Gettin' Some Dirt Under My Nails

Sometimes I get frustrated that my course requirements do not permit me to spend all my time learning about media.

Then there are days like today which make me grateful that I am given the opportunity to explore different perspectives.

I'm in a sustainability course that synthesizes geology with social sciences. We're required to do some kind of service project during the term.

I went out to the Organic Growers Club farm, a 2-acre lot just outside of the Corvallis city limits.

There were about 15 of us helping out today.

We spent 4 hours turning up soil and digging up roots.

That's about 60 man hours.

There was a little friendly competition for who could dig up the longest quackgrass root.

My new friend Jess found a lot of REALLY long ones.

There were also TONS of earthworms. As I came across them, I named them after presidents.

Meet Taft.

We also came across a bunch of these little grubs. The manager of the grounds said that they're safe to eat, so a few of us tried some.

Challenge accepted.

I was promised that they would taste a little nutty, like almonds, but really it just tasted like bug.

What a great day to get my hands dirty!

Bonus: Dobie the Doberman.

Salty Stone and The Greatest Henge In All The Land

Hey, friends. I made a video of today's BIG ADVENTURE!

Sorry for laptop potato. My DSLR is still in the shop getting repaired. I'll try to narrate videos from my phone camera, since that seems to be better. Learning!   :)

Another huge thanks to Christelle for making my day!

J&L Adventure 3-2: Jackson-Frazier Wetland, Fall Edition

Last August, Lindsey and I went to visit the Jackson-Frazier Wetland. While were there, we decided that we should visit every season to see how it changes throughout the year.

So we went back for another jaunt on the boardwalk on a rainy November day. Here's what we found:

My favorite part was how old decay and new growth visibly coexisted happily!

G. Pinks Finds: In The Heart

I found Christmas Love while on a Geocaching spree with Mom in Post Falls and have been waiting to find the perfect spot to place him in Corvallis. When G. Pinks I found an adequately-sized cache called In The Heart, I knew that we had found Christmas Love the perfect home!

G. Pinks wished Christmas Love happy travels. We look forward to tracking where he goes next!

Do you like treasure hunts and adventuring? Try Geocaching!

A Weekend With RAS

I was so incredibly lucky to be able to spend this weekend with my close childhood friend and bandmate Ricky!

He came over from Moscow to visit me in Corvallis, and with him he brought his super fancy camera that he uses to take pictures for UI's newspaper The Argonaut.

He snapped photos as I showed him around the area.

He had never seen Oregon State before, and we were happily able to visit on a quiet day without many people around.

He recognized the iconic Memorial Union building right away...

...but wasn't as familiar with the equally beautiful Weatherford Hall. He said over and over, "I can't believe this is a dorm!"

One of my favorite parts of being at OSU is DJing on the school's radio station, KBVR.

I took Ricky in the booth and we chatted on air and played a bunch of random, unfamiliar, yet all very fun music.

This one was taken with his iPhone, yet still witness its awesomeness!

After our OSU tour we headed downtown for a burrito at Laughing Planet Cafe.

Stuffed with burrito deliciousness, we decided to head to the waterfront to watch the river flow.

But we weren't satisfied with the river - we had to see the whole ocean! So we headed over to beautiful Newport just an hour away to enjoy the sand, sun, and kites.

Ricky so very kindly took some pictures of me while we were there!

I had the best time catching up and hanging out with him!

It means so much to have such wonderful friendships, and I'm honored to have such a friendship with this great guy.

J & L Adventure 5: OSU Is Rad pt 2

Lindsey and I went back to OSU to explore more nooks and crannies of our awesome campus!

First we stopped in a few buildings that we'd never been in before.

I thought that this sign in one of the science buildings tells a very clear and amusing story.

We went up to the top story of Kelley Engineering Center. Both of us felt a little dizzy from the height.

I noticed that there were several paper airplanes that were stuck on the many window ledges. I imagined students laughing as they tried to out-throw one another from where we were standing.

Neither of us had been in the Linus Pauling building (so named for the two-time Nobel laureate who attended OSU) so we decided to see how high we could go. The view from the top-floor outdoor patio was beautiful. The whole west side of campus was visible, as was Bald Hill and puffy clouds that went on forever.

We were starting to feel a little squeamish from all of the heights, so we returned to ground and explored the OSU Student Family Housing Community Garden.

One of the coolest parts of the garden was the fence that surrounded it. Lindsey explained that the fence was most likely made out of the trees that had been cleared from the area. I thought it was really cool to make the tree scraps useful.

I also enjoyed the fairy tale effect that it gave the space. I'd really love a fence like this at my future home!

I know I've written about this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how HUGE sunflowers are. This one was a good foot taller than me and its face stretched bigger than my head. All of the flowers were starting to droop because they were too heavy to be supported by the thick stems.

I'll admit that I've never seen eggplants being grown in person! I am not sure I've ever even eaten an eggplant, but boy, were these beautiful!

These tomatoes, all in various stages of ripeness, also looked so pretty. It makes me want to grow vegetables instead of having decorative bushes in my front yard one day. In my opinion, they're just as pretty but you can make a salad with them too!

Thanks for another fun adventure, Lindsey!

The Great Late Summer Adventure

Last week was filled with epic adventure and happy times. I was able to take a trip to Post Falls to visit my parents. I took loads of pictures along the way, so brace yourselves: this is gonna be an image-heavy post.

The first day, I arrived pretty late. I got to enjoy dinner with my folks, and then mom and I got to take a walk in a nearby pretty neighborhood as the day turned to evening. We got to see this lovely sunset as we went.

The next day, Mom and I had a BIG adventure. Mom had purchased a tennis racket on my last visit, but we weren't able to play - so she wanted to take it out for a (literal) swing this time. We laughed our behinds off as we tried to volley three times across the net. I had trouble keeping the ball out of the sprinkler puddles.

We brought our Geo Pals with us on our trip because there was a Geocache just across the street from the tennis court. The cache was a pretty easy find near the Centennial Trail.

Also nearby was the Post Falls Community Garden. Mom hadn't visited yet, so we decided to take a look.

The gentleman who oversaw the project, a neat guy named Art, happened to be walking his dogs as we were peering over the fence. He offered to give us a tour of the garden. So many gorgeous and yummy vegetables were ripening.

His wife was in charge of the flower plots. Tons of gorgeous varieties were in bloom.

I think her favorite color might have been purple, because that was mostly what I saw in the flower patches!

Mom then humored me with a project I'd been wanting to try. Cemeteries (and the idea of mortality in general) kind of shakes me up, so I want to get more comfortable with it. Why hold on to fears, right?

So we went to the store and picked up a bundle of carnations, headed to a nearby cemeteries, and placed flowers on the graves of people who died long ago. We figured that there would be nobody left to remember them, but they led lives just as well as anyone else, and therefore deserved recognition.

We found a father who outlived his two daughters and wife by 25 years, a baby who passed after one day of living, and Post Falls' founder, Frederick Post. It raised a lot of emotions and questions and thoughts, but eventually we moved on.

After that, we ventured into Coeur d'Alene for some lunch and more Geocaching. There were a bunch of caches on a bike trail, so we headed there. This one was near an old gate...

...another at a lonely tree...

...and a third hidden near some electrical city thing (?).

Mom has been growing tomatoes on the back deck, and her grape tomatoes are just ripening. They're DELICIOUS! There is more "meat" on them and less juice, and they're just more flavorful. I really want to grow some tomatoes next year ... maybe I can grow a couple of plants in a big tote box?

Midway into the trip I took a car ride down to the Moscow/Pullman area, just a couple hours south of Post Falls. I met my close friend Ethan at The Daily Grind in Pullman. I had the best time catching up and sipping a mocha! Later on he took me to Brused Books, his favorite used bookstore in Pullman. This is the kind of bookstore where you worry about toppling a bookcase if you move one book the wrong way. Everything is kind of piled everywhere, and it's fun to see what kind of treasure you can find in the chaos.

Then I headed across the border to Moscow where I met with Julie. We had a yummy lunch together at Mikey's Greek Gyros and then adventured around Moscow. We saw the Saturday farmer's market, Tie Dye Everything, the co-op, a coffee shop, and a couple of Julie's friends. It was really pleasant to get a peek into my sister's life!

The next day, my folks invited Kenny over and we shared a picnic lunch! Dad makes the most awesome BBQ hot dogs.

Last time I was up, Kenny, Dad, and I had each won a game of croquet. We decided it was time to have a grudge match and see who could break the tie. Kenny ended up schooling us both! He became poison before either of us, knocked Dad out quickly, and after a few rounds of cat-and-mouse, he pulled off an incredible long shot that hit me and won the game. It was a VERY well-deserved win!

After the picnic, Mom and I tried to find another Geocache that had been on Mom's to-find list for a LONG time. It was a puzzle that led to a spot on the edge of the cemetery. After a lot of poking around the fence line, we FINALLY found the very well-camouflaged cache! 

After that BIG find, we decided to keep our streak going and find another cache at the Arboretum in town. We searched for a long time before we finally found the micro hidden right in plain sight!

The next morning was my last in town, but we wanted to sneak one last cache in before I had to take off. Mom took me to find one at the park just down the street. It was a nano that I, with all my 5 feet and 3 inches, could barely see hidden up high! The log was so little that G.Pinks could wear it as a scarf.

I had to leave shortly after that. It's always difficult to leave after a great visit with my parents.

Thank you to Mom and Dad for letting me spend such a wonderful week with you!