It’s all different the second time around.

I had so much to say about last year’s experience from Burning Man.

This year I don’t.

It was, unexpectedly, a roller coaster of emotions.  I have no idea why.

But it was what it was.

I was very happy to be part of a great community of people:

Tunnel of Love
and
Bloop

My photos from this year don’t catch the majesty or mystery of Burning man.

I am not thrilled with the results of my shutter finger.

But I am happy to have bagged some beautiful portraits of some beautiful people.

I hope to return next year.

And get mixed up in the beautiful insanity all over again.

-JoeySee

My man Reese and I rolled up to the Sawtooth Music Festival at 7pm on Friday evening.
Our hour long drive from Sun Valley was the same ol’ nothing but beautiful – north
on 75 up over Galena Summit, past Smiley Creek Cabin (home of the world’s best
milkshakes… or at least Idaho’s best milkshakes), rolled past Redfish Lake and
then a left at the Stanley turnoff.

We missed the first 3/4ths of the weekend, but we were determined to
enjoy ourselves to the fullest for the remainder of the party.  Our first task
was to find a camping spot.  This first task was made easy when, while
still sitting in Reese’s Honda Element, we were set upon by two
beautiful girls – Amy and Darcy – who are not lesbian sisters,
who immediately offered us swigs of Sweet Tea Vodka
and warned us not to leave the vicinity without setting up camp.

Now, denying one pretty girl might have been difficult, but denying
TWO pretty girls seemed downright impossible, if not just plain silly.
We found a cush spot a few cars away and set out to dance and see the music.

And then the rain came.

And the thunder and the lightning.

The rain drops were like cold tiny water balloons and they fell
like industrial sprinklers at a perfect 45 degree angle from the south.

The four of us took refuge in Reese’s Element and enjoyed the
half case of PBR that was conveniently located at our feet.  An acoustic
jam session ensued, full of steel strings, harmonicas and the always
essential tambourine.

Plus an orange glow stick axe, of course.

And then the sun came out.

Just in time to set.

And then when I didn’t think it would get any prettier, a rainbow appeared.

As did two other beautiful people, Mary and Cherene.

All at once, there was a rainbow to the east, a sunset to the west, and
sun-kissed mountain peaks to the south.  It was like we were all
Hobbits, marching away from Mordor for the last time.

Is that too much of a LOTR nerd reference?

I don’t think so.  A few people told me the same thing, and
we became instant friends.  (Obviously)

Nite fell upon us, as did the rain, later that evening.  We
resorted to more acoustic jam sessions and indulging in
our rapidly depleting stash of PBRs.  Mary and Cherene
helped restock us halfway thru the performance, and
we were eternally grateful.

The band known as Free Peoples were gypped of their set
that Saturday nite, and so for 2 hours late into the darkness,
they played next to the stage with only their amps and
one microphone to carry their sound thru the field.
They rokked my face off, and I’m pretty sure the fiddle
player melted the majority of the other 150+ audience
members faces as well.

And so it was that a faceless audience was rokked to
sleep that nite in front of the Sawtooth mountains
under the milky way.

And the next morning, we all awoke to a fog that
hadn’t been seen in months.

My man Timone and Tess drove me home the next day
while Reese went off on a kayaking adventure.

And then for good measure, I schooled Timone and Tess on
my new favourite phenomenon – Owling.
(You must see the bottom photo on that page – “Hawking”)

Though I think I may have to still work on my form a bit.

-JoeySee

After a long, hot, beautiful, action packed, dancing dominated, firework filled 4th of July weekend,
the McNees clan invited me to head out with them to Redfish Lake for the day.

I can think of very few ways to better end a great weekend, than by hanging out with super fun family and
friends by a fresh water lake on a sunny summer day, with jagged snow capped mountains as the backdrop.

What a great weekend…

Life Lesson #2: Definitely, don’t make this mistake twice in a row.

]]> http://joeysee.com/blog/2011/07/redfish-lake-and-the-mcnees-clan/feed/ 0 http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/11/pcsa-journal-excerpts-homestay-julyaugust-2007/ http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/11/pcsa-journal-excerpts-homestay-julyaugust-2007/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:15:24 +0000 JoeySee http://joeysee.com/blog/?p=1663 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

July 2007

7/28/07 “My host mother, Dineo, has a husband, but I don’t know where he is.  She said he was not working today – he was fitting carpets for the house.  I’m not sure what his job is exactly – he works in Jo’burg (about 3 hours from here) as a “florist” according to Dineo.  I’m just not sure if that means he works with flowers, or if he works on floors.”

7/28/07 “I already faced some basic church questions – what church do I belong to – how often do you attend church – what do you mean “not often” – when was the last time I was at church… I had to answer them very delicately, yet honestly.  Then, Pako’s cousin, Oarabile asked me straight up, “Do you love Jesus?”  My answer, I think was a rather unconvincing, “Umm… Who doesn’t?”

7/29/07 “I will be the first to admit – I have no idea what the hell is going on.”

7/29/07 “Tomorrow will be interesting… mainly because today was interesting.”

August 2007

8/11/07  “The prospect of ordering food is always enticing, even if it always ends up disappointing in the end.  In your head you think “Oh only 40 Rand, that’s like, 6 bucks.  Not so bad.  R12?  That’s 2 dollars!  That’s awesome!.  But the issue I’m forgetting about is that I’m not longer on an American income… Well, that makes me chuckle a bit – I never really had an income to begin with.”

8/12/07 “I still don’t feel like part of my host family, but I feel like I’m getting closer with every one bit by bit.  I noticed it 3 days ago when I came home, thru the backyard, and my host sisters, Pako (9) and Thato (4) were back there.  Thato came running up to me with a big smile and almost put her arms out for me to pick her up – but I think she had second thoughts because instead of extending her arms out, she just kinda flapped them up and down like a bird.  I threw her up in the air anyway.”

8/19/07 “Hold on.  I have to take my socks and shoes off.  Wow.  That’s a pretty pungent stench.”

“We did the walk to the Botswana border.  We were originally told it would be about 8 km there, and the same back.  I don’t know who started that rumor, because it was way false.  In fact, it was about a 14 km walk there, and obviously, the same back.  We started walking all together at 8:10 am.  We arrived at the border at about 10:30.  And that was a rather quick pace.  There was a bar at the border, and just about every one of us ordered a drink.  It was a funny sight to see all of us volunteers with beers in our hands at 10:45 in the morning, but we were all very happy with the scenario.  The walk back however, was a huge bitch.”

-JoeySee

In the coming weeks and months, I will be going back into my journals from my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa.

I decided to post excerpts from my journal intermittently as this process goes on.

I hope you’ll enjoy.

Staging, the Flight, and Mankwe – July 2007

“The best part of the past few days – as it should be and as is expected, is the people.  Just stunning how together everyone is, on a mental plane, I guess to some extent a spiritual plane, and now, on an actual plane.”

“My friend Tom Barker has stood out for me in particular.  He has been my roommate, and he has been incredibly open and considerate, not to mention hysterical.  He has an endearing ability to mix up or forget names of people or places.  CVS has become CVC, Rite-Aid has become Rite Stuff, and Carrie Underwood has become Carrie Underpants.  It’s wonderful.”

“The stewardess on this flight is a beautiful dark haired German girl – or at least I assume she’s German.  She has those very identifiable “piercing” eyes.  I haven’t spoken to her yet though.  She’ll be coming down shortly with drinks.  Oh – here’s the flight attendant now.  She has nice hands I can see.”

“There was an attempted Toga Party tonite that didn’t really get off the ground, but I still wore my sleeping bag and danced for a spit.  Me, Ben Barr-Wilson, and Craig also had a mini spur of the moment dance party with Craig’s hand cranked short wave radio.  Don’t know what it was, but we danced to it.”

“I talked to one of our South African LCFs (Language and Culture Facilitator) today about Afrikaans as a language, and the protests that took place in the 70s over it being forced as the main language of instruction.  Mama Cecilia said they were protesting against Afrikaans being used as the means to teach content subjects like science, math and history.  The black South Africans believed it would hold them back from the rest of the world even more because no one spoke Afrikaans outside of South Africa and parts of Namibia.  She said they didn’t have anything against the language itself though, which, incidentally is the language group she is teaching.  Oh, she also said she wanted to spank me for not being in her language group.  I told her she knew I wouldn’t be in her group because I wasn’t part of the Education program.  She said she wanted to spank me anyway.  Just for fun.”

More excerpts to come in the near future…

-JoeySee

]]> http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/11/pcsa-journal-excerpts-staging-flight-mankwe-july-2007/feed/ 0 http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/11/hiking-with-chelsea/ http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/11/hiking-with-chelsea/#comments Sun, 14 Nov 2010 17:21:47 +0000 JoeySee http://joeysee.com/blog/?p=1606 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of going for a walk in the woods with Chelsea.

The wind was fierce, the colours were exploding, and we talked about the bass ackwards idea that Chelsea was raised a NY Giants fan, despite the fact that she grew up in upstate NY, which should put her squarely in the misery camp with the rest of us Buffalo Bills fans.

What a great day for photos it was!

My last post was about the food at Feastival.

This one is about the people and the land.

Beautiful sights, beautiful souls.

What a magical weekend…

–JoeySee

It took me a while to fully understand how much more healthy and delicious local, organic food is, as opposed to most everything else that we buy in supermarkets across this country.  This summer, while I was living in Idaho, I had the great fortune to live with people who were very earth conscious, health conscious, and full of life and love.

The third weekend of September this year, marked the second annual Feastival.

Feastival is a weekend dedicated to bringing people together, sharing a love for the outdoors, dancing, camping, fishing, yoga, eating together, and making new friends.  Everyone that comes to Feastival brings a small side dish or dessert to share with everyone else.  It is our job to cook the main meal for the 150+ people that attended this year.

This is the first of a two part series about Feastival.

Look at this delicious food!

-JoeySee

]]> http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/10/feastival-food/feed/ 1 http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/09/bridge-building-for-feastival/ http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/09/bridge-building-for-feastival/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:30:49 +0000 JoeySee http://joeysee.com/blog/?p=1360 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Last nite I sat naked in a wood fire hot tub, underneath a blind black sky with the Milky Way sprayed across the center of it all like a never ending heavenly backbone.

The stars to the east took the shape of a butterfly and were furiously twinkling like the subtle camera flashes of distant paparazzi, and I was Angelina Jolie.

All this after a hard days work building a bridge down in the lower property of Base Camp, here on the edge of the Big Lost River, in the mountains of Idaho.

I had posted earlier about Base Camp (you can read the post here) when I first arrived in Idaho.  Back then, we were prepping the land for the hordes of children that would frequent it during a spectacular Mountain Adventure Tours summer.  This time around, we are doing a thorough cleansing and building for the second annual Feastival, as put on by Mat and Whitney.

The purpose of Feastival is many fold.  The primary purpose is to raise money for the building of an eco-retreat center at Base Camp, for use by the community in and around Sun Valley and Trail Creek.

Other purposes of Feastival include eating delicious home grown Idaho food, listening to live local music, dancing your pants off, enjoying nature and everything else around.

Before coming up to Base Camp, I designed posters for the event.  My favourite one is below…

Cutting fire wood, splitting fire wood, clear paths in the lower property, set up stage for musicians, clear out camping spots, get rid of all the cow pies littering the property, etc.  But by far the biggest task we had to undertake, was building a bridge that spans the 25 foot wide river running thru the property.

In years past, there have been bridges built.  Without fail, every year, the bridge gets destroyed over the winter and spring months because of snow, ice, and floods.

We wanted this bridge to be different.  We wanted this bridge to last for at least a few years.  We called in our friend Mark, who took the reins on the project.  In two days, we had a bridge.  Please enjoy the before and after series below, and if you’re in the Idaho area, come to Feastival this weekend.

And now that that’s done, here are some extra photos from the past two days.  Mostly of Mat and Mark, for the lady folk.  But I do apologize ladies, they are both happily taken.

-JoeySee

]]> http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/09/bridge-building-for-feastival/feed/ 1 http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/07/base-camp/ http://joeysee.com/blog/2010/07/base-camp/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:15:01 +0000 JoeySee http://joeysee.com/blog/?p=1193 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

I’m in Idaho!

I’ll be honest, I never thought I’d ever have a reason to come to Idaho.  But my oh my is it beautiful here.

I’m working as a counselor at Mountain Adventure Tours, a kids camp started up by my friend Mat.

Here’s a photo if Mat, looking über-Manly.

Mat has 12 acres of property in the heart of the Big Lost Valley – mountains, rivers, and a plethora of sky surround the land.  It is known as Base Camp.  Base Camp is made up of two parts:  The Upper Property (Base Camp) and the Lower Property (Graceland).

The properties are outfitted with 4 Mongolian style Yurts, a broken down trailer that we are trying to get rid of, a tiny office, and an old whore house or cat house from the early 1900s.  We’re not sure which.

Mat, his dog Squirrel, myself, and our friend Spencer (who is the perfect cross between Matthew McConaughey and a cowboy) spent 3 days at Base Camp last week prepping it for the arrival of campers next month.

It was truly “Man Camp” as the 3 days consisted of stereotypical “Man’s Work”.  We laid concrete for the wood fire hot tub, mowed [what little] lawn there was while sucking down half a mountain of dust, chopped firewood, fixed and rigged up a large deck to serve as an outdoor dining platform, and we cleared out log jams in the river to return the river’s path to it’s natural flow.

My favourite activity was clearing the log jam, because it meant we had to spend hours at a time in the bitter cold (yet surprisingly refreshing) water of the Big Lost River, painstakingly removing pieces of this natural dam that even a family of Beavers would envy.  I must admit, it looked an impossible task at the start.  The dam was 25 feet across, 15 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, to the bottom of the river.  We spent an entire evening in the water.  At the end of the day, we were soaking wet, chilled to the bone and eaten alive by mosquitoes, but we had defeated the log monster, and the Big Lost was flowing like new.

Until it got to the next dam.

That one we may actually have to use dynamite to clear.

Here are some more photos from Base Camp.  I’m sure there will be many more as the summer unfolds…

Starry skies to cap off the nite

With the Milky Way Galaxy burning up bright

-JoeySee

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