Two-legged & four-legged loved ones, & good times together. Below is a gallery of 2010 images; click on any image for more info and a slideshow.
2010 was a year of gatherings and growth on many fronts, though this year I mostly stayed put travel-wise. It started with Joy, Elise, and Elise's boyfriend Dan driving up to Oregon. Here they are at the top of Multnomah Falls, that iconic hike in the Columbia Gorge east of Portland…
…and speaking of icons, here they are visiting Canyonville matriarchs Gloria McGinnis and Sue Shaffer in the Canyon Cyber Cafe (yep, there's wireless in Cville).
My spring upper-division environmental studies class at Lewis & Clark takes a bunch of field trips: here we are in the upper reaches of the Columbia Slough in northeast Portland, an area marked by recent expansion of warehousing.
Once in the Slough, students witness a mix of habitat and humanity, an interesting lesson in how nature and culture blend in one of Oregon's most important industrial zones.
For spring break I traveled down to Santa Barbara. Here are Joy and Elise on the beach near where we lived in faculty housing. Bailey and I did our workout at that point in the distance every morning! (Now I run up into the forests of Washington Park near my home in Portland.)
Speaking of Beagle Bailey, he's doing well, but he needed a bit of minor surgery this spring. All better now.
And speaking of my menagerie, Ira and George have discovered how fun it is to play in the tub after I take a shower. George, never shy, now yowls incessantly until I get out.
My Lewis & Clark students typically do an overnight on our land in Canyonville, part of discovering Douglas County and its opportunities/challenges in the context of natural resources. Here they are with ACCF (Alder Creek Community Forest) board member Phil Rich enjoying a fire. (Yes, we changed our nonprofit name last summer to embrace a broader mission while continuing to support youth education.)
In late May I attended our spring Kojosho camp in the mountains outside of Albuquerque…
…and spent time with sister Mary, nephews Peter and Colin, and Colin's fiancé Naomi. (Albuquerque has a great old bones museum.)
Late spring/early summer in Oregon was really, really rainy; here's a quick shot outside my door.
One of the highlights for ACCF this past year was a whole bunch of trail construction, much of it by two Americorps NCCC crews who camped on the land. Here's the first crew heading off on a hike after arriving.
The Americorps crews were fun to work with and quite productive: we added about 1.5 miles of trail to total over 3.5 miles on the forest. And they did it all the old-fashioned way with hand tools (well, with a bit of chainsaw help from me and others).
ACCF also hosted a teacher training workshop in June, introducing educators to our Oregon Explorers program combining technology and outdoor education.
June was a busy time! In addition to all that stuff going on in southern Oregon, Lewis & Clark hosted the annual meeting of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences. Here are two student leaders ready to depart on a preconference field trip, the Portland Food Crawl.
The theme of our AESS conference was Many Shades of Green, built on the reality that "green" means many things today and our task is to skillfully separate substance from fluff.
Beagle Bailey turned 10 years old in June! He's got a bit more white in the face, but other than an occasional sore back is doing great.
Back in Canyonville, our first Americorps crew nears completion of an outdoor structure built entirely from Douglas-fir poles they peeled. ACCF board member and construction supervisor David Parker is at left.
Almost as soon as the first Americorps crew left after its three-week stint, another crew arrived. Here they are digging a new trail, Northwest Slope Trail…
…and here they are having put the final touches on a bridge crossing near Fern Draw Trail.
In addition to trail construction and teacher workshops, ACCF sponsored a number of youth activities, including Week in the Woods day camp for young people from south Douglas County.
In August, Mary visited Oregon, and we all gathered at brother Bob and Merrilee's house in Eugene along with their children Lyra and Brooke (with his partner Ryoko).
Canyonville has an annual Pioneer Days in late August, and this year the ACCF pavilion hosted the local square dance troupe, a lively mix of young and old.
Our annual Berkeley Kojosho camp is now at #21 and counting! Here we are after the day's workout having fun with fire.
One of the high points for me this year was taking the plunge into the recording studio, with a demo project of three tunes we hope to complete in early 2011. Here are drummer Jeramy Burchett and bassist Scott Steed reading through a chart at Kung Fu Bakery studio in Portland. I was on piano/guitar laying down starter tracks with them, and got a humbling lesson in how efficiently a studio musician works…they mastered my songs long before I did.
Our Environmental Studies Program is graduating a record number of majors this year, and each one of them has to prepare a scholarly thesis, so we decided to get started early in the year. Here we are at Hopworks Brewery in Portland discussing thesis ideas ranging from urban agriculture to carbon sequestration to sense of place in Ladakh.
During our fall break, Bailey and I took a quick detour to Crater Lake, sort of the long way down to Canyonville. It was the last weekend the campground was open…and understandably so given the cold and snow that followed.
Also in fall, our student-organized Environmental Affairs Symposium at Lewis & Clark took place, on the theme "Following the Food Chain" (here our new statue of York assists).
ACCF board members David and Phil next to our new pavilion fireplace, built with donated labor and materials to help us keep participants warm! We'll add a barbeque grill as well.
I had a conference trip down to Santa Barbara in early November, and was able to spend a bit of time with Joy and Elise. One thing we did was rehearse background vocals for recording in Portland.
Joy and her kitty cats Chihiro and Haku.
My nephew Brooke has been helping upgrade our ACCF website, so he, Ryoko, and Bob decided to visit Canyonville to hike the trails and check out recent construction.
For Thanksgiving this year, Joy and Elise traveled up to Portland. We relaxed a bit…
…took a few (urban) hikes…
…and of course cooked!
I so rarely host parties at my place, it was a delight to have Joy and Elise's Brazilian friends (from both PDX and Santa Barbara) descend on us for Thanksgiving…lots of fun and lots of music.
A story destined to go down in family lore: the day after Thanksgiving was slated for Joy and Elise to lay down their vocal tracks in my producer Dean Baskerville's home studio. I knew something was awry, however, then Joy turned off the road en route and, um, puked…apparently too much fun the previous night. So Elise went first while Joy hovered close to the restroom. When Elise was done I asked Joy if Elise should cover her tracks as well…and you can imagine how thrilled she was at that idea…
…and it all turned out great! Elise and Joy did an amazing job recording their tracks, in spite of a bit of a hangover on Joy's part…I suspect Dean and other producers/engineers have see it before…
The Environmental Studies Program hosted an end-of-semester celebration in December, with students showing off their work from various classes in poster format…and of course plenty of food.
Another item from this fall: we are slowly building a vacation "home" -- more of a multi-structure compound…I joke that in Oregon every compound needs a good cult -- on our land in Canyonville. In a mere twenty years it will be all done!
I'm in Santa Barbara this year for Christmas. On Xmas eve we attended the Live Oak candelight service, then joined up with Matt's dad Scott and his wife Jackie for their annual dinner. We capped it off with a bit of Christmas caroling, which gave me a chance to play with Jackie's mom Carol! (You can tell that Bailey invited himself over as well.)
Elise with the artwork she made for Bongie this year: apparently a variety of pigments were employed (including lip gloss)…the creative class has no boundaries…
And here we all are at Matt and Joy's house celebrating Christmas this year. A special treat involved hosting all the moms: Bongie, Matt's mom Janet, and Dan's mom Karen (in matching head garb) are all in this picture. It was great to have so many opportunities to be together in 2010!