Always moving

Dear friends:

I have moved sites.

With the help of a new camera,
my new blog will have more of a visual representation

of what I have been up to and the things that God has been showing me:)

Enjoy:)

NEW BLOG

Restoration and Rejuvenation

Over committed and double booked seemed to be a revolving theme of my life the past couple months. But I managed to say NO to someone finally, and take off a week early to get a week in the Adirondacks in before the summer begins to get some of my own hiking in. I ended up finding two sherpa friends to join me for the week and one of my climbing friends that had never been on a real backpacking trip before.

A goal for me was to be restored and rejuvenated by this trip - to give me time to process the past year, and prepare myself for my summer. It was such a blessing to have time with great friends that understand and know me very well and always inspire me, and also having time returning to the wilderness of the ADK's that I have loved for so long.

It is sometimes hard to put into words how this place always seems to center me back to the person that I really want to be and inspires me pursue with an even greater passion the things that I love. Somewhere between the vegetation and plant life at a different stage than I'm used to seeing, the mountain trails with no participants complaining, the depth and variety of conversations with the sherpas, the opportunity of getting to decide that morning what we felt like doing that day, the feeling of using your legs after what seems like and eternity, the burn of being out of breath trying to keep up with marathon running sherpas, the nights where the stars looked like sparkling rain coming down on us, the peaceful moments where I heard God whispering, the energetic birds singing their songs and Whitney and I trying to ID them all, the peace of watching the rain\ from your lean-to, the smell s of the Adirondacks bring back memories of trips and good friends and how much I have grown and changed since my first time of coming to the Adirondacks to work at La Vida; somewhere between all of these things I was restored and rejuvenated, and am feeling refilled and ready to pour myself out at La Vida this summer to my participants and staff members.

Back Again

So, its been a year since I last posted.

A synopsis of what has happened?

I've spent a summer in the ADK's learning how to be Gear Manager and saw La Vida from a different side, not just as a trip leader. I realized just how much I LOVE to organize, even though there are large parts of my life that are completely unorganized and will forever be that way.

I spent the fall working at Everest Gear(an outdoor retailer store in Ohio) and a Rock Climbing coach for my gym's youth team(this ended up carrying throughout the entire school year) found out I'm not a sales girl, and that middle schoolers are CRAZY most of the time.

I spent 3 months working as a freelance Graphic designer in an office building that was a 7 story tall Longaberger Basket and felt very much like Alice in Wonderland any time I was walking into work.

I spent the Christmas/the holidays cracking the whip at any chance I could get to clean/de-clutter my parents house because I've realized I really do like clean spaces and surfaces, but unfortunately, the only family member I had on my side on this mission was my mom.

January till May, I worked as a Soft-goods specialists/prototyper at a well renowned Industrial Design Consultancy firm called Priority Designs in Columbus Ohio. I learned that I love problem solving above all, love working with my hands, and will always try to organize things better no matter what the situation is. I've tried to shut off the organizing tendencies but, alas, they cannot be contained.

After months of getting sick on a daily basis, many doctor apt, visits to the specialist at the hospital, and many tests, and visits to an alternative doctor that doubles as a chiropractor that sent me home with a bucket load of supplements, I've learned that I have developed an allergy to all dairy and gluten. So I had to learn how to say goodbye to my favorite comfort foods of bread and cheese, and my diet got even weirder than it already was previously.

During the winter months a couple of christian climbers from my home gym would stay after hours on Tuesdays and share what was on our hearts and prayer requests. It was great to realize that there are other Christians out there. I realized that I need to find a deeper christian community that will study with me and push me even more if I return to Ohio next year.

In a couple of days I will be leading another May trip for La Vida, doing a brand new Canoe Itinerary modified kayak itin) and will be Gear Manager again and La Vida's 'Mountaineer' for the summer. Then I will spend another August doing a Kayaking trip, and after La Vida it is a wide open door. There is talk of returning to Priority the design firm I was working for most recently, but not is official. Another exercise in trust and patience for God to reveal his wonderful and majestic plan for my life. It is hard to not get too carried away with the possibilities. Do I give design a wholehearted chance to pay off my school loans right away, or do I pursue other passions for a couple of years while I still can live without my own health insurance, and get by with an unstable paycheck? these questions will work out in time, and the lakes, rivers, and mountains of the Adirondacks are always the best medicine for questions/times like these.

Overall theme for the year: 

Trust.

trust in the moment

trust for the future

trust in long suffering

trust in trials

trust in time of uncertainty 

trust in the gifts/skills/talents God has given me

trust in my drive/motivation to push myself further

Upward and Onward

Last week was my last week at Equinox as their designer, they threw a little surprise going away party for Molly and I and gave me a custom made hiking stick to take on my adventures at La Vida. It was very sweet of them and I felt very blessed to have had a chance to work and learn there.  As much as I was sad to leave, I am very excited for what lies ahead for me.

Molly asleep on the climbing gym couch
- all the long days there are tiring her out!

 This week I am helping the local climbing gym: Milton Rock Gym run while the owners are on a 10 day trip to the Red in Kentucky. I get to run the gym  and house sit for them in their "awesome-log-cabin-house-tucked-away-in-the-middle-of-the-woods" while they are gone:) Its been my first time climbing in months and i can't tell you how depressing it is to see how much strength I have lost, but also how amazing and refreshing it feels to be back to it. Yesterday it was pretty slow for the last 2 hours so I started climbing with some of the regular members. It's hard to describe how climbing again makes me feel, but I felt like the "real KB" was back, this is who I really am, this is my element, this is where I feel truly alive, pushing myself to get to my goals- however big or small they are, feeling exhausted but invigorated at the end of the day, letting everything else go in my mind and just focusing on the climb-how to move my body to use the least amount of strength to get to the top- how to tackle the specific moves and problems directly in front of me- just to push myself and see what happens, climbing and laughing with good people, I felt like I was "at home", like I was back to where I am supposed to be, and dang does it feel good. Even though I will only be here for a week and wont be able to climb on a regular basis this summer again because of La Vida, I am happy for the week I get to climb and be surrounded by something I absolutely love.


May 7th I will be off to Ohio to visit my family and some friends I haven't seen in a year, and then on the 15th off to Boston/New York to start another summer with La Vida. I couldn't be more excited about either of those trips:)

As for the fall, it's all a mystery to me right now, I've prayed about it a lot and God's answer has been to trust and wait for God to open the doors when he wants me to start thinking about it.

As I have been packing up all my stuff from the Berwick house I have been thinking of all the things that I have done/learned here, and it makes me feel really accomplished and happy about the adventure here - even if it was hard at times - good things did happen here.

heres my list of what I learned:

I (slightly) learned how to cook
pretty extensively how to sew(all I did at work it felt like)
how to use a chainsaw
how to shoot a "22", some hand guns and a assault riffle:)
how to be patient in Molly's training
to give myself rest when I need it
how to study the Bible at the depth I was searching for
how to Kayak
I learned how to Stand Up Paddle Board

and so many more things but these are just some of the first that came to my head - I'm sure as I process more this next week as I get ready to officially leave this place I will see even more things that I have learned here. I love learning, especially things that you don't expect yourself to learn but God had you learn them anyways.

Check out Paul Petzoldt's films of NOLS in the 1960's

pretty cool stuff

Coolest new product I've seen recently

The Blow-up-waterproof-solar-charged-lantern designed for many different applications - heard about it from my new favorite webstire: The Gear Caster blog. check out the video!

As for Backpacking:

You can charge it during the day in watever activity your doing, it just needs to be soaking in some sun rays, and you can turn it on (high or low setting) for some ambient light around camp. use it as your tent light so you don't headlamp-blind your tent buddy, or use it around the stove/dinner for some night lighting. The plastic around the super bright LEDs help to diffuse them and turn them into a more ambient light, and the whole ting can fold down and fit in your pocket!

Prety awesome huh?!

Sneak-Peek of how much of a design/craft dork I truly am.

This pattern I drafted up is a Poncho design for a company
 in japan called Hikers Depot, they specialize in ultra-light gear

This is a quick peek at the new poncho design right next to the original  sample

This is a tarp that I am designing for the same Hiker's Depot company 

Some tie downs that are getting sewn down to the tarp

My jimmy-rigged way of testing to see if the sewn application of the tie downs and middle seam truly are waterproof - This theory will be solved on monday when I go back to work and see if any of the water gathered in the fabric has leaked through down into the cup. The sewers said it would be waterproof - but i don't also trust em so I'm testing it out myself.

 2 Liter Pop Bottle Thermos for a client - This prototype was one of the first when I was trying to work out some details, but the final product looks similar to this with a handle. The idea is that contractors, frat-boys, road-trippers , can recycle 2L pop bottles (and soon to be milk jugs as soon as I get to that prototype) to store their water in instead of buying nalgenes. It's a way of recycling/extending the life of old pop-bottles.

This orange cart is used for millitary  purposes,  the designer of the cart wanted a pack that would lay on top of the cart to help move gear around whatever environment the soldiers are in. The back has a dual zipper access, clips to the cart for stability and in addition to the two main handles on either end, there are daisy chains on the sides that offer additional handles for assistant moving the pack while fully loaded.

This has been my other project this week. - This project was really fun for me because I actually got to sketch and design it from scratch - the client just told me what the cart needed to do according to the cart and let me run with it - it was awesome having to figure out my own way of how the pattern and prototype/product would work rather than reverse engineering some one else's product.

You know your a dork when you start freaking out about this kinda hardware.

The two similar ones are V-SRBs - V shaped Side Release Buckles,  a slightly lighter and sexier version of teh good ole' SRBs

the one a the right is something Equinox had never seen before,  the Apex WaveLock. A smaller lighter version of the common Ladder lock but with ridges in the tensioning slot to create a stronger hold on the webbing when there isn't any direct tension being put on the webbing, so these puppies stay in place almost 100% of the time until you purposefully move them.

Pretty awesome right?

Last but not lease, Molly got a new bed! The fabric was some old scraps of my Grandma's and the stuffing is fleece scraps from work. At Equinox we try to keep our fleece scraps out of landfills as much as possible so I grabbed a bag and used it for Molly Baby. This bed has a waterproof lining underneath the corduroy fabric - and a zipper along 1/3 of the bottom so you can take out the bag of scrap fabric and wash the Bed liner when it gets all hairy and smelly from our not-always-so-fresh-and-so-clean-canine-companions.

Hope you enjoyed getting a sneak peak of my recent design life!

10 minutes a day - 2 week Challenge

This past week I had planned to be in Kentucky at the Red River Gorge with some really good friends of mine from Ohio, but a trip to the mechanic on the friday I was supposed to leave, made it very evident that I was not going to Kentucky:( My beloved ghetto truck "Quiaishia" needs a new clutch, and my mechanic could not get to it until this next monday. I looked into rental cars and other options and all were too expensive for me right now. I am allowed to drive my truck around the small town of Berwick but def not my hour drive to work up and down low-grade hills. So I pretty much got a little spring break at the house; a full week off :)

 I got a lot done: applied to what feels like a thousand jobs, did some spring cleaning, sold some stuff on ebay, did some paper work I had been putting off, had some time to dig into some commentaries for the study on Romans that I am doing right now. I was very grateful to have the time to do all of these things, but on Thursday I realized I really hadn't let myself rest and enjoy my time off.

My ADD and scatterbrained mentality that I have been becoming more aware of since moving to quiet, calm Berwick, was totally taking over my days off. I'm always creating giant lists of things I'm supposed to accomplish  and trying to cram them all in a day. Then at the end of the day on Thursday I realized I did not really sit and enjoy the beautiful property I get to live on, or sit and be quiet and still.

So I tried on Thursday to sit for 5 minutes...it was an epic failure, within 2 minutes I was up doing something.

Ive been doing a lot of studying of Romans this week and taking in a lot of information, I've been thinking about it during the days as I am doing other tasks but I really want to learn how to BE STILL and focus on God, rest in his peace, and let him speak through the things that I've been learning lately - not constantly blabbering to him about my silly thoughts and prayers. So I decided to challenge myself with 10 minutes a day of just sitting, being still, calming my thoughts, focusing on God.

I thought it would be impossible, but yesterday it was really sunny and warm and the feel of the sun on my skin helped make me stay put. Well see how the weekend goes with all the clouds and rain.

You should try it today - at least for 5 minutes! 

New Mens Pack from Arcteryx

check out this video I got emailed to me today

Fun New Gear Talk...

Check this out - Down that still works while wet....

WHAT?!?! - yea I know - crazy talk right?! But you gotta talk crazy at some point to get to a really good products.

read the full article here from a blog called Gear Institute that I just found. Definitely bookmarked their gear news page:)

The company I currently work for, works with Woolrich and manufactures some of their products every now and then, I haven't been too overly impressed with the stuff their designers have been coming up with - But I am very surprised and impressed about Woolrich making wicking layer flannel shirts! Def putting some of them on the wish list!

Read the full article here on another blog I just found called The Gear Caster.

Brilliant... interchangeable soles to make your boot work for different conditions. Korkers apparently usually makes boots for fisherman in their river wading/walking adventures, but their line of snow boots this year have another sole for good traction in icy and snowy conditions as well! Way to go Korkers I wonder how well it actually works? I guess well have to wait and see how it tests out!

Avalanche safety for Dogs.

Yay for saving dogs that love to be in the backcountry!

This little thing attaches to their collar and will transmit a signal on a certain frequency which will allow you to track it and determine the direction and distance that your pour four legged friend is buried. Apparently this came out of a situation where a dog got buried and was thought to be dead but showed up 4 days later!!! How awesome is that!!

Hipsters Eat Your Heart Out:

Rain Pants that look like jeans

No need to carry the change of clothes anymore on your commute Thanks to Vaude your rain pants can be your any-day pants too:)

"These bike rain pants proudly bear the Green Shape label. Green Shape is Vaude's quality label for products that are made of at least 90% organic cotton or recycled material, colored using eco-friendly dying processes, and conform with the stringent Bluesign textile standard." - the Gear Caster

Interesting new competitor in insulation: Wool

Ibex and Smartwool are trying out Wool as their insulation in midweight and outer layers!

Full article here

Powerful Self Adjusting Headlamp

senses changes in your surrounding and adjusts the brightness of your light accordingly - pretty awesome! Of course Petzl would be behind this!

Thanks again for most of those awesome products to The Gear Caster