Sunday, March 03, 2013
New home
Clearly, I haven't posted here for a year and a half. I've been focused on other things...mostly boring stuff like finishing grad school and caretaking a property (and some animals) in the mountains two drainages west of our old home. But that's no excuse.
I've started back up again, a bit, and invite you to check it out at: www.gcbrogan.com/journal
Monday, July 04, 2011
And the livin' is easy / Fish are jumpin' /
Other than working a couple great jobs (Volunteer and Outreach Coordination for the Wilderness Institute's Citizen Science Summer Monitoring Program and Community Garden Coordinator for the ASUM/Garden City Harvest 70-plot garden), summer 2011 means cooking and hiking.
One of my life plans is to be the neighborhood ravioli maker. I'm practicing (aka slow). It's usually stuffed with mushrooms, herbs, and Parmesan cheese.
We have brought Mabel up to Mount Jumbo (the hill/mountain outside or porch) a couple times now. It gives us a great view of Missoula. It's an amazing feeling to be able to see where I work, where John works, the Clark Fork River, our home, Rattlesnake Creek, the farm I worked at last summer, the vineyard we like to frequent, the wilderness area we hike in, and the bike routes we take everyday...all in one sweep with the naked eye.
One of my life plans is to be the neighborhood ravioli maker. I'm practicing (aka slow). It's usually stuffed with mushrooms, herbs, and Parmesan cheese.
We have brought Mabel up to Mount Jumbo (the hill/mountain outside or porch) a couple times now. It gives us a great view of Missoula. It's an amazing feeling to be able to see where I work, where John works, the Clark Fork River, our home, Rattlesnake Creek, the farm I worked at last summer, the vineyard we like to frequent, the wilderness area we hike in, and the bike routes we take everyday...all in one sweep with the naked eye.
Spring Into Action
After another busy semester, taking a billion credits and teaching freshman comp, I had a few weeks to catch up with family and get a head start on my thesis before my summer jobs got into full swing.
First, though, my official photo as a beekeeper...not that I am one. But someone needed to check to make sure they made it through the winter!
We made Michael and Autumn a canoe paddle for their wedding, and I made a block print for the beer we had brewed for the special occasion. We really enjoyed the Amtrak ride from Montana to Minnesota and back!
I enjoyed my second trip out to Sterling College (most awesome college ever) to work with Sandra Steingraber at Orion's Wildbranch Writing Workshop. It was fun to see Vermont again, Director Dave, my dad's cousin Rita, and the fantastic writers and scientists who accompanied me on a productive week of thesis work.
First, though, my official photo as a beekeeper...not that I am one. But someone needed to check to make sure they made it through the winter!
We made Michael and Autumn a canoe paddle for their wedding, and I made a block print for the beer we had brewed for the special occasion. We really enjoyed the Amtrak ride from Montana to Minnesota and back!
I enjoyed my second trip out to Sterling College (most awesome college ever) to work with Sandra Steingraber at Orion's Wildbranch Writing Workshop. It was fun to see Vermont again, Director Dave, my dad's cousin Rita, and the fantastic writers and scientists who accompanied me on a productive week of thesis work.
Costa Mosta Mosta!
In late March / early April, we headed down to Costa Rica to explore some of John's old stomping grounds and assist with some of the work done in the field by the organization John works for in Missoula. It was a great combination of hard, hot hiking through some of the most undeveloped coastal rain forest in Central America (10 miles in one day, a few more the day before and after), relaxing at a little resort (reading manuscripts for a workshop I would be attending upon return, drinking pina coladas, swimming in bioluminescent waters, encountering a friendly jellyfish, etc), and helping collect data on nesting leatherback sea turtles (and establishing a garden at the research center). Oh...and a surprise birthday cake for John!
Ski Spectacular
A few friends/fellow grad students and I were invited up to Glacier National Park to write about Avalanche Basin for the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center. We had a twelve mile round-trip route along Coming to the Sun Road to get to the trail that leads to Avalanche Basin....so we didn't make it to the final destination, as we only had one day, but we sure got a feel for the place in winter! And my national park radio communication skills got a much-needed brush up.
Winter Wonderland Celebration
Back in February, we headed out to Lochsa Lodge for a birthday weekend away. The snow was too deep to ski, so we snowshoed around (Mabel loved every minute of it) giant old cedar groves, had plenty of delicious hot cocoa, caught up on our reading (even if it was for school), and ended the weekend at the Jerry Johnson hot springs.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Moose, Wolves, and Snow
Just a short mostly-picture post as an ode to our second try at a Forest Service cabin (we had so much fun on our last adventure), this time at Stoney Cabin in the Deerlodge-Beaverhead National Forest beside Rock Creek. We had a few great meals, some time to read, hike, and explore AND we just happened across a lone moose in addition to a couple of wolves (at a distance, of course). On the way home, we also passed some cattle ranches nestled in the valleys, covered (like everything else) in snow.
Oishi desu!
That's Japanese for "delicious", a nod to the oldest posts on this blog and my days as an English teacher in Okinawa.
CAUTION: Images below not for weak stomachs.
So, we have a half chest freezer. We filled it up pretty well with preserved produce from my summer of farming and gardening (lots of kale, basil pesto, plums, huckleberries, you know), but it was missing something. Meat.
John has (unsuccessfully, sorry friend) gone bow hunting the last few years. Over Christmas break, after spending some time in the Twin Cities with our families, we headed up to Aunt Karen and Uncle Tim's in Puposky for some R&R. I visited Grandma, who is now at the assisted living home in Blackduck, and hung out with Aunt Karen. John went out to the woods (and/or the edges of last season's corn/alfalfa fields at a distant relation's farm) with Uncle Tim to see if he couldn't assist with the freezer-filling duties.
Success! He and Uncle Tim (a.k.a. Uncle Pa) had some great time to bond and we got to skin, debone, and process the doe (which we actually got some practice with before our wedding with Timmy's buck back in November, but always under the tutelage of an excited mentor, Uncle Pa) before heading back to Montana with several pounds of protein in our Subaru.
We added it to a great several months of eating food we grew, harvested, shot with a bow and arrow, or otherwise had a strong hand in bringing from field to table (often served on plates we threw and cut on cutting boards we (or someone we know) carved beside glasses we blew and now wiped up with dishrags we knit--just this week!).
CAUTION: Images below not for weak stomachs.
So, we have a half chest freezer. We filled it up pretty well with preserved produce from my summer of farming and gardening (lots of kale, basil pesto, plums, huckleberries, you know), but it was missing something. Meat.
John has (unsuccessfully, sorry friend) gone bow hunting the last few years. Over Christmas break, after spending some time in the Twin Cities with our families, we headed up to Aunt Karen and Uncle Tim's in Puposky for some R&R. I visited Grandma, who is now at the assisted living home in Blackduck, and hung out with Aunt Karen. John went out to the woods (and/or the edges of last season's corn/alfalfa fields at a distant relation's farm) with Uncle Tim to see if he couldn't assist with the freezer-filling duties.
Success! He and Uncle Tim (a.k.a. Uncle Pa) had some great time to bond and we got to skin, debone, and process the doe (which we actually got some practice with before our wedding with Timmy's buck back in November, but always under the tutelage of an excited mentor, Uncle Pa) before heading back to Montana with several pounds of protein in our Subaru.
We added it to a great several months of eating food we grew, harvested, shot with a bow and arrow, or otherwise had a strong hand in bringing from field to table (often served on plates we threw and cut on cutting boards we (or someone we know) carved beside glasses we blew and now wiped up with dishrags we knit--just this week!).
Let the Good Times Roll
So, I have a very good friend. We share Mabel responsibilities, a kitchen, love, excitement for life and traveling and learning and making and filling pretty much everything over the brim with goodness and funs.
We decided to celebrate that in the presence of our loved ones.
My friend gave me a gift certificate back during the week of Thanksgiving 2009 while we were staying in the small one room cabin we first visited in November 2006 (he didn't know, at the time, that it didn't have windows or wood to stoke the only piece of furniture inside--the woodstove) as a young, confused, couple giving it a go at that tenuous time when one is almost done or completely done with college, trying to figure current and future life out (not to mention from 3 hours away...the closest we lived for the first 2.5 years of our time together). The gift certificate was to make rings. We kept it hush hush until we finished crafting our rings and could show them to our family as a means of announcement. The artist who helped us create them was a smart man. He gave us the tools and materials we needed, and pointers along the way. A few sessions later, we had our sterling silver rings, decked out with a dark, warm patina and each other's fingerprints on the inside of each band (and some new knowledge of jewelry-making and metallurgy).
This all, coincidentally, took place in the space that used to be where by father would have his boots resoled in the town I grew up in. We decided we'd have a small family ceremony at my aunt and uncle's place the following Thanksgiving(where I spent every Thanksgiving and near where my grandmother and her twelve siblings were raised), and then a casual gathering of friends at the folk school I worked at back in winter 2008-2009. Which brings us to this most recent Thanksgiving. Almost.
First, I had to find some fabric in town and send it to my mother so she could make my dress. Second, I had to create invitations. Third, we had to plan, organize, and execute everything else, relying on the talents and interests of many of our closest friends and family members and John's crazy Excel skills.
We found the most affordable fabric we could at a little fabric shop in downtown Missoula and brought it up to be measured, cut, and sold to us. Turns out, it had been sitting in a woman's attic since her father brought it back from World War II. It was raw silk from Japan. But, we're supposing, because they invested no money into it, it was all profit, so it was less than 10 bucks a yard. With a Simplicity pattern, Marmy got on her sewing way.
And, using a block print design I had created earlier (on a card which John had actually given me the gift certificate in), we spent several evenings stamping all of the recycled cardstock invitations.
Come the craziness of my first semester of grad school + teaching, John's father and stepmother were a great help with decorations, my father and mother got food together for the party, Aunt Karen and Uncle Tim were prepared to host a slightly bigger Thanksgiving dinner (and build an arbor, several bonfires, etc), and so on.
The big day came, and our late fall wedding turned into a winter ceremony (almost a foot of snowfall plus subzero temperatures...thank goodness I packed the mukluks I made at North House two years earlier). My brother, with whom we drafted the ceremony, officiated (and did a swell job at that!). Our parents each read a quote, message, or passage they found meaningful and brought up to the arbor a stone we had collected from significant places in our lives we hope to build into our future home.
It was followed by a big family dinner and the annual football game out front.
That night, we stayed at the old cabin. Mabel loved running around the forest.
The next day we headed off to northeastern Minnesota to get North House ready for one hundred guests. I can't say enough how much hard work family and friends put into clearing ice, hanging lights, setting out luminaries, and stoking the wood-fired brick pizza oven on the shore of Lake Superior. By Saturday, we were ready. It was great. Everyone made and consumed their own pizzas (for toppings, we went potluck style and had everything from bear to artichoke hearts), ate ice cream and cupcakes (deliciously pumpkin and made by friends), drank homebrew (some we had brewed ourselves, a bunch from friends), danced a contra (called by John's former soils professor), and partied 'til the wee hours of the morning. I cannot be thankful enough.
It was a great way to celebrate our shared time together and the centrality of family, friends, and a handmade life.
Click here to see a slideshow of more photos from the ceremony and celebration.
*click on the orange "view photobook" button and then "full screen" (in the upper right) if you like
Also, it turns out that our superanniversary (when Thansgiving falls on November 25th) will align every 11 years, so look out for a big party in 2021 (with some luck, we'll have those stones built into a cozy home and lots of land to dance on by then).
We decided to celebrate that in the presence of our loved ones.
My friend gave me a gift certificate back during the week of Thanksgiving 2009 while we were staying in the small one room cabin we first visited in November 2006 (he didn't know, at the time, that it didn't have windows or wood to stoke the only piece of furniture inside--the woodstove) as a young, confused, couple giving it a go at that tenuous time when one is almost done or completely done with college, trying to figure current and future life out (not to mention from 3 hours away...the closest we lived for the first 2.5 years of our time together). The gift certificate was to make rings. We kept it hush hush until we finished crafting our rings and could show them to our family as a means of announcement. The artist who helped us create them was a smart man. He gave us the tools and materials we needed, and pointers along the way. A few sessions later, we had our sterling silver rings, decked out with a dark, warm patina and each other's fingerprints on the inside of each band (and some new knowledge of jewelry-making and metallurgy).
This all, coincidentally, took place in the space that used to be where by father would have his boots resoled in the town I grew up in. We decided we'd have a small family ceremony at my aunt and uncle's place the following Thanksgiving(where I spent every Thanksgiving and near where my grandmother and her twelve siblings were raised), and then a casual gathering of friends at the folk school I worked at back in winter 2008-2009. Which brings us to this most recent Thanksgiving. Almost.
First, I had to find some fabric in town and send it to my mother so she could make my dress. Second, I had to create invitations. Third, we had to plan, organize, and execute everything else, relying on the talents and interests of many of our closest friends and family members and John's crazy Excel skills.
We found the most affordable fabric we could at a little fabric shop in downtown Missoula and brought it up to be measured, cut, and sold to us. Turns out, it had been sitting in a woman's attic since her father brought it back from World War II. It was raw silk from Japan. But, we're supposing, because they invested no money into it, it was all profit, so it was less than 10 bucks a yard. With a Simplicity pattern, Marmy got on her sewing way.
And, using a block print design I had created earlier (on a card which John had actually given me the gift certificate in), we spent several evenings stamping all of the recycled cardstock invitations.
Come the craziness of my first semester of grad school + teaching, John's father and stepmother were a great help with decorations, my father and mother got food together for the party, Aunt Karen and Uncle Tim were prepared to host a slightly bigger Thanksgiving dinner (and build an arbor, several bonfires, etc), and so on.
The big day came, and our late fall wedding turned into a winter ceremony (almost a foot of snowfall plus subzero temperatures...thank goodness I packed the mukluks I made at North House two years earlier). My brother, with whom we drafted the ceremony, officiated (and did a swell job at that!). Our parents each read a quote, message, or passage they found meaningful and brought up to the arbor a stone we had collected from significant places in our lives we hope to build into our future home.
It was followed by a big family dinner and the annual football game out front.
That night, we stayed at the old cabin. Mabel loved running around the forest.
The next day we headed off to northeastern Minnesota to get North House ready for one hundred guests. I can't say enough how much hard work family and friends put into clearing ice, hanging lights, setting out luminaries, and stoking the wood-fired brick pizza oven on the shore of Lake Superior. By Saturday, we were ready. It was great. Everyone made and consumed their own pizzas (for toppings, we went potluck style and had everything from bear to artichoke hearts), ate ice cream and cupcakes (deliciously pumpkin and made by friends), drank homebrew (some we had brewed ourselves, a bunch from friends), danced a contra (called by John's former soils professor), and partied 'til the wee hours of the morning. I cannot be thankful enough.
It was a great way to celebrate our shared time together and the centrality of family, friends, and a handmade life.
Click here to see a slideshow of more photos from the ceremony and celebration.
*click on the orange "view photobook" button and then "full screen" (in the upper right) if you like
Also, it turns out that our superanniversary (when Thansgiving falls on November 25th) will align every 11 years, so look out for a big party in 2021 (with some luck, we'll have those stones built into a cozy home and lots of land to dance on by then).
Sunday, January 16, 2011
2010's Autumnal Detectability
Fall is my favorite season. We (friends in and attached to the graduate program) have regular potlucks, and one of them this fall had a theme centering around the "unappreciated art of stuffed food" as well as turning thirty, which several friends did...quite well, I might add. Squashed filled with stuffing, mushrooms full of cheese, desserts crammed with more desserty things. You get the idea. It was delicious. It was also how the last few months of the year felt, hence the dearth of blog updates. I loved the classes I took, delving deeper into topics and crafts that I was already interested in and familiar with but had not the time nor expertise to jump deeper into and explore on my own, practicing skills within the presence of experienced and dedicated thinkers, writers, and doers. I also found great joy in teaching my own freshman composition class once all was said and done and it was clear that we all learned a lot throughout the semester. Not to mention neat school trips, which I will mention below, and celebrating my partners-for-life status with a small cadre of friends and family. Jam-packed. Like chocolate stuffed pastries.
So let's reach back all the way to mid-October when I joined a handful of other classmates on a trip to central Montana, where we met with ranchers, miners, and other hardworking people we would not otherwise usually have access to in the heart of big sky country:
The weekend before, I was in Minnesota reading in cousin Amy's wedding, where I had the chance to briefly see much of my family for the first time since moving out to Montana, one of whom has since left us and another who is having trouble staying with us:
The following weekend, I was at the AERO Conference in Helena, where most discussions surrounded the subject of the conference's title "Perennial Roots: Reimagining Our Energy & Agricultural Future" and I heard Wes Jackson speak for the second time in as many months:
So let's reach back all the way to mid-October when I joined a handful of other classmates on a trip to central Montana, where we met with ranchers, miners, and other hardworking people we would not otherwise usually have access to in the heart of big sky country:
The weekend before, I was in Minnesota reading in cousin Amy's wedding, where I had the chance to briefly see much of my family for the first time since moving out to Montana, one of whom has since left us and another who is having trouble staying with us:
The following weekend, I was at the AERO Conference in Helena, where most discussions surrounded the subject of the conference's title "Perennial Roots: Reimagining Our Energy & Agricultural Future" and I heard Wes Jackson speak for the second time in as many months:
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