Tinkerbell

She's here, and she's not small. Old Town makes an XL Tripper: 20ft LOA (length over all) and 41" beam (41 inches across). But although she's big, she still seems lithe, and she carries her 105lbs well. We had her outfitted with 4 seats instead of the factory 2 seats (thanks Austin Canoe and Kayak!). A day trip to Houston to pick her up gave us plenty of time to talk strategy - and there is plenty to talk about. Portages, when to sleep, if to sleep, what to eat, gear... the list goes on. But now, with Tinkerbell in our possession, we can start training and figuring everything out. Two weeks to go before the Texas Water Marathon, a preliminary race of 40 miles between Gonzalez and Victoria. There will be only 3 of the team members going on this one, but for us it's more of a scouting expedition than a race. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

Texas Water Safari is Happening

It's been a number of years since the idea of competing in the Texas Water Safari starting circulating amongst myself and a couple of buddies. Every year there is an excuse. This year, there is none. I'll be out of school for 2 months, son at Summer Camp, and just enough vacation time at work to make it happen. And the best part: a team captain that is every bit as enthused as I am. We're not taking the Lil' Longhorn, my burnt orange Coleman canoe. No- our captain has commandeered us 2 other paddlers and has sprung for a 20', four person canoe (or, one that will be outfitted for 4 paddlers anyways). Billed as the "World's Toughest Boat Race", the Texas Water Safari is an annual race via the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers, from Aquarena Springs in the college town of San Marcos, to the shrimping village of Seadrift on the Texas coastline, a total distance of 262 miles. Check out testimonies, pics, the route, etc. at the website. Keep checking back to see how the training is going. We have about 8 weeks to get ready for 262 miles of dams, sweepers, log jams, rapids, heat, sleep deprivation, snakes, and gators. This will be one for the books.
Picking up canoe this weekend from Houston. It's finally sinking in: what have I gotten myself in to?

Holy Mole...

has it been that long? Well, it's not getting any easier to start posting again, so I'll just jump in. The absence is surely not because there hasn't been anything going on - quite the opposite. I have started graduate school at Texas State University for my Master's in Counseling. It's been great, but growth does not come without anxiety (as I've learned). Things are well: Spring has sprung, lake levels are up, and hops are hoppin'. The video is of my son's and my Spring Break project. Some building, some learning, and some teaching of the classics. It was a great time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zIH2UfT3bQ

Halloween 2011

I'm Vincent Van Gogh.

More of the Same

More brewing, more recording. This time I harvested all the hops I had on the vine that were mature, and made my first nano-brew IPA. And the recording was awesome- a four song EP that we're all excited about (link will be posted when songs are available). Big things in small packages; that's the theme for last week.
Pics: handful o' hops. The Colorado River flowing behind the studio.

More on the Drought

Yeah, I know- it's getting old. But as I have always been kind of a weather buff, and this is exceptional, I am staying tuned in. This weekend my son went to a Boy Scout camp that had local professors and scientists teaching merit badges with an environmental theme. In Soil and Water Conservation the instructor took an apple and cut it into fourths. He took one piece, "this is the amount of land in the world". He cut that section again into fourths. "One of these pieces represents how much of the land is not mountains nor is frozen". Cutting 1/4 again gets you to the approximate amount of land on Earth that is farmable. This example, plus the fact that 1 inch of topsoil takes 500-1000 years to create, makes this even more heart-breaking.

Fall is Here

Buffalo wings and ranch dip, pumpkin pie and whipped cream... all the burnt orange and white good mojo cuisine we ate couldn't keep the Sooners from whoopin' us this year. But it didn't keep it from being an almost perfect weekend: a couple of extra days off, some cooler weather, and one of my bestest friends coming into town and helping me test the canoe rig. And to top it all off I had a day with the fam to do nothing but watch Myth Busters and take shower naps. That's right- we got over 2 inches of rain!
The wind on canoe day started off breezy, about 10-12 knots. That was enough to get us going about 4 knots dead downwind. I was happy with the paddle as a rudder, and with only one lee board (like a dagger board keel) we were able to maneuver past a broad reach (almost to beam reach. I didn't want to push it, as the wind started to gust up to 18). The main flaw was the mast step. It kept slipping to the side, angling the mast and tipping the end of the boom into the water. An easy redesign should take care of it and make the boat faster. Back to the drawing board.