And the beat goes on.....

\

Processing......

Just processed pictures today.  I'll stick with lightroom....the basics. Maybe photoshop somewhere way way down the road. Need to relearn to shoot first.

Coming back.....

Death always manages to knock you on your ass when you least expect it. Without we wouldn't appreciate what it is we have, but that fact doesnt make the pain any easier to bear.

My cousin and I were never the closest of friends, but we made it work. I say we paralleled eachother in many facets of our lives but..... worlds apart. We found a way to make it work and were friends throughout our lives. Maybe not as close as our parents wanted....distance was part of it..... he lived in Seattle me in Alaska, then he in Colorado me in Seattle, then he in China me in Spain. 

We both were larger than our peers from an early age, both only children from parents of means, we both grew up picky eaters with a proclevity towards mischivious deeds (I would say he moreso than I). My mom and his dad were and are best friends and brother and sister.

When I decided to move to Spain I recieved an email out of the blue.. from Scott. It said:

congradulations cuz- the world is huge and wonderful and I'm glad, now that your illustrious swimming career is over, that you are going out to explore other parts of it. I hear Spain in your first destination . Be ready, the country is overun by the most beautiful women and lots of them. 

I remember his email vividly. It was the only truly encouraging message I recieved outside of the program. And he was right.......

 I wish we had hooked up more cousin. I think older now, we may have been fast friends. You were loved by a great many people, I met many of them this past week. I know Kyla and your parents will push through. 

Rest easy now Cuz.

Everyone you will ever meet, knows something that you don't...

Hola,
Tomorrow we depart West Virginia. It was a great visit and I will be sad to leave this beautiful place. As with all things....change. I know I have said it before but truly this place was one of my grandfathers wisest investments in a life full of big investing.
There is an old proverb: The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the next best time is today.

Old Mill

The title today is a quote by Science advocate and Seattle resident nerd Bill Nye. I was asked to talk a bit about the going ons of the world earlier today. Well the US government is shut down....I suppose that is significant. I wonder just how much more would get done in politics if before meeting and fighting and shouting (or as in our case here now refusing to meet and fight and shout) leaders would read this and maybe watch a this piece.

Maybe its a pipe dream and too whimsical, but these huge arguments are trivial with perspective and can, I believe be boiled down to pretty basic things. General consensus - treating the sick = good, bombing people = bad, feeding hungry = good, stealing = bad.....yes yes yes oversimplification but maybe if we work through with these criteria in mind for the overwhelming majority of the countries populous we might get things done and government back up and running....just a thought.

The Mill falls

Makes me sad whenever I see these

A good friend of mine told me today that they had shared something important with someone else. It made me very happy to hear this and proud. This individual puts a great amount of pressure on themselves to deal with the messier parts of life alone. To me part of the beauty of working though life, especially the messy parts is finding people, friends who will help bear some of the weight. It's why we get to be selective about who we call friends. How does the song go..... lean on me when your not strong, I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on. There are good people out there, I've been fortunate enough to meet quite a few. Anyway I was happy to hear about this.

CANDY CORN!!??!!

Morning fog

Anticipation can be both a blessing and a bitch. The desire, the wait can be exhilarating, heighten the senses, and make the coming event incredible...unforgettable even. I think about some of the best meals I've ever eaten, the fastest races I've ever raced, the best tests taken. Many of the fond memories have to do with the build up.The flip side of this coin is the let down. If the movie isn't as great as you expected, the food didn't knock your socks off. The disappointment can be hard to overcome immediately, it's hard to let go and remember that there will be other opportunities down the road. It's sort of absurd to think about how disappointed I've gotten about the silliest things, because I was anticipating things going a certain way.

Mill with perspective and difficult light

Color

Well,thats all the random thoughts for today. I made awesome pretzels this morning that I'll talk about next time. I'll be driving to Georgia tomorrow. Thanks West Virginia.

Sláinte

It starts with the sauce.......Cowabunga!!

Hola,

So here we go as promised

 Apple Sauce El Cazador

Need: 3 lbs (1.36Kg) Apples

Cinnamon 3 table spoons

Nutmeg 4 table spoons

Pure Apple Juice 1 cup

Honey 1 cup

1. Cut and stew apples in juice with 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and 2 nutmeg. Simmer for 18 minutes

2. Pour slurry into food processor and mix with honey.

That is how you make awesome apple sauce. 

Serving suggestions - 

Solo cooled in fridge 

Grill pork chops and serve on heated sauce

Over Ice cream

Freezes well for storage. I like to make mine with fresh picked apples.

Snowman candles - Getting ready for the holidays

The family went to Tamarac today. Tamarac is a center established just outside Beckley,West Virginia. The venue highlights locally produced arts, and crafts and include some 7 studios which are leased out to local artists for production of pottery, stained and blown glass, textiles, woodcraft, sculpture, painting, and basket weaving. Visitors have a chance to purchase goods and watch as some are produced. Tamarac also has a book store specializing in local history and West Virginia writers.

Steel fashioned base 

I found a guy there that works steel. He makes beautiful Damaskus blade knifes, and did some interesting manipulations of old railroad spikes.

It's the bees knees

Lots of locally produced Honey. Soooooo so good. While I did enjoy Tamarac it wasn't what I was hoping. I remember the artists and space being more gritty and local. It seemed that the operation is much more commercial now. Not many of the artist were working, and the "cafeteria" serves less than enthusiastic food- not sure it's all local any more. I wasn't as impressed by the craftsmanship of many of the products this time as well. I wonder if it is just my impressions of the past that cause this discrepancy or the Tamarac is actually going down hill.

Funny isn't it how sometimes we build things up in our memories. Occasionally the place, person, what have you, will live up to your expectations. But some times, for whatever reason, the thing has grown legendary status in your memory. I know circumstances, timing, and a load of other environmental stimuli can play a part in the creation of the memory but I don't know. It sort of makes me question the quality and accuracy of memory. This leads me to all kinds of tripped out thinking about consciousness, perception of reality, the soul, biological computers and life systems. Too much at once and too fast for me to type (I'm a slow typer)

This is a weird train of thought.....here are some nice pictures

Going fishin

Blown Glass

Fall Fashion

Gave some good news to a good friend recently. Is there anything better??? I think not. It might be selfish but making others happy really is the best. Well off to work some Spanish and Lightroom 4. Editing digital photography is pretty cool so far. Time consuming (maybe because I have no teacher) but interesting.

Sláinte,

H

The Smell of Applesauce

Great fall color not hard to find

                                                                         

Again, it doesn't take much to get incredible colors here.

Hola!!

So today we will start by geeking out a bit with the 'artsy stuff'

The above two photos are that two completely different shots of the same subject matter with different zooms. Its incredible the qualities of the pictures and how varied they become. I like both shots but for different reasons. 

The top one seems to me much busier. There is a lot going on in the upper left- bright, crisp, focused intense color, this abruptly stops and the bottom right balances with softer tones and edges. I think the blue of the sky also works a bit to offset the red. Not totally balanced in terms of pallets, definitely red heavy- but I like it none the less. That is one of the great things about art....its subjective. Nobody has to win or lose (AHEM) as long as it is experienced.

The second shot is a individual study. Here we can see the plight of a single leaf. The variance in color- greens, yellows, red. I  also like how I caught the imperfection of the edge. The truth of uneven, eaten and worn edges. The hues of the surrounding foliage and clear sky. Rather than the focus of contrast of the photo,  this one to me highlights a part of the tree....like the cells of our bodies. Many of these individuals combine to create a spectacular tree on a Autumn afternoon. I don't think of trees that way often. So I like the image for the vibrant colors AND the way it entices me to think of something a little different.

Peels

Ready to stew

Prepping on the porch

Mom and I made apple sauce last night. It's really good. I think if Grandma were around she'd have been proud. Prepped out on the porch. Used fresh ingredients, and came out with a new addition to the cooking Rolodex. I'll put up the recipe tomorrow. I'm tired and gonna head for bed. More next time...

Slainte

Fall pontifications

Salutations!

I've always disliked that word as a greeting. It seems too much for a simple concept. Also, so formal.
I just re-read this and apparently this is going to be a big fancy word post.......good grief- pontification and salutions right off the bat............

I see changes......

Oct 1st - We are well into fall now. Today was beautiful here. The sunrise illuminated a heavy mist shrouding the surrounding fields. The dew and mist stuck around until about 9am when the sun cut through the moisture and lit up the hills of Appalachia. The air in the 'halla' (hollow in proper English-a steep forested gully usually with a creek or 'crick' running through it) is cool as the season progresses towards solstice. The sun  provides a blanket of warmth, just surface deep creating the perfect temperature to be outside on top of the these hills.

Morning Mist

Tweeties  house

Moses decided to be awesome this morning-obeying all commands and meeting the cows. The cows followed us around the hill. Moses also posed for a somewhat majestic picture. What a beauty queen. Really I think the work is beginning to pay off. This doesn't make him any less of a jack-ass just a better behaved one. I'm working him through a sort of hybrid training thing.
I hate being harsh to animals and really think that positive reinforcement does help- but I see the rational of physical discipline in terms of animal behavior. Not that I beat the dog or anything but i yank on him and get shorter in temperament and tighter with control when he disobeys. I'll grab him by the scruff of the neck-make sure he knows he is not an alpha male in this pack. Pops is saying hes seeing better behavior too.

Dumbo in nice light

mooo ?? guys? moo?

Good Morning!!

As I sit here typing this I find myself staring at the wall, admiring the grain, and pattern of the wood inside the main house. The interior of the main house here is made of American Wormy Chestnut Castanea dentata - a now extinct tree type (Pictures to come soon). Someone my grandfather knew along the way had found an abundance of this wood in a barn somewhere- and my grandfather, being rather well off at this point, offered the man quite a bit of money for the wood and proceeded to have his house interior paneled with the stuff. I don't think it was the price or extravagance of the wood- I think he just thought it was nice looking stuff. He found the wood by word of mouth though. That's the part of the story I want to emphasize here. He found this priceless treasure- truly priceless- by word of mouth.

In this region of he world it seems to me more than anywhere (at least where I speak the language), I find that word of mouth is THE means of information. In this rural environment talk is king, and who you know, and what they know, is how you get things done and find the best of the best.

Maple Bark

Speaking of the best of the best I did some research today......on food!!! ( this train of thought will come back around I promise). I have been thinking about things I think would be fun to try at some point in this short existence and have decided producing something edible from natural-ish sources is one of them. So far I have looked into the process behind Spanish Jamon, Apple buttter and Maple Syrup. All this was spurred by a quick look at Kickstarter where I found this:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/undergroundmeats/underground-meats-open-source-food-safety-model?ref=category

*Side note : I have never been to Wisconsin and I don't know why....The state is home of the Packers, Surly Bikes, Trek Bikes, an avid outdoor culture and from what I've seen, produces awesome food in general but especially cheese, beer, and meat. Wisco- you are now on my list.

Pond on the WV Farm - What i think Wisconsin looks like

Anyway back to food producing:

Jamon would be awsome to produce or go see produced. I didn't realize how basic the process was. Dry cool conditions, the right type of pig and access to acorns, Salt, and time. Presto! Jamon Iberico.

 Apple butter is a paste that is very popular here on the East Coast and (who knew) in the Netherlands and Belgium. Apple butter is apple sauce that is cooked longer and hotter until the apple sugars begin to caramelize. The benefit to cooking the apples to apple butter rather than apple sauce has to do with the selflife. Carmelized sugars tend to stay safe to eat longer. You guessed it the monks strike again!Clever monks!

Anywho, I want to produce something at some point- currently I'm considering planting 40 Sugar Maple on the hillside of this property - assuming I  hold onto this share of the land, in 20+ years I could harvest the sap and make awesome Maple Syrup (assuming the trees survive, and I survive). Just a thought. I'll have to work on finding the right tree stock- Vermont is suppose to have the best Sugar Maples for syrup....

Maybe I'll plant some lesser known apple varietals as well......I better get going on this stuff.

Evening Apple Tree 

And you shall be named Fuzzy

Aannnnd that was a lot of typing and random thoughts. I finished this evening talking one of my favorite people to sleep, eating dinner, and drinking wine with my folks on the porch to this. All in all not a bad day.

Slainte