Alright, here are the links to my tee-shirt submissions:







If you get the chance, go and score the designs and comment. Thanks!

This lull in posting has got to stop! It has taken much longer than it should to recover from the brain-dead fatigue of harvest, but I am finally back up to speed (I think). Writing and drawing being creative again, which is really good.
Oregon wintertime is wet and chilly and rather dismal, but there are tons of good folks and fun things to do, so it's all okay. Pictures and adventures to come soon...

Hey all you blog readers, I have just entered some of my artwork on a website called Threadless.com. It is a t-shirt printing website, and the way it works is this: you enter a design and if it passes the initial screening it gets posted for rating. If it gets a good enough rating from website visitors it will be printed and the artist gets $1500. So you all should visit the site and give me some ratings! This is a just heads-up, but check back and I will post the direct links to my designs (they are still pending approval). Thanks, and check out all the other designs people have up on threadless while you are at it; there are a few strange ones, but tons of awesome ones.

Since I started this blog back in February 2004, I have:

-Been a Liberal Arts student
-Farm babysitter
-Cross-country traveler
-Vineyard caretaker
-Taught a go-cart building class
-Entry-level graphic designer
-Built a 450hp 1965 Mustang, restored a 1963 AMC Rambler and a 1973 Yamaha 360, revived a 1989 Yamaha 600 and 1972 Ford truck, assembled a 1969 Chevy Nova, hot-rodded a 1972 Volvo wagon, and acquired a 1929 Ford Model A 2-door sedan (Think I like cars a bit..?).
-Worked as an auto shop supervisor
-Traveled to Peru
-Been an entry-level wine-maker

And so many more things I can't even remember them...seems as if I have been looking for a niche, but been to restless and hungry for all that life has to offer to feel calm and settled anywhere. But the times they are a' changin', and I have AMH in my life now; everything else fades in glow of her soul...
(The guy sitting next to me in the coffee shop is from the local Quaker university, and he is currently telling his friend that there is "not a girl out there for him, there is a WIFE. This is a whole new typographical reference," he insists. Now he is trying to explain how Christ did not trust anyone, especially not his disciples. Poor boy. He's trying).

I usually prefer writing about life and thoughts and such, but this time I think some pictures will say more...these are some phone-taken shots from this harvest while at work at Owen Roe.

...Sunset over the farm...



The forklift for dumping fermenter bins...



"The Red Press". What we dump fermenters into when the wine is ready to be pressed from the grape skins. I spend most of every single work day on, in, or in front of this machine.



A busted forklift---I spent quite a while getting it to run again.



Mr. Quinns falls in a fermenter...



Our awesome pneumatic wine pump



...Leaking barrels...



Roomate: Charles "Indie Rock", "Hutch", "Way cool Amigo" Hutchins.



...Rockin' out at home...



Don't ask...

Waiting for the grape press to finish it's cycle...right now it contains perhaps the best Syrah that this winery produces, so I am being very careful with it. It is very cold again this morning. Today my roommates and I decided that it doesn't matter if it is expensive, we have to start running the heat in the house when we get home---it's just too miserable to be cold all evening. Been working on my car after work, and looking forward to more time to devote to all the things that need to be done...and learning how to relax again.

It is so cold! Even though the actual temperature has not been that low, somehow these last couple of days have been bone-chilling. But the rain has been light and seldom; once again the morning fog has burned off into pale sunlight. I love Autumn...

Friday the 13th...I am not superstitious in the least, but I do get a kick out of weird creepy things...and this would be a good day for a disappearance or ghost or something Halloweeny. But so far it is a normal day. It is chilly here, and the sun is shining. This morning I am running a huge stainless steel wine press, squeezing juice out of fermented grapes. Working the press is nice because you actually have a little down time here and there to think and try to collect your wits. Or blog, like right now.

Gotta get back to it...

Life has been very intersecting lately. Two weeks of over 80 hours of work (each), enthralling new purchases, friends who are oh so cute and probably getting hitched someday and very sore arm muscles from punching down fermenting grapes. The first week and half or so since my last blog post I was a truck driver, hurrying all over the Willamette Valley and all the way up to Yakima Washington, and for the last week-ish I have been learning how to run a wine press. Messy work and long hours, but not hard. Driving was very fatiguing but I had a lot of fun seeing vineyards and learning about the different fruit and locations. I spent so much time in that tired beat-up Isuzu that I gave her a name so we could commiserate together while waiting for the grapes to be loaded at yet another vineyard.





I saw some incredible scenery too. Oregon is an amazing state. And now it is cloudy and sprinkly and cool and even lovelier.





Seven AM is too early for intense physical labor, but my AMHfuture-C is adorable as ever...sigh...



And perhaps the most exciting thing of all is of a vehicular nature...(ahem) our new car: a 1972 Volvo 145-E wagon; lowered, custom wheels, manual transmission, hot-rodded engine. Could we possibly be hipper?

This book is like nothing I have read before. It is harsh, rude, shocking and sad; but overflowing with tenderness, truth and deep love for God and man...

When was the last time I posted something here? This month? Today is the first I have had off in the last 21. It is a revelation to actually sit in a coffee shop and know that I don't have to do ANYTHING until tomorrow. Amazing. And I am not going to. (Do anything). I browsed today through some of my old blog posts from the last couple of years and though much of what I wrote was rather silly, I forgot how full of wonder and questions I was. It is not as if I have been dry or dull lately, I just seem to have a harder time than I used to putting words to my thoughts. And of course, for the last month nothing but getting dinner when I am finally off work for the night and enough sleep has really been important enough to think about. Life is so different from everything I was doing such a short time ago. We always speak of how life is ever-changing and emotions are strong and things get too sad, and in a sense all that is true right now...except that I am not sad at all, and the changes that might have hurt so deeply are calmed and smoothed away by love and companionship of the very best of persons. God always takes such good care of me, no matter how selfish or stupid I get. And the future holds only good things to those who look for them.

Two weeks into work at Owen Roe winery and I am cranky-tired. I love the people and the job is good, but I am so tired of being a grunting broken-backed minion...the kind of work I have to do reminds me of being twelve years old hauling watermelon in a blistered field on a 105 degree summer day and getting paid $4.35/ hour. Okay, I'm exaggerating and complaining, but I AM tired of so much menial manual labor.

On a completely different note, here is your list of new music to get:

1) Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
2) Eels: Live at Town Hall
3) David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Do not question, simply prepare yourself for some diggable audio enlightenment. And now, it's smoky treat time, so I will leave you all now....

I've been a vagabond for nearly five weeks now. Traveled a couple thousand miles by motorcycle and truck, been to almost every major Northwest city from the Rocky Mountains to the coast. Played music with new friends, ridden bicycles in the city, woke to the crashing ocean in the morning and drunk a lot of good coffee. I start working again tomorrow morning, and these strange lovely surroundings will slowly become home. Leaving California for the second time has been both relieving and heart-breaking...