Paint My Words

Made my first pie – pumpkin and sweet potato. No recipe. Just spices, butter, milk, and love.

Working on fleshing out some Oyster and Shitake mushrooms from plug dowel spawn and grain spawn.

I found a family tossing out some oak logs that were the perfect size, so I asked him if I could have them and he said yes. Sweet. Plugged about 50 dowels in each log and sealed the holes with beeswax to keep the moisture content up. It’ll be over a year to see how to the inoculation turned out.

I always have tons of spare spent grain laying around from brewing. Added some gypsum, some bloodmeal, and some lime to the grain after the mash tun. Once it cooled I added (hopefully enough) pink oyster mushroom spawn in some bags, and blue oyster spawn in the other bags.

Here is the inoculated logs and bags ready to spawn and flush out.

Salvaged some lumber from a rubish bin, added some homegrown compost halfway rotted in the bottom, and some store bought peat moss, compost, bark, top soil, vermiculite and herbs. This spot should get sun atleast 10 hours out of the day. Planning to grow some winter lettuce and a load of herbs, perhaps some heirloom tomatoes in the spring. Pretty stoked.

Gonna be farming with worms – Vermicomposting. Two layer structure with a lid that pulls off and a body that splits in half to separate the worms from the compost. Roughly 3 feet tall and two feet wide. Chicken wire seperates the layers and allows for drainage at the bottom. Pretty excited to have built a proper worm bin for some red wrigglers. Garden prep for our victory garden.

I moved to Baton Rouge about two months ago – June 28th, 2011. Since then I have been on a mission organizing our small house. In Durham, I became very fond of modular shelving. It can be moved to suit the purposes of any space. Since moving to BR, we have minimal storage space, so I set out to build some new shelving; not just any shelving though, fun, colorful and functional shelving that complimented the furniture that we already had. I’ve build around 9 of these modular shelves since moving, consisting of various colors and of roughly the same dimensions, albeit some are a step taller or shorter based on our needs.

I’ve also been busy construction flats – fake walls to hide my tool collection in our thousand foot rental. I use the walls to divide our living room, hide the tools and as a working canvas for my current paintings. I’m pretty happy to have a painting space. This way I don’t have to worry about ruining the walls of the rental. I have to be a bit careful with the floor of course though, so we’ve added a rug underneath to collect paint drippings.

Lastly, I bought what I consider to be an excellent piece of whole wood entryway table. My guess is that it was used in a church to hold ornaments of religion or communion artifacts. I resurfaced the top with stained wood to match the bookshelves and smoothed it out and protected with varnish so that one could set cold drinks down.

Lots of work going on in Baton Rouge.

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Old photos of my Brother Doug that I cleaned up and scanned last Christmas as a present.

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A few shots with Lindsey’s new SLR.  Playing with color and lightroom.

I spent a lot of time during my college years training and traveling to races.  A Weekend in the Saddle is mostly a fictional narrative regarding what those weekends are like.  I haven’t fully finished cleaning up the audio namely where i misspoke and didn’t feel like listening to my own voice to edit out those sections, but i have finished a lot of the conversion and pitch changes, etc.  The audio is mostly done.  I can’t say when I’ll get around to completely finishing it up.  With that said, if you are interested at all, an audio version of the exposition can be found below.  The book will be available through Amazon in about two months.  The ISBN process takes time.  The picture above is from my freshman year of college.  There is something to be said for having a good team to race with.

A Weekend in the Saddle A Turbulent Tale of a Bike Warrior [ 1:44:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have had the good fortune to have a few days off of work.  As neither Lindsey or I are traveling, I have been dedicating a lot of the time to producing new art and writing.  “A Weekend in the Saddle” is now much closer to being finished and I’ve started a short novella about a deranged Sergeant who manages to trap five miniature people in an aquarium.  I’m hoping to have an audio version available shortly of “A Weekend in the Saddle”.  I recorded it yesterday, however haven’t had a chance to clean it up and convert it to MP3 format.

I created a series of three prints with each production run only 8-10 images using various colors so each one is truly unique.  There is a seated man, a magnolia flower and another flower of unknown origin.  These were produced using linoleum block printing techniques.  The rubbers were destroyed in the process.

I printed off labels and bottled some bees wax and tea tree oil based skin balm for Christmas presents.  A picture of these can be seen below.  The lotion is smooth, good smelling and does not leave the skin feeling greasy.  I love bees!

I have spend the last month editing and re-editing “A Weekend in the Saddle: The Turbulent Tale of a Bike Warrior”.  The book is an exposition composed of my thoughts from years of cycling. It’s not entirely factual and not entirely fictional.  At best I would consider it semi autobiographical.  I used prints such as the one above throughout the book subdividing pages, and further added some black and white sketches for more visual interest.  The work runs around 48 pages single spaced, and spans a series of races occurring over one weekend.  I have enjoyed the project, however I’ll be glad to move onto other works I have in progress (more to come).  I have processed this book through LuLu and am expecting the first draft in the mail for final editing any day now.  A PDF download is available free of charge BELOW THE PICTURE  for those interested.  A PDF download is also available through LuLu for one dollar, and hard copies will be available soon through Amazon for around $20 dollars. I would have gone for a cheaper price, however the color printing increased the price two fold – It’s worth it.  In time I’ll put out an audio reading of the book for free as well via podcast feed.

A Weekend in the Saddle: The Turbulent Tale of a Bike Warrior Download

For the last three months I have found a renewed love for running.  This has reduced some of my “free” time and hence I haven’t been painting quite as much. No worries, the brush and the canvas will return. I’ve been touching up many of my works from the past, brewing beer, roasting coffee and working on some projects that have languished for months.

I made four birdhouses out of reclaimed cedar/pecan and American Holy trees that fell during hurricane Fran.  These were placed around the neighborhood. I haven’t noticed any birds nesting in them to date, however I am hopeful that they will be found; if not this year than next.

I have also been refining my green coffee roasting technique. I bought around 25lbs of green beans and have been using an air popper roaster to roast my green beans to perfection. I have been a coffee aficionado, thus it was only a matter of time before I decided to roast my own beans. The costs savings alone over a year are worth it. Green beans costs from 3-5 dollars a pound compared to the 14 dollars for 14oz that I was paying at my local store. The price at my local shop and the reduction in size from 16oz to 14oz is what prompted me to switch to roasting my own beans.

The instructions for roasting are simple.  Take two heaping handfuls of beans and place them in the air popper.  Depending on the type of bean and the roast desired roast from 6-10 minutes. Place a large bowl under the air popper exhaust to catch the chaff. Once roasted, place the beans on an oven pan to cool down.  Repeat the above 4-5 times in order to roast a lb. I simply set the timer on my microwave and every few minutes head outside to switch the beans. The total process takes 30-40 minutes and you can multitask while you are doing it. It’s simple, and at the end you have fresh roasted, excellent beans. I’ve found that aged coffee’s do better at 1^st crack around 6 minutes in the air popper. For an espresso roast I’ll stick to 9 minutes or so and for an Italian roast you’ll want 10 minutes.

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I spent the last week in Haiti moving rock, painting, playing with kids and reconstructing walls. The trip was my first out of the country.  I wrote every night. There was so much information to absorb.  Haiti is a lush country, full of fruits and surrounded by crystal blue oceans.  Port Au Prince the capitol is encircled by mountains which rise from the coast.  The group that I was with worked at three sites across the city. Each site serves community functions as a school and a church for the surrounding areas.

Saturday

• Those who have met “blancs” before shout “hey you” often followed by “give me”.  Some stare, others wave. The Haitians are easily dis-guarded by a simply “bon jour” followed by “ca va”.
• The concrete roofs don’t have enough re-bar and there is no engineering bureaucracy.
• There aren’t enough birds here – where did they go?
• The American’s drink 20oz glass bottles full of coke followed by fruit champagne and sprite.
• There is no alcohol allowed at Blanchard. I can’t see how it would be kept cold.  The Haitians do not seem to consume beer or wine in abundance.
• There are UN peacekeepers scattered across the roads in groups of two primarily near the major slums.
• The smell of human waste and death comes in waves
• Men work all day for $5 dollars.

Sunday

• Pot wafts across the roof. I saw three fields of it growing while riding in the tap tap’s. One dispersed amongst corn and the others hidden behind walls.
• I ran 3 miles out on the streets today. The smell of human waste was sickening.
• The sounds of the city, death, singing, animals, chatting, fire, screaming, preaching, are all becoming normal.
• We watch from the third floor of the compound the lives of the Haitians who surround us. There is no room for privacy in this culture.
• Gregory came up to me – apparently I’m the boss. He wanted a job.
• The military men drive in Humvees
• The roads are dirt intermixed with stones.
• Creole french is different from french.
• There was an old man at church who had a cell phone.  Haitians pay 7 cent a minute to talk on the phone

Monday

• There are eyes of jaundice here. Some of the kids have parasites.
• I’m speaking french. It is coming back.
• Two kids in particular from the school attached to me – Alexi and Alexis. They were brother and sister. The kids don’t want to be at the school as there are concrete ceilings.
• The kids love candy.
• The mountains at night are great for sunsets.
• I ran on the soccer field and did steps today in the compound.
• You are running through their backyard. Eyes glare but are friendly with salutation.
• The mountains have been deforested.
• Men, Women and children sing all hours of the day and night.
• There are dog’s on the roofs.
• The way the Haitians build with concrete is incredible. It’s very labor intensive for the scale of the projects.
• Everything is build on site.
• My french is coming back.
• Thank you Lindsey for the 98% Deet.

Tuesday

• Coffee and sunrise are such a treat.
• I shared a coke and a hat with a Haitian construction worker.

• Everything is pre-built with the aged look of ruins
• A cool breeze flows across the rooftops every night. It carries the smell of smoke intermixed with herbal fragrances.
• Singing blossoms every night; from every corner
• Chickens scratch through piles of garbage cleaning the scraps of bugs
• Green mangoes droop from unplanned trees
• Haitians view cell phone ownership as a status simple. Unused ear buds connect to ears and blare mp3’s fed from the phones.
• There is no plumbing or trash infrastructure to speak of, as well as electrical consistency. The entire infrastructure for the city needs to be built. I wonder if there is such a thing as eminent domain here?
• A woman watched me as I showered through the window. The white skin must seem odd.
• The roads are pot hole marked paths of dirt pebbled with grapefruit size boulders. This is not a smooth driving highway. There are no traffic laws.
• In Citie Soleil women make pies full of mud and oil to fill empty lunchtime stomachs. Given that human waste is present in the mud, one can’t help but wonder about the parasite problem.
• The gate keepers family at the school, does not attend the school itself. This is an odd juxtaposition.
• Large 14 foot walls, are capped with razor wire or broken bottles.
• After three days – the replies of bon sois have stopped instead replaced by “hey you”
• Tall heavy iron gates leading into compounds for tell of previous strife.
• Tents, tarps and bedsheets on poles are the home of choice for millions. There are regulations you see for erecting structures of stone here.

Wednesday

• I wept today.
• What does one do as a person with disabilities here?
• I played a game of football. The Haitians at any age are better than American’s at the game. Some play shoeless.
• I hugged my mom.
• I’ve started jabbering in French. Verbs and their conjugations are coming back.

Thursday

• The young Haitian school children love blond hair. The girls wanted to clean my fingernails.
• I’m sick of the snoring in the dorm room. It’s worse than the smell of wafting waste which drifts in every night.
• The kids danced in the rain tonight. It poured for a few hours.

Friday

• I miss Lindsey. I miss the way she smells and holding her.
• We drove for three hours today. I road in the back of the tap tap. Up and down unsafe roads. No one else seems to worry about riding in the back of a truck. One hit and we are all  on the side of the road. Road rash and getting run over isn’t fun. I hate going out in the cars.
• The older men who have jobs are such noble workers.
• I saw a naked man today. He waved, just staring up at the blancs with his birthday suit on.
• The art gallery had some amazing carved reliefs and stones for incredible prices. Stuff would sell for $400 dollars that would costs 2-5k in the states simply due to the labor costs.
• The animals, Goats, chickens, dogs, pigs, cows and cats live amongst the people. The climb in, on and around everything.

Saturday

• We remained in the Haitian airport for 5 hours past the flights anticipated departure. A part had to be flown in from the states?
• We missed our connection and remained stuck in Miami through Monday. I was inconsolable for some time. It had been a very long week.
• Aid workers and Missionaries are Haiti’s tourism.

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It has been a long time since my last post.  I spent a week in Hiati and three days in transit.  I have spent the last few days catching up on house work and real work so I have had limited time to post new review. I plan to work towards a completed summary of the trip over the next day or two. I have a journal full of notes to consolidate into fluent thoughts and numerous photos to post. These will be up on the blog for anyone who cares soon.