like the ground is covered in sparkly jewels, or loads of broken glass, you decide. Reluctantly, we pass on that one too. So we are about at wits end here and finally find a decent spot out in the middle of nowhere, set up camp, no fire, and hit the hay. Another side note: I had a "special" dream on Friday night. I woke up thinking that something was sniffing the fly of the tent. I lay there, absolutely silent in order to hear everything and determine if we were going to die. I am thinking to myself, 'quietly reach up and grab a headlamp, shine it out and scream like you've never screamed before." Well, before I can do this, my wife, who is dead asleep, decides to roll over and make a series of noises that I can only imagine will provoke whatever devil creature that has been attracted to our scent. She stops making noises, the beast doesn’t devour us and I realize that it was the freekin wind ever so slightly moving the fly........I’m an idiot. That was a big side note. So we wake up, make some lovely coffee (in the nalgene press, we need a percolator I think). Ok so were driving and its pretty much desert, no trees, just cacti and dirt. We come up over a hill and in the distance is a super bright green strip of trees. I felt like we were the dinosaurs in Land Before Time when they reach the valley at the end. Anyways, were driving towards the trees and we can see down where they are and we see a bunch of campsites. So we get to the "campground" and it’s really cool, runs right along the creek and lots of trees, etc.... would be a dynamite campground if it weren’t for the trailer park feel it has to it. See, it’s an unregulated campground. Meaning, there is no charge, no max stay, and no camp host. There’s a toilet and that’s about it. So we find a spot, luckily. It looks like it will just barely accommodate our tents but we will make it work. We make breakfast, French toast. I got in trouble during breakfast because I packed the cooler and I packed the entire carton of eggs in the cooler and the carton got wet and pretty much disintegrated. They are farm eggs from the farmers market so they’re a little spendy, no worries though; I put the yellow egg container dealy to work and saved the day. While making breakfast, we are admiring the surroundings, the colors, sounds, etc.......however, it’s a little hard to hear anything when there is hate metal being blared at 930 am in a campground. Unreal. Ok so I’m making this a little long. We’re hanging out with the first family that gets there and I begin my ritual of collecting firewood. Its slim pickings but I spy a sweet log that has been lodged up in a tree. I tell Shannon, she says nice, but don’t try to get it. Well, I try to get it down. Climb the tree, push on it, nothing. Then almost fall out of the tree, look at Shannon and she's just shaking her head. New plan, throw a rope up over it and pull it down. After a few pulls, it comes down. I am the hero. Later on that day, I am using the classic "swing the piece of wood like a bat against a tree and see if it will break in half" method. Everything is going swimmingly until I grab a piece, swing it and my thumb begins hurting like a mug. What happened was the piece of wood I was trying to break split down by my hand and a part slammed into my thumb. It hurts bad, and bruises immediately. The next day it looks like the end of a bratwurst. It hurts, not too bad but I decided to have it looked at for safety sake. Turns out its not broken, possibly chipped. So, in ending, that’s how I ended up getting an x-ray. If you would like more on this story, please send $9.95 to:
5635 S. Clambake Bay Court
Unit E
Tempe, AZ 85283
USA
Hope you enjoy the story,
gabe
The story begins with Shan and I cruising up to Wet Beaver Creek area to camp Friday night and then have some other peeps meet us there on Saturday. Well, we didn't get up to the campground til about 630pm and all 12 sites were full. We were told of a "secret" spot just down the road that we could scope out if the campground was full. Side note: this "secret" spot was provided to us by a woman that would be meeting us on Saturday with her husband and 6 month old daughter. Another family of 3 would be joining us on Saturday as well. 8 people total. Back to the story, the "secret" was in fact a cool place but had enough area to accommodate 2 ultra light backpacking tents max. So after doing some recon on this spot, realizing that it was not going to work, it getting dark and us checking out some sweet frogs in the creek next to the spot, it was off down the road again to see if we couldn’t find a spot to camp. At this point it’s about 7ish and we are both getting hungry, like real hungry. Instead of wandering down random roads to see if we could find a "dispersed" camping spot, we decide to pull over and cook dinner. It was Friday so we had veggie burgers and chips with bud light lime (which, btw, is one of the best "summer" beers ever.....ever). After appeasing our appetites we determined there was another campground about 20 minutes away that we could check out. We drive its full, story of our lives. So at this point it’s been narrowed down to "dispersed" camping. We begin by driving down NF618 towards Bull Pen Ranch trailhead. We start by checking some pullouts to determine if they'll work and are disappointed time and time again. The first one that looks somewhat ok was very eerie, all the trees had "landscaping" around them (rocks lined up nicely to form a ring around the tree) and firewood already stacked. Seemed a little to domesticated (i.e. used by some weirdoes from Camp Verde). We pass on that one. Next one, we pull in and the headlights shine in the spot and it looks like the ground is covered in sparkly jewels, or loads of broken glass, you decide. Reluctantly, we pass on that one too. So we are about at wits end here and finally find a decent spot out in the middle of nowhere, set up camp, no fire, and hit the hay. Another side note: I had a "special" dream on Friday night. I woke up thinking that something was sniffing the fly of the tent. I lay there, absolutely silent in order to hear everything and determine if we were going to die. I am thinking to myself, 'quietly reach up and grab a headlamp, shine it out and scream like you've never screamed before." Well, before I can do this, my wife, who is dead asleep, decides to roll over and make a series of noises that I can only imagine will provoke whatever devil creature that has been attracted to our scent. She stops making noises, the beast doesn’t devour us and I realize that it was the freekin wind ever so slightly moving the fly........I’m an idiot. That was a big side note. So we wake up, make some lovely coffee (in the nalgene press, we need a percolator I think). Ok so were driving and its pretty much desert, no trees, just cacti and dirt. We come up over a hill and in the distance is a super bright green strip of trees. I felt like we were the dinosaurs in Land Before Time when they reach the valley at the end. Anyways, were driving towards the trees and we can see down where they are and we see a bunch of campsites. So we get to the "campground" and it’s really cool, runs right along the creek and lots of trees, etc.... would be a dynamite campground if it weren’t for the trailer park feel it has to it. See, it’s an unregulated campground. Meaning, there is no charge, no max stay, and no camp host. There’s a toilet and that’s about it. So we find a spot, luckily. It looks like it will just barely accommodate our tents but we will make it work. We make breakfast, French toast. I got in trouble during breakfast because I packed the cooler and I packed the entire carton of eggs in the cooler and the carton got wet and pretty much disintegrated. They are farm eggs from the farmers market so they’re a little spendy, no worries though; I put the yellow egg container dealy to work and saved the day. While making breakfast, we are admiring the surroundings, the colors, sounds, etc.......however, it’s a little hard to hear anything when there is hate metal being blared at 930 am in a campground. Unreal. Ok so I’m making this a little long. We’re hanging out with the first family that gets there and I begin my ritual of collecting firewood. Its slim pickings but I spy a sweet log that has been lodged up in a tree. I tell Shannon, she says nice, but don’t try to get it. Well, I try to get it down. Climb the tree, push on it, nothing. Then almost fall out of the tree, look at Shannon and she's just shaking her head. New plan, throw a rope up over it and pull it down. After a few pulls, it comes down. I am the hero. Later on that day, I am using the classic "swing the piece of wood like a bat against a tree and see if it will break in half" method. Everything is going swimmingly until I grab a piece, swing it and my thumb begins hurting like a mug. What happened was the piece of wood I was trying to break split down by my hand and a part slammed into my thumb. It hurts bad, and bruises immediately. The next day it looks like the end of a bratwurst. It hurts, not too bad but I decided to have it looked at for safety sake. Turns out its not broken, possibly chipped. So, in ending, that’s how I ended up getting an x-ray. If you would like more on this story, please send $9.95 to:
5635 S. Clambake Bay Court
Unit E
Tempe, AZ 85283
USA
Hope you enjoy the story,
gabe
Monday, March 23, 2009
"un-established" secretive campground discovered...
...by our friend pointing us in the general direction for a campsite after our planned spot (and 2 backups) were all found FULL. We had our camping trip planned for this past weekend for almost a month. I use the word planned very loosely, it was just scheduled into that weekend so that we didn't plan anything else. So we chose our spot to go camping last, oh, about Wednesday i guess.
Gabe and I headed up Friday night and the spot we had originally planned on staying at is absolutely gorgeous. We pulled up around 6 pm to discover this campground full, no biggie, our friend had a "secret" backup spot. We went there to check it out - it also was a wonderful location but it was right along the river and it didn't look like we could fit 2 other larger tents down there with us so we had to pass. Although the couch's spadefoot frogs were out in full force calling like they needed a mate NOW. It was spectacular -- i miss the sound of calling frogs from MN.
So we move onto a third location - also full. After having pulled off to the side of the road for dinner and discovering 3 locations that weren't going to work it was around 8:30 and we were sick of this game. We headed toward a trail head for dispersed camping - bummed about being away from water but still happy to be out. We didn't make it to the trail head and just pulled off in one of our first clearing and stayed the night. In the morning we got up to check out the rest of the drive and discover a neon green band of cottonwood trees - water! At the bottom of the road we found an un-established campground - so its still considered dispersed camping - but it has everything an established campground would have except regulations pretty much. Which can be nice at times but not if you don't enjoy heavy metal blaring for a good few hours in the morning.
It was an awesome spot and the weather was great. We had very interesting neighbors surrounding us; some of which we really wonder if they have permanent residency there. Nonetheless, it was a great weekend of weather, camping, company, and welcoming spring to be officially here (and inviting it to stay awhile). I recently had a local Arizonan, weirdly uncommon down here, tell me that no matter how long you live here - you always underestimate the summers heat. I thinks he's right and i'm soaking up spring knowing what's not too far off for us down here.
Happy Spring Everyone!
Gabe and I headed up Friday night and the spot we had originally planned on staying at is absolutely gorgeous. We pulled up around 6 pm to discover this campground full, no biggie, our friend had a "secret" backup spot. We went there to check it out - it also was a wonderful location but it was right along the river and it didn't look like we could fit 2 other larger tents down there with us so we had to pass. Although the couch's spadefoot frogs were out in full force calling like they needed a mate NOW. It was spectacular -- i miss the sound of calling frogs from MN.
So we move onto a third location - also full. After having pulled off to the side of the road for dinner and discovering 3 locations that weren't going to work it was around 8:30 and we were sick of this game. We headed toward a trail head for dispersed camping - bummed about being away from water but still happy to be out. We didn't make it to the trail head and just pulled off in one of our first clearing and stayed the night. In the morning we got up to check out the rest of the drive and discover a neon green band of cottonwood trees - water! At the bottom of the road we found an un-established campground - so its still considered dispersed camping - but it has everything an established campground would have except regulations pretty much. Which can be nice at times but not if you don't enjoy heavy metal blaring for a good few hours in the morning.
It was an awesome spot and the weather was great. We had very interesting neighbors surrounding us; some of which we really wonder if they have permanent residency there. Nonetheless, it was a great weekend of weather, camping, company, and welcoming spring to be officially here (and inviting it to stay awhile). I recently had a local Arizonan, weirdly uncommon down here, tell me that no matter how long you live here - you always underestimate the summers heat. I thinks he's right and i'm soaking up spring knowing what's not too far off for us down here.
Happy Spring Everyone!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tri for it
We are officially in the "peak" phase of our triathlon training. We are racing in the same triathlon we did last year in Mexico. It is only one month away, from this coming Saturday and I'm caught off guard of how soon that is! Unfortunately this peak phase is coming just when we are starting to feel the most challenged to stay committed to our workouts.
We are hanging with it though and just had a good bike ride. Biking on the roads down here can be a bit scary at times. Gabe made skid marks (on the road of course) today because a lady turned in front of him.
If anyone is thinking of trying a triathlon i would highly recommend The 12 - week Triathlete by Tom Holland. It is a perfect guide to training, no matter the length and your ability.
Our triathlon distances have changed since last year; this year it will be:
800 meter swim (1/2 mile)
16 mile bike
5 k run (3.2 miles)
Should be good!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
good conversation, good company, just goodness
It has been awhile since a little update has happened. We've had company!! It's so fun to have company. Joe and Andrew were both down here last weekend and what loads of fun it was. It is always great to have good, old time friends back into our lives beyond the phone even if their main purpose of their visit was to make the blog. Joe lives in California going to grad school and Andrew lives in Illinois, also going to grad school. It was just good karma that their trips down here coincided with one another.
I learned a lot from these two while they were down here, it must be their advanced thinking being in grad school and all. let me share my list:
I learned a lot from these two while they were down here, it must be their advanced thinking being in grad school and all. let me share my list:
- in joe's profession (clinical psychology) he connects either emotions to words or words to emotions.
- real men wear blue
- joe makes amazing granola
- gabe and i have a lot of condiments in our refrigerator door
- there's A LOT to know about bowling
- you need different bowling balls for how you want the throw to break which depends upon how the place has oiled their lanes
- you have two different shoes on your feet, one for sliding and one for not sliding. If you leave the bowling area (to get beverages or to the bathroom) there is a booty you wear over your slider shoe
- you can order balls that smell like apple pie, orange chocolate, black cherry, grape...
- tequila is made from agave's which bats pollinate so therefore without bats there would be no tequila but its definitely all about the bats
- joe really likes wal-mart
- there are extra-terrestrial sphericals in the air. andrew can collect them on his mailbox
- joe learns a lot from his travels
- andrew and joe are pretty skilled at playing yard games, gabe and i are skilled at making them
That's just a little of all that i learned this past weekend. thanks andrew and joe for such good times. Aaaallloohhm.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Our first Harvest
This past week we had our first harvest from our small container garden: dill and cilantro! Gotta love herbs -- they are starting new shoots again for us.
lovely saturday
we went out to Boyce Thompson Arboretum with a friend and her cutie pie son. Its about an hour east of us but completely worth the drive, it is such a beautiful place to be. The best part of it -- you can TOUCH the plants!! :) wow such a novel concept to use all of your senses to explore...
Seriously the softest plant i have EVER felt. It was just like a freshly shampooed dogs ear. i wanted to take it home.
Seriously the softest plant i have EVER felt. It was just like a freshly shampooed dogs ear. i wanted to take it home.
the wildflowers are just starting to come out, its going to be a good show again this spring.
Gabe's photography skills at work
Gabe's photography skills at work
Silas smelling the flowers
Ginormous red gum eucalyptus tree - this is the smaller one actually. They have one that's 8 feet in diameter and over 100 feet tall.
Ginormous red gum eucalyptus tree - this is the smaller one actually. They have one that's 8 feet in diameter and over 100 feet tall.
The weather is the best right now. We are loving it and pledge to do a hike per weekend until it gets gross hot again. I hope we succeed with this challenge!
freezer paper tutorial
i forgot to share the great tutorial i used to make my freezer paper shirt. It was super easy and fun to do, we have more on our way. Go here to see the tutorial. It is the same place that inspired me to make the j skirt, she is a crafty lady.
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