Summer's End

Most of these pictures are from September, with a few from earlier in the summer. But here's what's happened since my last update.

Joe came to visit for 2 weeks! Unfortunately I wasn't in a picture taking phase. Sorry Joe. Joe really good at climbing naturally, so he was great to climb with. As a beginner, he was just as good as a few others living at Roger's. We accelerated his learning process, and he can now top rope belay with a Grigri and an ATC, can lead climb, and can lead belay with a Grigri. Awesome. But here's his first lead climb! And below is just another climb we did a differnet day. It's a 5.10 crack, and he decided that day that he doesn't really like crack climbing.

Kittens! They were abandoned just up the road from Roger's. Bonnie collected them one by one and is the one feeding them. They're going to the vet tomorrow, then hopefully they'll be taken by campers this weekend. I'll really miss them, that's for sure. They're all boys, and I've named them Grumpy (the one in the back - he hissed when you tried to pick him up. He's over it now), Baby (the little gray one smushed in the back is the runt, and he's the most afraid of everything), Original Kitty (the one Bonnie picked up first. He also goes by OG, Adventure Kitty, and Midget Kitty), and the one in the front is Fat Stinky (he has a his fur is matted up by his tail, possibly with poo). Anyone want a cat?
naturally I needed some garden shots in here. These are harvest shots, but close. This was my best harvest ever. And I got a little artistic with it.



to make up for the climbing photos of people you don't know (they're right after this section), here's some photos people have taken of me! First is me goofing off and showing off, then me belaying (I think it looks really artistic and awesome). They're both taken by Matticus. Then my friend Donald snapped the next two of me on Preparation H, a really fun route I tried last week.



Here's some more climbing photography that I'm having fun doing! A couple of my friend John, and, of course, another of Ruth (who just seems to be the most photogenic person I know)




Micah and I are getting a new camera (actually, I was just told it is at Waterstone waiting for me to pick it up!), so hopefully I'll start taking way more pictures.
-Stella

Rendezvous and beyond! Part II

After the Rendezvous the spring continued to be awesome (up until yesterday, when one of my campground-mates broke his arm. He got really lucky to have walked away, but he needs surgery later this week. He's trying to keep his spirits up though, and he expects to be back in a month)! I have 3 WOODSians (my college climbing club) friends visit for the Rendezvous and decide to move down here. One of Micah's good friends did as well! We're up to about 20 people at Roger's now. A great group of girls this year too! In fact, it's full-on girl power this year with our weekly ladies of Fayetteville climbing afternoons. So much fun!

Anyway, I've been really into getting good climbing pictures lately. It's a fun change of pace sometimes. Micah and I are thinking about getting a new camera, becuase ours is outdated and not so high quality anymore. Needless to say, most of the pictures below were not taken with our camera. But here's a few I've taken.
Casey top roping Easily Flakey Skervy on a boulder problem project that Micah's been working on (this one was taken with our camera. The colors came out all weird, hence the black and white)
Ruth (probably the most photogenic of all my friends, I have pictures of her in an earlier post as well) on High Times

And some photos I didn't take (some I wasn't even there for, but they ended up on my computer and they were so good I thought I'd share them anyway). Here's Donald on Labor Day
My new frog friend!


Donald, Megan and me at Bridge Buttressthese are the two I wasn't even there for, but they're so good!

And to totally change the subject...

Hanna and Joe graduated! Here's my photo memories of it.
Here are some obligatory garden photos. I hope I'm not overdoing it with all of last years' photos too. Here's from afar to close:



it's been weeded since this photo was taken, but it takes so long to go through it, that it probably looks this messy again.
I planted some peanuts to try out. We may be too cool a climate to get any, but I thought I'd try. They are looking great and flowering, so even of they never produce peanuts, they will have been interesting. See the zig zags in the middle in the foreground? I think those are new leaves. They grow folded up, and when they're big enough, they unfold to become full leaves.
-Stella

Rendezvous and beyond!

In my last post, I mentioned that the Rendezvous was coming up. It was fantastic! NRAC (New River Alliance of Climbers the people who do all the trail maintenance and replace all the unsafe bolts) raised over $30,000. Here's a couple photos taken by professionals (can I even put these in my blog?) to give you the idea of what the Rendezvous is like. I thought I had one with me in it, but I don't know where it went. But here's one of Micah! A lot of the Rendezvous is free beer and dance parties late at night.
but there are other crazy events. This is a picture of crash pad sumo wrestling. The contestants are duct taped into a crashpad, then they go around running into eachother until there's one person left. The winner wins... a crashpad. My friend and yard-mate Adam won easily this year.
There was a race that was a couple miles, but if you chugged a beer afterward, you got seconds taken off your time. I'm pretty sure the green New River shirt wearer is our friend Vince. Everyone who entered got a free pair of running shoes. Woah.
Sunday morning is a free pancake breakfast for everyone. Soo good!
On Saturday from 4-6pm, these local kids stand at a table filled with socks. If you want a pair (for free) all you have to do is whatever they want you to. Make a human pyramid, drink a pickle juice concoction, and scream "I'm awesome!" into a stranger's face are examples.
This is vendor village. Each popup tent represents a different outdoor indurstry brand. You can usually get at least one free thing from each booth.
Dessertapalooza is just what it sounds like. Here's a cake made by one of the strongest local female climbers. That's not a birds' eye view. It's 3D.

Because I didn't have all the pictures in order to begin with, there will be a part II to this post.

Spring in West Virginia!

Spring has been great so far this year! Wet, but really fun. There's a great crew living at Roger's, and I'm planting a big community garden and making a website about the bouldering here. Here's some pictures we've taken so far! I always mess up the order of pictures on this blog, so in no particular order here we go!


Micah and I are making a website to inform people about the bouldering here at the New. The New is only known for its roped climbing, but there's thousands of small rocks too. Micah's super into the bouldering here, and he thought of the idea, but he asked me to help him with the making-of-the website, so I've gotten kind of excited too. Here's a topo map I made (I know, SUPER high quality, right?)then here's a photo with all the seperate routes shown.
A picture of the bridge from basically just below.
It's so easy to take pictures of flowers
I had a day where I just took pictures of people climbing, and some of them came out really well! I'm so psyched! This is Ruth.
Ruth again
This one's Bill
we celebrated Passover at Roger's this year instead of Easter (we were going to do both, but Easter just didn't happen). I asked a Jewish friend what a normal sedar dinner involves, and this is what I made: brisket! It was SOOO good
Matzoh ball soup! basically dough balls in chicken soup. It was fun to make something new, and, apparently, it turned out right.
potatoes and onions (that bowl of plain potatoes were for me)
another flower
For Earth Day, the town of Fayetteville had a window decorating contest. This was our window, and we won. If you look closely, you can see my seedlings in the bottom left corner
I found my first morel mushroom! I didn't try it, but other people did. Results: 1 person said: "I'll probably never eat that again." 2: "It tastes like a mushroom." 1: "this is the best mushroom I've ever had!"
at night, crazy shenanigans ensue. Apparently, it's easy to hold someone on your back if you're both in pushup position. We took it a little further. 4 times further, to be exact. Yes, a stack of 5 people.
some evidence of the wet
this is when we first got here. I was so excited to see evidence of spring that I couldn't help but take a picture of these daffodils by the sign for my home
My friend Bill took this one day
The Rendezvous is this weekend, so things should stay fun! Love,
Stella