The news from Lake WE-BE-GONE

Okay, so it's been a while since we posted on our blog.  Too busy having fun and learning.  So, here's an update on what we've been up to.

Since our last post, we have had lots of great visits from friends.  Paul Dreyer, a gifted outdoor educator and friend, visited us in March while there was still a bit of snow on the ground and led the boys in an all-day snow science and avalanche safety class, including some fun buried avalanche beacon hunts. 

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David Lasky paid us a quick visit, and we joined him on a tour of a local organic farm with a huge greenhouse.  After our challenges with high altitude gardening in Nederland, it was inspiring to see how productive (and wet!) the farm is at 8800 feet.  You could see Sumaya's thumb get greener throughout the tour.  We're itching to get a garden started here, and we were excited to learn that Crested Butte recently passed an ordinance allowing chickens on residential lots.  Jason's Paleo Diet regimen includes about three dozen eggs per week, so having our own chickens would come in handy.  Stay tuned.

We then headed out on a hut trip to a hut in Gothic, only a few miles from our house, joined by the Brewer and Lynch families from Nederland.  We got lucky with beautiful weather, and had our usual relaxing and physically active hut experience.  The Gothic hut is located in a spectacular valley, and is part of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory complex, which is largely dormant in winter.  We did a bit of backcountry skiing, some more beacon hunting, played lots of games and charades, and ate lots of meat.

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After our hut trip, we spent some time with Karel and Alice Starek, who were in town visiting over Spring Break.  Some tasty meals together, some fun snow hiking, and always great conversation.  The Stareks are one of Jason's inspirations for living a life of integrity, matching ideals with commitments.  Check here: http://fineartinhomebuilding.wordpress.com/ for a link to a blog detailing the construction of their new home and farm project, after their last architectural masterpiece in the mountain burned down in the Four Mile Fire of 2010.

Next up was our trip to Nicaragua.  Sumaya, former world traveler, was starting to get a twitch that would only go away if she went once again to some off-the-beaten path destination.  We were clear that we were in search of an adventure, and not a vacation.  After considerable research on a good place to go where we could all practice our Spanish, do some service work, and get to some remote villages, we chose Nicaragua.   

It's always difficult to capture the essence of an adventure like this.  We experienced the amazing natural beauty of the beaches, the volcanoes, the waterfalls, the lakes, and the islands.  We spent time in extremely impoverished villages and communities, including some service work preparing and serving lunch in "the dump," a community of people displaced by a hurricane over a decade ago, and who now seem forgotten and relegated to a very hard life. 

We saw oxcarts traveling down the road next to automobiles.  We got transported back in time as we watched the village life on the shores of Lake Nicaragua on Isla Ometepe, where the women wash clothes on rock platforms in the lake, while locals fish and livestock strolls down to the water for a drink.  We played, too.  Boogie boarding.  Horseback riding.  Surfing lessons.  Biking on the beach. Fishing, and sledding down the side of a volcano (the boys' favorites).

We ended our trip in Granada, a historic city with 400 year-old churches, and hidden treasures inside of thick-walled streets.  Poking into the right spots revealed lush interior gardens and even a pool to jump into on a hot afternoon.  One of the highlights was a trip to the local market, an extremely sensual experience, if mildly claustrophobic.  It was a city block jammed with about 400 stalls teeming with humanity.

The blowfish Spencer caught fishing in the estuary:

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Boogieboarding fun!

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After sledding to the bottom of Cerro Negro volcano:

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Watch out for exploding volcanoes and earthquakes!

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Sumaya on Isla de Ometepe (with Lake Nicaragua and a lovely volcano in the background):

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Recent homeschool projects and topics have included flight and weather; the art of Michelangelo; Roman aqueducts; and geographic studies of Stonehenge, The Sphinx, the Panama Canal and the Forbidden City.  Here's a photo of some hot dogs cooking up in the boys' solar cooker:

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After returning from Nicaragua, Jason had successful sinus surgery.  His sense of smell is slowly returning, although the post-op recovery has taken far longer than expected.

Things are moving along nicely with our relocation to Crested Butte.  We close on a house in town on June 1st, and just went under contract on our house in Nederland.  Moving to a smaller house means we've got quite a few pieces of extra furniture that need a new home.  If you are a Ned or Boulder local, and are in need of a King size Tempurpedic mattress, a classic Eames style lounge chair, a sideboard, a Mexican pine trunk, an L-shaped desk, a filing cabinet, a dresser, or a full-size pickup truck with 164,000 miles on it, let us know.  We have special price for you. 

Sumaya recently signed her contract for teaching next year at Western State College.  A long-time dream finally coming to fruition.  She has been given free reign to design her own course on democracy and democratic theory, which has provided a handy excuse for her to geek out on all sorts of books that explore the concepts that are so vital to our freedoms, but which we seldom have the opportunity to discuss in any meaningful way with others.  Sumaya with a book on democracy and a strong cup of coffee is a formidable morning conversationalist.

Meanwhile, Jason, in full retreat from the rigors of the intellectual life, is geeking out on getting bulk orders of duct tape and finding just the right set of tire levers for HeroKits.  If all goes well, HeroKits should be available for purchase by mid-summer.  Stay tuned.

The boys, not to be left in the entrepreneurial dust, have recently acquired their own cash cow, also known as the lemonade stand bike cart, which will soon be gracing the trailheads and gathering places of Crested Butte.

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Hugs to all of you from the Bervabus.

 

 

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