Jan
26

Special Delivery!

By Meg | Published: January 26, 2012

I’m sitting at my desk around 10am, doing some paperwork, quietly humming to myself and pretending the world outside my little cubicle doesn’t exist and my co-worker walks by and calmly says “Did you see that big package out front with your name on it?”

MEG IS DEER-IN-HEADLIGHTS FROZEN!

“W-W-What what?? REALLY? Or are you just messing with me because you know I’m waiting??” I asked.
“No! It’s really out there, it’s taller than you I think!”

I bolted to the front. And there it was! A giant case about 5 feet tall and 26lbs of wonderful. I basically dragged it back to my cubicle because I couldn’t think of another way to get it there and eagerly opened it. Opening it turned out to be an interesting adventure due to the latches on it, but at least it was secure. And I’m pretty sure it’s a gun case which is a bit weird to me.

After I got it opened and the angels sang and the light shined on it and it was like I took a giant dose of happy pills, I pranced around the office chirruping “My pipes are here my pipes are here my pipes are here!” and grabbed as many people to show them off to as I could.

I’m pretty sure I’m lucky I didn’t get fired. ;] Excuse the blurriness of the photo. I had them sitting on the floor and I couldn’t get far enough away (above) them to take a good over the top photo. I was standing on my tip-toes and holding the iPhone at arm’s length so it was a bit unsteady. The case is THAT BIG!

I am, quite obviously, over the moon, and I hope my trip on Sunday to meet Pat Sky will involve him telling me they’re in good working condition, cause I’ll be damned if I could get a noise out of them, and I tried for an hour!

Posted in life, music | 1 Comment
Jan
25

Now That is a Field Site

By Brian | Published: January 25, 2012

So, I am a geologist… and I love to dork out and go visit local areas of interest to see if there are potential projects for undergraduate students. The other day a colleague of mine, Scott, and I went out to a spot to look at some quartzite-filled joints to see if they were worthy of study… it would be for earthquake shear kinematics and things like that. This was the view field site… Beacon Heights.

Ahhh the Blue Ridge!

As an undergraduate, I would have killed for a field locale like this. I was digging soil pits in cobbly, tick-infested fields of New Hampshire in the high humidity afternoons of August. I’m not complaining… it got me to where I am now when I can do field work in great places like Iceland, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Jamaica, Ecuador, Mexico, Japan, Tanzania, and this beautiful site right down the road from our university… I’m just saying that whichever student gets this site for their research is starting their career off NICE.

These were the things we were looking at…

You can tell the direction of shear based on the accomodation cracks that were produced when this joint opened up. It was subsequently filled in with precipitated quartzite... and yes, it kinda looks like a squid.

These quartzite-filled joints were all over the outcrop. Some student will have to map them and figure out the regional stress regime.

In my short career, geology has taken me to some pretty cool locations, so here is my sales pitch to all you future volcanologists:

The active dome of Yakedake volcano in Nagano prefecture, Japan. I was younger and much furrier then.

This next picture was from part of a 4-day backpacking trip on the Laugavegur trail from Landmannalaugar to the glacial valley of Þórsmörk in Iceland. I hiked right up next to the glacier that was partially melted by the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. Iceland is crazy… it makes you believe in gnomes and faeries and dwarfs.

Storsula volcano on the laugavegur trail.

Recently, I’ve been working a footprint site at Ngare Sero in Tanzania. Once we publish, you can expect some more details, but for now, a dynamic picture will have to do.

Coming home from field work at Ngare Sero in Tanzania

Sunrise at the summit crater of Oldoinyo L'engai

It’s funny, if someone asks you what you do for a living and you say you are a geologist, that is the end of the conversation. If you say you are a volcanologist, then you are in for a much longer conversation. However, I believe this is what everybody thinks volcanologists do:

 

 

Posted in Geology, life, Photography, travel | 2 Comments
Jan
24

What’s an Uilleann Pipe?

By Meg | Published: January 24, 2012

As long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with uilleann pipes. Uilleann pipes are often called the “Irish Bagpipe” and the name is well given, although unlike bagpipes you don’t blow into the uilleann pipes, rather you use a set of bellows and bag to pump air into the instrument (and over the reed) to create noise. This brings about the name uilleann as uilleann is the Irish word for elbow and you use your elbow to pump the bellows and your other elbow to squeeze the bag. The proper name for the uilleann pipe is píobaí uilleann; or pipes of the elbow. (On a side note, if anybody in western north carolina is fluent in Irish and wants somebody to chat with, I’m rusty and need work!!)

You probably don’t know what uilleann pipes are off the top of your head, but odds are you’ve heard them. Remember that beautiful sounding bagpipe-like instrument in Titanic? (please excuse the ad at the beginning, I couldn’t find a single video without an ad. The pipes kick in at 1:12, take a listen!!)

Or how about Braveheart where they have bagpipers playing in the distance but what comes out is actually the Uilleann Pipe? Yah, Hollywood!

So do you agree with me now that you’ve heard Uilleann Pipes before? Told you so! Like I said, I fell in love with their sound many years ago. There’s something about how haunting they are, and how much emotion they can convey just through wind blowing through a reed and covered finger holes that has stuck with me. I’ve been coveting a set of my own for many years and when 2012 started, my resolution was to follow my dreams and start living doing what I really want to do and thinking of what I truly want. Many changes are coming in 2012 (which we’re going to discuss in a few months!!) but my first change was getting a set of Uilleann Pipes for myself!

They will be delivered on Thursday, and on Sunday I am traveling an hour south to Spruce Pine, NC to meet up with Patrick Sky, one of the best known names in the piping world. Patrick is an amazingly interesting fellow, he once lived in Ireland and started production of the first Irish-made tin whistles! Isn’t that awesome? I’m honored that he’ll see me, and look over my pipes and all he wanted (but not all he’ll get!) was some farm-fresh eggs. Hopefully he’ll be up to giving me some pointers when I’m down there and I’ll make sure to get some video if he does; it’s not every day you meet up with one of the rare pipe-making breed!!

So anyway. Expect some videos over the next months of me trying to learn Uilleann Pipes. They say the pipes take 21 years to learn how to play. Here’s hoping I can do it in 19 ;] Brian is slowly learning the Low-D Tin Whistle, so he and I might start up a fun Irish-Pub playing group at some point, we just need a violinist….

I’ll leave you with the song that melts my soul every time I hear it. My #1 inspiration for wanting to learn the pipes, and a song I plan on learning as soon as I can get some notes out on my pipes.

Posted in life, music | 1 Comment
Jan
23

What’s better than baby ducks!?

By Meg | Published: January 23, 2012

I was digging around in iPhoto and getting a bit sad looking at pictures of our green homestead last year (I’m going through withdrawals! All this rain and cold….) when I stumbled over this gem of a video I had nearly forgotten about! It has to be one of the cutest things ever, so I felt I had to share. Although we only have 3 of these 4 ducks left (Shakira waddled off one day, and we never knew what happened to him…) they’re still darn cute! Although they definitely won’t let us get this close to them anymore and they kinda look down their beaks at us nowadays (humans? ugh!) they were charming little chirpers when they were babies.

Posted in animals | Leave a comment
Jan
19

Wait, whose baby is this?

By Brian | Published: January 19, 2012

Start with the movie (yes it is supposed to be dark for the first 5-7 seconds…)

And it is possible that more are on the way. We separated out Tuvok, our stud just after Daisy gave birth, but it is possible for females to become immediately pregnant again upon giving birth, so she may be carrying again. Meg and I gave her a bath the other day and I couldn’t feel any nuggets in her womb, but I am no expert at these things.

Ping may also have gotten it again. I opened up their cage to feed them and peanut was hanging around, as usual, and he jumped into the cage while my back was turned and sniped a hump on Ping before I grabbed him by the scruff of his amorous little head and ceremoniously tossed him back in with the chickens and ducks. I fear the defense of “It was just a quickie” won’t hold up in the face of extreme rabbit fertility.

I wasn’t worried about where the rabbits would go as some friends of mine said they needed to store a chicken big chicken tractor in my yard for a few weeks. I figured I’d just move the younguns in there while they grew. Well, news came yesterday that the tractor was coming full with 20 more chickens. So… I have a new construction project to house our rabbits as they get bigger.

So… with the addition of 20 more chickens and 16 more rabbits, let me say to all our local readers. EGGS FOR SALE! Rabbits for pet or meat for sale! The rabbits will be weened at 8 weeks, so they can go as pets in mid to late february and they will be at harvest weight by the mid march. Meg will no doubt put the kibosh on harvesting some of these, but as we get more and more, I think her attitude may soften to the idea.

Eggs are $3 / dozen

Live rabbits will be $10 (mid-late Feb pick up / delivery)

Dressed rabbits will be $4.50 / pound

Posted in animals, life, Stuff for sale, Things we messed up | 5 Comments
Jan
17

And the Winner Is…

By Meg | Published: January 17, 2012

I’m a day late since we had Monday off and Monday felt like Sunday because I had no work and I have a strict no-weekend posting policy! But here it is Monday Tuesday and a winner has been crowned. We had a whopping four entries (we’re so popular!) so it was easy to choose one thanks to random.org.

So congratulations Heather! I’ll be sure to find you to give you your fancy new mixing bowl!!!

Drumroll, please.....

 

In other news, Brian and I are deep in the planning stage of a yet-to-be-unveiled exciting new adventure for summer that may or may not involve lots of produce! But shhh it’s a secret for now while we flesh out the details!! Stay tuned for when we share our excitement!!

Posted in garden, giveaways, life | Leave a comment
Jan
14

Medicinal Herb Shelf and Two-week Old Rabbits

By Brian | Published: January 14, 2012

Got up early this morning and put together a shelf I have been working on. This past summer and fall, Meg and I began to collect medicinal herbs and I wanted a place to store / display the ones we got. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of useful herbal remedies, so our varieties are minimal, at this point, but the shelf has lots of space and we have the desire to learn, which is really all you need!

And our rabbits are about 2 weeks old today. We lost one that fell out of the hutch two nights ago and wasn’t able to survive the night out. In response, I added a little security measure to keep infant rabbits that fall out of the nest from wandering or wriggling right out the hutch door. The big rabbits can still come and go as they please, but this will keep the babies in until they make the conscientious decision to leave the hutch. So we are down to 8 rabbit babies, but they are looking pretty good… despite the fact that it was all of 19 degrees when I went out this morning.

 

Posted in animals, crafts, DIY, Herbs, life | Leave a comment
Jan
12

What’s in a Bark Container?

By Brian | Published: January 12, 2012

Two videos today, the first shows the progress of our now-ten-day-old rabbits. They got themselves some fur! The second shows some of the bark containers we made and are selling at our ETSY site. Happy Thursday =)

 

 

Pssssst: If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter the BeaterBowl giveaway here!

Posted in animals, crafts, DIY, life, Stuff for sale, woodworking | 4 Comments
Jan
11

Poplar Bark Containers now on ETSY!

By Brian | Published: January 11, 2012

Poplar bark containers

I spent a few hours this past weekend piecing together a couple of bark containers made from the bark of a poplar tree that was struck by lightening last year. Meg and I collected the bark toward the end of last week. She wasn’t real happy when I got us lost on the way back and she had to crawl under a pretty tight barbed wire fence, but such adventures make nicer woodcrafts!

These containers are now our first official offerings at our ETSY shop, Halfhippiegoods. I made my mother a set of three for Christmas, which are happily sitting on here kitchen counter as of right now. Meg and I also collected some great beech bark that is being made into a larger, but thinner-walled bark container.

Keep an eye out for more crafts in the upcoming days!

Posted in crafts, DIY, life, Stuff for sale, woodworking | 1 Comment
Jan
10

How to Adjust the Parking Brake in a Toyota Corolla

By Brian | Published: January 10, 2012

So let’s say, just per chance, that yesterday you parked your car in front of a buddy’s house and went inside to work on making a hop mill for his new brewery… suddenly there is a knock at the door and his neighbor is wondering why someone parked a green Toyota Corolla in his front yard… 75 meters downhill from where you actually parked your green Toyota Corolla. This is usually the last warning a car gives that its parking brake needs adjustment before it spontaneously drives backward off a cliff.

I got quite lucky. My car rolled almost a football field in a crowded neighborhood. It rolled over a couple of bushes, shot the gap through a row of trees, made a quick left turn to avoid a carport with a nice new Audi in it, and pulled up right next to a freshly planted dogwood. It did graze a tree while shooting the gap, but I am sure not going to complain about my bad luck in this particular instance…

I can always say someone hit me in the parking lot... but I think that would be bad karma for how lucky I got... so instead I will post my idiocy for all to see on the interweb.

To avoid an adventure like this, you can simply keep on top of your parking brake. My drum brakes weren’t worn out, my cable wasn’t broken, I just needed to take 15 minutes to adjust the tension on the cable… and you can too.

Remove the center console between the driver and passenger front seats. On a 97′ Corolla, there were screws on each side of the console up near the stick-shift.

Another screw is exactly opposite this one on the drivers side.

Once those screws are removed, I had to empty that nasty center bin that is good for storing years of trash and resting your arm on while driving. The screws were located beneath the carpet piece on the bottom.

Three screws hold this box and the entire console in place.

Once those screws are out, you can pry up the whole console, lifting it over the parking brake.

Do be careful when removing... there are a number of very delicate plastic tabs on the front where it connects with the manual gear shifter. I broke most of them.

Okay, so here is the adjustment. There is a locking nut and then the adjusting nut . I used pliers to hold the adjusting nut and loosened the locking nut with a small wrench. Tightening down the adjustment nut will make the parking brake tighter. Then all you have to do is crank down the locking nut to hold it all in place. Check the tension by engaging and disengaging the parking brake. You want it to lock in 4-7 clicks.

Here I've loosened the locking nut and spun the adjustment nut down to the desired height. All I have to do is close down the locking nut and we are good to go.

Put it all back together, having only a screw or two left over. Accept the fact that there will be a new rattle in your car, and move on. The whole business took about 15 minutes and required a screwdriver, wrench and pliers. Being a Toyota, everything is accessible, but there is little room to maneuver. Good luck and have safe parking.

 

Posted in Auto repairs, DIY, life, Things we messed up | Leave a comment