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"The longest road you will every have to walk is the sacred journey from your head to your heart." Phil Lane, Jr.
Over the last few years in particular, I have been looking at the way I live life and trying to bring it to a more sustainable level for myself and the planet. Looking back, like most Americans, this has not been the case even though I thought I was doing pretty well. Everyday I try my hardest and look at new ways of trying to live that will help us all. In my heart, I want balance, sustainability, and a better place for all of man kind and living creatures to coexist. In my head, I know that I still have a very long journey to reach that place. Every step I (we) take, brings us a step closer.
Recently, I stumbled upon a free Permaculture online class and decided to sign up for it to take a look. I am on the very early part, actually just the free pdf describing Permaculture. Within it, I am already finding the philosophies that we should all take as a guiding path.
The three parts that are the core ethic of Permaculture:
Care For The Earth: Without a thriving planet, we as a species have nowhere to go. Therefore, caring for the earth is the primary directive of permaculture.
Care For People: Permaculture is somewhat radical as an environmental philosophy in that it puts care of the people front and center as one of the three primary design ethics. As a whole-systems life philosophy (yes, it is very much a profoundly interconnected philosophy of living), permaculture recognizes that human beings very much have a critical role to play on this planet, and when human beings thrive, the planet will thrive with us.
Share The Surplus: While radical on its face, the third ethic of permaculture actually makes perfect sense when considered in the context of designing systems for incredible abundance and maximize our yields (profits) at the same time. By setting up ourselves to share the surplus throughout the system, we are seeking to design incredibly resilient systems.
This was taken directly from the Permeculture Design 101 course intro offered by the Regenerative Leadership Institute
If this is something that interests you, here is a link to sign up for the free Permaculture Design Course:
http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com/?cctidx=facebook-5
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This is what our season here in Tahoe has come down to, Man Made snow!
Northstar CA, has the best snowmaking capabilities on the Lake as they have an unlimited supply of water.
The reservoirs that they have built, are all spring fed at a rapid rate so whatever they pull out at night, it is filled back in by the next day.
Fortunately, the temps have stayed cold at night so they can freshen up the runs and groom them out for a great day of skiing.
Every day, they open up more terrain so when the snow does hit, we will have a great base!
For all of you that are coming to visit or thinking about it. The conditions are actually really good!
If you are a beginner or intermediate, you probably will not be disappointed as the groomed runs are GREAT!
It's the advanced riders and skiers like myself who want tree riding and fresh powder that will be disappointed.
Come on Mother Nature, Please, Please, Please bring us real snow!
http://2012bandh.pdncontests.com/bin/Rate?image_id=2009832686
Water Strider
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Thank You for your continued support!
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To start off the new year, I will be posting a photo to my blog every day.
Of Course there will be a day or two missed as there are no friends on Powder Days, that means no photos too!
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New Years 2014, what will it bring? Hopefully some snow to Lake Tahoe as it is the driest 12 months that we have had on record. You have to make Lemonade out of lemons though. It is still a beautiful day even though it was in the 50's on January 1st. Everyone was enjoying another beautiful sunset at Lake Tahoe! It is such a beautiful place to be!
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A lot of standing around and waiting was had all day long as expected. A few takes for each shot. Then move up for the next and wait some more. All good as we were all Zombies, what do we care? Where's the Beer?
Beer Break! The members of the band grabbed a bunch of 12'ers and handed out PBR's to all of us Zombies. For those of you who know me, this is hilarious as I can not drink PBR which is one of the bands sponsors.
The night went on and on, shot after shot. Finally we moved into the parking lot where the final part of the video was to be. Within the parking lot where we checked in earlier in the day, a PBR Van was parked. Well I can't give away the whole video, but all of us Zombies chase the band members into the van. The van that holds all the BEER!
The day ended up being much longer than I expected, but it was a whole lot of fun hanging out with an old friend from Appleton. Not to mention that I was a BEER ZOMBIE in the new Red Fang Video that should be out around the end of the month!
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When I was a young boy around 5th or 6th grade, we took our yearly family vacation with this particular year being out to the West Coast to see my aunt and uncle. They were living around the LA area so we had plenty of options for sightseeing side trips. The best one that still sticks with me today was the trip to the Seqouia National Forest. We loaded up the two families in the Suburban and made our way up the mountains and to the park! From the 1st moment I set my eyes on my 1st Seqouia tree, I instantly feel in love and still to this day, I am absolutely amazed every time I am in their presence. Since then, I have been to the Seqouia National Park 3 separate trips. On the Northern Boarder of CA just outside of Crescent City, is where the Redwood National Park is located. I have been there 4 different times! Each and every time, it is as amazing as the 1st!
Back in 2004, on one of my trips out to Lake Tahoe, I stopped at the Redwoods National Park for a few days camping trip. I had been in the panorama mode of shooting photographs for the newspaper and magazine and had a really nice digital SLR for that time. After the weekend of camping and shooting photos, I processed out a lot of photos and stitched together a number of Panoramas. When the photo to the left finished processing, I was floored and this has been one of my favorite photographs I ever have shot! More than a few of these images have been sold over the years in numerous sizes. One of them is a 5' tall x 24" wide canvas pieced hanging in a friends private art collection.
Ever since I upgraded my camera to a pro level FX sensor, I have been wanting to reshoot the photo. Three years back, I tried and succeeded, but because of a technical glitch, I lost all the photos. That was sad as I had a really good one for a recreation (Back up your photos!)
Finally, I have succeeded and recreated this shot! I am not sure though which one I like better? They are both pretty cool!
I am still on vacation and have to pass through the area on my way back to Tahoe. If the weather is good, I think I will stop again! I just can't get enough!
Until the next time, here are some photos from the day trip through the Redwoods National and State Park drive. A drive that nobody should ever miss if you are in Northern CA. You will forever be amazed at these Giants!
Hunnicutt is a fairly new winery and the facilities opened up in 2011. The 15,000 square foot wine cave was all dug out with a machine then spraycrette lined to reinforce the walls to prevent any cave ins. The back wall in the photo below on the left is what the actual bedrock looks like. The photo on the right is the used drill bit heads that were used in the drilling process of making the cave.
Now onto the good stuff! The whole reason why we were there, to taste the wines that Mike has been making! It is vacation for me and I am seeing an old friend so I will not lie, I was not spitting and by the time we were done, I was feeling pretty good!
We started out with his 2013 Rose of Pinot Noir. Here Mike is using a Thief to pull the wine out of the barrels for us to taste. Don't mind if I do! Thanks for the taste Mike, Cheers
Next up, try the Rose of Granache which will be on Relics Label "The Archive" This is aging in stainless steel barrels for about two months before they bottle it. Yes Please!
Now onto the Reds! Mike being the winemaker that he is, was full of knowledge! One of the 1st reds that we sampled was an Old Vine Carignane, grown by Al Frediani who is 93 years old and when his father bought the property in 1906, the vines were already growing on the property.
It was a great education as I always knew that there is much that goes into making wine. The last lot of wine we tasted, the 2012 Relic "Artifact" Cabernet Sauvignon. It was being aged in different barrels. We tried three different barrels and each one of them had its own unique qualities to it. Barrel Making is an art all in it's own. Coopers are what you call Barrel Makers. Mike was telling stories about how one of the Coopers he knows, would actually go to the woods before the trees were cut for auction and judging by the way the tree was growing, he would know and mark the best trees. Then at auction, he would buy the right trees early on before all the cheaper wood would come up. Another process that also changes the flavors in the wines are the toasting of the barrels. Some longer, some shorter, more char.... It all makes a difference.
Thanks Mike! It was a great privilege and an honor to get the personal tour! If you ever get the chance, try the Relic Wines! You will be delighted.
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I try to go with the flow in life and want to believe that I have a good heart full of honest intention. This is not always easy to do as we are pulled by obligations, schedules, deadlines, school, jobs, etc... Lucky for me, I have constructed a life that allows me freedom, at least at times. Right now is one of those times as I have a few more weeks off in between jobs and have lots of adventures that still lie ahead for me.
Planning is something that I really do not like to do much when I am on "Vacation" and traveling back and forth from Door County, WI and Lake Tahoe, CA. Of course it can be useful as I knew I was stopping by a friends place in South Dakota, a place that I would not normally have stopped at. It was a lot of fun, met some great people, and it was a pretty nice place to visit.
After that I figured and did stop by Vail, CO for a pit stop to Visit friends while on the way out to Tahoe. This trip out west for me always changes as you never know what the weather will be doing in the mountains.
Monday Came along and I had to decide what route I was going to take to get out to CA. Tahoe was getting snow! I also knew Vail was in line for the same storm so I decided to head a little south instead of heading straight west or back up north to I-80. Years back, I took a drive along UT Hwy 24 and 12 to Bryce Canyon and it was gorgeous, so I figured I would give that a drive since the snow was not forecasted there. It was beautiful just as I expected!
Where was I going to stay? Bryce Canyon I had been to before and it is very beautiful, but not a huge Park so I was not really thinking that I would stop to stay and see it again. Clouds had been moving in throughout the day and when I passed the entrance to Bryce Canyon, it started raining. Down the road about 20 miles is a town named Panguitch UT.
When I passed through there before, I stopped at The Cowboy Smokehouse and Cafe. This place has the best smoked BBQ I have ever encountered so I figured it would be a great place to stop for the night and get some great food! I checked into the motel across the street and found out that the Cafe had started their Off-Season Hours and would only be open for the weekends. Of course, I was disappointed as I was really looking forward to some great food and I knew that their smoked meats were all Gluten Free. That night I was limited to a tub of GF pasta that I had along with me just for this type of emergency when on the road and can't find GF food. If you ever are in this town, I HIGHLY recommend stopping here and eating, just make sure it is a weekend or not the off season!
That night, I sat in my motel room, closed my eyes and tried to tune in with the current and see where the flow would take me. I decided that with the snow that was now falling, I would give Bryce Canyon another shot and see it in a way that I have never seen before, covered with Snow! I am so happy that I did! It was absolutely gorgeous covered with snow! The hike was a lot of fun and everyone that was there that day were excited and amazed at the beauty that we were all experiencing.
Once again, the current brought me right to where I needed to be! This has happened often for me lately. I believe it is because I just try to go with the flow!
In the next few weeks, I am going to be traveling. The only real plans that I have are to visit friends and family in Napa, Portland, and Seattle. What happens in between...... Well, stay tuned and see where the current takes me!
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