11.17.2009
Wow, back to my beloved Wild Charlock blog. Most of the things I write now go on my backpacking blog, but I'm keeping this one for more personal updates (and Ultimate Frisbee pics).
This was taken by my friend Isaac Lane Koval.
Long time, no post
Sending me mail on the Appalachian Trail
7.02.2009
1. Monson, MaineSend by 7/13/09
ETA 7/18/09
Shelly Brown2. Gorham, NH
Shaws lodging
17 Pleasant Street OR PO Box 72
Monson, ME 04464.
Send by 8/11/09
ETA 8/16/09
Shelly Brown
General Delivery
Gorham, NH 03581
3. Hanover, NH
Send by 9/6/09
ETA 9/10/09
Shelly Brown
General delivery
Hanover, NH 03755
4. Great Barrington, MA
Send by 9/28/095. Port Clinton, PA
ETA 10/3/09
Shelly Brown
General Delivery
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Send by 10/17/096. Harpers Ferry, WVA
ETA 10/22/09
Shelly Brown
General Delivery
Port Clinton, PA 19549
Send by 11/16/097. Daleville, VA
ETA 11/21/09
Shelly Brown
General Delivery
Harpers Ferry, WVA 25425
Send by 12/11/098. Hot Springs, NC
ETA 12/16/09
Shelly Brown
c/o Outdoor Trails
Botetourt Commons
28 Kingston Drive
Daleville, Virginia 24083
Send by 1/8/09
ETA 1/13/09
Shelly Brown
General Delivery
Hot Springs, NC 28734
Solstice!
6.24.2009
Back from another frisbee tournament (I know, it's an addiction). My team broke our record an actually won 2 games. Go Natty 20's!
Here are my favorite pics, all taken by my friend Isaac Lane Koval. It pays to have a professional photographer on your team.
More here.
Argyle Reserve
6.14.2009
My Skillz team just won the league championship! Here is a picture of one of our coaches.
Bears
6.02.2009
I've been working on my Appalachian Trail blog a lot lately and it seems to be going well. My favorite part: making up goofy questions and then pretending that my unsuspecting friends asked them.
This is the best one:
Tina L from Chattanooga, TN.
Question:
Does menstrual blood really attract bears?
Answer:
Yes. And they keep stealing my pick-a-nick baskets.
Supporting additional legislation to monitor puppy mills in Oregon
5.20.2009
I received this e-mail today because I am a volunteer at the Humane Society, and I think it bears reposting. I wrote earlier this year about the 120 Burn's Dogs that were surrendered to the Humane Society by an abusive breeder. The Humane Society is trying to introduce legislation that will prevent abuses like this occurring by imposing stricter regulation on puppy mills. Here's the email:
You are getting this email because you are a very dear friend of OHS and we are concerned. Yesterday we sent out an action alert regarding some pending legislation. In the last 48 hours, the puppy mill breeders began an aggressive campaign of lies and fearful propaganda against our legislation as payback for regulating puppy mills. Some legislators have gotten dozens of letters opposing our bill, labeling us as a radical animal rights group and claiming abuse by our investigators. Unfortunately this smear campaign is getting some legislators attention and the pets of Oregon need folks who love animals, not to profit from them, to speak out.
If you haven’t done so this week, I am asking you to contact your representative immediately ask them to support three bills.
Using your personal email account, go to this link and instantly email your state Representative and Senator. Let them know you care about animals and you support the Oregon Humane Society.
Please do not identify yourself as an OHS employee. Your strongest voice is as a voting constituent in their district.
SB 303A Requires more training and uniform standards of conduct for OHS investigators, matching what is required for all law enforcement officers in the state. SUPPORT! This bill does not give Humane Special Agents more authority or broader powers. It only relates to training and certification, the Governor still appoints agents. Contact your State Representative.
HB 3348 Restores Humane Special Agents ability to apply for search warrants by first person testimony. Without this bill we will have to find a sympathetic police or sheriff’s officer, tell them what we know and hope they will follow through. Time is essential and without quick access to search warrants animals have disappeared and their fate is unknown. In two recent cases we believe the dogs have died because we could not get a search warrant fast enough. SUPPORT this bill. Contact your State Senator
HB 2470 Puppy mill regulations, while this doesn’t go far enough it is a major improvement for the lives of thousands of dogs in Oregon’s puppy mills. This bill has one more hurdle to become law, tell your senator you support humane conditions for dogs in puppy mills. SUPPORT this bill
For more information on legislative issues, go to http://www.oregonhumane.org/
Of course you can always email me directly or call me at my office. I would also appreciate copies of whatever you receive from your legislator.
Thank you so much!
Sharon M. Harmon
Executive Director
Oregon Humane Society
Receiving mail on the Appalachian Trail
I've been wondering about how to keep in touch and get mail from people while I'm on the trail, and I just found out one way. The post office offers a service called general delivery.
This means that if someone writes me a letter addressed like this:
Unfortunately, I have yet to officially change my name to Adelaide, so, unless I get my stuff together and change my name before I leave, letters will have to be addressed to Shelly. I have to take a picture ID to the specified post office to pick up my mail. Handy, eh? I've also heard that some businesses along the way offer the same service.Addy*
c/o General Delivery
Small town near the AT, State, Zip code
I'll be e-mailing out a list of what post offices I'll be using and when.
Excommunicating the wrong person
5.19.2009
I just heard about this story from Brazil. Here's what happened: a nine year old girl was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant with twins. Her mother took her to the hospital and the doctors, who were afraid that the pregnancy would kill the little girl, performed an abortion.
A horrible situation, and it gets worse. From CBC:
"Upon learning of the abortion, the regional archbishop excommunicated the doctors, as well as the girl's mother. He did not excommunicate the step-father, saying the crime he is alleged to have committed, although deplorable, was not as bad as ending a fetus's life."
I don't know how to say strongly enough that this decision by the Catholic church is crazy, that the cruelty of excommunicating the doctors that saved this girl's life, but not the man who raped her is astounding. And I am disgusted and infuriated that the Vatican would support that decision.
Come hike part of the Appalachian trail with me!
5.18.2009
Hello friends,
Here is a map of the trail. I'll be headed North to South, starting in Maine in July. If you have time and you're interested, come hike part of it with me! E-mail me if you want rough guesses of where I'll be at different places.
Look buff for the camera
5.07.2009
I recently began training with Nikki Becker from Missfit Adventures. My reasoning: if I am going to tell everyone I know that I’m trying to backpack the Appalachian Trail, I better not come home a month after I started. Nikki trains clients in her “all women’s adventure club.”
If you want to read more about my preparations for the AT, I've started a separate blog for the trip. (Because you can't have too many blogs, right?)
Here's me trying to look buff for the camera. I'm not sure it's working.
Backpacking the Appalachian Trail
5.06.2009
It’s no secret that I have commitment problems. Not with romantic partners, that is. When it comes to life plans I tend to get nervous and say the equivalent of “let’s just be friends.”
But not today. It’s official, as of Tuesday, April 28th, I have decided to backpack the Appalachian Trail.
I will be blogging about my preparations for the trip and my adventures on the trail. Any advice would be appreciated!
Pic o' the day
5.01.2009
I don't think you can have a "pic of the day" if you only post pictures once or twice a month.
Susan Boyle
4.27.2009
If you haven't seen this yet, it's worth checking out. The judges' comments at the end are pretty snarky, but Boyle herself is impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
Pic of the day: Boots
4.20.2009
Messing around with my camera as I was reconditioning the leather on my boots.
O-klahoma
My little brother, one Griffin Brown, just got into a PhD program at the University of Oklahoma. He battled off fierce competition ranking #2 out of 40 applicants.
Bonus: his tuition will be covered by the school, plus a monthly living stipend!
Back from Gandy Goose
4.15.2009
The Natural 20's are back from Bend having achieved the record of 1-6. Not bad. Next tournament we are aiming for 2 wins.
Here are some photos:
It's not me, it's you
4.08.2009
I've been feeling frustrated for a bit about the loss of saturation in the photos I upload to the web. I've tried all kinds of things, even boosting the saturation to unrealistic amounts. Today in my photoshop class I hit upon the real answer: Facebook and Blogspot have been squeezing the life blood out of my pictures.
Check out this web gallery I just made for class: http://sws.pcc.edu/student/CAS208_bgleason_24707/shellybrown53/project2/
A lot of the pictures are oversaturated because I was trying to compensate for any loss. But loaded directly onto a server, they actually look pretty vivid. I may actually go back in an desaturate some of them.
Victory!
Apartment garden
4.05.2009
I am mourning the loss of a yard as I prepare for this year's planting. Cross your fingers, I might be able to get a community garden plot.
In the meantime, here are my poor overcrowded starts. Mini-cucumbers, kale, basil, rosemary, and I have two flowering plants next to my other window. I have been trying to figure out how to give them more space when today I hit upon a brilliant idea.
A brilliant idea involving sunflower butter.
I save all of my leftover plastic jars because the grocery co-ops let you bring them in for bulk goods. Unfortunately, I don't live close to one anymore, and my plastic jars have been piling up a bit. Today I pierced holes in the bottom of a few of them to make mini planters. Then I put them on casserole dishes so that the water that drains through doesn't go anywhere.
Voila! A sunflower butter pot:
Burns Dogs
4.01.2009
Ted Tellefson in Burns, OR was recently arrested for 100 counts of animal neglect. Apparently, he was a breeder and things got out of control, and when the sheriff investigated, these dogs were cramped together in filthy cages. I think that "things got out of control" is a generous way of describing the situation, but the man has agreed to surrender the dogs. Usually, animals are kept in isolation pending investigation, but because Tellefson has admitted guilt, the dogs are now being socialized and given an opportunity to learn to trust humans again.
At least, this is my understanding of the situation. I recently started to volunteer at the Oregon Humane Society, where they are currently housing 90 of the Burns dogs. Very few volunteers are allowed to work with these animals because they have been so badly traumatized, and the people at the Humane Society want to establish an environment where they can feel safe an comfortable. I am feeling both angry at the way this man treated these dogs and grateful that Oregon has such a wonderful Humane Society.
The Oregon Humane society adopts out 98% of their dogs and 95% of their cats, which is pretty incredible. They are recognized nationally for excelance. It's a community effort; they have over 1,000 volunteers. During the orientation, I sat next to a woman who was recently laid off. She told me that she she has been struggling to get a new job, but because she has more time now, she's spending some of it volunteering. Apparently, one upside of the recession is that there are now more volunteers than ever helping out with non-profits. So, while these organizations are having trouble raising money, the investment of human capital is at an all time high. I think its wonderful that so many people, who are themselves suffering, have made the effort to give to those in need.
Video Application
3.26.2009
Backpacker magazine is holding open auditions for gear testers. One part is a written review and the other part is a 5 minute video. Here's mine. The quality is a little bit low, but it's my first try at making a movie, and I'm going to use a nice camera next time. Also, it's a bit cheesy, but it was really fun to do. My friends Jade, Steph, and Phil helped me out.
I think that the number of people who watch it will affect how likely they are to choose you. Also, if you have a youtube account, I'd really appreciate it if you rated the video or made a comment. If you don't have a youtube account, don't worry, we can still be friends.
Walk it off
3.09.2009
Some subjects shouldn't be made into A Complete Idiot's Guide. They may as well entitle it: Anxiety, It's All in Your Head.
Even better:
Failed Trip to Mount Jefferson: A story in three acts
2.23.2009
Prelude
The winter weather in Portland is pretty dreary and I had begun to get restless. I thought, Central Oregon gets 300 days of sun a year, odds are it'll be bright and warm there. I actually thought that. You might say, Adelaide, that logic doesn't really follow. It's still winter and you are going to the mountains, how could you delude yourself into thinking you could backpack there?
You might say that, and I would tell you to kindly keep your opinions to yourself.
Act One: Big Plans
Place Adelaide wanted to stay:
Well, not exactly. This photo is of Mount Washington, a volcano that last erupted over 1,000 years ago. I took this picture from the side of the road, after I climbed up a 4 foot snow bank created by the plows.
This is as close to nature as I would come on the trip.
It turns out that the trail I wanted to hike was impassable without snowshoes. I had anticipated some snow, but I thought I could park my car, hike to a covering, set up camp and enjoy the sunshine. No such luck. It wasn't just that there was snow on the trail, the entire parking place was snowed over and then the road had been plowed so that all you could see was the sign: Pacific Crest Trail.
Act Two: Reality hits
Place Adelaide ended up staying:
It's ok, I said to myself. So things aren't going to go as I planned, that's alright, I'll make new plans. So I drove through the city Bend and out into the Badlands.
About two hours into the middle of nowhere, I pulled my car over and got out. With no light pollution, the stars were amazing. I got my sleeping bag out of the trunk, opened the sun roof of the car, leaned back and watched the sky. I saw three shooting stars before I fell asleep.
Midnight: I awoke with the feeling of something falling on my face. It had started sleeting in the night. I turned on the car and shut the sun roof. I was wet and cold, and there were no stars. Suddenly, the idea of sleeping on the side of the road stopped being a romantic idea.
Act Three: Reality hits harder
Place Adelaide ended up staying the rest of the night:
In my mind's eye, I had at least expected that, if I couldn't hike, I could stay in a quaint country inn. However, there are no inns in the badlands, in fact, the only structure I saw was for A-1 Antelope taxidermy: Free Salt! And, as I was unsure how long things would go on like this, I drove back through the freezing rain hoping to not slip on any forming ice patches. I found this hotel late at night, and sleep-deprived and shivering, asked for a room.
Ah, well. It was a noble effort nonetheless. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for sunshine so that I can get outside again.
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