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

Winter Fun

Winter Carnival in the Adirondacks 

It was great to be back up at basecamp, a place that is so dear to me. Even though it was VERY cold the whole weekend, spending the time with good friends huddled around the fire or surrounded by wayyyyy to much down was a great time. The relationships that I've formed with people from La Vida always seem to encourage and inspire me to love life even more, and to continue to seek God in a daily way.

Weekend Craftiness
As these friendships and experiences from this place have encouraged me, I wanted to do something to encourage them: so this week they're are all getting a personalized letter from me:) very simple but still nice. here are some of my favorites:

They'll be going out soon!

Even though it literally is my middle name, Joy is a choice

In an effort to choose a joyful mindset wherever God has led me, I'm taking advantage of the situations he presents to me and not comparing them to previous ones that I have been blessed with. So since there is no Red River Gorge to entertain me for months and months with great climbing only 3 hours away, I'm going to take advantage of the opportunities that Berwick PA presents to me.
 To say that I will step away from climbing for a while is a very big step for me because climbing is so meaningful and special to me, but I think its what I'm supposed to do right now. I will be attempting to get into running, cycling, horse back riding, and especially kayaking.
I have found a great friend that is as obsessed with kayaking as I am with climbing, and has all the gear for me to use. She also has a road bike that fits me. My neighbor owns a horse stall and is willing to let me work for my riding lessons. My wonderful old friend Climbing will anxiously be waiting for me when I move to the west coast, along with many many more new adventures for me to have.
One major thing that fueled this decision was a big trip offer. A 2 week trip to alaska - backpacking, kayaking, and pack rafting. But in order to this I need to budget myself and watch my money - which means cutting out a 60$ a month climbing gym membership fee. But I am very excited about these new adventures even though I will dearly miss climbing, I know it will not be a goodbye forever- just a cya lata:)

Today was kayaking with Tonya - we got some crazy looks from the fisherman around the lake especially since the lake had ice in it!

Weekend Visit of Best friend from school = Spontaneous Road trip to NYC

A long awaited weekend with my best friend from school made for a great and adventurous weekend. On Friday night we decided to go to NYC the next day. Its only about 2 - 2 1/2 hours from the house in PA and considering each of us had only been there once before, it was quite an easy decision. We took the Weehawken ferry over and spent the afternoon gawking at all the city had to offer - especially the food:)

 Then the next day we spent lounging in bed watching tv shows on netflix and baking cookies:)

Thanks Yoshi Shirk for a great weekend!

p.s. sneak peak to my next post...

check out these fabrics that I am so excited to use for my next crafty adventure!!