Monthly Archives: July 2010

Friday evening – woodpile

Henry David Thoreau said “Every man looks at his woodpile with a kind of affection.”

That was especially true as I watched Gabe and three strong friends stacking it without me lifting a finger today. This is one of the big summer chores.. Every summer we put away four chord of green wood to dry for the next winter. We generally have 8 chord on hand .. we use four in a mild winter. As much as 7 in a hard one.. though we haven’t done that in awhile.. That was before we had heat upstairs…and the toilet used to freeze over…


Somewhere in that pile gabe found a beautiful caterpillar


Speaking of Gabe.. readers of theis blog will know that he’s been helping out at friend Chris’s stone carving busienss. Chris just sold his 300 word rock garden to Sait Michel’s college. There was a nice piece on it in the Free Press this morning

and a cool Youtube video.. you can see Gabe on the truck unloading the stones..

Chris is such a cool guy.. if you’re in the area you should definitely get to St. Mikes and try your hand at rock lyrics..

Well.. I gotta get back to work. I’m presenting a paper in Belgium in a few weeks.. and I need to get it done…

Nite all.. nite Sam
-me

ps
The Pine Street Iron Pour workshop is going to be the week after next. I’ve participated in this the past two years.  It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Participants in this workshop make sand molds which you then fill with white hot iron. It’s primal, cool, fun and scary. If you’re in the Burlington…area, I encourage you to sign up. (see info on this link or call Yolk at 802-363-6094). At the very least, come watch the pour on July 31 !

Thursday eveining – not just for breakfast..

Another hot, sleepy day. It was close to 90 and my thinking slows to a crawl. The one interesting thing I remember from my day was at breakfast. I met my freind Ari for a working breakfast at his hotel.. the residence inn. The hotel had a nice breakfast spread.. and I hadn’t eaten.. so I paid for the otherwise free breakfast and dug in..

One thing I love about the Residence Inn breakfasts is that they always have jalapenos… I mean, what’sa breakfast without jalapenos.. Trouble is, I’m not a biig fan of scrambled eggs.. so what to do ?

Well.. they had a big vat of oatmeal next to some packets of ersatz maple syrup (how can you get away with Aunt Jemima’s in Vermont ?!?!? ) ..   So .. I says to myself.. self, I says.. Who says that otameal has got to be sweetened. ? I dollopped a double helping of oatmeal into my bowl and then added a double dose of black olives. jalapenos, slasa and nacho cheese drizzle..

Now .. THATS’s a breakfast.. !

So.. your homework for tonight is to try an unlikely combination of your own and report back to me on what you did and how it tasted.. eg. Chocolate ice cream and A1 sauce.. , macaroni and chocolate sauce.. whatever..   Just tell me what you tried..

Mmmm.. that’s makign me hungry.. better go cook.. what will it be ? hummus and choclate I think.

nite folks, nite sam
-me

Tuesday night – Tulum

Today was really quiet and slow..not unpleasant..but I just couldn’t seem to get out of low gear.   Nothing much happened.. so nothing really to report today.. So.. instead i’ll tell you something that happened last week.  It’s a Samstones story. As most folks know, we make these small clay rocks with Sam’s name on it to give out to folks.  We ask them to place them in special places as a reminder of Sam’s wonderful spirit. Over the past three and a half years, these stones have found their way all over the planet.   Every week we hear from 2-3 folks who have either placed or found a Samstone somewhere. We put them on out map here.
   Last week I got a note from Luis who found a Samstone while visiting the Mayan ruin of Tulum on the Yucatan coast.

Tulum was a special place to Sam and to us.. Diane. Sam and I went there as his 8th grade trip..  .. that was just about 6 months before he died. It was a wonderful time.   While we were there, Sam had anecklace made with his name written in mayan glyphs.. He wore it all the rest of that year.. he was wearing it when he died.. Diane and I both wear copies of it eevy day now..  We have those glyphs cut on a rock in our back yard.. and Nate has them inked on his arm

Anyway When Luis found the stone, he saw the link to the http://samstones.org

website. From there he found this blog.. and from there he realized

we’d met. Luis lives in Gudalajara Mexico.. I’d given a talk there in

2006 and we’d met..   

It’s a small and wonderful world…

OK.. all for now…

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Monday night – build up

What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? Even if you survived it, could you survive the aftermath?

Season

Two of THE COLONY introduces viewers to a new group of volunteers with

differing backgrounds, skills and personalities, to bear witness to how

these colonists will survive and rebuild in a world without

electricity, running water, government or outside communication.

Filmed

on 10 acres of abandoned neighborhood on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana,

THE COLONY’S simulated environment had been left decimated by Hurricane

Katrina, a naturally occurring disaster zone that was slated to be

bulldozed and turned into a public park. Empty buildings, weedy streets

and the backwoods are all the colonists have to work with as they

scavenge essentials for survival from their surroundings while fending

off threats such as wild animals and malicious outsiders.

Throughout

this season, the colonists face daunting physical and emotional

challenges as they attempt to survive in a world void of all the

niceties they’ve ever known, including environmental dangers such as

disastrous weather and indigenous wildlife.

THE COLONY begins

with the volunteers facing a 72 hour isolation period to

psychologically shift their perspective from our modern world to the

end of the world. Shortly after the integration into the colony, the

threat of survival becomes imminent as hostile outsiders push them into

a physical confrontation. How do the colonists respond and will their

newfound skills be enough to protect their supplies and lives?

To learn more about this all-new show from DISCOVERY CHANNEL, visit our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Colony/102710631581

Or visit the official site:
http://discovery.com/colony

Oh man.. it’s so weird watching the build up for Colony Season II.. I’m excited, nervous, curious, .. all the things I felt when I was in the show..   I can’t wait to see what the show ‘fee;s’ like.. i can’t wait to see how the characters develop on screen.. and how they react to it off screen..

 I remember so well the weird in between time right before our season aired.. we’d already had the crazy expereince of filuing.. and by now, we were already back into the rhythms of our lives, but we’d not yet figure out how the airing of the show would affect our lives..  For exampe.. This time last year I had no clue that the produces would choose to end the first episode wit 45 seconds of my naked bod…

what similar surprises are the new kids going to have  ?  how will their friendships translate to off screen (the 10 of us are still close and still exchange email every week)  I wish them as much fun as we had 

New kids.. are you out there ?

nite folks.. nite sam
-me

(hey new kids.. you reading this blog ? )