Adventures || Passing It On

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Rochelle

Ah, Monday, you’re back again. I hope you had a great weekend filled with adventures! Ours most certainly was. Saturday I took my nieces geocaching while Jake began pre-riding the Tatanka 100 course. Sunday I rode another section of the race with him. All I can say is, “Come prepared!” Fortunately I was a lot more prepared for the geocaching adventure on Saturday. My nieces love playing outdoors but even their mom will tell you neither she nor they are tomboys. I love encouraging them the put on some jeans and go play in the woods.

We headed to our local outdoor learning center to find the Hydro Hum cache. I helped a friend place it a few years ago so I knew the general vicinity. I wanted this outing to be a success so the girls would me excited for a longer and tougher cache next time. I was pretty stoked that they were bummed we weren’t going out to the woods. Next time girls, I promise!

Teaching them how to use the GPS was a little interesting. Jake and I got a new GPS a while ago but I hadn’t used it yet. It is a Garmin, the same brand as my old ones and my work one, but dang, it didn’t work like the others at all. Fortunately we were able to muddle our way through it and the fact that I had a general location was super helpful!

It took a little while to find the exact cache location. The girls found the general spot and had hunted for a while before starting to get frustrated. It took a little coaching but finally Kelsie made the find. Being the younger of the two, she was pretty excited to have beat her big sister to it!

The two intrepid explorers with their treasure! If you can’t tell they might have had a little fun. I love being able to pass on my love for the outdoors with these two amazing girls.

Hope you have a great Monday!

*New Items in the Shop

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Rochelle

I’ve been working with some new tools creating some fun stuff for my Etsy shop. Finally I managed to squeeze in some daylight time to get photographs so I could add them. I’ve been working a lot with recycled bike parts and having fun thinking about creative ways to reuse them. I have to say I’m particularly fond of the Star/Grommet earring and matching bracelet. They just are so much fun, kind of industrial and yet girly enough to offset the rough edge.

I’ll be adding a more of these items in the upcoming days. The whole indoor photos with crappy light and struggling with white balance issue kind of kicked my butt last evening but thanks to my rockstar of a husband and his patience I maybe have my issues resolved.

I’ve also got some other products coming soon but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out!

Happy Thursday! The weekend’s almost here!

~Rochelle

Project || New Favorite

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Rochelle

The Sharpie Paint Pens are my new favorite craft item. Genius, I tell ya, sheer genius. I’d been awaiting their arrival like a kid at Christmas. I was a little dubious about both the whole paint pen issue and what they would actually work on but since it was a Sharpie product I figured it had to be good. And they didn’t disappoint!

Yesterday I wrote on all sorts of crazy stuff; rubber tires, metal, glass bottles, wood, vinyl. If I could test it, I did. And they worked, every time. I’ve got some items being durability tested but if initial tests are any indication, there won’t be an issue.

If you’re looking for an easy way to apply durable, easy-to-use paint these are the way to go!

Adventure || Rain

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Rochelle

Finally, it rained! I’m so ecstatic I can’t even begin to describe it. It started raining early Saturday morning and managed to keep it up until sometime late Sunday night. Of course, because I had begun to put rain into the same category at Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, I hadn’t actually believed the weather service and made plans to ride.

We didn’t want to cause any damage to the trails we planned to ride so we scratched the plan and spent the day chillin’. When we awoke to another round of rain on Sunday our cabin fever was starting to kick in. Around 10:30 it looked like we were getting a break in the weather so we hopped on the bikes and headed to the hardware and grocery store.

By the time we finished at the hardware store it was raining cats and dogs again. I was really wishing I had a rain jacket because although my Pearl Izumi soft-shell is fabulous, it just wasn’t meant for that kind of moisture. I’m pretty sure we broke our record speed for our trip home but we didn’t ride faster then the rain. It was a deliciously rainy ride and a perfectly rainy weekend! I hope you had as much fun whatever you did!

Projects || Shimmering Lantern

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Rochelle

It’s the beginning of Party-on-the-Patio season here at our little cabin and I wanted to add some fun shimmer and glow to our nights. What I didn’t want to do was spend a fortune on lanterns at Ikea or Pier 1 even though they are super cool. I have a slight love affair with Mason Jars. They always look so vintage and chic while being so affordable. So I figured, why not make Mason Jar lanterns?

The items I used to make this particular lantern included a jar, 20 gauge artistic wire, a couple of fun beads, a candle, needle-nose pliers, wire cutters and a shish-kabob stick. Weird, I know but you’ll have to trust me on the last one!

Measure the wire so that the length goes around the neck of the jar and creates a loop for hanging with. If you want to add fun loops or add beads at the ends of the wire add about 4 extra inches.

Starting with one end of the wire, wrap it around the neck of the jar until you have made it around one time. Give your self a little extra wire where the two wires meet so you can twist them together later and have a tail for beads. Opposite from where the two wires meet, twist a loop into the wire.

Now twist the two wires together opposite from your loop.

Take the long tail and make a hoop over the jar. Feed the wire end back through the loop and twist it back on itself to secure it. You can see the two tails of wire I have on both sides of the jar in this picture. This is where the fun really happens!

Take your shish-kabob stick and wrap the tails around it. This will make some cool, funky spirals.

Or add beads and make spirals. Or get really crazy and mix loops, beads and spirals!

Happy Saturday!

Life || Thankful

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Rochelle

Today I am thankful…

Thankful for the opportunity to hear Stephen Pyne, a highly respected fire scholar, speak.

Thankful for my crazy four-legged babies. They make me smile no matter what.

Thankful to have good tires back on my MINI and not having to commute 100 miles a day in our big pickup.

Thankful for the yummy veggies almost ready for harvest in our cold-frames.

What are you thankful for this Friday?

Life || Of Coffee and Cups

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Rochelle

Ah, coffee, how I adore thee. You are there for me in the mornings when I awake, you keep me company on my long, cold morning commute, when I am stressed or bored you are there to comfort me. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838) said of coffee, “Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” I believe this to be true.

My love for coffee cups is not just merely an extension of my love for coffee but a love unto it’s own. They are like my friends, each one unique with special qualities, near and dear to my heart. Sadly, there are few quotes that are rightfully fitting. Instead this is my ode to them.

There is my Nissan Thermos. It is my year-round trusty sidekick. It’s renowned ability to keep my coffee hot many hours after it has been poured is legendary. Many a cold night on a wildland fire it has kept me warm, awake and functioning long into the wee hours of the morn’. It’s many stickers hail from the places it’s traveled in my pack. It’s double sealing lid ensures it’s contents will arrive safe. It’s sides are bent and worn from the traumas it’s sustained and yet, it continues to venture on with me.

There is my REI Carabiner Mug. This one is my oldest and truest coffee cup. Although it doesn’t see as much use these days, it is only because it doesn’t fit into the coffee cup holder in my car. One day it will be restored to it’s rightful place in my life, firmly affixed to my right hand. It’s stickers reveal a political bent, Save Rock Creek, the Patagonia Waters project. It is one of the few places in my life where I share my political leanings.

Last but not least there is my Starbucks Stainless Steel Create-Your-Own Tumbler. This guy is the most recent addition. It’s such a cheerful mug, adorned with pictures of people and places I love and quotes that inspire me. It hasn’t been many places and it’s talents aren’t as legendary as the others but it’s ability to reflect the things I love make it just as valuable. I can tell we’re going to go places together.

Projects || Firewise

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Rochelle

24 years ago the Westberry Trails Fire, 3,500 acres of arsonist-caused hell, burned up to our backdoor. Amazingly our tiny cabin was saved, although as a wildland firefighter I’m not sure I’d have wanted to been the one trying to save it. Our narrow, winding, one-way-in/one-way-out canyon doesn’t strike me as the most likely place to stage a defense.

One of my April To-Do Projects was completing a Firewise Zone around our home. It occurred to me that I should explain what Firewise is and why we decided to tackle this project. Firewise is program for homeowners and communities that live in areas where wildland fires happen. As more and more people are finding out, this includes a lot of us. The Firewise Program has recommendations to help create homes and communities that have better odds of surviving a wildland fire. It can help guide the layout of a community, offers home construction guidance, and provides advice for landscaping around the home.

Although the hills behind our house are still scarred from the fire the last two summers, heavy with rain, have created explosive growth in the grass and trees. Our open hillsides are becoming dense with oak, ponderosa pines and heavy grasses. In the Black Hills the natural fire return interval is approximately every 25 years. As this year’s fire season arrived it occurred to me that if for some reason a fire was to once again threaten our home I’d want it to have the best chance possible of surviving a fire, even if the firefighters didn’t choose to make a stand in our backyard this time.

Since our community infrastructure is already in place and we don’t plan on rebuilding our house anytime soon the best defense we have is our landscaping and some home improvement projects. According to the Firewise Guide to Landscape and Construction:

The primary goal for Firewise landscaping is fuel reduction — limiting the level of flammable vegetation and materials surrounding the home and increasing the moisture content of remaining vegetation.

Firewise breaks the area around the home into zones. Zone 1 is the 30 feet adjacent to the home and its attachments; Zone 2 is 30 to 100 feet from the home and Zone 3 is 100 to 200 feet from the home.

Zone 1 applies to all hazard areas and I figured it was a good place to start. Some of the Zone 1 recommendations include:

Mow and irrigate the lawn regularly.
Prune trees up six to ten feet from the ground.
Space conifer trees 30 feet between crowns.
Trim back trees that overhang the house.
Create a ‘fire-free’ area within five feet of the home, using non-flammable landscaping materials and/or high-moisture-content annuals and perennials.
Remove dead vegetation from under deck and within 10 feet of house.
Consider fire-resistant material for patio furniture, swing sets, etc.
Firewood stacks and propane tanks should not be located in this zone.
Water plants, trees and mulch regularly.
Consider xeriscaping.

As we work around our house I’ll post updates on our projects. I know we won’t get every single detail perfect but each step is one towards better odds of our home surviving the next wildland fire.

Life || Movie Night

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Rochelle

Yesterday evening was all about playing with the pups, chillin’ and just enjoying life. Jake and I took our barefoot walk with the dogs down to the creek to let them splash around and to work on building up our foot muscles. Then it was movie time!

Movies in our house seem to revolve around our sports. In the cycling world it’s time for the spring classics and the same went for movie night. These one day races are some of the oldest races on the calendar, with some dating back as far as the 1800′s. They are tough, challenging races often described as wet, cold sufferfests. To get to ride them is an honor. This weekend is Paris-Roubaix, which is considered the Queen of the Classics. It traverses through many of the World War I battlegrounds. The destruction the races rode through gave the race the nickname “Hell of the North.” What really makes this race so hellish is the many sections of cobbled roads or pavé, both technical and dangerous. To be a racer chosen to ride this race is a great honor and to just finish the race puts you among the best.

Adventures || Barefoot Running

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Rochelle

Last night Jake and I joined the minimalist/barefoot shoe club. Jake started with a pair of Nike Free’s a while ago based on his doctor’s recommendation and he had worn those to pieces. I’d been contemplating them for a while to help shift my running form to something more natural as I’m a huge heel striker and can tell the impact isn’t healthy.

Jake decided to go with the Merrell Barefoot Trail Glove and I opted for the Vibram Five Fingers Komodosport LS. Jake isn’t much of a runner as a result of an old injury but the barefoot thing seems to help keep his ankle and leg stronger and reduce some pain that other shoes cause. I will be giving in a try though, starting today. If nothing else it’ll be fun to add a new dimension to my running!

The Tomboy Tales

a girl, her dogs, their adventures