A Walk in The Woods

No, not the Bill Bryson Book. Our own adventure!

A lot happened Memorial Day weekend, in addition to Anne delivering a new baby girl...

Saturday,
Ashley and I rode the motorcycle to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. There's jesters aplenty, legs of fowl, shanks of beast, a jousting tournament, magic, shopping, a king and queen, and even a real castle! Oh yeah...and a TON of nerds.

Sunday,
we drove about an hour south of Murfreesboro to do a 2-day backpacking journey on the Fiery Gizzard Trail. The FG is a creek that winds from the Grundy Forest Day loop down to Foster Falls State Park, and through some very scenic parts of south central Tennessee. See?
The first day was great. We hiked along the creek's gorge over mossy boulders, dirt paths, and even some rock piles. There was a lot of climb and descend. On one of the lower points we spotted about 50 butterflies feeding on a creekside rock. I sneaked in among them to snap a few photos. The last 1/2 mile of the day 1 hike consisted of a 400 foot ascent to the raven's point campsite (ouch). We took a short rest before pitching the tent. After that we took a short walk to a stream to filter some fresh water. I had drank most of what we brought along. We also took another 1/2 mile walk out to the edge of raven's point.
Day 2 we woke up sore...but even after the 7 miles from day 1, we had 8 left to go. So, after brewing some coffee and eating breakfast, we grabbed up our gear and started off again. The trail was much more friendly, staying mostly above the ravine. There was only 1 point that descended back down, Laurel Gorge, but it was only about 200 feet down.

Near the end of the trail, we ran into 4 or 5 different sets of climbers scaling the wall of the gorge. Apparently Foster Falls State Park is something of a climbers mecca. We reached the falls minutes later, and relaxed in satisfaction of completing the hike. Also the PBJ's we had helped to increase the satisfaction substantially. Then we went for a dip in the blue hole at the base of the falls, but the water was SO SO cold, that we basically just got ourselves wet and said..."That'll do."
All in all, a great first backpacking experience!

-M

Woo-hoo!

One year and five months after graduation, I have paid off one student loan. One down, one to go!

-A

Brew-ha-ha

Another year came and went. I'm 27 now, and life's moving faster and faster. It seems like I remember a year taking an incomprehensible amount of time to pass, now they fly by like...well...flies. On my birthday, Ashley sent me on a scavenger hunt. Mom had done something similar for me at Christmas, and it was fun. I had to solve 9 riddles to find my present. The first 8 had a large construction paper cutout letter attached to each. The last riddle was to arrange them into a word or words.

I found it!


No she didn't get me a 6-Pack! Well, yes she did actually, but that wasn't the real present. I've recently (somewhat) been inspired to try my hand at homebrewing beer. It requires some specific equipment. I'm fairly picky when it comes to specific use items, and Ashley didn't want to buy me something that I wouldn't be able to use. So she sponsored a shopping trip to the local homebrew store. Well, what I needed was actually at home depot, but thats neither here nor there. Check out my setup!

the guitar has nothing to do with beer brewing, but what you see here is:
150,000 BTU Bayou Classic outdoor LP burner
10 Gallon brew kettle, made from 6mm aluminum
1 handmade immersion chiller. 50' of 1/2" OD Copper Refrigerant tubing.
1 5 Gallon "Ale Pail" Primary Fermenter.
There's more yet to buy, but these are some very key pieces.

\\\v///
(o) (o)

\___/
me, excited

-M

Bookworm

Sorry no updates lately. Probably because we haven't had time.
Matt - 12 credit hours school + 40 hours/week + 1 1/2 hour drive + very little Ashley time = no fun
Ashley - 50-60 hours/week + makes dinner while Matt does homework + very little Matt time = no fun

Life isn't all bad though.

-M

Homeward Bound

We finally set a date. We will be moving back home July 31, 2008.

Computer Woes = Papers For You!

I've recently had to replace the hard drive on my Powerbook. I had everything backed up at the time, so not a big deal. Everything seemed to go well during and after the surgery, however, just today I'm starting to get vibrations and buzzing from the hard drive. In an effort to save the school work I've most recently completed as well as some papers I'm particularly fond of, I've uploaded a backup copy for safe keeping. You can access them too if you like.

What a Tale, to Wag the Dog - my academic analysis of the 1997/98 film Wag the Dog.

How Sushi is Made - Pretty self explanatory I think.

The Musician's Musician - A concert review for a Martin Sexton show

Flatland: Parallels into Modern Scientific Discovery - A summary of the 1885 book, Flatland, and a short paragraph at the end concerning how this book relates to modern day astonomy.

The Essay Channeled, Yet Not Defined - A look at what literary nonfiction means.

There are a few more, but they're reading responses. They are only interesting if you've read a certain essay, article, or paper. I've decided to omit them from public scrutiny.

Happy reading!

-M

Not so recent events...

So what has Mashley been up to?

December:

Our lives were spent together at Painted Clay Studio working on Christmas ornaments for elementary schools! We have handled enough ornaments for a lifetime!

Christmas Day! It was beautiful weather in Tennessee and after we opened gifts we went letterboxing! It was about 50 degrees and the parks were swamped with people.

January:

New Years Eve - um in bed by 11:00pm. Can you say party animals....haha!

The first weekend in Jan. we traveled to Columbia, MO to visit the Volkmann/Abell residence. The trip was enjoyable and relaxing but went by quickly!

The second week or so in Jan we did have the opportunity to travel back home to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. We were gone 4 days and got a lot of visiting done in the short amount of time. It was accomplished by having every minute of everyday planned plus having great Iowa winter weather!

We attended our first letterboxing meet-up and took a cold, well needed hike! The meet-up was an experience. Lots of boxing in a short amount of time. Note to self, going to a meet-up will take the entire time allocated to it! We thought it was interesting that it was held in a shopping mall.

February:


Classes have started back up for Matt so he is trying to figure out the perfect schedule. Working full time and taking full time classes isn't an easy battle to accomplish. It's hard for him to give up his hobbies but he is doing a good job!

Tornado Damage!Tornadoes didn't actually hit Murfreesboro. We were pretty fortunate. Oh and our trash can blew over!

Valentine's Day. We have determined that Valentine's Day is pretty silly and a commercial holiday! So we didn't celebrate it. However, Matt did come to the studio to help me out with the couples special PCS had going on. It was the first event I did myself. It was fun and the event went over well!

-A