Hold me closer tiny dancer...

Well, this past weekend was quite a busy one.  Kennedy and I had a daddy-daughter date Friday night, Lindsy worked Saturday morning and then went to a Mary-Kay party afterwards while I watched the girls at home, then we went to her clinic summer party that evening, Sunday morning we did church and Sunday evening our church had a big block party to kick off the new school year.  So going back to work on Monday seemed relaxing. 

The best part of all of it was my date with Kennedy.  We had a quick dinner after work and then she and I headed to Woodland Park to see "Ballet Under the Stars".  They set up a big stage in the park and people bring their favorite relaxing apparatus to sit and watch.  The festivities start at 8pm with a "preshow" and the main event at 9.  Well, we rolled up slightly after 8 not knowing what to expect at all.  We stepped out of the car and immediately choked on all the moisture in the air.  It was so stinking humid!  But what are you gonna do, right?  I mean it's summer and my kid wanted to see the ballet.  Kennedy got in for free (thank God) and I paid 6 bucks for a ticket and a program.  I almost had to put a bag over K's head as we passed by trucks selling cupcakes, icees, and doodads.  

By the time we made it to the seating area, I needed a change of clothes.  You wouldn't think carrying a couple tailgate chairs and a miniature backpack would be that much work, but I felt like I had just walked through a carwash and paid the extra $5 for the supreme wash.  The place was packed out with soccer moms and guys who put on a happy face for their wives or girlfriends, probably because they were promised something later.  There was a white line in a semi-circle around the seating area which was the demarcation of chairs or blankets. Judging by the mass of humanity, the density of blankets, and the size of the picnice baskets, apparently, you have to get there two weeks in advance to get near the stage.  We ended up in a spot only partially blocked by a giant oak tree, right next to some lovely old ladies with a giant picnic basket full of crackers and cheeseball.  mmmm...  cheeseball.  We quickly realized that Kennedy's little low-profile beach chair was going to give her a wonderful evening of old-lady fanny all night.  So, as if it wasn't hot enough, she got to sit in my lap.  She immediately asked for her "treat" that mommy had packed us, as if her mind had never left the thought since we left the house.  That is one reason I know she is her mother's child.  I am half-drunk and drooling over a half-eaten cheeseball in the next row, and she has visions of twizzlers dancing in her head.  So, she had her treat, and loved every bite.  And then she had my treat, and loved every bite.

The "preshow", as it turns out, is a production of younger ballet students (7-17ish).  It could not have been more perfect that they were doing Snow White.  Kennedy was instantly mesmerized by the gold and blue dress.  I don't know how much she enjoyed it because she asked 1,462 questions within the first scene.  "What is Snow White doing?" "Dancing, honey, this is ballet" "Why is she doing that? (dancing that is)" "because this is ballet, honey, that's what they do" "Why are the flowers dancing?...  Why are the trees dancing?...  why are the butterflies dancing?... ".  But she was glued to it.

The show was really cute.  The kids did an excellent job.   

After the preshow, alot of the parents and people from the blanket section left, so Kennedy and I gave up the comfort of our, (ahem), my chair and moved to the comfort of the bare earth.  Between shows, Kennedy spotted Snow White shaking hands and talking to her younger admirers across the way.  I asked her if she wanted to go meet her and get a picture and she was all about it...  that is, until we got about 5 steps from her.  At that point, I became a human shield from which she would not come forth.  I actually had flashbacks to when I was that age.  I probably would have turned into a puddle.  So I couldn't get her to come out and I apologized to Snow White.  We started walking back to our little patch of dew and dirt covered heaven, when she changed her mind and decided she could brave the perils of meeting her #3 idol (#1 = Cinderella, #2 = Sleeping Beauty).  By this time Snow White was walking back to her car with her mom, so we had to chase her down through a huge crowd of people.  You can imagine how that looked with this grown man chasing down this little star performer in the shadows, but oh well.  So this time Kennedy went up to her and sheepishly told her she liked it and that she did a good job (with much coaxing).  I tried to snap a few photos, but the stupid flash was not working!!!  So, this is the best I could do with editing....

I think this was the highlight of her night, and maybe even of her short little life.  Actually, I think in her mind the rest of her life is pretty much downhill from here.  I was really proud of her for perservering through the veil of shyness that I inadvertently passed on to her.

The main portion of the program (which already had to pail in comparison before it even started) was two groups of professionals dancing to various pieces of music.  Kennedy didn't have quite as much interest in this, although there was still a million questions about the new "princesses" and "princes", as now any girl dancer in a pretty dress is a princess and any boy dressed and dancing is a prince. 

I didn't think I could get any hotter than her sitting in my lap in the chair.  I was wrong.  Sitting in my lap on the ground was hotter, and more uncomfortable.  I finally talked her into sitting into her low-profile chair since it would work in this section.  Yeah, that lasted all of 5 minutes.  Then she was back in my lap looking for more twizzlers.  I tried to convince her to leave at the intermission of each act, but alas, she wasn't having it.  Finally, she said she had to potty really bad and I thought this was our chance to head out, so I grabbed all of our parafenalia and started out.  We dropped it all outside the jiffy-jon and then sealed the deal.  Upon exiting, I said, "OK, the car is this way".  "Daddy, it's not over yet."  So back we went, with the chairs, and candy, and lovies.  I perched us in the back and we stayed and sweated until the bitter end.  Although, the last 30 minutes or so consisted of her dancing for me in front of our chair. 

It was alot of fun and cool to see the Snow White performance.  The program is Friday to Sunday, so I don't know if they did different "preshows" each night? or Snow White every night.  It would have been the tripple crown if Kennedy could have seen all three of her idols in one weekend...  Overall, this was an incredible evening spent with my first-born and I will always remember it.

On another note....  I stayed home to take care of Lindsy and the girls today and had some more fun with K.  She wore all three of her dance leotards (I have no idea how to spell that and am proud of it) this afternoon while she played and danced.  At one point, she approached me in her little yellow number with the earrings I had helped her put on and she said softly, "daddy, can we get married?  It's getting late, it's almost midnight." (everyone should recognize the Cinderalla reference)

Seriously, how could I say no to that face??  So we said our vows and kissed, and then she rushed me into the "ballroom" (otherwise known as the playroom, bonus room, addition..) and turned on her Disney music so we could dance.  It was possibly the sweetest thing ever.  I guess it was one of the high points of my longer life.  Is it all downhill from here?  Hopefully Avery has the same affection for her daddy...

What is better than being a Dad?!

She blinded me with Science

I was talking to a buddy of mine at Dudes and Donuts this Saturday morning (that is our bi-weekly men's breakfast and Bible study at church), his son is in Kennedy's class at daycare, anyway, he told me they were thinking about taking him to the Living Arts and Science Center for some big day of activities they had going.  So, I went home and checked into it.  Lindsy was going to some arts and crafts fair, so I thought maybe this would be something fun for Kennedy and I do to.

So we headed off for a Saturday morning full of adventure.  I didn't really know what to expect, but anyway I can expose her to science and pre-dispose her to following in my footsteps is worth the effort.  So the first thing we saw when we got there were these robotic golf cart thingy-ma-hoppers.  A local kids science club had developed them.  Kennedy got to push and pull the levers to control the robotic arm while I drove, even though she tried to convince me to trade places.

A scary preview of 13 years from now. 

 So I finally convinced Kennedy to exit the car to see what else was available for our enjoyment.  She quickly noticed the reptile exhibit.  Kennedy is quite fond of turtles.  She has 4 plastic ones she bathes with every night.  On a side note, we watched baby sea turtles hatch on tv the other night, and I thought, Oh cool, Kennedy must be really digging this.  Then the buzzards and storks swooped down and started devouring them.  I nearly fell off the couch and dropped the remote trying to change the channel.  But she seemed to understand and be OK with it.  Anway, they had two little racers and a box turtle and she picked up and petted all of them.  Thrice. 

Kennedy loves her some turtle.  Too bad she missed out on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craze.

Now, I consider myself to be fairly tolerant of animals larger than my finger.  Anything smaller than that, I may or may not scream like a little girl if they touch me.  Snakes, I am typically not real afraid of; I am not saying I want a pet python, but I am ok being around them.  They had a couple of snakes at the reptile table.  I thought, cool, maybe Kennedy will touch one.  I mean, she has been exposed to quite a bit of wildlife just living in our house and she likes looking for bugs.  So to my delight, she wanted to pet them.  Of course, petting them was not good enough.  She promptly asked the nice gentlemen if she could hold one; like it was a soft, fluffy bunny.  Meanwhile, I am breaking into a cold sweat hoping she will not ask me to help.  Is that sad?  When do they develop this fears?  I thought we were born with them?  I am sure I was afraid of spiders when I was still just a gleam in my grandfathers eye!  Well, she held it.  And held it.  And held it.  "Kennedy, I think other kids want to touch it now".  We later went back to hold them both, again.  And, I am proud to say, I held the snake too!  No, I don't have a picture of it, but I promise I did.  I couldn't let her see her daddy be afraid.  But then it bit my hand and wouldn't let go! There was blood running down and my arm and it just kept biting!  Well, that's what I thought would happen, but everything went fine.  Now I know she is truly her mother's daughter.  She is a friend to all animals.

HSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! 

My little 'Jack Hanna'

Kennedy is now an official Snake Handler.

 Next on the list was the tortoise.  Which Kennedy accurately pointed out to me.  She loved petting him and ltrying to feed him everything she could find within a 10 yard radius.



So after some electricity fun inside, that pretty much concluded the science portion of the morning.  After the reptilian love fest, we went to try some of the artsy stuff.  They were letting all the kids paint a pickup truck with what seemed like a mixture of sidewalk chalk mixed with water.  Kennedy thought this was amazing.  It may have surpassed the serpentine extravaganza!  We painted for an eternity. 

She had to get creative on where to paint as most of the truck had already been painted.

The only way to get her away from this painting was to lure her to another painting station.  This one involved paint that did not wash out, so they gave her a t-shirt that would have been big on me.  The painting  was some style named after the guy who did it.  Sorry art people.  She did love it though.  If it hadn't been for the fact that I was freaked out her flinging permanent paint 30 feet in all directions, I may have let her go back to it the 4 more times she asked.



After that, we headed inside to try some crafts.  Her favorite by far was the clay city.  All the kids were making different buildings to create a city out of modeling clay.  Below is Kennedy and our house we built.

She will probably tell you she did the whole thing...

And because we are engineers, we made a bridge too.



We met her little classmate inside and they played together in some of the science rooms.  They then chased each other around the paint truck trying to find blank spaces to smear with paint. 

I think K had a great time.  I did.  It was so much fun to see how interested she got in all of the stuff, and how brave she was with the snakes!  We, of course, stopped for a happy meal on the way home, as every good daddy/daughter date should end with. 

Well, hopefully it won't be so long until the next post.  Peace out.

little bit of this... little bit of that

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy.  I have been to Ohio a couple different times for work.  Lindsy went on a retreat a couple of weekends ago so Kennedy and I spent that weekend chillin' like villains. 

When Lindsy got home Sunday, our water heater went out.  So she had to shower at work Monday morning.  I ended up taking off pretty much the entire day, thinking I would have to buy a new unit and meet a plumber at the house to have it installed.  I called Lindsy's electrician step dad for some advice and he told me some things to look for and try.  When I connected the hose to drain the water heater, nothing happened.  So the thing was filled with sediment and I couldn't break it free or pound it out, which means I was going to have to move the whole thing filled with water.  When I opened it up, I also noticed that the insulation was soaked, so it was leaking as well, and that is why our house had smelled like cat piss for the last few days.  Well, fortunately, Lindsy's boss had an old electric heater they had replaced.  So I drove down to Nicholasville and picked it up.  I brought it back, took out the old and put in the new, completely on me own!  Ok, well, Jim talked me through the whole thing through about 20 phone calls.  Aaaaand....  I may have dropped the old tank in our bonus room and spilled it all over the floor...  but it was a minor mess and I ultimately accomplished the entire task myself and only spent about $10 bucks to do it!  Maybe I am finally living up to my name.  I am the Toolman.

Well, the next weekend, Lindsy was supposed to go on a scrapbooking retreat, but, ended up taking a different kind of retreat.  One that requires a green gown that ties in the back.  Some bowel issues during the week turned into an all out ralf-fest Thursday night.  She was up all night in the bathroom.  The next morning, I had to take her to the urgent care to get her some fluids and something to help her stop puking.  A little about my wife....  She does everything 100%.  Everything.  Even getting sick.  Once she starts puking, she will not stop until she turns herself inside out.  So, we had to do something to stop it.  When we got to the urgent care, they took her vitals and found she had pretty low blood pressure and she couldn't stand up w/o chucking again.  They called our midwife and she wanted us to go to the hospital so they could monitor the baby.  So, no fluids, no drugs.  We then had to go to labor and delivery.  They hooked her up and eventually gave her something to curb the vomit machine.  Turns out, the dehydration had caused her to have some small contractions, but the baby seemed to be doing fine.  Her midwife still wanted her to stay overnight.  So....  I went home with Kennedy so I could be awake enough to handle them both on Saturday.  I went back and picked up Lindsy the next morning and she was much better.  It took her several days to fully recover, but she was back to her hard-charging self soon.  Still, not the way envisioned our weekend going.

This past weekend, I spent all day Saturday watching Kennedy and doing yard work/cleaning.  Kennedy and I raked the backyard, which as small as it is,  you wouldn't think it would have all that much, especially since I had already raked it once.  It did.  I ended up with our lawn/leaf can packed full and ten more lawn/leaf bags. 

Here is my slave labor...
Slave Labor

She was going pretty slow, so I let her try with the leaf blower... that was a hoot!  She was blowing leaves out of the pile, but it was so funny, I didn't mind (plus the wind was blowing them out of the tree as fast as I picked them up). 
More Power!! Argh, Argh, Argh....

It wasn't all a hardcore labor camp...  She had some fun too!
Fun and Games...

So, our current trip to see Lindsy's family for Thanksgiving should offer a welcome reprieve for both of us.  We are currently pit-stopped in WV at my parental units place for the night.  Peace out.

redo

So apparently, I can't use X-Large pictures or they get cut off....   so now you have to look at the bottom half of the last post again because you couldn't see the right half of them.

Montana (and I don't mean the discontiued minivan)

You will have to bare (bear? I’m too lazy to get a dictionary) with me for a few paragraphs throughout this post. I am probably going to regurgitate a lot of stream restoration-specific principles and terminology that could either bore you to death and make you want to pull your eyes out with one of those little ice cream sampler spoons they have at Baskin Robbins or fascinate you and inspire you to get out and enjoy, appreciate, and learn more about the natural environment. I can’t imagine how it would do anything other than the latter, but for those in the first category, this book has pictures! So, I guess, if you want to miss out on an incredible education of river processes and analysis, you could just scroll down and look at the photos and captions. But I know you will want the whole drawn-out scientific explanation behind every detail captured within the photo, so you will want to read all of this. Actually, most of the pictures are just “shiny objects” that caught my eye. In conclusion of my introduction, let me say this post is going to be fairly long (30 pages) (J/K) So, sit back, grab a warm cup of cocoa, draw your blankets tight, and prepare for an unforgettable blogging experience. Here we go!!!

At the end of July, I was able to attend a professional training course called River Assessment and Monitoring. It is the 3rd of 5 levels of training offered by Wildland Hydrology, a leader in stream restoration through extensive research, design and implementation. This class focused on techniques/methods of assessing the condition of rivers. We look at bed degradation or aggradation; bank erosion; changes in pattern, profile and cross-sectional dimension; and sediment competence and capacity. The class lasted two weeks with 1-2 days of lecture in class, 3 days of field work, and about 4-5 days of data analysis and presentations. We basically have a class day, then go in the field the next day, analyze the data we collected the next day, then present our analysis the next day and do that through 3 cycles. So there was a lot of work, a lot of late nights in a rustic conference center out in the middle of nowhere. Oh, but it was in the hills of western MONTANA.

I flew out of Lexington early and would have missed my flight if it hadn’t been delayed for more than an hour so the flight crew could finish their McBreakfast platters. I landed in Chicago with just enough time to sprint through the entire airport knocking down old-ladies and punting infant-filled strollers and carseats out of my way. (I did have to sprint). They were literally closing the doors when I got there. So then I flew into Seattle, which, let me tell you, is a beautiful approach… wow. Grabbed some lunch there and then caught my plane to Missoula. The Missoula airport is pretty small, I mean there wasn’t a little guy shouting “de plane, de plane”, but there was more rental car places than depart/arrive gates. I stepped out into the hot, dry air and thought all things were right in the world. Not even the HHR (a cross between a minivan and a pt cruiser) that enterprise gave me could bring down my excitement. I picked up some groceries for the week and headed out to Lubrecht Experimental Forest a sort of “campground” for forestry research in conjunction with the University of Montana. On the way, I spotted a forest fire in one of the neighboring forests (something you don’t see everyday “back East”).

So here is some background on the stuff we were learning…

Much of the condition of a stream is based on a departure from reference conditions. Reference conditions demonstrate the geomorphically stable form for the type of stream that is located in the surrounding conditions of a watershed. It might be easier to explain geomorphically unstable; that would be one some or all of the following: a lot of bank erosion, aggradation or degradation (rising or lowering) of the channel bed, significant changes in the channel substrate (the rocks are getting smaller/bigger); and too frequent or not frequent enough access to the floodplain at bankfull conditions (bankfull is typically understood as the incipient elevation on the bank where flooding begins, also, the bankfull discharge is responsible for the formation, maintenance, and dimensions of the channel as it exists under the modern climatic regime. A bankfull event typically occurs every 1-1.5 years.)


OK, I promise it will get a lot less technical from here, with more pretty pictures!


The first field day, we (in teams of about 8) surveyed a “reference reach” that exhibited stable conditions for the type of stream we would be investigating later (a C4 stream type; if you would care to learn more about stream classification, please post your name and address in the comments section and I will flood your inbox with fascinating literature). This reach was in a forest about 1.5 from our accommodations. Of course, the field day had to be cold and rainy since I didn’t bring any waders, intending to “wet wade” the whole trip. It was pretty stinking cold walking waste-deep in the stream for the first couple hours, but once we got surveying and walking around a little, it warmed up. I was better off than the guy wearing sandals and swim trunks. Here are a couple snapshots of our reach.



Look at that beautiful bankfull bench on the right!

We then worked hours and hours and hours consolidating and analyzing data, filling out forms, and preparing a presentation (which happened after every field day). Besides a slight mishap with the water surface on the profile, the presentation and all went well.

On field day two, we went to a sight 2 hours away. It was a sight under special attention from the EPA for clean-up. An old mine slurry pond had failed and sent tons of metal-laden sediment throughout the valley below and really jacked up the stream there. So the prior year, the class had set up all kinds of monitoring apparatus like bank pins and scour chains. We were going back through and measuring everything they did exactly the same way they did it to see how things changed.



Yes, that is my fat finger.




Look at that tiny culvert. No wonder the stream has issues.

 
OK. Bankpins are pieces of rebar (the stuff you see sticking out of concrete sometimes) that are driven horizontally in the bank until the end is flush with the bank. When you come back to measure it, you can see and measure how far the bank has eroded and get an idea of erosion rates based on the time interval between visits.



Example of an actual bank pin on one of my projects.



The re-sruvey of the bank to measure erosion

Scour chains are chains that are driven into the bed of the stream vertically, ending flush at the channel bed. Same type of principle where you come back later and see how much chain is exposed/buried to know if the channel is aggrading or degrading.

 

 This shows how the process works



The chains are installed so that the last link is at the surface



You can see the chain at the bottom

Despite being screwed by crappy work from the previous class, our presentation was a much heralded success of which we were proud. At this stage, we learned (I reviewed) a sediment transport model built into my company’s RIVERMorph software. It basically takes a cross section (reference, impaired or designed) and routes bedload and suspended sediment data through the cross-section and tells you whether that cross section has the hydraulic properties to adequately pass the amount of sediment that is coming at it from upstream. If your channel doesn’t have enough capacity, then sediment will drop out and your stream will aggrade and then vice versa. It’s a pretty nifty tool that can be applied to almost any stream, even if you don’t have sediment data readily available.

Anyway… On the third field day, we went to a farm where the farmer wants to fix his crappy (literal) stream. It had a lot of “hoof shear” from his cattle. On this day, we installed our own bank pins and scour chains and surveyed it all so that the class next year could do the same thing we did on field day 2.



This is Dave Rosgen teaching us how to use a bedload sampler

 



These are two of my teammates installing bank pins.



This is part of our reach.  You can see two bank pins on that vertical bank on the left

Here we are collecting and analyzing a bar sample.  Determining the gradation of material being moved through the stream.

On Saturday night, they took the class to a little bar and restaurant up the road (up the road = 45 minutes in MT) called Trixi’s where we were able to let our hair down a little, relax and enjoy some incredible prime rib. Mmmm….




You know it's going to be good when a border collie meets you at the door.  He had free reign inside too.

 



This was the view from the front door of Trixi's





On Sunday, we had a day off. I decided to go up to Glacier National Park for the day with a few other people, so we headed out early and drove the 4.5 hr or so to get there. On the way we saw some of the most beautiful country…





Flathead Lake



 



Look how clear and blue it is!?!







Random Barn...  Because I am random



The following are a selection of the photos I took in the park, mostly along Going-to-the-Sun Road.



You can't tell by my face, but I am ecstatic...





This is Lake McDonald... beautiful..





Look how clear the water is!!!!!







This is the McDonald River...  oooo...   aahhhhh



  



Again...  so clear!



 

No creeks are this clear in the East, and especially not rivers.



This is what a riffle looks like from under water...  oooooo..... aaaahhhhh...



That place was gorgeous. Breathtaking. I wanted to hike a couple small trails while were in the park, but a random rain/hail storm popped up when we reached Logan’s Pass at the Continental Divide, which discouraged my weak-stomached fellow travelers. I would love to take Lindsy back there and spend some more time in the park…


We finished up at noon the last day and I headed back to Missoula and had lunch with a local DEQ guy who attended the class (a fellow baseball fanatic). After that, I decided to get some hiking in before my flight left that evening. I went to the Pattee Canyon Recreation Area within the Lolo National Forest near Missoula, MT.

I hiked Crazee Canyon Road to the top of Mt. Sentinel (about 3.5 mi straight up one way) which overlooks the town of Missoula.



That is Mt. Sentinel in the background with the Clark Fork River in the foreground.




Here is the view of Missoula from the top...

 

Here are some photos I took along the way…

A tree that survived a fire



If you look closely above the island, you can see people floating down the river in tubes...



When I got back to the car, I bathed in leftover bottled water, changed clothes and splashed some cologne on. Then I grabbed some dinner and headed to the airport.


The trip was amazing and a lot of fun. I wished KCT and Lindsy could have been there with me. We will definitely have to go back. I recommend Montana to anyone who loves being outdoors and seeing natural beauty!


Hopefully you have enjoyed your educational experience. This was better than a PBS special, huh? You thought this was the Discovery channel for a second, didn’t you? Nay, it is merely my simple life as a blessed child of God.


In parting… I will leave you with a few photos of the Blackfoot River. (yes, the same one from A River Runs Through It. Yes, that is where the title of my blog came from. A great movie!!)

Tell me those don’t make your day brighter!!!