After seeing our local hardcore band play at the first Collegiate Peaks Music Festival, I knew that they would be the subject of my first music video. It was supposed to have two or three storylines but it was taking a long time so we settled on the footage from the Coyote Cantina instead. This was all supposed to be secondary footage for the piece, but it seems to work ok. Enjoy.
Finally got this little video piece of Lucy and Sienna out for a morning of stick chasing on the Whipple Trail in February. Just watching it makes me cold. So glad its summer!
Ahhh spring. The day dawned partly cloudy, but warm. The light played off of the trees and buildings as we rode slowly down the street taking in all of the activity. But the trees, the trees. Explosions of color accompanied perfumed air as we rode past the fruit trees bursting with blossoms. We heard buzzing most of the time and watched our native pollinators go at it with legs heavy and yellow with pollen.
If you are like us, stuck in an office all day with the computer to keep you company, I highly recommend that you get OUT of the office and take a long walk or bike ride. Leave the car at home. You’ll pass the blossoms too quickly and air from your vents won’t do the sweet scents justice. You’ll also miss the experience of getting close, letting the color fill your eyes, and you won’t be able to circumnavigate the tree, watching the streets and buildings around it with dynamic perspective.
Besides, you just might pass a friend on the sidewalk.
The day should have been warm. The sun shone brightly overhead, the skies were a deep blue and it was March at Monarch Mountain. I shivered as we waited for the first of the competitors of the Big Air competition to take the big hit at the bottom and fly through the air.
I like this competition in particular because it features local kids on the Monarch Freeride Team (check out their website: www.option23.org) as well as riders of all levels coming in from other parts of the state. Kids of all ages go huge off the big jump at the bottom of “Aftershock” terrain park. Expertise varies as some competitors are content with a simple grab while others get inverted. Its all in good fun and the crowd is supportive of each trick. The coaches know their stuff and even have digital media that covers the basics of the tricks they are teaching.
Vistas abound at the top of the divide and provide a beautiful backdrop to the floating skiers and snowboarders.
For more info, check out Channel BV. The Big Air comp is coming up this weekend. You’ll probably see me there with my camera…
Lach, our local Buena Vista musher, just finished his second Iditarod, having started four of the grueling races. I had the opportunity to photograph some of his team two years back. I also included some of the photos he took from the back of the sled. Check out ChannelBV.net for a link to the Iditarod site. Enjoy.
We were making morning glory muffins. Being early March, no local veggies and fruits were available so I went to our local supermarket and loaded up on organic carrots (probably from Chile), organic apples (probably from Washington — stored cool with nitrogen pumped into the shed to slow respiration – ripening) , walnuts, picked up some orange juice (from oranges grown in Florida and not in South America) and was feeling good about the amount of “good” food I was purchasing but not so great about the distance that all of it had to travel. “The average bite of food has traveled more than 1500 miles before it reached your lips, changing hands an average of six times along the way.” – Bill McKibben – Deep Economy
It has become apparent to me in the past few years that just buying organic at the grocery store is not enough. At this point in my eating habits, I’d much rather feast on fresh vegetables from Seth and Caitlin or Erin’s greenhouse. I’d rather understand exactly who grazed my cow, what their education has been and which land management techniques were used. I’d rather know that the eggs I buy were laid that week from hens that have a choice whether or not to stay in their roost or go out and discover yummy bugs.
That being said, I still frequent our local supermarket, still buy lots of veggies out of season (had to make the expensive and damaging trip from South America), and still consume packaged food. I have mixed feelings about this…I really am striving to change my habits, but it is too nice to open a cold carton of orange juice and begin gulping.
So today, as always, I’m waiting in line watching the people ahead of me finish their transaction and the people behind me unloading their cart and I begin to feel very sad. Box after box of processed food hits the conveyor belt along with cans of soda, packages of candy and bags of chips. The people were obese and the food in their cart reflected it. My sadness came from a deep desire to help people realize that we make choices every day about what we eat.
This affects not only our world as we think about farming practices, processing plants and chemicals needed there, transportation, storage and waste, but also our health, the way we look and feel. The food industry (producers, refiners, processors, transporters, resellers) equates to a trillion dollar industry. Likewise, this same processed food grown with pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified seed produces health problems that only a trillion dollar health care industry can fix. Why wouldn’t the government love the idea of food related health issues then? Think of the economy and the tax revenue. Could it all be solved by eating food from our local sources? No, but perhaps we could put a big dent in it anyways.
Well, these are simply the thoughts racing through my head at the checkout line. Lets think about what we eat, where it is coming from, what is involved in getting the food from the ground into our mouths.
I’m getting so excited for next weekend! Leadville plays host to ski joring, a throwback to days in Scandinavia when people would get pulled to town on their skis by reindeer. Today’s courses are a little bit more exciting, though, and Leadville’s course is especially exciting since it is a non-sanctioned race and being non-sanctioned, they can do pretty much whatever they want. Like hold the event on Leadville’s main drag, Harrison Ave. The buildings are tall and frame the street nicely, the spectators stand behind fencing mere feet from the athletes, and if you happen to slide into a lightpost, well….
So, one skier and one horse and rider get paired together. The rider rides their horse blazingly fast down the middle of the street (that is covered in a thick layer of imported snow). The skier (whose arm is wrapped in a rope trailing from the galloping horse) navigates tight turns, magnificent jumps (all the while eating snow that is flung into their face from the horse’s back hooves) and has to stay focused enough to collect six or seven hanging rings along the way. Of course the whole thing is timed, and to add to the pressure, bystanders are allowed to bet on your team.
So, if this doesn’t sound like fun, I’m not sure what would. If you really want to get a feeling for what this is like, this link will take you to a 12 minute video documentary on the event.
My favorite part about ski joring is the family-like qualities that all the competitors possess towards one another. They take care of each other like brethren. The riders really love and care for their animals well. The skiers love their side of the bargain, tearing down main street and going huge off the jumps. Ski Joring is a marvelous harmony of two seemingly disconnected events.
